An interview back in 2004 with the then senatorial candidate Barack Obama has surfaced again. It offers some insights into a America's self-identified "Christian" president.
Obama claims "a deep faith" with primarily Christian views while admitting "Eastern influences" and some vague Muslim connections. (Don't go there, people. He sees them as vague, not genuine.) "I’m rooted in the Christian tradition," he says followed by, "I believe that there are many paths to the same place."
Obama was raised by his mother and grandparents mostly. Of his grandparents he said, "By the time I was born, they were, I think, my grandparents had joined a Universalist church." Of his mother he affirmed, "She wasn't a church lady." Mostly just Easter services, then. Instead, his mother inculcated him with "books about the world's religions" and "her view ... that underlying these religions were a common set of beliefs about how you treat other people." Actually arriving at "Christian", then, was a product of becoming "good friends" with Jeremiah Wright and joining his church.
After that, he considered himself "born again" ... sort of. When asked specifically, he said, "I’m not somebody who is always comfortable with language that implies I've got a monopoly on the truth, or that my faith is automatically transferable to others. I’m a big believer in tolerance. I think that religion at it’s best comes with a big dose of doubt. I’m suspicious of too much certainty."
The interviewer asked, "Do you believe in sin?"
"Yes."
"What is sin?"
"Being out of alignment with my values."
"What happens if you have sin in your life?"
"I think it’s the same thing as the question about heaven. In the same way that if I’m true to myself and my faith that that is its own reward, when I’m not true to it, it’s its own punishment."
You can read the interview for yourself. I just hit the highlights. Nor do I know where the president stands on these things now. This interview was back in 2004. Don't draw too many conclusions about President Obama without newer information.
I am just here pointing out, as I am wont to do, the problem of words. Our president classifies himself as "Christian" with "a deep faith" and "rooted in the Christian tradition" while disavowing simple, standard, necessary realities required to be a follower of Christ ("Christian") such as Jesus's claim that "No man comes to the Father but by Me." The opening argument of the Gospel is that we are all sinners, but in this interview he redefined "sin" as "out of alignment with my values" (which is an astoundingly horrendous concept -- "I determine what is sin"). The outcome of the Gospel is that we can be saved from our sin, but he considers a failure to be true to his own beliefs "its own punishment".
Lots of people claim to be Christians. Lots of people lie. Others are confused or deceived. "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven" (Matt 7:21). Determining whether or not Mr. Obama is among those who will enter the kingdom is not your job. Making sure you are is your job. Obviously, it's very easy to be deceived by common language and misconceptions. Check yourself. "Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves!" (2 Cor 13:5). "Examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good; abstain from every form of evil." (1 Thess 5:21-22).
2 comments:
I'ld like to see a Christian review of Romney's "Christianity". If the democratic nominee was a mormon, many of the Chirstians so vocally for Romney today would pick his faith a part then! It's crazy! Are either truly seeking God's will?
Fair enough.
Let me point out that the purpose of my post was not to give a reason to vote for Romney. "Christian" is not a qualification for office. Indeed, it was not my intention to even say that the president is not a Christian. I specified that I don't know where the president stands now on these things and cautioned against drawing conclusions about him from them. My point, as I indicated, was to illustrate the problem of words. The person that was interviewed in 2004 was using words like "Christian" and "a deep faith" and "Christian tradition" and "sin" -- very Christian-sounding words -- but the use of these words was not Christian. Sin is not "being out of alignment with my values". Christianity is not one of many valid routes to God. My point was not Obama's Christianity, but the problem of failing to define and understand basic Christian concepts while using basic Christian words.
I am not a Romney supporter. I've written about that on more than one occasion. However, I believe that Romney claims to be a Mormon (which is not actually a Christian) and as far as I know he is consistent with what it means to be a Mormon to a reasonable degree. Not knowing him any more personally than I know Obama, I can't say for sure, but it seems that way.
A president who claims for himself "a deep faith" of the "Christian tradition" and wholeheartedly approves and endorses the murder of the unborn because the mother wants to is not a man of "deep faith" of the "Christian tradition". I find that reality to be an overwhelming disqualifier of someone aiming to be the leader of the nation. "I'd like to make your life better ... except I don't plan to do anything helpful for the most vulnerable members of our country. They can die for all I care." Not exactly a presidential position. But it wasn't the point of this post. The point was that people who claim Christianity with lots of the right words often do so because their meanings of their right words are wrong. In that interview, Obama's words illustrated this.
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