I will take the ACTIONS of a man who tries to be Christ Like over the WORDS of those who proclaim to be Christians!-Mem

A message to the right! Don't tell me you are a Christian if you support and follow those who invoke hate and violence. Don't tell me you are a Christian if you support and listen to Fox News who blatantly lie to the people and have purposely tried to divide this Country in the name of God. Don't tell me you are a Christian and believe in family values if you support a woman like Sarah Palin who uses Her Children, God and Country to line her bank account. Don't tell me you are a Christian if your concerns are for the Corporations rather then the poor and homeless. Don't tell me you are a Christian until you are ready to show me what makes you a Christian!-Mem  (cont. for story and video)

Obama delivers major speech on personal faith (video)

By Dan Gilgoff, CNN Belief Blog Co-Editor

President Barack Obama gave an unusually personal speech about his religious faith on Thursday, saying that "it is the biblical injunction to serve the least of these that keeps me going and keeps me from being overwhelmed," in address to a prayer breakfast in Washington.

The speech, delivered at the National Prayer Breakfast, comes on the heels of public opinion surveys that show only a minority of Americans know that Obama is a Christian and that a growing number believe he's a Muslim.

"My Christian faith has been sustaining for me over the last couple of years and even more so when Michelle and I hear our faith questioned from time to time," the president said Thursday, referring to his wife. "We are reminded that ultimately what matters is not what other people say about us but that we are true to our conscience and true to our God."

"When I wake in the morning, I wait on the Lord, I ask him to give me the strength to do right by our country and our people," Obama said later. "And when I go to bed at night, I wait on the Lord and I ask him to forgive me my sins and to look after my family and to make me an instrument of the Lord."

The address was televised and streamed live on the White House website.

The White House denied that the speech is a response to public misperceptions about Obama's religion.

"He's a committed Christian, one who takes his faith very seriously," said a White House official. "There may be misunderstanding and some folks who attack his faith, but at the end of the day the American people know who he is and where he stands."

A major survey last fall, however, showed that a substantial and growing number of Americans believes that Obama - a self-described Christian - is Muslim.

Nearly one in five Americans believes Obama is a Muslim, up from about one in 10 Americans who said he was Muslim in 2009, according to the survey. It was conducted in July and August by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.

Fewer than half of Democrats and African-Americans, core components of Obama's political base, correctly identified Obama as Christian.

The Rev. Joel Hunter, a Florida minister who is close to the president and was consulted about parts of Obama's Thursday speech, says he has encouraged Obama to open up about his faith.

"He needs to openly declare himself a Christian and not settle for people's skepticism at that point," said Hunter, who leads an evangelical church in Orlando. "All of us ought to be able to say who we are and taken for our word. It's frustrating because he still has some people questioning his faith."

Hunter says that he and the White House were caught off-guard by the results of last year's Pew survey on Americans' views of Obama's religion.

"There was some surprise on all our part because no president has been questioned (about his faith) at this point," he said. "They are who they say they are."

The White House believes that some of the ignorance about the president's faith is the result of a misinformation campaign against him.

Under the radar there are of course those who would not tell the truth about him," said the White House official, who would not speak for attribution. "There are folks who have a misunderstanding of the president's faith and who repeat that misunderstanding."

But Hunter said that the speech was as much a product of Obama settling into office and feeling more comfortable about revealing his personal side.

The White House official echoed that point. "He's had a little over two years in office now and he's had some time to reflect on how his faith intersects with public work," the official said. "He's had the time to make those reflections."

The National Prayer Breakfast has been an annual Washington event for 58 years.

Obama had been a member of Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago until spring 2008, when he left after videos surfaced showing his pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, delivering controversial sermons about the United States.

U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' husband will speak at the breakfast on the congresswoman's behalf, her office announced Wednesday.

Capt. Mark Kelly, a NASA astronaut, will deliver the closing prayer at the event, the Arizona congresswoman's office said in a statement.

Authorities say Giffords was the primary target of a shooting that left six people dead and 13 more injured in Tucson, Arizona, on January 8.

Added to this article because it speaks volumes about real Christians-Mem

Source: Politicalgates

Yesterday at the height of the violence Nevine sent the following message via twitter: @NevineZaki

"When I despair, I remember that throughout history, truth and love have always won" - Gandhi

Earlier Nevine was present when Christians formed a human chain to protect Muslims at prayer from the military forces and she took the following photos. They deserve to be seen by as many people as possible. I believe that this is one of the real stories of the Egyptian uprising. There is joy and determination in these photos.