Obama Omission Of “Their Creator” from Quote Creates Stir
It would have been a standard part of a political speech, quoting the Declaration of Independence and tying one’s own ideas to it. But there was a little glitch when President Obama addressed the Congressional Hispanic Congress and quoted the Declaration of Independence as follows.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, endowed with certain inalienable rights: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
There’s a little problem with Obama’s quote from the founding fathers, and that was the omission of 2 words, “their Creator”. The quotation should have read as follows.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
It may seem like a subtle and insignificant omission, but there is a debate in political philosophy, whether human political rights were created by G-d or whether they were a human invention. Many people believe that the bestowal of our rights as citizens by the founding fathers was not an act of their own design but one of obedience to the Creator.
Even those who consider this question to be insignificant would concede the need to quote the Declaration of Independence with precision. The fact that Obama’s speech was prepared beforehand and fed into a teleprompter makes the omission of “their Creator” all the more significant. At a time when the separation of church and state is a hotly debated topic, this misquotation from the Declaration of Independence opened a lot of questions. World Net Daily noted the glaring omission in President Obama’s speech with clear disapproval.
Hopefully, when President Obama quotes the Declaration of Independence in the future, he will not leave out such critical words. In a country divided by distrust on partisan lines, historical accuracy is worth a great deal.
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After the 22 minute mark in the video below, one can find Obama’s famous misquote.
