Obama’s Decline Among Catholics and Everyone Else, By the Numbers

Obama’s Decline Among Catholics and Everyone Else.(R)This has been a tough week for President Obama. He picked a fight with the Catholic Church, the largest charity in the world, and his poll numbers took a nose dive. And when he called for a compromise, most Catholics and Americans heard “uncle.” Today, Rasmussen released a poll showing that just 26% of the nation’s voters approve of Obama’s performance. Thirty-nine percent strongly disapprove.
The Obama administration recently ruled that all insurance policies must offer contraceptive services with no co-payments required. In and of itself, that decision is neither positive nor negative. Forty-three percent of voters favor it, while 46 percent are opposed. Among Catholics, though, according to Scott Rasmussen, only 28% believe religious organizations should be required to implement rules that violate church teachings. Sixty-five percent are opposed, which is true even though many Catholics disagree with the Pope on this matter. The only Catholics that agree with Obama are those that already voted for him. Only 39% of Catholic voters approve of Obama’s job performance today, compared to 54% in November 2008.
The person most helped by all of this is Rick Santorum, who now trails the president nationwide by only four points, 46% to 42%. In Ohio, Santorum is even with Obama, while Romney trails by four points.Read the full story here.

Yohanna Qulta, Deputy Patriarch of the Coptic Catholic Church in Egypt: If the Salafis Come to Power and Instate the Jizya Poll Tax, We Will Oppose This to the Point of Martyrdom

Interviewer: When I asked if the Copts were thinking of leaving Egypt, you said: "Absolutely."

Yohanna Qulta: Of course. The fear we encounter on TV and in national newspapers, which I don't want to name... Actually, why not? Al-Ahram, Al-Akhbar... They run large headlines, quoting the Salafis as saying that the Copts should either leave Egypt or pay the jizya poll tax in submission.

The world has changed. The Copts did not fight you [Muslims] or drive you out of your homes, so why do you want to expel them? Do the Copts constitute a foreign community? They tell you that Switzerland persecutes the Muslims, France persecutes the Muslims... The persecution of any group is unacceptable - but we are not even a community of immigrants. We have deep roots in this country.

Interviewer: Do you Copts fear these Salafi statements? If they do come to power and instate the jizya poll tax - I'm not saying that this will happen, but let's assume this for the sake of argument - how will you respond?

Yohanna Qulta: We will oppose this fiercely, to the point of martyrdom. Returning to the Middle Ages is out of the question. We will not turn to the UN or to the Western countries, but to Al-Azhar, to Islamic moral values, and to the vast majority of Muslims, who are moderate. Gone are the days of paying the jizya, the days of slavery. What the Salafis and the others need to understand is that the religious state has failed, from East to West, in every era, both in Christian and Muslims countries.
The Church was liberated the day religious was separated from state. Has the Catholic Church collapsed in Europe, or in France? No, it still exists, despite the separate of Church and state. It has been proven that a religious state is not compatible with human nature. The role of religion is to educate the human conscience. It shapes the conscience of Man, so that merchants have a conscience, engineers have a conscience, laborers have a conscience... Religion is not supposed to regulate traffic or taxes, or to determine whether one should wear the hijab or niqab. Religion is supposed to advise and guide, but to leave one with freedom of choice. Religion is freedom.

What did America - with 150,000 soldiers armed to the teeth - do for the Christians of Iraq? Churches were burnt down, Christians were martyred, and America did nothing. What did America do for the Christians of Lebanon? What did it do for the Arab Christians? What did it do for the Christians of Rwanda and Burundi, one million of whom were killed?

This is a lie. I'd rather turn to my Muslim neighbors. Source.

Hmmmm.....What the Copts need is an independent state, it worked for Sudan so why not for Egypt.