Barack Obama Is Not a Christian
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By Cal Thomas
Syndicated columnist/FOX News Contributor
Religion is a topic that makes most journalists uncomfortable, unless they can expose hypocrisy ? as in preachers who speak of virtue while carrying on an affair ? or outrage such as Rev. Jeremiah Wright and the doings at Barack Obama?s now former church in Chicago. Most journalists think taking religion seriously might require them to study the claims of various faiths and too many of them have already decided this might lead them to a faith higher than themselves or politics and they don?t wish to take such a journey of personal discovery.
That is too bad, because such an attitude exposes one of the main gaps between most Americans ? who believe in God ? and most journalists, who don?t.
An exception is Chicago Sun-Times columnist Cathleen Falsani, who interviewed Obama in 2004 for her book, ?The God Factor: Inside the Spiritual Lives of Public People ?and asked him specific questions about his religious beliefs.
?I?m rooted in the Christian tradition,? said Obama, who has declared himself a Christian. But then he adds something that most Christians will see as universalism: ?I believe there are many paths to the same place, and that is a belief that there is a higher power, a belief that we are connected as a people.?
Falsani correctly brings up John 14:6 (and how many journalists would know such a verse, much less ask a question based on it?) in which Jesus says of Himself, ?I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.? That sounds pretty exclusive, but Obama says it depends on how this verse is heard. According to Falsani, Obama thinks that ?all people of faith ? Christians, Jews, Muslims, animists, everyone ? know the same God.? (her words)
If that is so, Jesus wasted his time coming to Earth and he certainly did not have to suffer the pain of rejection and crucifixion if there are ways to God other than through Himself.
Here?s Obama telling Falsani, ?The difficult thing about any religion, including Christianity, is that at some level there is a call to evangelize and proselytize. There?s the belief, certainly in some quarters, that if people haven?t embraced Jesus Christ as their personal savior, they?re going to hell.? Falsani adds, ?Obama doesn?t believe he, or anyone else, will go to hell. But he?s not sure he?ll be going to heaven, either.?
Here?s Obama again: ?I don?t presume to have knowledge of what happens after I die. When I tuck in my daughters at night and I feel like I?ve been a good father to them, and I see that I am transferring values that I got from my mother and that they?re kind people and that they?re honest people, and they?re curious people, that?s a little piece of heaven.?
Any first-year seminary student could deconstruct such ?works salvation? and wishful thinking. Obama either hasn?t read the Bible, or if he has, doesn?t believe it if he embraces such thin theological gruel.
Obama can call himself anything he likes, but there is a clear requirement for one to qualify as a Christian and Obama doesn?t meet that requirement. One cannot deny central tenets of the Christian faith, including the deity and uniqueness of Christ as the sole mediator between God and Man and be a Christian. Such people do have a label applied to them in Scripture. They are called a ?false prophet.?
I hope some national journalist or commentator with knowledge of such things asks Obama about this and doesn?t let him get away with re-writing Scripture to suit his political ends.
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By Cal Thomas
Syndicated columnist/FOX News Contributor
Religion is a topic that makes most journalists uncomfortable, unless they can expose hypocrisy ? as in preachers who speak of virtue while carrying on an affair ? or outrage such as Rev. Jeremiah Wright and the doings at Barack Obama?s now former church in Chicago. Most journalists think taking religion seriously might require them to study the claims of various faiths and too many of them have already decided this might lead them to a faith higher than themselves or politics and they don?t wish to take such a journey of personal discovery.
That is too bad, because such an attitude exposes one of the main gaps between most Americans ? who believe in God ? and most journalists, who don?t.
An exception is Chicago Sun-Times columnist Cathleen Falsani, who interviewed Obama in 2004 for her book, ?The God Factor: Inside the Spiritual Lives of Public People ?and asked him specific questions about his religious beliefs.
?I?m rooted in the Christian tradition,? said Obama, who has declared himself a Christian. But then he adds something that most Christians will see as universalism: ?I believe there are many paths to the same place, and that is a belief that there is a higher power, a belief that we are connected as a people.?
Falsani correctly brings up John 14:6 (and how many journalists would know such a verse, much less ask a question based on it?) in which Jesus says of Himself, ?I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.? That sounds pretty exclusive, but Obama says it depends on how this verse is heard. According to Falsani, Obama thinks that ?all people of faith ? Christians, Jews, Muslims, animists, everyone ? know the same God.? (her words)
If that is so, Jesus wasted his time coming to Earth and he certainly did not have to suffer the pain of rejection and crucifixion if there are ways to God other than through Himself.
Here?s Obama telling Falsani, ?The difficult thing about any religion, including Christianity, is that at some level there is a call to evangelize and proselytize. There?s the belief, certainly in some quarters, that if people haven?t embraced Jesus Christ as their personal savior, they?re going to hell.? Falsani adds, ?Obama doesn?t believe he, or anyone else, will go to hell. But he?s not sure he?ll be going to heaven, either.?
Here?s Obama again: ?I don?t presume to have knowledge of what happens after I die. When I tuck in my daughters at night and I feel like I?ve been a good father to them, and I see that I am transferring values that I got from my mother and that they?re kind people and that they?re honest people, and they?re curious people, that?s a little piece of heaven.?
Any first-year seminary student could deconstruct such ?works salvation? and wishful thinking. Obama either hasn?t read the Bible, or if he has, doesn?t believe it if he embraces such thin theological gruel.
Obama can call himself anything he likes, but there is a clear requirement for one to qualify as a Christian and Obama doesn?t meet that requirement. One cannot deny central tenets of the Christian faith, including the deity and uniqueness of Christ as the sole mediator between God and Man and be a Christian. Such people do have a label applied to them in Scripture. They are called a ?false prophet.?
I hope some national journalist or commentator with knowledge of such things asks Obama about this and doesn?t let him get away with re-writing Scripture to suit his political ends.
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