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Skriven 2009-05-02 14:44:21 av Ross Sauer (1:123/789.0)
Ärende: More Bachmann
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Michelle Bachmann, the gift that just keeps on giving!

Bachmann Uses Fake George Washington Prayer To Bash Obama
By Chris Rodda Sat May 02, 2009 at 11:26:59 AM EST

Just a week before her now infamous inaccurate dating of the last swine
flu outbreak, Congresswoman Michele Bachmann spit out a few more bits of
historical hogwash, including a fake George Washington prayer, to bash
the president.

On April 21, the very same day that she enlightened us all with her
scientific analysis of CO2, Bachmann also took to the House floor to
rant about Obama's statement in Turkey that the United States is not a
Christian nation, and the covering up of the gold "IHS" inscription, a
monogram that symbolizes Jesus' name, behind where he was standing for
his speech at Georgetown University.

Before getting to the fake Washington prayer, Bachmann, referring to
Obama's statement in Turkey, shared her thoughts about Abraham Lincoln:

"I wonder, Mr. Speaker, if President Abraham Lincoln, one of President
Obama's heroes, would have said overseas that he believed America was a
nation of secularists..."

Well, Obama, of course, didn't say America is a nation of secularists
either, so I don't know what the hell Bachmann was talking about there.

Bachmann then proceeded to spew out a fake Washington prayer found on
numerous Christian nationalist websites, compounding the lie by
attributing this prayer to Washington's inaugural address, something
that even the Christian nationalist history revisionists aren't stupid
enough to try to get away with.

"And, Mr. Speaker, likewise, as President Obama insisted a Catholic
university cover the image of Christ during the Easter season while he
spoke at that school, George Washington, our first President,
demonstrated that he was not offended by the image of the risen Christ.
In fact, our Nation's first President let his views be known quite
clearly on his inauguration by a prayer which George Washington himself
gave at his inauguration. He said, and I quote, Mr. Speaker:

"'Almighty God, we make our earnest prayer that Thou wilt keep the
United States in Thy holy protection; that Thou wilt incline the hearts
of the citizens to cultivate a spirit of subordination and obedience to
government; and entertain a brotherly affection and love for one another
and for their fellow citizens of the United States at large. And
finally, that Thou wilt most graciously be pleased to dispose us all to
do justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves with that charity,
humility and pacific temper of mind which were the characteristics of
the Divine Author of our blessed religion, and without a humble
imitation of whose example in these things we can never hope to be a
happy nation. Grant our supplication, we beseech Thee, through Jesus
Christ our Lord. Amen.'

"Mr. Speaker, our first President, George Washington, insisted on his
inauguration day as the first President of this great country, that
unless the citizens of our country imitate the example of Jesus Christ,
that we would not be a happy Nation. What a clear contrast between our
first President and our current President."

Where did this prayer come from? Well, its a rewriting of the last
paragraph of the circular letter sent by Washington to the governors of
the states in 1783, when he resigned from the Army at the end of the
Revolutionary War. This paragraph was altered by a church, inserting a
few "Thys," "Thous," and "Thees," and adding the "Almighty God" opening
at the beginning, and the "through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen" closing
to the end, thus creating Washington's "prayer for the nation." This
fabricated prayer was put on plaques in several churches associated for
one reason or another with Washington, then spread to to the Christian
nationalist American history books, and eventually to the internet,
which is apparently where Michele Bachmann gets her historical "facts."

Bachman then continued to display her incredible ignorance of American
history by saying that the founders signed the Constitution and the Bill
of Rights on the same day, apparently having so little knowledge of even
the most basic facts about the founding of our country that she doesn't
understand that there were nearly two years between the Constitutional
Convention and the drafting by the first Congress of the amendments that
would become the Bill of Rights, and another two and a half years before
the Bill of Rights was ratified. By this point Bachmann had shifted the
subject of her ranting from Obama's secularism to taxes, making fear of
taxation the reason for the Bill of Rights.

"And the day that the Founders signed the Constitution, they also signed
the first ten amendments to that Constitution; and those ten amendments
were given as a gift, a protection to the individual American. Why?
Because our Founders were so concerned about the abuse of taxing
authority of their mother country, Great Britain. They were so concerned
about that abuse of a taxing authority that they said to the American
people in the first ten amendments: We want you to know that your
Federal Government will be limited in its power."

It's no big surprise that Bachmann wrapped up her rant by getting in a
plug for the Congressional Prayer Caucus, the group founded by Rep.
Randy Forbes (R-VA) that has consistently propagated the Christian
nationalist version of American history, most notably with Forbes's
proposed House Resolution 888, a resolution for an annual religious
heritage week, packed with a seventy-five "Whereas" clause litany of
historical revisionism and misinformation that, nonetheless, managed to
get an astoundingly scary ninety-three historically ignorant co-
sponsors, including, of course, Prayer Caucus member Bachmann.

"And with all due respect, Mr. Speaker, I think it's so important, on
behalf of the Prayer Caucus of this Congress that, as the National Day
of Prayer approaches, that all American citizens do what our first
President prayed in his inaugural prayer, and what President Lincoln
prayed as well in his address and in his proclamation, that we would do
well to imitate the life and example of Jesus Christ, and we would do
well to humbly not forget God, but to humble ourselves before an
Almighty God and not expect that it is we ourselves that have created
these blessings for our country, but that it is a gracious heavenly God
who holds our Nation in His hands."

http://tinyurl.com/daw63n

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