Obama's 'most important message'?
Exclusive: Chuck Norris exposes president's undermining of Christmas meaning

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Posted: December 28, 2009
1:00 am Eastern

By Chuck Norris

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In my last column, "Away with the manger," I predicted that the religious content of President Obama's Christmas address to the nation was going to be the weakest in presidential history.

I also mentioned that, in the first year of his presidency, "Every time President Obama has had an opportunity to stand for Christianity in any way, he has not only denied it but disdained it." Any chance he has to dive deeper into its creed, he rises to the surface and changes the subject.

I was correct on both accounts, and he proved it (again) last week.

But never did I expect to hear Obama during Christmas week dodge children on the main message of Christmas and then teach them a revised version.

First, unlike preceding presidents who took pride in America's Judeo-Christian heritage and confessed the nature of Christ as Savior, our president (with the first lady at his side) brought the briefest and most impotent religious admonition in the history of presidential Christmas addresses on Dec. 24, describing the incomparable Bethlehem miracle as merely containing a benign "message of peace and brotherhood that continues to inspire more than 2,000 years after Jesus' birth."

The presidential yuletide moment of the week and season, however, dipped far further under the radar just a few days before on Dec. 22. It was Obama's visit Monday to the Boys and Girls Club in Washington, D.C., during which he had a free exchange (non-teleprompter) discussion with the children about Christmas. All seemed to be going fine until after the president read "The Polar Express" and led a discussion on what the kids wanted from Santa, when a few children brought up the real reason for the season.

Here's the actual transcript (with a little of my own parenthetical Christmas commentary to boot):

President: I think one thing that's important to remember is that, even though there's a lot of fun at Christmas, you know, you got – especially when it's snowy like this, so it's pretty outside, you got the Christmas tree, you got the Christmas cookies, you've got presents. You know, I think that the most important thing is just to remember why we celebrate Christmas.
(So far so good, Mr. President, but there's a child with his hand up right in front of you!)

Child: I know!
President: Do you know?

Child: The birth of baby Jesus.

(If you can't see in your mind's eye the president getting hot around the collar, check out the video version.)

President: The birth of baby Jesus, and what he symbolizes for people all around the world is the possibility of peace and people treating each other with respect. And so I just hope that spirit of giving that's so important at Christmas, I hope all of you guys remember that as well. ...
(Where is South Carolina Rep. Joe Wilson when you need him? Wrong, Mr. President! You didn't speak for the majority of Americans when you declared in Turkey last April, "We are not a Christian nation," and you don't speak for "people all around the world" about the birth of the baby Jesus, especially when you define him merely as a community coordinator and social reconciler. His main mission and message was as the Redeemer of mankind – the Savior with a self-confessed mission to "give his life as a ransom for many" to forgive all our sins and reconcile God and human's relationship.)

President: You know, it's not just about getting gifts but it's also doing something for other people. So being nice to your mom and dad and grandma and aunties and showing respect to people – that's really important, too. That's part of the Christmas spirit, don't you think? Do you agree with me?
(Nothing like a little presidential social pressure to prompt an affirmative answer from children.)

Children: Yes.
President: You do? (Then another child raises his hand, so the president leans over and asks him) Do you have an interesting observation?

Child: I know why we give gifts to other people.

President: Why is that?

Child: Because the three wise men gave gifts to Baby Jesus.

(Could this get any better? Out of the mouth of babes! But you know there's some presidential spin coming, don't you?)

President: That's exactly right. But the three wise men – the reason (A sign falls off a wall. Is it a sign from God? What timing!) – uh-oh, I thought that was the cookies going down. We couldn't have that. You know, the three wise men, if you think about it, here are these guys, they have all this money, they've got all this wealth and power, and yet they took a long trip to a manger just to see a little baby. And it just shows you that just because you're powerful or you're wealthy, that's not what's important. What's important is what's – the kind of spirit you have.
(The wise men traveled across te Middle East desert "just to see a litle baby"? Let me quote from the gospel according to Matthew 2:11: "And they bowed down and worshiped him" as the Savior of the world.)

So I hope everybody has a spirit of kindness and thoughtfulness, and everybody is really thinking about how can they do for other people – treating them well, because that's really the spirit of Christmas. Does everybody agree with that?

Children: Yes!

President: I agree with that. Well, you guys all seem like really sharp, sharp young people. And I'm very proud of you. And let me just ask you one last question. Is everybody here working pretty hard in school?

Children: Yes!

President: OK, because the thing that I want everybody to remember, the most important message I can leave is, is that you guys have so much potential – one of you could end up being president some day. But it's only going to happen if you stay focused and you work hard in school. And you guys – there's nothing wrong with having fun and fooling around and playing sports and listening to rap music and all that stuff. But I want you guys to read and hit the books and do your math, because that's really what's going to determine how you do in the future. Alright? That's the most important thing you can do.

"Most important message"? "Most important thing you can do"?

So let me see if I got this straight. Obama's Christmas theology and mission is thus: Jesus is Gandhi. The wise men were non-greedy corporate executives who were on a baby tour. The "most important message" at Christmas is personal potential. And the "most important thing" children can do for their future is read and do math.

God help us.

I'm all for encouraging children's potential, but, when the president's "most important message" at Christmas time is "You too can be president," I've think we've completely lost our way.

How do you think Obama's "most important message" compares to presidents in the past?

America's founders cry out for our president not merely to consider the power of personal potential but to pass along the power of personal religion.

Here's how I explained its role in our early republic in my upcoming (Jan. 2010) paperback expansion of "Black Belt Patriotism":

Good morals precede good laws, which is why government isn't much help. Unless the people and their legislators are grounded in morality, the best of laws will be broken and the worst of laws will be made, legalizing immorality. We can't look to government to improve decency, civility, and morality. For that we need to look to another source.
President John Adams put it well when he said, "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."

Government isn't the answer. And neither is education, at least without religion. As Benjamin Rush, also a signer of the Declaration of Independence, explained, "Without religion, I believe that learning does real mischief to the morals and principles of mankind."

Our founders had a better answer than government or even education. God is the answer. God is the moral compass of America. Or He should be, if we ever want to restore morality in our homes and civility to our land. Our founders believed morals flowed from one's accountability to God, and that, without God, moral anarchy would result.

To the founders, religion was an essential buttress of free government. That is why Patrick Henry wrote, "The greatest pillars of all government and of social life: I mean virtue, morality, and religion. This is the armor, my friend, and this alone, that renders us invincible."

Charles Carroll of Carollton, a Catholic who signed the Declaration of Independence on behalf of Maryland, wrote, "Without morals a republic cannot subsist any length of time; they therefore who are decrying the Christian religion whose morality is so sublime and pure … are undermining the solid foundation of morals, the best security for the duration of free governments."

George Washington put it best in his Farewell Address: "Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connections with private and public felicity. Let it simply be asked: Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation deserts the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice? And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle."

Ethics (the practice of morality) is the foundation of a healthy character, family, and country. (That principle serves as the basis for even non-religious organizations like the Institute for Global Ethics.) If ethics wane, so goes the people and eventually the nation. As Founding Father Elias Boudinot once said: "If the moral character of a people once degenerate, their political character must soon follow."

Is Elias Boudinot's statement an understatement or what?!

When our president undermines the message of Christmas to children, is he not guilty of "subverting the great pillar" and role of religion as George Washington described?

Mr. President, Christmas is over, but its power has just begun. You were right that the "most important message" is tied to the "most important thing you can do," but it's not doing math or reading (as important as they are). It's Americans, especially the children, realizing the irreplaceable role that God and religion has in our republic and personal lives. Period.

(If you want to help children understand the role religion had in our early republic, I encourage you to support the efforts of the National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools, which, to date, has had its Bible curriculum voted into 515 school districts – 2,026 schools – in 38 states, with more than 360,000 students having taken the course).