The anti-Christian bias in the White House
July 11, 2009
Why do liberals hate people of faith? More

Collins for Health
SOURCE: AP/Evan Vucci President Barack Obama has announced that he intends to nominate Dr. Francis Collins, above, as director of the National Institutes of Health.

By Jonathan D. Moreno | July 10, 2009

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Jonathan Moreno, Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress and David and Lyn Silfen University Professor at the University of Pennsylvania, applauds President Barack Obama's announcement that he intends to nominate Dr. Francis Collins as director of the National Institutes of Health.

Dr. Collins is a world-renowned leader in biomedical research who led the government's Human Genome Project, which decoded the DNA sequence that forms the basis of human life and opened pathways to understanding how we develop, how genes influence illness, and how medicine can harness genetics to diagnose and cure disease.

"I've known Francis for many years and have observed close up his deep understanding that American science needs to be informed by our values," said Moreno. "No one else possesses the remarkable combination of qualities he brings to this important position.

“His tenure as director of National Human Genome Research Institute was remarkable for its inclusivity and for how as director he went out of his way to make sure that all points of view were represented around the table on important points of science and medicine,” Moreno added. “He was always mindful that his strong personal convictions and faith remained just that—personal—and that science and medical policy reflected the best interests of the public well-being, not a political or religious ideology. I’m confident these same qualities will garner him the goodwill and support of Congress and the confidence of the American people, and will mark his leadership at NIH.”

At the National Human Genome Research Institute, Dr. Collins demonstrated a progressive dedication to our nation's continued investment in the scientific research and innovation that powers our economy, improves our quality of life and well-being, and expands our knowledge of the natural world. His expertise in genomics will be a key asset as we move into an era of personalized medicine.

Dr. Collins is an outspoken man of science and an outspoken man of faith. His commitment to each framework of human understanding is emblematic of the pluralistic ethos of the United States. Indeed, a recent survey released by the Pew Center for People and the Press indicates that 61 percent of Americans see no conflict between science and their religious beliefs. As a researcher, his work has revealed the genetic basis of ailments ranging from cystic fibrosis to Huntington's disease. As a citizen, he has worked to educate others about the fact that science and religion are not in opposition.

If confirmed by the Senate, Dr. Collins will no doubt support progressive approaches to research and innovation that embrace both science and ethics.

Jonathan D. Moreno is a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress and Editor-in-Chief of Science Progress. He was a member of President Barack Obama’s transition team for the Department of Health and Human Services.

http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/200...html/print.html

Snuffy...I read it for entertainment purposes, but why do you post drivel from the American Thinker without some supporting documentation?

Just wondering...because the liberal establishment has endorsed Dr. Collins...

If the Center for American Progress likes him...so do the libs...

July 9, 2009
Pick to Lead Health Agency Draws Praise and Some Concern
By GARDINER HARRISPresident Obama on Wednesday nominated Dr. Francis S. Collins, a pioneering geneticist who led the government’s successful effort to sequence the human genome, as head of the National Institutes of Health.

Dr. Collins’s selection, which had been rumored for weeks, was praised by top scientists and research advocacy organizations for whom the health institute is a crucial patron.

Based in Bethesda, Md., the N.I.H. is the most important source of research money in the world; over the next 14 months it will dole out about $37 billion in research grants and spend $4 billion on research programs at its Maryland campus.

“Francis Collins is an extraordinary scientist and one of the nicest guys you could ever meet,” said Dr. Otis W. Brawley, chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society.

But praise for Dr. Collins, 59, was not universal or entirely enthusiastic. Dr. Georges C. Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association, called Dr. Collins’s selection a “reasonable choice.” Others privately expressed unease.

There are two basic objections to Dr. Collins. The first is his very public embrace of religion. He wrote a book called “The Language of God,” and he has given many talks and interviews in which he described his conversion to Christianity as a 27-year-old medical student. Religion and genetic research have long had a fraught relationship, and some in the field complain about what they see as Dr. Collins’s evangelism.

The other objection stems from his leadership of the Human Genome Project, which is part of the N.I.H. Although Dr. Collins was widely praised in 2003 when the effort succeeded, the hopes that this discovery would yield an array of promising medical interventions have greatly dimmed, discouraging many.

Dr. Collins cannot be blamed for the unexpected scientific hurdles facing genetic research, but he played an important role in raising expectations impossibly high. In interviews, he called the effort “the most important and the most significant project that humankind has ever mounted” and predicted it would quickly allow everyone to know the genetic risks for many diseases.

Some scientists and advocates for people suffering from diseases criticized the extraordinary amount of money and attention the sequencing effort garnered, saying it distracted from more fruitful areas of research.

Fran Visco, president of the National Breast Cancer Coalition, raised questions about the appointment. “The N.I.H. needs visionary leadership willing to challenge the present stagnation at the institute,” Ms. Visco said. “It may be difficult for Francis, since he has been a part of the system.”

“We look forward to working with him,” she added, “to help him move beyond a focus on technology and to push N.I.H. to foster innovation and regain the sense of urgency to save lives.”

Dr. Collins’s confirmation by the Senate is all but certain. He has long cultivated good relations on Capitol Hill. And since the administration finalized rules for broader use of stem cells in federal research before nominating him, anti-abortion forces will have a harder time using that issue to stop his confirmation.

Dr. Collins, who resigned last year as director of the National Human Genome Research Institute, would succeed Raynard Kington, who has been acting director at the N.I.H. since last fall.

Dr. Collins earned a Ph.D. in physical chemistry from Yale University and a medical degree from the University of North Carolina. He likes to sing and play a guitar decorated with a double helix, the shape of genetic code.

He was part of a team at the University of Michigan that in 1989 discovered the gene for cystic fibrosis. At the time, many predicted that the discovery would lead to a quick cure. But like so much in genetic research, that hope is still a long way off.

As the leader of the Human Genome Project, Dr. Collins engaged in a fierce public battle with Dr. J. Craig Venter of Celera to finish the sequence first and make it broadly available. The success of Dr. Collins’s project torpedoed much of Celera’s business model. But in a speech last month, Dr. Collins said the N.I.H. needed to form more partnerships with the pharmaceutical industry to create new drugs.

Dr. Alan I. Leshner, chief executive of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, said it was “an excellent idea to have a very credible geneticist heading N.I.H. at a time when we are pursuing so vigorously the promise of personalized medicine based on genomics."


http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/09/health/p...agewanted=print



The New Republic which is the story cited in the Amercian Thinker...which is actually an oxymoronic title for this website since the persons who write there seem to think very little...or may think a lot but do not actually do any research to back up their thinking...because the website sites a New Republic article which cites a NYT article which expresses only mild opposition to the candidate on religious grounds...

Collins won't get much grief from liberals...He's more what Michael Lindsay calls Cosmopolitan Evangelicals
as apposed to fundamentalist evangelicals...

So, I guess this article then was a lot of hooey....

I certainly wouldn't hire him for this job.

Why? Their not afraid as the Supreme Court will have 5-6 Catholics on it. That was a concern for me and the only concern I had about Sonia Sotomayor. To be realistic weather A persons religion should not be part of their politics.
Look at what happened with bible belt Clinton and born again Bush.

I think the Evangelicals have too much power and frankly I don't think he did that great in his last job...

Who specifically, in the White House, was against the appointment of Collins? The title of the thread suggests Obama or those closest to him in the WH ,are 'Anti- Christian".

Right...and I would not be surprised by that at all...but the premise of Snuffy's post was the anti-Christian bias in the white house...and the reality is that the white house is the one who appointed him...so how does that show an anti-Chrisitan bias?

Exactly...the title is absolutely misleading which is why I debunked it with my posts...to show that the Obama Adminsitration was not anti-Christian but instead there were some external groups who had expressed concerns.

This seems like a perfect GOP sleight of hand...

Misleading, to say the least.....what's sad though, is that many people will read this title and believe what they read without further investigation. In addition, liberals do not "hate people of faith"....they might oppose their views and fight against legislation that affects all of us ( like separation of church/state issues, abortion, etc). Don't you just love how some writers fully engage in the use of "dramatic license", twisting information until there's nothing left but a distortion of reality that fits their agenda and point of view? Wow, lots of that going on these days.....

Quite simply this is just one more example among an almost endless stream of a Right Wing "pattern of lies". How can there be a real "Public Discourse," a debate on the merits, if you are constantly dealing with people who "make things up". It is one thing to have a difference of opinion about just about anything EXCEPT facts. "The Sun rising in the East" is not something open for debate unless you are dealing with madmen... or liars. Carl Jung believed we must deal with the Myths and Metaphors within ourselves and without and take them seriously. But "real" Myths themselves always point to a "truth," never a lie. As a seeker of Truth he believed in God though he acknowledged there are many names by which God can be called. He was full of faith as was Einstein, but both of them knew that lies are the great enemy of all things holy and true.

Those who profess their deep faith in God should be natural enemies of those who lie both to them and in their name and natural allies of the truth-tellers. The world has been turned upside down deliberately by those who worship "the manna which ain't from heaven".

Just my opinion.

Francis Collins is associated with James L. Jones through Cross Match Technologies...

http://Muckety.com/Query?SearchResults=802...;graph=Muckety_ Map?_ r=2D

Jones is head of National Security and close to Frank Carlucci and Zinni

Try

http://Muckety.com/Query?SearchResults=802...ckety_Map?_r=2D

This all relates to building supper soldiers as Magmak1 has been writing about...

What I find troubling is why snuffy would post something which was so clearly a misrepresentation of the facts?

No doubt.

Yes, and by six degrees of separation we are all probably related to Stalin, Saddam Hussein and other nefarious characters..

There is never any doubt among the, "True Believers."

To me, the question of why Snuff posted this article is answered with the fact that Snuff posts all kind of articles. Occasionally she makes a personal comment about them but mostly she posts what
she perceives to be a fair sampling of what's out there.

I think the question is, why did the author write the article? The answer to that question is, in my
opinion, to set up a straw man called, "Modern Liberalism" with which to attack all persons not falling
in line with a literalist, evangelical, dominionist brand of radical right wing religosity...