Change we cannot believe in

By Judge Roy Moore

Barack Obama, who campaigned on “Change We Can Believe In,” was sworn in as the 44th president of the United States yesterday, Jan. 20, in the most expensive inauguration in the history of our country. Despite a bleak economy and a rising unemployment rate, Obama and we the taxpayers are estimated to have spent over $150 million. That is a lot of “change,” to be sure.

While many in the country were welcoming the Obamas, the incoming president was busy putting out the welcome mat for the homosexual agenda. At the “We are One” gathering at the Lincoln Memorial on the Sunday before the Inauguration, Obama invited Bishop Gene Robinson, the first openly “gay” bishop ordained in the Episcopal Church, to give the opening prayer. It seems rather strange that an event to celebrate “unity” would begin with prayer by an individual whose homosexual conduct is responsible for one of the deepest divisions in the Episcopal Church in its history, as various dioceses have severed ties with the Episcopal Church to join the more conservative international Anglican community.

But even more shocking is the fact that Bishop Robinson was asked to pray at all. When questioned about the upcoming event by the Associated Press, Robinson assured them that he would “be careful not to be especially Christian in my prayer,” and – not surprisingly – that he would not use a Bible. If that is the accepted view of our new president and those attending the event, then we are indeed in for a “change,” but one actually contrary to our beliefs and very destructive of our national morality. Historically, there has never been a time when Christianity has been so openly shunned and homosexuality so expressly promoted.

Our first president would have been appalled at such “change.” George Washington began a long tradition of adding “so help me God” to the constitutionally required presidential oath while resting his hand on the Holy Bible. The records of the National Archives show that, after repeating the oath, Washington leaned over and reverently kissed the Bible. Unlike Robinson, Washington was careful to publicly emphasize his faith in God and His Word, not run from it.

By acknowledging his Christian faith, our first president followed the tradition of the kings and queens of England for centuries before. The law of England required that:

… the king or queen, laying his or her hand upon the holy gospels, shall say, those things which I have here before promised I will perform and keep; so help me God. And then shall kiss the book.

Washington modeled the admirable qualities of a king but governed as a servant-leader – and he frequently recognized the King of Kings in both public and private life.

Obama has not only chosen an open homosexual to open an historic event with prayer, he plans to promote homosexuality in other ways. Obama has proposed expanding federal “hate crimes” statutes to include “sexual orientation,” supported adoption rights for homosexuals, and opposed a constitutional ban on same-sex “marriage.” Obama seems determined to force change that only radical homosexuals can believe in, even in our military.

Every president is not only the chief executive of the federal government, but he is also commander in chief of the Armed Forces. When George Washington led the Army, he recognized the destructive influence of homosexuality in the military. Washington’s public dismissal of Lt. Enslin from the Army for attempted sodomy comported with a “longstanding element of military law” that is still reflected in the current military code, 10 U.S.C. § 654:

The presence in the armed forces of persons who demonstrate a propensity or intent to engage in homosexual acts would create an unacceptable risk to the high standards of morals, good order and discipline, and unit cohesion that are the essence of military capability.

But Obama is planning to repeal the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy of the Clinton administration, which although a concession to homosexuals, still recognized the prohibition against homosexuals in the military. Instead, Obama intends to enforce a policy of “non-discrimination” in favor of those who practice homosexuality.

Unfortunately for Obama, the majority of those who now serve in the military disagree with his pro-homosexual policy. According to a 2007 Military Times poll, 59 percent of active-duty military personnel said that they did not think that those who openly professed homosexuality should be allowed to serve in the military. The Center for Military Readiness in 2008 claimed that Obama’s change in policy would force heterosexual and homosexual soldiers to cohabitate around the clock in conditions of little or no privacy, causing “unprecedented harm to discipline, morale, recruiting and readiness.”

In other controversial issues like abortion, Obama has been equally offensive. In 2008 he stated that he would not want his daughters “punished with a baby” if they had an unplanned pregnancy. He has threatened, as one of his first acts in office, to pass the Freedom of Choice Act, a radical pro-abortion law that would wipe away any state or federal restriction on abortion or its taxpayer funding and establish abortion as a “fundamental right.”

Much change has come to America with the inauguration of Barack Obama, but for Bible-believing Christians it is not change we could ever believe in.


Judge Roy Moore

Judge Roy Moore is the chairman of the Foundation for Moral Law in Montgomery, Ala. He is the former chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court who was removed from office in 2003 for refusing to remove a Ten Commandments monument he had placed in the Alabama Judicial Building to acknowledge God. Moore's classic book about his battle for liberty is now available in paperback: "So Help Me God: The Ten Commandments, Judicial Tyranny, and the Battle for Religious Freedom." Read more of Judge Roy Moore's articles here.