President Obama is "arrogant" and his agenda regarding religious liberty and freedom of speech constitutes "cultural imperialism," charges a senior fellow at a think tank for Concerned Women for America, the largest public policy women's organization in the nation.
"In our system of government, it is not the prerogative of the president to declare what the law is or which laws will be enforced," said Janice Shaw Crouse, senior fellow at the Beverly LaHaye Institute of the Concerned Women for America.
She is a recognized authority on domestic issues, the United Nations and cultural and women's concerns and served as a U.S. delegate to the United Nationals Children's Summit in 2002. She later was given a presidential appointment to the 2003 United Nations Commission on the Status of Woman, and she was a speech writer during the first Bush administration.
"I am not the only cultural commentator to have observed that this president has overstepped his authority in this area. In addition, it is not the president's prerogative to say that his interpretation of human rights trumps religious liberty or freedom of speech. Further, it is not his prerogative to say that his interpretation of human rights trumps the centuries old cultural and religious traditions of other nations."
Her comments, posted on the Concerned Women website, followed Obama's statement that "homosexuality is a human right" in the context of Uganda's new law criminalizing such behaviors.
She said she had an exchange with a reporter over the issue.
"My remarks were simply that the president of the United States has the responsibility to represent the entire nation. When he states his personal beliefs and values and presents those as representative of the United States of America, the full force of his office is behind those statements. …. Claiming that homosexuality is a 'human right' is an affront, even a mockery, of those Judeo-Christian values that have been the foundation of virtually all Western civilizations across time and cultures."
Besides condemning Uganda's internal political decisions, Obama has openly promoted homosexuality, first contributing to a decision by the Justice Department to undermine the federal Defense of Marriage Act. More recently, he told attorneys general of various states they should not feel obligated to defend their states' traditional marriage laws if they believe they discriminate.
"The basic principles of religious liberty and freedom of speech are the context in which I criticized Mr. Obama," Crouse wrote. "In this respect, Mr. Obama has been 'arrogant,' and his actions have constituted 'cultural imperialism.'"