On AFA’s “Today’s Issues” program this morning, host Tim Wildmon interviewed Phyllis Schlafly about her new book “No Higher Power: Obama’s War on Religious Freedom,” which seems to basically be a catalog of the Religious Right’s various complaints and allegations about President Obama’s supposed hatred of Christianity and Christian values.
During the discussion, Schlafly and Wildmon falsely claimed that Obama removed the word “Creator” whenever he quotes from the Declaration of Independence and that he was the only President in history not to celebrate the National Day of Prayer before Schlafly speculated that Obama might eventually order the removal of all the crosses from Arlington Memorial Cemetery:
Schlafly: For example, every time he quotes from the Declaration of Independence, he omits the word “Creator.” That’s very strange; we all know what the Declaration says and he just omits that.
Wildmon: I remember the first year he was in the office, he did not recognize the National Day of Prayer in a proclamation – oh, excuse me, he didn’t have any kind of public ceremony …
Schlafly: That’s right, he didn’t have anything at the White House, which all the other presidents have done and he said he would pray in private.
Wildmon: So he didn’t want to publicly acknowledge the God of our fathers, which has always been done by all presidents in the White House up until President Obama. President Obama says “I’m not going to recognize God, the Christian God, I’ll pray in private.” Well, that’s not a leader!
…
Schlafly: You were talking a minute ago about Arlington Cemetery; if you haven’t been there, I’m sure you’ve seen pictures of all the crosses there and I just wonder if the day is going to come when they want to take down all those crosses.
As we have noted before, Obama has included the word “Creator” when citing the Declaration dozens of times, so Schlafly is flat-out wrong.
As for the National Day of Prayer, it didn’t even exist until 1952, and President George W. Bush was the only president to organize regular White House events, so it is also false to claim that events were hosted “by all presidents in the White House up until President Obama.”
