Teddy Roosevelt Rebukes Obama, Pt. 3: Christian Morality

In stark contrast to Barack Obama’s windy speech on Tuesday, Theodore Roosevelt’s speech on “The New Nationalism” recognized that good government rests necessarily upon the moral fiber of its people. “We must have — I believe we have already — a genuine and permanent moral awakening, without which no wisdom of legislation or administration really means anything,” he said.

In the last analysis, the most important elements in any man’s career must be the sum of those qualities which, in the aggregate, we speak of as character. If he has not got it, then no law that the wit of man can devise, no administration of the law by the boldest and strongest executive, will avail to help him. We must have the right kind of character — character that makes a man, first of all, a good man in the home, a good father, and a good husband — that makes a man a good neighbor.

Roosevelt, like our Founding Fathers, understood a people of corrupted manners are incapable of producing a moral government, nor even a limited one. The Rough Rider echoed the words of the first great military president, George Washington, who said, “Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness.”

Barack Obama has a far different conception of America. He insists, “Whatever we once were, we are no longer a Christian nation.” Instead, “We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus, and non-believers.” In fact, America is “one of the largest Muslim nations in the world.” While celebrating the most arcane of non-Christian religious holidays (Diwali, Nowruz, Kwanzaa, etc.), his observation of Christian holidays is typically perfunctory or non-existent. His Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is currently interfering in a court case that could give the government the right to determine proper criteria for church ministers and parochial school teachers. He seeks to strip pro-life physicians and ministries the right to follow their conscience and refuse to support the taking of unborn life. His administration opposes the inclusion of the D-Day prayer offered by TR’s cousin, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, on the World War II Memorial.

Obama could not stand further apart from the man who said, “We stand at Armageddon, and we battle for the Lord.”