Updated at 1:59 p.m. Eastern to add a comment from Arina Grossu of the Family Research Center.
WASHINGTON, D.C., February 6, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) – President Obama told the National Prayer Breakfast this morning that “killing the innocent is never fulfilling God's will,” saying it is “the ultimate betrayal of God's will.”
However, his remarks took aim at Islamic terrorists, not abortionists, Penny Starr at CNSNews.com reported.
“Extremists succumb to an ignorant nihilism that shows they don’t understand the faiths they claim to profess,” Obama said, “for killing the innocent is never fulfilling God’s will.”
Pro-life Americans have long made this case against abortion, saying it violates the Ten Commandments.
President Obama has had a much different view of the issue. The president ended a combative speech to the nation's largest abortion provider last April by saying, “Thank you Planned Parenthood. God bless you.”
Critics wasted no time pointing out the contradiction.
“The president talks about protecting religious freedom while his administration is actively persecuting the religious freedom of Christians,” Adam Cassandra, communications manager at Human Life International, told LifeSiteNews. “He speaks out against ‘extremists’ killing the innocent while his administration supports the killing of millions of the most innocent in the womb here in the U.S. and around the world through abortion – a crime against humanity. And he has even asked God to bless those responsible for facilitating these abortions.”
Arina Grossu, director of the Center for Human Dignity at the Family Research Council, called it “a tragedy that President Obama doesn't apply this same standard to the more than one million innocent Americans who die every year from the social injustice of abortion. All human life is sacred, valuable, and deserves to be protected, especially the littlest and most defenseless of humans.”
The president's remarks this morning instead appeared designed to denigrate traditional Christians who hold to the faith's consistent teachings on homosexuality, placing them on the same level as Islamic fundamentalist extremists.
“We sometimes see religion twisted in an attempt to justify hatred and persecution against other people just because of who they are, or how they pray, or who they love,” Obama said today.
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Conversely, Obama has generally had positive comments about Islam and met with a high-level member of the Muslim Brotherhood, a fundamentalist Islamic organization that helped shape the views of al-Qaeda leaders Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri. Administration officials previously defended their decision to meet with members of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, although that group has systematically destroyed Coptic Christian churches and businesses, sometimes dozens a week.
Still another portion of the speech generated controversy. While many welcomed the president's decision to highlight religious-based violence, much of it directed against Christians, as well as his use of the term “freedom of religion” in place of “freedom of worship,” Americans say his enforcement of the HHS mandate represents a threat to freedom of conscience in its own right.
“Even as our faith sustains us, it's clear that around the world freedom of religion is under threat,” he said. “That's what I want to reflect on this morning.”
“Here at home his administration faces the largest religious liberty lawsuit in American history,” said Maureen Ferguson, senior policy adviser at The Catholic Association. “This administration insists on forcing people of faith to violate their consciences by providing abortion pills in their health plans – including the Little Sisters of the Poor, nuns who care for the needy and dying.”
“We hope the president reflects deeply on the words he spoke today and considers immediate changes to his administration’s policies to fulfill God’s will and protect innocent human life,” Cassandra told LifeSiteNews.
This year's event did not generate as many sparks as last year's prayer breakfast, when Dr. Ben Carson gave a 27-minute speech blasting ObamaCare and the president's view of the health care industry as Obama sat in attendance.
The African-American neurosurgeon said he was subsequently targeted by the IRS.