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November 3rd, 2011
12:21 PM ET
White House press secretary misquotes the BibleBy John Blake, CNN As President Ronald Reagan used to say, “There you go again…” When White House press secretary Jay Carney was giving a press conference Wednesday touting President Obama’s jobs bill, he invoked a popular saying that he said comes from the Bible. That’s when things got twisted. Earlier that day, President Obama had urged passage of a provision in his job bill by saying, “I trust in God, but God wants to see us help ourselves by putting people back to work.” A reporter later asked Carney if Obama crossed the line by bringing God into the jobs debate. Carney’s response: “I believe that the phrase from the Bible is, ‘The Lord helps those who help themselves.' ” Carney was wrong. That phrase is what I called a “phantom Bible scripture” in a story I wrote earlier this year called, “Actually, That’s not in the Bible.” The “Lord helps those who help themselves” is actually attributed to Benjamin Franklin, one of the nation’s founding fathers. The story was first reported by Politico. Misquoting the Bible is one of those rare bipartisan issues. Politicians have been misquoting the Bible for years. But ordinary people – coaches giving pep talks, motivational speakers, even preachers – do it all the time. The White House, to its credit, corrected itself later on Wednesday. When it released the official transcript of Carney’s daily briefing, if posted a correction at the top saying that the phrase about self-help “does not appear in the Bible.” Next time you want to go biblical on someone, help yourself by actually looking in the Bible to see if it’s really scripture – or just another phantom Bible verse.
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The CNN Belief Blog covers the faith angles of the day's biggest stories, from breaking news to politics to entertainment, fostering a global conversation about the role of religion and belief in readers' lives. It's edited by CNN's Daniel Burke with contributions from Eric Marrapodi and CNN's worldwide news gathering team.  |
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Maybe Obama's White House should stick with something they know and understand like the woman-stoning Koran?
"help yourself by actually looking in the Bible to see if it’s really scripture – or just another phantom Bible verse." who cares if its real or not religious people would have never known. they believe just about anything you tell them
You both got it wrong. It appears earlier than Benjamin Frankln in Algernon Sidney's work.
Truly, what do these goons in Washington really know? All they do is lying about everything. The only thing that is true about Washington is, they are all corrupt.
MY NAME SAYS IT ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
religion <atheists <poo
I guess we all stink.
No need to get hysterical.
Lying is a sin
god is a joke and the believers are the punchline
The true quote is "heaven helps those who help themselves"
I have heard the President misquote scripture. Once he said "the Bible says, Do unto others as they do unto you." In reality the Scriptures say "Do unto others as you would have others do unto you"Again, at the National Prayer Breakfast in quoting Isaiah 40:31 He said. "Those who wait on the Lord will soar on wings like eagles, and they will run and not be weary, and they will walk and not faint," When in reality the scripture says "But those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. Leaving out the whole renew their strength part.
I guess anyone can butcher a passage ( preachers incldued) but where is the sinsiter intent?
Or as it says in II Hezekiah 11:47 If you live in glass houses don't let your chicken croos the road.
He would likely be more comfortable quoting the Communist Manifesto than quoting the Bible. He should stick with what he knows best.
There you go again.
This quote is from the Holy Quran:
"Verily, God does not change the condition of a people until they change themselves." –– Chapter Ar-Rad (13:11).
It is known fact the founding fathers kept a copy of Quran and read it. Since you are saying this quote came from Benjamin Franklin, he might have quoted it from Quran.
Best current example for this quote is the Arab Spring situation in Middle East. People were robbed of their freedom for decades with help from other powerful nations. The people took it on themselves to liberate from these cruel dictators and then help come from God.
Have a good day,
Ashraf
Then help came from god? Uhh... no, they achieved what they achieved without god.
variations of the golden rule, categorical imperative or what have you have predated the quran and bible by hundreds of years, eg, Confucius, Hammurabi code, etc...so to quote the bible or quran is actually plagiarism
@ialsoagree, How do you know that help did not also come from God? Do you have private, special knowledge about God's doings? Can you not allow others the courtesy of a healthy spiritual life? Consult with the psychiatric community if you do not believe that human beings have an innate need for a religious community in order to have a stable emotional life. It is one of the requirements on their list of things people need for mental health.
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."
How do you twist that into, "Religion does not belong in politics!" The Press Secretary was making no law and was freely exercising...
The Press Secretary is also not Congress.
After you check the Bible to see if the passage is really in there, check the Bible to see who wrote it. Thanks to Gutenberg and King James (NOT Saint James) the Bible most people use today is full of poetic incaccuracies. Or not the Bible at all. I had a prof of Victorian Lit actually use Milton's Paradise Lost as the reference for all of the religous passages by Victorian writers. As if they didn't have a Bible handy back in the day.
That is simply not true. First, most people don't use the KJV nowadays. Second, almost all common modern versions were translated directly from Greek manuscripts (many of which date within about 100 years of the original writings.)
Yeah, thats true about a variety of the old translations, but thats why scholars are continually translating and re-translating actual original or second-gen texts that still exist at places such as Cambridge, Oxford, et al. As much as language and understanding of language change, so do translations of the Bible need to be revisited and revised. That doesn't make old translations inaccurate, though, just no longer clear.
Oh Lawdy Lawdy someone made a mistake, lets give him crap about it.
He works for Obama so he is a socialist commie pinko black guy with white makeup and he should be crucified on live TV for being a REGISTERED DEMOCRAT! They are all socialist pinko commies and should be removed from office! Look at this economy! How did it get like this?? Stop blaming Bush and Wall Street. They didn't do ANYTHING at all to cause this. It was all those socialists pinkos who like people who look like obama that did this. The SOUTH shall rise again. Honey, is my white sheet washed yet? I gotta get to Washington right away!
You wouldnt know a "pinko commie" even if he was giving you a reach around. You would attribute it to another government program.
Calm down, chew on another Valium, put on your tinfoil hat and watch Fox News with your thumb in your mouth and it'll all be okay.
Hey Edith. You, the meathead and Gloria better make sure one of "them" ain't in our neighborhood....NOW GET OUT MY CHAIR AND GET ME A BEER YOU DINGBAT
This is not a misquote. It's a misattribution.
I don't think he's going to hell for this one.
Ah my friend, I see you are not of the true believers. He is going to hell just for working for Obama, the rest does not matter.
Yep, this is one of those sticky false quotes. Not that there is anything wrong with not reading the Bible. I would worry much more that White House press secretary does not know that the words are Ben Franklin's (if they are indeed his).
The Bible misquoted? By a politician? Never heard of such a thing.
There is nothing new under the sun - Ecc 1:9
I am a Baptist, born again.
Im so sorry, are the drugs helping?
I'm a Christian, born again 🙂
I'm a free thinker, born once!
And the psychiatric community states that one of the requirements for mental health is a healthy spiritual life. Humans need the sense of spiritual community, as well as familial community and social community. Kind of explains all the muggings, drive-by shootings, and foaming, hissing and spitting atheists.
Perhaps you need to be born again at least a few more times before you are fully cooked...
I think the point Obama was trying to make was that while he believes in God, he also believes we are expected to use our brains once in a awhile to make things happen and now is the time for Congress to get to work. And if I may offer a relevant scripture: "Show me your faith without your works and I will show you my faith by my works” (James 2:17-18)
A little prayer now and then can make a huge difference, so folks please pray for our President and Congress to make the right decisions that will create jobs for the unemployed.
Or, instead of sitting around and talking to yourself, actually get out there and do something to help.
I would rather be safe than sorry and have the son of God, Jesus as my Saviour.
Well I'm sure God loves that you have such a self-serving acceptance of him.
Pascal's wager fails. Firstly, you lose something by believing. You lose the freedom to be open minded to the likely scenario that the Christian god isn't real.
Further, you can't eliminate the possibility that the Koran isn't the correct faith using Occam's razor, are you going to accept Allah and Jesus?
Finally, if you only believe in a god to get eternal life, don't you think god will see through your little rouse?
Yes, you can believe in Jesus and Allah (who Christians refer to as 'the Father' or simply 'God.') Both Christians and Muslims believe in both Jesus and Allah (God the Father,) except that Muslims believe Jesus was merely a prophet.
You missed my point entirely.
You can't both believe Jesus was the son of god, and believe in Allah as described in the Kuran. The two are mutually exclusive, and Pascal's wager provides NO way of distinguishing which one is "more" right.
ialsoagree, you are making the mistake that a logical, well reasoned argument will work with these people. Also, do you think anyone that believes in an invisible bearded magic man in the sky is educated enough to have heard of Pascal's wager or Occam's razor?
I was making such mistakes... boy do I feel silly. =(
@ialsoagree, Why do you feel the need to belittle your fellow humans for something that is a basic need? To believe in something larger and more powerful than oneself, whether it be God, the moon, or science, or all three, gives a sense of stability that people actually need for mental health. Does it make you fell more secure in your own faithlessness to denigrate the beliefs of others? If so, your really might want to consult a counselor.
And yea, Jesus looked upon the single payer healthcare system and proclaimed it good. Do unto the 1% as the 53% do unto the 99%, amen.
Intersting idea's on biblical perspectives. There is a source of the quote crrectly attributed to the Greeks, It is actually " God Help those who help themselves"..origin:
whenever a man makes haste, God hastens with him – Aeschylus (persia)
try first thyself and after call God – euripedes
Heaven never helps the man who will not act – socrates
I know we all like Benjamin franklin, he was a great person, so lets attribute the phrase to the correct person, and not the bible from now on. can we?
I bet they stole it from the Persians.