Obama at the U.N.: A new religion doctrine

[cbayer]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-faith/obama-at-the-un-a-new-religion-doctrine/2012/09/25/2e152d6a-0758-11e2-9eea-333857f6a7bd_story.html

By Lauren Markoe| Religion News Service, Published: September 25

WASHINGTON — President Obama on Tuesday (Sept. 25) gave a forceful speech at the United Nations, in which he challenged much of the world’s assumptions about free speech and religion.

Here are five points from his address, which together, add up to as close to an Obama Doctrine on Religion as we’ve seen:

1. Blasphemy must be tolerated, however intolerable

The idea that the U.S. protects even vile speech, so ingrained in American culture, seems counterintuitive to much of the world. It’s an especially tough concept when speech targets a religion, but Obama argued that restrictions on speech too often become weapons to suppress religion — especially the rights of religious minorities.

“Given the power of faith in our lives, and the passions that religious differences can inflame, the strongest weapon against hateful speech is not repression, it is more speech,” Obama said.

more at link

[Oregonian]

1. Well done, Mr. President

This is yet another reason this man should be re-elected. He stands for TRUE American values.

[rexcat]

2. Unfortunatly...

his words will fall on many deaf ears. The concept of "freedom of speech" to many religious people is too foreign a concept to accept with the slight possibility here in the US but not Europe since some speech could be taken as hate speech given the laws in the EU.

[pinto]

3. Video of Obama’s U.N. Address

http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/25/video-of-obamas-u-n-address/

Video of Obama’s U.N. Address
By Robert Mackey


As my colleague Helene Cooper reports, President Obama devoted most of his address to the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday to the Arab democracy movement and the tension between free speech and mutual respect among cultures and faiths in an era of instant, global communication.

PBS Newshour posted video of the entire 30-minute speech online.

[cbayer]

4. Thanks, Pinto. My connection seems a wee bit better this am, so I am going to try and watch this.

[cbayer]

5. Brilliant and profound. He is truly a world leader at this point.

His message of tolerance vs. division really resonated with me.

Thank you so much for posting this. I had read parts of the transcript, but seeing him deliver it is much, much better.

[MineralMan]

6. Good job, Mr. President!

Blasphemy is unpopular speech. Freedom of Speech, as laid out in the First Amendment, is designed in particular to protect unpopular speech. Popular speech is...well...popular, and needs no protection.

My very existence as an atheist is blasphemous. Saying there are no deities is the height of blasphemy.

[pinto]

9. It was, no? I liked how he laid out the balance from a US Constitutional perspective

to an international audience. (I assume the address was shown around the world.) And how he went on to frame the balance in an international perspective, beyond a purely American, Constitutional point-of-view. A difficult balance these days and one I think he stated really well.

It was good job.

[trotsky]

7. "Blasphemy must be tolerated, however intolerable"

Funny, that's what some of us were saying on your other thread, when you called someone who advocated blasphemy "the same as" the religious extremists who threaten and commit murder of blasphemers.

Looks like President Obama is an extremist in your book. I'm proud to stand with him.

[pinto]

8. I think Obama's point was this -

Incendiary intolerance in response to incendiary intolerance is counter productive, self-destructive. Tolerance is a two way street.

[trotsky]

10. "Blasphemy must be tolerated, however intolerable"

Sounds pretty one-way to me.