John Piper, Policy Expert Agree, President Obama's 'God Bless You' to Planned Parenthood Blasphemous
Washington's Ethics and Public Policy expert George Weigel skewered President Obama's recent blessing of Planned Parenthood's work as blasphemous on Wednesday and popular Calvinist theologian John Piper has tweeted in tacit agreement with the bold comment.
Weigel's declaration came in a hotly discussed article published in First Things critiquing President Barack Obama's address to the annual Planned Parenthood Gala at Washington's Marriott Wardman Park Hotel on April 26 which he capped with: "Thank you, Planned Parenthood. God bless you …"
"It was an appalling speech that had the sole benefit of clarifying the last-ditch commitment of the present administration to the most open-ended abortion license possible. And it drew a line in the sand that those committed to the biblical view of the sanctity of human life cannot ignore—and must challenge," wrote Weigel.
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He further decried Obama's use of a blessing from God to endorse the Planned Parenthood's carnage as so inconsistent with biblical teachings that the president had wandered into the realm of blasphemy.
"That is nothing short of blasphemy," declared Weigel of Obama's blessing. "Too harsh? No. For in its discussion of this grave sin against the Second Commandment, the Catechism of the Catholic Church (paragraph 2148) teaches that "it is also blasphemous to make use of God's name to … reduce people to servitude, to torture persons or to put them to death."
"That is precisely what happens in Planned Parenthood abortuaries. And on that, the president of the United States called down the divine blessing. Pray for him. Pray for the United States, which is in very, very serious trouble," he warned.
On Thursday morning, Piper tweeted the link to Weigel's article with the comment: "The President's blasphemy."
At the Planned Parenthood gala last month, President Obama vowed to the organization that as long as he remained in the White House they will have his support.
"You've got a president who's going to be right here with you, fighting every step of the way," he said.
Obama, who drew attention at the gala to efforts in 42 states to further clamp down on abortion, also told the organization, "After decades of progress, there's still politicians who want to roll back the clock."
Maureen Ferguson, senior policy adviser for The Catholic Association who did not agree with Obama's decision to address the organization, noted in an earlier report: "It's outrageous that President Obama addressed the Planned Parenthood gathering … at a time when Planned Parenthood has been exposed for having known about the Gosnell horrors, yet took no action to report this abuse of women and babies."
She further noted, "Planned Parenthood is under fire for dreadful conditions at their own clinics, and was recently disgraced by their lobbyist in Florida for defending infanticide. This is not surprising, however, given Obama's record as State Senator Obama, when he defended the practice of late-term abortion and voted three times against legislation to protect babies born alive after a botched abortion."
