“Does President Obama kill babies?”

“Hmmm?” I wasn’t sure I heard Tommy right. I was folding laundry, my mind in the zone of shake, smooth, fold, fold, stack.

“Does President Obama kill babies?”

I heard.

“Where did you hear that?”

“At school.”

“Who told you that?” I couldn’t repeat what he said.

“A girl in my class.”

I assured him that President Obama does not kill babies.

Half of my readers just gasped and half just clapped. I am not interested in a debate and DO NOT want to see it happening in the comments. I don’t want to get into the nuances of how state and federal laws allow for abortion, therefore Obama does too. So why am I posting this?

Because my 7-year-old son was picturing the President of the United States, a person and an office he has been taught to respect, killing a baby. Like Archie. Literally killing a baby.

This was an alarming thought for him, of course.

The girl who talked to Tommy got her information from somebody. I question the sanity of any adult who would tell a kiddo something like that, knowing how kids take things literally and at face value. The more likely possibility is that she overheard a conversation.

There lies the danger of being overwrought and letting emotions and hatred carry us away. Little ears are listening. Don’t like Obama? Fine. But if you are a Christian and you employ provocative hyperbole to express yourself, aren’t you bearing false witness against him?

Obama is not a baby killer, any more than I am for having miscarriages.