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16:55 August 16th, 2008

Obama says pointed abortion query “above his pay grade”

Posted by: Ed Stoddard
Tags: Front Row Washington

DALLAS - U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama side-stepped a pointed query about abortion on Saturday by “mega-pastor” Rick Warren during a televised forum.

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Asked at what point a baby gets “human rights,” Obama, who strongly supports abortion rights, said: “… whether you’re looking at it from a theological perspective or a scientific perspective, answering that question  with specificity … is above my pay grade.”

He went on to reiterate his view that it was important to reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies.

Republican presidential candidate John McCain, who followed Obama onto the stage of the nationally televised event, was more blunt and more emphatic.

He said a baby’s human rights began “at the moment of conception … I have a 25-year pro-life record.”

Both candidates were vying for the “faith vote,” in particular the one in four U.S. adults who count themselves as evangelical.

Obama took questions first from Warren and McCain followed. The two shared the stage together briefly.

Some centrist evangelicals have said they appreciate moves by the Democratic Party to “soften” the edges of its pro-choice stand by stressing the need to reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies and abortions — and by also working harder in areas like adoption.

But for many conservative evangelicals — a key part of the evangelical base — life begins at conception and the argument ends there.

The issue remains one of the most divisive and partisan in America — as Obama and McCain highlighted on Warren’s stage.

(Additional reporting by Jeff Mason)

(Photo credit: REUTERS/Rebecca Cook, Files, USA)

1,002 comments so far

To Eileen the Angry:

Yes, I know it must make you angry when someone like me points out the logical folly of your thinking, but that’s no reason to think I am angry or not a Christian. That is a non-sequitur.

I take it you have not read the transcripts and the news about Obama and the Born Alive Infants Protection Act? Any one of us can google it, Obama or you can’t deny the facts, so it is of no use to try that with us.

As far as your “don’t judge” canard goes, nice try. The admonition not to “judge” is frequently used to place a virtual gag order over those who would speak up against popular and accepted world practices. People like you often try this phrase in order to protect your liberal doctrines and actions from exposure.

But what does God have to say on this subject? Is it true that Christians are told not to judge? The simple answer is no. In fact, according to Scripture those who do not judge are more likely to be led astray by false doctrines and are less effective witnesses for Christ.

So, you are attempting to pervert the word judge to allow for you and Obama killing innocent unborn children.

God enables man to judge, commands man to judge, and is pleased with those who seek to judge righteously.

Scriptures clearly show that throughout time God has imparted to man the authority to judge (Leviticus 19:15; Deuteronomy 1:16; Deuteronomy 16:18; Judges 2:16-19; II Chronicles 19:5; Ezra 7:25; Isaiah 1:17; Ezekiel 23:45; John 7:24; Romans 2:27; I Corinthians 2:15; I Corinthians 6:). In Zechariah 3:7 God states that He gives those who obey Him the authority to judge, “Thus saith the LORD of hosts; If thou wilt walk in my ways, and if thou wilt keep my charge, then thou shalt also judge my house, and shalt also keep my courts, and I will give thee places to walk among these that stand by.” There are also additional references in Scripture to this process of judging that may not specifically use the word judge. For example, in the original languages, the words translated as judge in Scripture are also translated examine, search, discern, ask, question, contend, esteem, and determine.

When citing God’s “command” not to judge, people often refer to Matthew 7:1, however, let’s look at the complete Scripture in context. “Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.” (Matthew 7:1-5)

Jesus clearly says do not judge so that you will not be judged, but to whom is He speaking? He identifies His audience in verse 5 with the words “Thou hypocrite.” Jesus is not forbiding Christians to judge (unless He is calling every Christian a hypocrite). He is warning that we will be held accountable for what we know. In other words, if we know enough about sinful behavior to tell others that it is wrong, then we have no excuse as to why that sin would be present in our lives. This is consistent with Paul’s advice in I Corinthians 11:31-32 that we judge ourselves first so that we will not be judged. As Jesus says in verse 5, we should cast the beam out of our own eye and then we are in position to point out the fault to others.

In truth, God does not forbid us to judge, but He sets up conditions wherein we must judge.

And, of course,if you read Romans Chapter 13, you will see how God says governments should be run with justice, mercy and grace. God says that he has put governments in authority over you and me, Eileen, and government “is God’s servant to do you good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword for nothing. He is God’s servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer.”

So, yes, the government and our laws SHOULD stop wrong doers from killing innocent people in society, and some lame statement to “not judge” takes nothing away from that authority.

- Posted by Tom Paine

To Eileen:
No, I didn’t miss your point at all, but nice try at spinning. You seem to equate Americans wanting to protect innocent life, and not wanting to vote for a President who has fought hard for infanticide (Born Alive Infant Protection Act), with “theocracy”.

It has everything to do with upholding the Constitution and our God given right to LIFE, as the Constitution puts it, and nothing to do with establishing a theocracy. That is just a fever swamp scare tactic of the left that doesn’t really fly or carry any weight with thinking people.

As I said, we believe in the separation of church and state, but we do not believe in the separation of faith and politics, because faith is just a world view, and everybody has some kind of world view. It’s important to know what they are.

Yours is liberalism and using theocracy as a scare tactic. That is your right, but please stop trying to push your religion and stop trying to implement it in government.

And Obama didn’t “cover the angles” in his answer or his past actions. Of course we all agree there are exceptions for rape and to save the life of the mother, so nice try on that one. But I’m talking about Obama and the liberals fighting hard against common sense restrictions on abortion, and even when we include exceptions for the life of the mother and rape, the liberals fight against it hard. For example, Obama spoke out forcefully and angrily against any law that would give medical care to a living, breathing baby who was born after a botched abortion. So, Obama is a radical on this issue, he is for infanticide, yet when he gets in front of a bunch of church voters, he tries to trick them with “above my pay grade” and other such silly statements. We aren’t buying.

Then you make the leap that somehow, overturning Roe v Wade puts us on a slippery slope to being an Iranian-like theocracy! LOL
What really started the slippery slide was when 5 black robed judges overstepped their Constitutional judicial role made a new law, against the will of the people, with Roe v Wade. You could call them a theocracy, with their religion being liberalism and their sacrament, abortion.

So, the John Adams quotes are EXACTLY on point, and Obama making platitudinous statements about wanting to reduce the number of abortions doesn’t cut it with Americans who care about human life, human rights and upholding the US Constitution.

It would be like if Obama was fighting for the right to kill your spouse under certain conditions, and some supreme court “found” a right to kill your spouse, as long as you did it in the privacy of your own home, and used really, really sterile instruments. Then we would fight against this law, and Obama would stand up and say, “come,come now people, can’t we just leave the law on the books and work together to reduce the number of people who want to kill their spouse!?”

Would that sound like a sane middle ground to you?

- Posted by Tom Paine

hey Eileen…roe v. wade is not law, it is an edict handed down by 9 appointed judges who are not held accountable to the people…and only serves to deny the male any rights before your so-called choice.

abortion is a states right issue and the federal government has no business funding or sanctioning it.

i just love how you liberals make up statistically insignificant scenarios(..if at all probable) as a reason to have abortion on demand keep going at the current rate of 40 million a year. ron paul has delivered over 4 thousand babies and says that not once has he seen where the mothers life was in danger…so keep dreaming.

why hasn’t america got to vote on the issue of abortion at the state level?…could it be that you liberals and your “strawman” arguments won’t hold water with mainstream americans?

i sincerely hope that this election turns on the issue of abortion so we all can see how vapid and stupid obama really is…and to sweep you dimmycrats out of power and back into the gutter so you can wallow in the moral filth of your liberalisim.

ExT

- Posted by ExT

TP, I just noticed another posting you made and I have to say, there sure seems to be a lot of anger coming from you, yet you seem to be saying you are Christian. You are spouting off things Obama ’said’ that he never said, so I’m curious… are you misinformed and didn’t research the facts yourself or are you spinning a yarn? The best thing I can recommend to research both positives and negatives on BOTH candidates is factcheck.org. Also, it appears you are judging those that believe in freedom of choice regarding abortion and I thought you weren’t supposed to do that - I thought that was left to God. Did something change?

- Posted by Eileen

To Tom P. - you missed my point entirely. I’m concerned that a group of people who make their viewpoints known, say…. ‘abortion’ attempt to forceplay politics to be able to get their own way. The problem with this approach is A) politicians will tell you what you want to hear in order to win, B) this group of people is imposing their own beliefs on the other groups of people, C) the subject of morals comes up and quickly moves to ‘answering to God’ - the problem with this is if you get an abortion then it has been assumed you will be judged yet the whole thing is couched like an entire group will be judged by one person’s actions which is why you are making it your business (when it is not).

As I said earlier, I myself would not get an abortion BUT if one of my daughters was raped or her life was in danger due to complications with carrying a child I would encourage an abortion. Nothing is cut and dry - which is why Obama tried to cover these angles in his answer.

For my theocracy comment…. I worked in Iran for four years in the late 70’s and saw how that society was run. The President is a figure-head - nothing more, i.e., a puppet. The Mullahs run the country and everybody better be on board with their thoughts on everything from A-Z - if not, they suffer the consequences. So, people trod through their lives doing what they are told to do - all based in the Mullahs religious interpretations. The ultra-religous group - the ones who want to be patted on the head because they make it known how many times they prayed that day… go around and tattletale like children on the other groups hoping to get them in trouble. It’s very dysfunctional for a society to behave that way.

The group here that I am referring to is wanting very similar things for us. So, my question is - do you want to see Roe v. Wade overturned? Do you want to ban abortions in the U.S.? If so, then you are starting on a pathway very similar to a theocracy where religious law based on what a group of people think law should be, rather than abiding by civil law.

As Obama stated, there are a lot of things we can do to get abortions down. For starters, we should all go after the media and Hollywood for promoting the issues that lead to unexpected pregnancies.

As for your other comments, I know the law all too well. If you read what I wrote you will see that I believe politics and religion do not mix - meaning, do not try and overturn law because of your religious beliefs. The John Adam’s quotes were nice, but not on point.

- Posted by Eileen

hey GD…because it is on YOU TUBE it must be true huh?

you need to snap out of it and do some critical analyasis on your sources

ExT

- Posted by ExT

To Eileen,
You seem to be confused about the separation of church and state. We believe in the separation of church and state, as articulated in the First Amendment:

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

So, congress can’t make any laws that would establish a specific religion as the state religion. But they also can’t make any laws that would prohibit the free exercise of religion. We have freedom OF religion, not freedom FROM religion. The founders were all very religious Christians, and that shows up in all the founding documents and history.

So, we believe in the separation of church and state, but we do not believe in the separation of faith and politics, because faith is just a world view, and everybody has some kind of world view. It’s important to know what they are.

Yours appears to be liberalism, socialism and big government. We just don’t happen to agree with your religion, so please keep it to yourself and stop trying to implement laws that would establish your religion, liberalism, as the state religion.

John Adams and John Hancock:
We Recognize No Sovereign but God, and no King but Jesus! [April 18, 1775]

John Adams:
“ The general principles upon which the Fathers achieved independence were the general principals of Christianity… I will avow that I believed and now believe that those general principles of Christianity are as eternal and immutable as the existence and attributes of God.”
• “[July 4th] ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty.”
–John Adams in a letter written to Abigail on the day the Declaration was approved by Congress

“We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” –October 11, 1798

- Posted by Tom Paine

to GD:
Nice try, trying to get Barry H. Obama off the hook by saying “could above my pay grade mean that he doesn’t believe that he’s God [the only one that can answer the question anyway].”

But if Barry becomes President, then his “pay grade” is to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, including the right to LIFE, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. So Barry tries to weasel out of his frequent and aggressive pushing for infanticide (Born Alive Infant Protection Act) by saying he is not sure if God approves or disapproves of infanticide, so Barry can’t really say one way or another.

But Barry HAS taken a side on that, it was not above his pay grade to kill the Born Alive Infant Protection Act, which would have offered medical help to baby boys and girls born alive after a botched abortion. They were outside the womb and breathing air. Barry Obama said they should be left to die in a closet, because otherwise this “saving of live born babies” might be a slippery slope, that might lead to taking away our “rights” to kill those same babies inside the womb.

So, Barry has chosen sides, he is well funded by the radical pro-death, pro-abortion lobby including Planned Parenthood, but when he gets in front of a bunch of Christians, he wants their votes so he uses legal weasel words to try to trick them.

But we are not tricked by the inexperienced Barry Hussein Obama.

- Posted by Tom Paine

could above my pay grade mean that he doesn’t believe that he’s god [the only one that can answer the question anyway]. And do you people really believe that John McCain did not hear the questions before hand. Just you tube him.
Please get informed and think……

- Posted by GD

Personally, I’m dissapointed in Obama for pandering to Christians in the first place. There is no way there can be any intellectual discussion with people who believe in such fairy tales. Their answer to everything, is based on what they read in their “holy book” or commandments passed down from GOD to some guy, alone on a mountaintop. If you believe in a different “holy book”, then your a heathen. There is no rationale, only believe and faith. Keep your religion to yourselves and stay out of my life and my government for krissakes.

- Posted by Barry

I find it interesting that there seems to be a lack of understanding that our country’s form of government is a democracy based on the fundamental rights in the U.S. Constitution. It feels like there are a lot of religious people trying to push their feelings onto others and make it law at the same time. It used to be that a difficult form of government for Americans to understand is a theocracy (derived from the Greek words to “rule by the deity” or “rule by God”.) In a theocracy, there is no separation of church and state and the government rules according to religious precepts - Iran is one of many Muslim (Islamic) countries that are run on theocracy. What are we doing? There is a reason religion and politics don’t mix - look at the middle east. We’re supposed to be past that.

- Posted by Eileen

Regarding the comment Obama made that its “above his pay grade”. Since I work in the legal field myself, I understand where he’s coming from. By training, attorneys rarely answer an open-ended question like this because they know there are many sides to the question and various possible answers that they themselves have no training in. He did say what his feeling about the topic was personally. “Above his pay grade” was code for “God”. McCain’s answer was tailored for the group - nothing more.

- Posted by Eileen

What a loaded question - especially when there is only one answer they want to hear, i.e., “their answer”. McCain gave them what they wanted to hear. I respect Obama’s answer more than McCain’s simply because there is no easy answer. Personally, I’d never get an abortion but I also do not have the need to control other people’s personal decisions. For an attorney who specializes in the U.S. Constitution, this question has no cut and dry answer and he didn’t succomb and give them what they wanted to hear - he answered truthfully.

- Posted by Eileen

Our society is nothing like the one I grew up in; it’s sick and lost it’s moral compass. The forefathers of this great land would want nothing to do with us, I guarantee you. And if you don’t believe God will judge us, just fasten your seatbelt!

2Ch 7:14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will HEAL their land.

And HE has the pay scale to decide life and death!

- Posted by Kay in Kansas

Dear chuckster

With all due respect, not every religious person uses the bible or believes in the bible, it doesn’t make them less religious. So that can not define everyones belief, I’m glad that it works for you but it’s not that simple for everyone. I personally do not believe in abortion, but I do believe in woman’s rights. I know if you take abortion rights away, it is only going to lead to unsafe and illegal methods to obtain the procedure. Honestly could you live with yourself if roe vs wade was overturn and a 14 yr old girl died from an illegal surgery? I understand that its an uneasy situation to except but no one will be able to stop it, it would just get worst. So I feel it’s better to except it, to keep it safe.

- Posted by L.Shock

Patrick says “Abortion is with no doubt terrible, a wrong choice.
The greatest gift to humans from God is freedom, including the freedom to make a wrong choice. The Government cannot impose moral views on to the people, that is a “talibanesque” attitude.

So Patrick, if you go out and kill your neighborhood convenience store clerk, that is with no doubt terrible, a wrong choice.
The greatest gift to humans from God is freedom, including your freedom to make the wrong choice to kill the clerk. The Government cannot impose moral views on to the people, that is a “talibanesque” attitude. We should just ignore your mistake and start a group that supports clerk murder, and work to put Supreme Court justices in place who agree with us. Then we can have a great decision that says its OK to kill the clerk as long as we use sterile instruments, and they would have caused us some inconvenience.

- Posted by Tom Paine

Obama’s response was weak. He could have been more specific like one governor that is on his VP short list “I am against abortions, I am pro-life, I believe life begins at conception, but I don’t believe in criminalizing doctors/mother who perform/have abortions.”

I would have respected that answer. But not “it’s above my pay grade”. Maybe alot of other issues are above his pay grade.

- Posted by Kathie

Mr. Obama,

I am amazed at how nuanced you are concerning life and where it begins, but seem to have no qualms making all forms of abortion on demand easy…YOU CANNOT HIDE FROM YOUR LEGISLATIVE RECORD ON THIS!.

Why don’t you go visit scott peterson in jail for the DOUBLE murder of his wife and her UNBORN child…above your paygrade indeed!

I sincerely hope that abortion becomes a major issue this election…that way, we’ll get to see how vapid and stupid you really are.

ExT

- Posted by ExT

Since when did the United States engage in Mid East culture? To have a presidential debate in front of the entire planet and discuss such issues as faith and Jesus is beyond comprehension. We are not that type of nation however moving quickly towards that of Iran. We now opt to host a debate from an evangelical church. I never thought I would see the day this nation rolls over to join the ranks of Iran. We are telling the world we care more about religion than the freedoms we alledgedly fight for.
Next thing you know we will begin acting like Russia or have we already set the bar for them.

- Posted by Richard

Abortion remains a decisive issue with many however the country now needs to focus on issues that actually stand a chance of reality. It is the world image, the economy, the war etc that should matter. I believe Obama deserves the courage award for even showing up with such a narrow minded collection on people. McCain is just merely going along with his continuing flip flopping attitude. I remain prolife and that is of the mother who should be allowed to make the choice. Prolife includes all life not just a collection of cells. Especially someone who actually walks and integrates with the world, that is life and deserves the respect of all. So with that I thank the pro life people for their bumper stickers stating such. I believe they also believe in prolife for the mother.

- Posted by Richard

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