I don't see anything in Ms. Batallie's post demanding that all references to Jesus be covered. Here's the full quote sent to both Conservative News Service and the Washington Times:
In coordinating the logistical arrangements for yesterday’s event, Georgetown honored the White House staff’s request to cover all of the Georgetown University signage and symbols behind Gaston Hall stage.
The White House wanted a simple backdrop of flags and pipe and drape for the speech, consistent with what they’ve done for other policy speeches. Frankly, the pipe and drape wasn’t high enough by itself to fully cover the IHS and cross above the GU seal and it seemed most respectful to have them covered so as not to be seen out of context.
That reads to me like the extent of coverage was Georgetown's decision, not the President's or his people.
Btw, linking it to an article that starts out suggesting people who disagree with the action think he's a secret Muslim makes me take your post a whole lot less seriously.
That's pretty rich coming from someone who chose to source his assertion with a Conservative News Service article written nearly a month (May 7th) after the event (Apr 14th).
Anyway, if you'd gotten beyond your attempt to poison the well and actually attempted to address the content of that blog entry, you'd have noticed:
- The Muslim comment was a snarky, parenthetical response to
Zietgeist, not the main point of his opening paragraph. If you'd look at the comments on the very CNS article to which you linked, you'd have noticed manifestations of that very
Zeitgeist.
- The intent, it would seem to me, is to defer to Muslims.
- I am very disillusioned that Georgetown University complied with Obama's request. to cover up Christian symbols which offend him. Does he do the same when he speaks at a mosque?
- THAT is because he IS A MU SLIM...He can LIE about it ALL HE WANTS, but he ADMITS that he WAS a MU SLIM in Indonesia, and IF you understand their ideology, you CANNOT change to Christian AFTER you have been a Mu slim--OR THEY K I L L YOU.
They are ALSO told to LIE to achieve Islam worldwide....and he is GOOD at lying....
- Obama Has Sent Message of Respect For All Religions--‘in Particular of Islam’
The Jesuits at Georgetown should be excommunicated.
- He can celebrate Ramadan in the White House, quote the quran but not be seen with Christian symbols even though he claims to be Christian. Hypocritical, aren't they.
- Meanwhile, back in the blog entry, David Brody of CBN (Christian Broadcasting Network, Pat Robertson's operation) notes:
Also, other still pictures from the event show portraits of Jesus in the background which are off center from the stage. In addition, I can tell you that it has been my experience on the campaign trail that advance teams do typically make backdrops as generic as possible. It’s pretty much standard fare to make them that way.
Also, the fact that Georgetown University actually has a perfectly fit triangle piece to cover up the cross and monogram suggests that they have done this before at other events. We are waiting on Georgetown to provide us a response to that question.
Bold mine.
-And the very first comment on Gibson's blog entry is:
Thank you for you sane post in this “non-issue”. Your hunch is correct because when the local Jewish community uses Gaston Hall, as they do every year, to celebrate the High Holy Days, out of respect for Jewish sensibilities, the IHS is covered up. Unfortunately, your sense that the situation was going viral has materialized. I would say it is now toxic.
Looks to me like these things pretty much debunk your assertion that:
Was it a blunder, though? I only ask because when Barry visited Georgetown in April of '09, Obama's staff made them cover up the backdrop because it showed the symbol of the Jesuits, which includes "IHS" (which stands for Jesus). So why didn't they catch this?
Bold mine.