From the beginning of the Obama presidency, the right wing and its TV mouthpiece, Fox News, have promoted the meme that the president isn't "one of us" - a meme that reached its penultimate manifestation in the "birther" movement. Rather, they portray him as a foreigner whose foreignness means that he hates America and Americans. In advancing the narrative that Obama isn't really "one of us," Fox has questioned the veracity of his Christianity. His former church and pastor were attacked with gusto and his church attendance was questioned by Fox talkers including Fr. Jonathan Morris. He was criticized for leaving "God" out of his Thanksgiving address. And now, Jesus' BFF's on Fox & Friends are questioning whether Obama should be quoting scripture
Funny, (St.) Ronald Reagan, who was not affiliated with any official church, quoted scripture at length. But, last Friday, the curvy couch Christians considered it downright blasphemy when our foreign, secret Muslim president used a bible quote during his recent speech on immigration reform which is all about letting in those nasty foreigners. Video was played of Obama's speech about his immigration order during which, in quoting the Bible, he said that "we were once strangers, too." This is from the section of the Book of Exodus in which Moses admonishes the Israelites to, when they set up their new kingdom, treat strangers in their future home well because they (the Israelites) were once strangers in Egypt. But professional Christian Steve Doocy thought the quote was about "feeding the poor and the hungry and nothing about visas."
Devout Christian, proud gay basher, Episcopal Church hating, "famous dick" Tucker Carlson quipped that this is "the bible scholar in chief lecturing us, telling us that it is not kicking people out of your country who have come here illegally is tantamount to quote oppressing them and God is opposed to that and God, by the way, is on President Obama's side." (Oh no, isn't God is Fox News' side?) Devout former Catholic turned fundamentalist Christian Elisabeth Hasselbeck chimed in "this is the man who claims to have been in church for a long time, did he just read that verse in scripture and decide to use it right now."
After playing video of Charles Krauthammer dissing Obama over the immigration order, Hasselbeck joked about getting into a "scripture showdown" with her quotation from Proverbs about "where there is no guidance the people fall..." An enraged Carlson shouted "we can have a political debate but for this guy specifically the President who spent defending late term abortion among other things lecturing us on Christian faith, that's too much." (Carlson is advancing an anti-choice mythology that Obama, when he was a state senator, promoted late term abortion) He whined about how the Christian right is criticized but "this is the Christian left."
After more inane banter, Carlson interjected "to quote scripture, that's totally out of bounds" and it's "outrageous for him to suggest that people who oppose this are somehow oppressing, oppressing immigrants." Hasselbeck suggested this was to "guilt" people and that bible scholars wouldn't agree with Obama.
Fox News attacks Obama for not being religious enough. But when he quotes the Bible, he's being inappropriately Christian. Welcome to the wacky world of Fox News where not all Christians are created equal?