JERUSALEM – Some have been taking issue with largely unnoticed comments made last year by Sen. Barack Obama declaring the U.S. is 'no longer a Christian nation' but is also a nation of others, including Muslims and nonbelievers.
The comments have been recently recirculating on Internet blogs.
'Whatever we once were, we're no longer a Christian nation. At least not just. We are also a Jewish nation, a Muslim nation, and a Buddhist nation, and a Hindu nation, and a nation of nonbelievers,' Obama said during a June 2007 speech available on YouTube.
At the speech, Obama also seemingly blasted the 'Christian Right' for hijacking religion and using it to divide the nation:
'Somehow, somewhere along the way, faith stopped being used to bring us together and started being used to drive us apart. It got hijacked. Part of it's because of the so-called leaders of the Christian Right, who've been all too eager to exploit what divides us,' he said.
Asked last year to clarify his remarks, Obama repeated them to the Christian Broadcast Network: ...
... 'When you have pastors and television pundits who appear to explicitly coordinate with one political party; when you're implying that your fellow Americans are traitors, terrorist sympathizers or akin to the devil himself; then I think you're attempting to hijack the faith of those who follow you for your own personal or political ends,' wrote Obama. ....
