Obama: "Cling to Guns or Religion"
Pleas for help -- spiritual and financial -- are flooding U.S. churches, from tiny congregations to megachurches, as recession woes seep into the pews, a new survey finds.
Pastors say they're giving out benevolent funds in record numbers, increasing ministries to the unemployed and the financially fearful, even reaching into their own pockets more to help.
Nearly two in three pastors (62%) report more people from outside their church asking for help, and nearly a third (31%) see more such requests from church members, according to a survey of 1,000 Protestant pastors.
The survey, by LifeWay Research, a Christian polling firm based in Nashville, finds that 40% of pastors say they have church members out of work, and 37% say their church has increased spending to help the needy. (The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points.)
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Nearly one-third of Americans (32%) say crime has increased in their communities in the past year, and 72% of those impacted say it is Very Likely that increase is related to the poor economy.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 54% say crime in their communities has stayed the same, and eight percent (8%) say it has decreased. Six percent (6%) are not sure.
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Dec. 5 (Bloomberg) -- The recession is stinging in President-elect Barack Obama's hometown, where the Chicago Police Department is slowing hiring even as murders increase.
Murders in Chicago rose 16 percent in the first 10 months of the year. The city's homicide rate is triple New York's and double that of Los Angeles. Thirteen pupils have died from gunfire since the semester began in September, said Mike Vaughn, a spokesman for Chicago Public Schools.
"When economic prospects go down, crime goes up," said Rev. Marshall Hatch, 50, pastor of New Mount Pilgrim Missionary Baptist Church on the city's west side. "This is exactly the worst time to cut police manpower."
The council's decision to reduce police hiring next year by about half, to 200 officers, will save $10 million. The budget also requires firing as many as 759 workers in other departments.
"This is a historic deficit that the city is faced with," said Laurence Msall, president of the Civic Federation, a non- profit research group. "The fear now is the downturn in the economy will create even more criminal activity."
Remember when President Obama was ridiculed, even lost some votes over it, for reportedly saying residents of small-town America "cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them" out of bitterness over lost jobs?
I do.
Oh yes, I remember that. I remember that it was also more "evidence" that he was an elitist and unelectable.
March 30, 2009 3:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
Recent news PROVES him right. People DO cling to their religion and guns when bitter or scared over loss of a their jobs.
There's nothing ELITIST about it.
March 30, 2009 3:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
Wellllll....
To be fair, the context in which the President used the "clinging to guns and religion" was a bit suspect. The quote was "So it’s not surprising then that they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations".
Not exactly elitist but certainly a bit stereotypical. By using the terms "bitter", "antipathy", "anti-immigrant" and "anti-trade" in the same sentence he was mixing in a lot of negatives with guns and religion.
In the examples you give, people are not turning to guns and religion out of "frustration" (i.e. anger) but out of desperation and fear. I do respect what you are trying to accomplish with this post but the pieces don't quite fit together the way you've assembled them.
March 30, 2009 8:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
Is it really necessary to also give the data on purchases of firearms and firearm ammunition since Nov 4?
Seriously?
Even your basically sane Massachusetts Republicans are doing it ...
March 31, 2009 3:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
To truly be fair, let's place his words in their, entire context.
March 30, 2009 10:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
My point exactly. Notice he's referring to small towns with 25 years of job losses, etc. Doesn't fit the narrative of this post, in my opinion.
March 31, 2009 11:42 AM | Reply | Permalink
So the recent increase in reachout to churches fits Obama's comment. But I don't see the connection between Obama's comments on guns and this diary.
March 31, 2009 10:34 AM | Reply | Permalink
BTW, one other thing that Obama didn't say. Alcohol consumption rises when times get rough.
March 31, 2009 10:39 AM | Reply | Permalink
And so does consumption of Macaroni and cheese as well as Campbell's soup.
And hey Walmart has stayed mostly profitable, hopefully people are shopping for the fresh and healthier foods during this recession or it could be the onset of some severe health issues down the road related to bad foods, alcohol consumption and drug use.
You can't always ask everyone to be rational in a crisis, it is like herding cats.
March 31, 2009 11:36 AM | Reply | Permalink
No one is credibly saying that President O is out of touch, or an elitist. So who are you refuting, or responding to?
I said "credibly", so Rush doesn't count.
During the campaign O was talking about a GENERATION of decline in parts of the US leading to the "bitter" feelings and the tendency to "cling" to guns and religion...That is quite different than the examples you cite, people reaching out to a church for help and experiencing an increase in crime as a result of the current crisis.
The trouble with the "bitter comments", aside from their being taken out of context and plastered all over the media, was that no one likes to be talked about like they are a sociology experiment. Honestly I think that statement in PA from the campaign is about the last time Obama seemed even remotely out of touch with real people. He clearly learned a lesson from that episode.
March 31, 2009 2:03 PM | Reply | Permalink