{"id":313,"date":"2010-11-01T16:34:02","date_gmt":"2010-11-01T16:34:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/lynnvsekulow\/2010\/11\/president-obama-is-the-angel-o.html"},"modified":"2010-11-01T16:34:02","modified_gmt":"2010-11-01T16:34:02","slug":"president-obama-is-the-angel-o","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/2010\/11\/president-obama-is-the-angel-o.html","title":{"rendered":"President Obama is the “Angel of Death”? Give me a break!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jay, <\/p>\n

I think you would agree with me that businesses have the right to hire and fire as they see fit.
Fox News, per usual, has manufactured a controversy here, and that’s all there is to it. <\/p>\n

But since you mentioned you believe Juan Williams’ had the “right to express a thought,” I’d like to at least say that I am a strong proponent of free speech, too. <\/p>\n

For example, I don’t dispute that Personhood Colorado, the anti-choice group behind Colorado’s Amendment 62, had the free speech right to create a political ad that demonized President Obama as the “Angel of Death.” That was the name given to the Nazi doctor who performed medical experiments and tortured men, women and children in concentration camps during the Holocaust – hardly an accurate comparison.<\/p>\n


\nThe ad was used as propaganda in support of an amendment to Colorado’s constitution<\/a> that would define a “person” as “every human being from the beginning of the biological development of that human being.” <\/p>\n

Obviously, I don’t agree with Personhood Colorado, this amendment or their ad campaign. <\/p>\n

The amendment would ban all abortions, even in the case of rape and
\nincest or to save a mother’s life, ban stem cell research and ban all
\nforms of birth control other than “barrier methods.” <\/p>\n

The measure also implicates religious liberty by using one particular
\nreligion’s doctrine to constitutionally define when life begins. In
\nbanning all abortions, the measure also directly conflicts with some
\nreligious teachings, and could severely harm the ability of some
\nColoradans to make this decision in keeping with their own faith
\ntradition or follow the dictates of their own conscience.<\/p>\n

But fortunately, I can exercise my own free speech rights and stand up
\nagainst this amendment and Personhood Colorado’s despicable ad. That’s
\nwhat I did Oct. 20 when I appeared on MSNBC’s “The Ed Show.” My free
\nspeech rights allowed me to say this ad was reprehensible and a
\ndisgrace by any moral standards for comparing the president of the
\nUnited States to a Nazi war criminal.
\n 
\nYou can check out the ad and my interview here<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Jay, I’d like to know what you think. Would you have the audacity to
\ncompare our president to the “Angel of Death” just because he supports
\na woman’s right to choose? Isn’t this taking it a bit too far? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jay, I think you would agree with me that businesses have the right to hire and fire as they see fit. Fox News, per usual, has manufactured a controversy here, and that’s all there is to it. But since you mentioned you believe Juan Williams’ had the “right to express a thought,” I’d like to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":164,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,139,36,123],"tags":[384,375,373,376,380,51,378,374,67,313,377,379],"class_list":["post-313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-abortion","category-first-amendment","category-free-speech","category-president-barack-obama","tag-abortion","tag-amendment-62","tag-angel-of-death","tag-anti-choice","tag-birth-control","tag-news","tag-personhood","tag-personhood-colorado","tag-politics","tag-president-obama","tag-pro-choice","tag-stem-cell-research"],"yoast_head":"\nPresident Obama is the "Angel of Death"? Give me a break! - Lynn v. Sekulow<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/2010\/11\/president-obama-is-the-angel-o.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"President Obama is the "Angel of Death"? Give me a break! - Lynn v. Sekulow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Jay, I think you would agree with me that businesses have the right to hire and fire as they see fit. Fox News, per usual, has manufactured a controversy here, and that’s all there is to it. 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An accomplished speaker and lecturer, Lynn has appeared frequently on television and radio broadcasts to offer analysis of First Amendment issues. News programs on which Lynn has appeared include PBS's \"NewsHour,\" NBC's \"Today Show,\" Fox News Channel's \"O'Reilly Factor,\" ABC's \"Nightline,\" CNN's \"Crossfire,\" CBS's \"60 Minutes,\" MSNBC's \"Countdown with Keith Olbermann,\" Fox News Channel's \"Hannity & Colmes,\" ABC's \"Good Morning America,\" CNN's \"Larry King Live\" and the national nightly news on NBC, ABC and CBS. On the radio, Lynn serves as host of \"Culture Shocks,\" a daily look at various issues affecting society and the culture. In the 1990s he served for two years as regular co-host of \"Pat Buchanan and Company\" and after that did a weekly syndicated radio program, \"Review of the News,\" with Col. Oliver North. Lynn is a regular guest on nationally broadcast radio programs, including National Public Radio's \"All Things Considered,\" \"Morning Edition\" and \"Talk of the Nation,\" as well as having appeared on national networks such as CBS Radio, CNN Radio, ABC Radio and AP Radio. Lynn began his professional career working at the national office of the United Church of Christ, including a two-year stint as legislative counsel for the Church's Office of Church in Society in Washington, D.C. From 1984 to 1991 he was legislative counsel for the Washington office of the American Civil Liberties Union. In 2006, Lynn authored Piety & Politics: The Right-Wing Assault On Religious Freedom (Harmony Books). In 2008 he coauthored (with C. Welton Gaddy) First Freedom First: A Citizen's Guide to Protecting Religious Liberty and the Separation of Church and State (Beacon Press). Lynn writes frequently on religious liberty issues, and has had essays published in outlets such as USA Today, The Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Nation. Lynn also has op-eds published frequently by the McClatchy and Scripps-Howard newspaper chains. A member of the Washington, D.C. and U.S. Supreme Court bar, Lynn earned his law degree from Georgetown University Law Center in 1978. In addition, he received his theology degree from Boston University School of Theology in 1973. Lynn, who was born in Harrisburg, Pa., and raised in Bethlehem, Pa., lives in Chevy Chase, Md., with his family.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/author\/blynn"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/164"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}