A President Without A Country

An Editorial by Pat Boone

The following editorial content was published on WorldNet Daily here on June 6, 2009.  It is by Pat Boone, a descendant of Daniel Boone, but better known as a singer in the 60's and 70's.  His Christian beliefs are the foundation of his life, and he does not shrink from expressing his heart felt opinion here.  Though almost all of what Boone quotes the President as saying is accurate, the statement about America as a Muslim nation is not correct contextually, as commented on here on Snopes.com.

"We're no longer a Christian nation." – President Barack Obama, June 2007
"America has been arrogant." – President Barack Obama
"After 9/11, America didn't always live up to her ideals."
– President Barack Obama
"You might say that America is a Muslim nation."
– President Barack Obama, Egypt 2009
Thinking about these and other statements made by the man who wears the title of president … I keep wondering what country he believes he's president of.
In one of my very favorite stories, Edward Everett Hale's "The Man without a Country," a young Army lieutenant named Philip Nolan stands condemned for treason during the Revolutionary War, having come under the influence of Aaron Burr. When the judge asks him if he wishes to say anything before sentence is passed, young Nolan defiantly exclaims, "Damn the United States! I wish I might never hear of the United States again!"
The stunned silence in the courtroom is palpable, pulsing. After a long pause, the judge soberly says to the angry lieutenant: "You have just pronounced your own sentence. You will never hear of the United States again. I sentence you to spend the rest of your life at sea, on one or another of this country's naval vessels – under strict orders that no one will ever speak to you again about the country you have just cursed."
And so it was. Philip Nolan was taken away and spent the next 40 years at sea, never hearing anything but an occasional slip of the tongue about America. The last few pages of the story, recounting Nolan's dying hours in his small stateroom – now turned into a shrine to the country he foreswore – never fail to bring me to tears. And I find my own love for this dream, this miracle called America, refreshed and renewed. I know how blessed and unique we are.
But reading and hearing the audacious, shocking statements of the man who was recently elected our president – a young black man living the impossible dream of millions of young Americans, past and present, black and white – I want to ask him, "Just what country do you think you're president of?"
You surely can't be referring to the United States of America, can you? America is emphatically a Christian nation, and has been from its inception! Seventy percent of her citizens identify themselves as Christian. The Declaration of Independence and our Constitution were framed, written and ratified by Christians. It's because this was, and is, a nation built on and guided by Judeo-Christian biblical principles that you, sir, have had the inestimable privilege of being elected her president.
You studied law at Harvard, didn't you, sir? You taught constitutional law in Chicago? Did you not ever read the statement of John Jay, the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and an author of the landmark "Federalist Papers": "Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers – and it is the duty, as well as the privilege and interest of our Christian nation – to select and prefer Christians for their rulers"?
In your studies, you surely must have read the decision of the Supreme Court in 1892: "Our lives and our institutions must necessarily be based upon and embody the teachings of the Redeemer of mankind. It is impossible that it should be otherwise; and in this sense and to this extent our civilization and our institutions are emphatically Christian."
Did your professors have you skip over all the high-court decisions right up till the mid 1900s that echoed and reinforced these views and intentions? Did you pick up the history of American jurisprudence only in 1947, when for the first time a phrase coined by Thomas Jefferson about a "wall of separation between church and state" was used to deny some specific religious expression – contrary to Jefferson's intent with that statement?
Or, wait a minute … were your ideas about America's Christianity formed during the 20 years you were a member of the Trinity United Church of Christ under your pastor, Jeremiah Wright? Is that where you got the idea that "America is no longer a Christian nation"? Is this where you, even as you came to call yourself a Christian, formed the belief that "America has been arrogant"?
Even if that's the understandable explanation of your damning of your country and accusing the whole nation (not just a few military officials trying their best to keep more Americans from being murdered by jihadists) of "not always living up to her ideals," how did you come up with the ridiculous, alarming notion that we might be "considered a Muslim nation"?
Is it because there are some 2 million or more Muslims living here, trying to be good Americans? Out of a current population of over 300 million, 70 percent of whom are Christians? Does that make us, by any rational definition, a "Muslim nation"?
Why are we not, then, a "Chinese nation"? A "Korean nation"? Even a "Vietnamese nation"? There are even more of these distinct groups in America than Muslims. And if the distinction you're trying to make is a religious one, why is America not "a Jewish nation"? There's actually a case to be made for the latter, because our Constitution – and the success of our Revolution and founding – owe a deep debt to our Jewish brothers.
Have you stopped to think what an actual Muslim America would be like? Have you ever really spent much time in Iran? Even in Egypt? You, having been instructed in Islam as a kid at a Muslim school in Indonesia and saying you still love the call to evening prayers, can surely picture our nation founded on the Quran, not the Judeo-Christian Bible, and living under Shariah law. Can't you? You do recall Muhammad's directives [Surah 9:5,73] to "break the cross" and "kill the infidel"?
It seems increasingly and painfully obvious that you are more influenced by your upbringing and questionable education than most suspected. If you consider yourself the president of a people who are "no longer Christian," who have "failed to live up to our ideals," who "have been arrogant," and might even be "considered Muslim" – you are president of a country most Americans don't recognize.
Could it be you are a president without a country?

As to President Obama's comments above, let us look for a moment through the eyes of a Canadian, who spends a lot of time in this great land, observing the American people.

Then Senator Obama said in 2007, "We're no longer a Christian nation."  This regrettably is a true statement, and has also been said about Canada.  It is not true because Obama said it, but because Christians have given up their influence in American and Canadian society.  If we want to change it, then we can no longer sit on the side lines and watch the anti-Christian activities that are perpetrated in both our fair lands.  We have a duty to win these countries back for Christ.

As President, Mr. Obama has said "America has been arrogant."  It too is a true statement.  As an observer in this country, and also observing Americans abroad over the decades, I have seen unmitigated arrogance on the part of the American people in many situations.  But, I have also seen great charity, which must be added into the context.  The problem is that the arrogance is often seen more than the charity.  Again, Christians have the duty to this land and also to Canada to purge themselves before God of their arrogance, and to seek His mercy and live in His Love.

The President also said: "After 9/11, America didn't always live up to her ideals."  This is a truish statement, in that America did not always live up to her ideals before 9/11.  9/11 did not really change that, except to bring about a culture of fear.  This is the only nation on earth that was founded with as clear a mandate as the Declaration of Independence.  The people of this land need to take up the mantle of that Declaration once again, and Canadians should look to it as a declaration of what freedom really means.

Mr. Boone makes a number of excellent points, but the people of this land, have the leader that they have duly elected.  If the people of the USA want it to be great once again, then it is time to stand up for you believe in.  It is the same time in history for Canada, and my fellow Canadians.

Soon, it might be too late.  This is not a time for silence, but a time to speak up about the truth, and about justice for all, especially the weakest of our society, the unborn, and the elderly.