WASHINGTON  — President Barack Obama and his family attended Easter services Sunday at a Washington church founded in 1863 by freed slaves.

The first family entered Shiloh Baptist Church to a round of applause on a sun-splashed day in the nation’s capital as members of a choir dressed in black sang “Total Praise.”

Obama shook a few hands and hugged some members of the congregation as he and his wife, Michelle, and their daughters, Malia and Sasha, walked to a second-row pew.

According to the church’s pastor, Dr. Wallace Charles Smith, 21 freed slaves made it to the nation’s capital from Fredericksburg, Va., to establish a place where they could worship freely and where “they could reach others with the good news of their salvation.”

Smith wrote last September, on the church’s 147th anniversary, that the group “could not see the way ahead … but went forth to a land they felt God had given them.”

Located about two miles north of the White House, Shiloh Baptist is one of the oldest African-American congregations in the city. In addition to Sunday service, the church situated in the Shaw section of the city operates several community service programs throughout the year, including a child care development center and assistance to low-income families and senior citizens. Smith will observe his 20th anniversary at Shiloh in July.

Last Easter, the Obamas worshipped at a historically black Methodist church in a different part of the city. In 2009, Obama visited St. John’s Church across Lafayette Square from the White House, the pale yellow place of worship that other presidents have favored over the years.

Attending a National Prayer Breakfast on Thursday, Obama said his faith has deepened during his two years in the White House and he urged members of Congress to rely on their own faith to build a spirit of civility in Washington. He said that at a time of bitter partisanship, lawmakers must find a way to be open to the ideas of others, while staying true to their core principles.

“I pray that God will show me and all of us the limits of our understanding and open our ears and our hearts to our brothers and sisters with different points of view, that such reminders of our shared hopes and our shared dreams and our shared limitations as children of God will reveal a way forward that we can travel together,” the president said.

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WASHINGTON – Ratcheting up the pressure, President Barack Obama on Saturday said Moammar Gadhafi has lost his legitimacy to rule and urged the Libyan leader to leave power immediately.

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It was the first time Obama has called for Gadhafi to step down, coming after days of bloodshed in Libya. Gadhafi has vowed to fight to the end to maintain his four-decade grip on power in the North African country.

“When a leader’s only means of staying in power is to use mass violence against his own people, he has lost the legitimacy to rule and needs to do what is right for his country by leaving now,” the White House said in a statement, summarizing Obama’s telephone conversation with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Until now, U.S. officials have held back from such a pronouncement, insisting it is for the Libyan people to determine who their leader should be.

Obama commented a day after the administration froze all Libyan assets in the U.S. that belong to Gadhafi, his government and four of his children. The U.S. also closed its embassy in Libya and suspended the limited defense trade between the countries.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton announced further sanctions Saturday, revoking visas for senior Libyan officials and their immediate family members. She said future applications from those blacklisted for travel to the United States would be rejected.

Gadhafi “should go without further bloodshed and violence,” Clinton said in a separate statement.

Obama has been holding a series of discussions with world leaders about the unrest in Libya. The administration is hoping that the world speaks with a single voice against Gadhafi’s violent crackdown on protesters, and the president is sending Clinton to Geneva on Sunday to coordinate with foreign policy chiefs from several countries.

The U.S. tone shifted sharply on Friday after Americans in Libya were evacuated from the country by ferry and a chartered airplane.

Shortly after, Obama signed an executive order outlining financial penalties designed to pressure Gadhafi’s government into halting the violence.

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On Sunday, the Obama administration appeared to accept the inevitable, calling for an “orderly transition” of power in Egypt.

The Los Angeles Times says the Obama Administration recognized that longtime ally President Mubarak was doomed as early as last Wednesday.

Administration insiders “recognized that change was coming and they needed to be on the right side of history and not try to keep Mubarak in power against all odds,” says the Times’ source.

Obama spent Saturday talking to regional allies, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Saudi King Abdullah, and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Read MORE at the LA Times.

source: eurweb.com

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The first family says grace each night before dinner, President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle told ABC News in an interview that aired Friday.

“It’s interesting listening to the girls, what they pray for,” the president told Barbara Walters, referring to daughters Malia and Sasha.

“They’ll talk about family and thanking God for blessing us, but they’ll always add a little twist: ‘I hope we have a great Thanksgiving, I can’t wait to see the cousins,’ ” Obama said. “They used to pray for a dog, until we got a dog.”

“But in the end,” the first lady added, “we always say, ‘we hope we live long and strong.’”

The president repeated those words: “Long and strong.”

The Obamas have frequently spoken about prayer since arriving in the White House. Last month, Michelle Obama told a nationally syndicated radio show that the Obamas can feel prayers that are said for them.

“It means all the world to us to know that there are prayer circles out there and people who are keeping the spirits clean around us,” she told the Tom Joyner Morning Show.

In 2009, Barack Obama said that he had stepped up his praying since becoming president “because I’ve got a lot of stuff on my plate, and I need guidance all the time.”

He told ABC News then that he starts each morning by reviewing a devotional he receives on his BlackBerry.

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A former soldier arrested after a hostage incident at a military base in Georgia faces multiple charges that include threatening to kill President Barack Obama and former President Bill Clinton, according to federal court documents filed Tuesday.

Robert Anthony Quinones, 29, of Hinesville, Georgia, was arrested Monday after the two-hour hostage situation at Winn Community Hospital on Fort Stewart, about 45 miles from Savannah, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Officials and a family member said he had demanded mental health care at the hospital.

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Quinones is charged with assault of a federal officer and kidnapping in the incident, which ended with the gunman’s surrender and no injuries.

After he was taken into custody and during interviews, Quinones “expressed his plans, preparation and intentions to kill President Obama and former President Clinton,” according to an affidavit filed in federal cour. “Quinones detailed his studies of Secret Service protocols, sniper techniques and means of disguise and weapons concealment to implement his assassination plans.”

A search of his residence resulted in the discovery of 11 long guns, four pistols, multiple rounds of ammunition and dozens of bayonets and knives, according to the affidavit.

Authorities also found books and manuals about FBI hostage rescue teams, Osama bin Laden, Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, the Russian Mafia and other topics, according to the affidavit signed by FBI and Secret Service agents.

Read entire article at CNN.com

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At a tense and sometimes fiery candidates’ forum Monday night, Mr. Rangel shot back that it was not his dignity the president should be worried about.

“Frankly, he has not been around long enough to determine what my dignity is,” Mr. Rangel said of the 49-year-old Mr. Obama. “For the next two years, I will be more likely to protect his dignity.”

The unexpected eruption seemed to reflect the increasingly bitter relations between the embattled 20-term Democrat from Harlem and a president who is trying to protect his party’s prospects in a difficult midterm election season.

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The White House insisted on Thursday that President Barack Obama is a Christian who prays daily as it looked to tamp down growing doubts among Americans about the president’s religion.

White House spokesman Bill Burton made the remarks hours after a poll showed that nearly one in five people, or 18 percent, said they think Obama is Muslim. That was up from 11 percent who said so in March 2009. The survey also showed that just 34 percent said Obama is Christian, down from 48 percent who said so last year. The largest share of people, 43 percent, said they don’t know his religion.

As Obama left for a vacation, Burton told reporters aboard Air Force One that most Americans care more about the economy and wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and “they are not reading a lot of news about what religion the president is.”

Burton added, “The president is obviously a Christian. He prays everyday.”

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The survey, conducted by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center and its affiliated Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, is based on interviews conducted before the controversy over whether Muslims should be permitted to construct a mosque near the World Trade Center site. Obama has said he believes Muslims have the right to build an Islamic center there, though he’s also said he won’t take a position on whether they should actually build it.

In a separate poll by Time magazine/ABT SRBI conducted Monday and Tuesday — after Obama’s comments about the mosque — 24 percent said they think he is Muslim, 47 percent said they think he is Christian and 24 percent didn’t know or didn’t respond.

In addition, 61 percent opposed building the Muslim center near the Trade Center site and 26 percent said they favor it.

The Pew poll found that about three in 10 of Obama’s fiercest political rivals, Republicans and conservatives, say he is a Muslim. That is up significantly from last year and far higher than the share of Democrats and liberals who say so. But even among his supporters, the number saying he is a Christian has fallen since 2009, with just 43 percent of blacks and 46 percent of Democrats saying he is Christian.

Among independents, 18 percent say Obama is Muslim — up from 10 percent last year.

Pew analysts attribute the findings to attacks by his opponents and Obama’s limited attendance at religious services, particularly in contrast with Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, whose worship was more public.

Andrew Kohut, the Pew Research Center’s director, said the confusion partly reflects “the intensification of negative views about Obama among his critics.” Alan Cooperman, the Pew Forum’s associate director for research, said that with the public hearing little about Obama’s religion, “maybe there’s more possibility for other people to make suggestions that the president is this or he’s really that or he’s really a Muslim.”

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Obama is the Christian son of a Kenyan Muslim father and a Kansas mother. From age 6 to 10, Obama lived in predominantly Muslim Indonesia with his mother and Indonesian stepfather. His full name, Barack Hussein Obama, sounds Muslim to many.

On Wednesday, White House officials did not provide on-the-record comments on the survey but prompted Pastor Kirbyjon Caldwell of Houston to call The Associated Press.

Caldwell, who said he has known Obama for years, said the president is a Christian who prays every day. He said he was not sure where the public confusion about the president’s religion came from, but he called false media reports about it “a 24-hour noise box committed to presenting the president in a false light.”

Six in 10 of those saying Obama is a Muslim said they got the information from the media, with the largest portion — 16 percent — saying it was on television. Eleven percent said they learned it from Obama’s behavior and words.

Despite the confusion about Obama’s religion, there is noteworthy support for how he uses it to make decisions. Nearly half, or 48 percent, said he relies on his religion the right amount when making policy choices, 21 percent said he uses it too little and 11 percent too much.

Obama is seen as less reliant overall than Bush was on religion. Even so, the 48 percent who say Obama uses it appropriately for decisions is similar to the 53 percent who said the same about Bush in 2004. Just over half in the new poll said Obama mentions his faith and prayer the right amount, about the same as said so about Bush in 2006.

At the same time, the poll provides broad indications that the public feels religion is playing a diminished role in politics today, with fewer people than in 2008 saying the Democratic and Republican parties are friendly toward religion.

With elections for control of Congress just over two months away, the poll contains optimistic news for Republicans. Half of white non-Hispanic Catholics, plus three in 10 unaffiliated with a religion and a third of Jews, support the GOP — all up since 2008.

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Ailing 9/11 responders slammed President Obama on Tuesday for sounding off on the Ground Zero mosque while keeping silent on a $7.2 billion health care bill.

“Why have you failed us? We thought you would be our champion” in pushing the legislation, John Feal wrote to Obama.

One of the thousands who worked at The Pile after the World Trade Center attacks, Feal heads the Fealgood Foundation supporting the responders.

The plight of the Ground Zero heroes, still suffering and dying from illnesses brought on by the toxic cloud over the twin towers’ ruins, has taken a backseat to the political posturing over the mosque, Feal said.

The mosque’s location “is not an issue for us,” he told Obama.

“It is disturbing that you have the time and energy to speak in favor of the mosque, but not on the health crisis caused by the attacks,” said Feal, who lost part of a foot when a steel beam fell on him during cleanup work.

Read more at NYDailyNews

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