Fact Check

Obama Places Limits on Church Services

Rumor: President Obama has limited churches to offering twice-monthly services.

Published April 14, 2015

Claim:

Claim:   President Obama has limited churches to offering twice-monthly services.


FALSE


Example: [Collected via Twitter, April 2015]


Is this true about Obama? Is he really making people go to church two times a month instead of four times? Wtf

Origins:   On 8 April 2015, the News Examiner web site published an article reporting that President Obama had limited churches to offering twice-monthly services in order to ensure Americans worked harder:



At a press conference today, President Barack Obama announced he would be implementing a new law changing the current monthly 4-Week church services down to 2 times a month. Obama says during these rough economic times it crucial to take drastic measures so Americans can work harder and pray less. These effects are to take place May 1st of this year and analyst expect this move to increase the economy by more than 40%.

Americans tend to work hard and pray harder. I'm asking them to make these changes for the good of the country during these hard times. If things don't work out within 6 months we can always switch back to the old way, but for now, lets give this a solid shot and see where it takes us. These are crucial times my friends and we must stick together as a country if we are going to succeed.

If you have any questions about President Obama's new 2-week church schedule that will be taking place May 1st a hotline has been set up to answer all your questions at (785) 273-0325.


President Obama could not have made any such announcement, as he has no authority to limit church services, and any attempt to do so would be an obvious violation of the First Amendment's protections of religious freedom. The referenced article was a just another hoax from the News Examiner, a fake news site started by Paul Horner, the former lead writer for the similarly fake National Report web site, after Facebook implemented a crackdown on the posting of hoax articles that virtually destroyed the latter site's reach.

Previous hoaxes from the same site include the false claim that the world's first head transplant was successfully performed in South Africa in April 2015.

The "hotline" phone number provided in the article is actually that of the infamous Westboro Baptist Church.

Last updated:   14 April 2015

David Mikkelson founded the site now known as snopes.com back in 1994.