Barack Obama Religion

Barack Obama - Religion

Barack Obama ReligionBarack Obama claims his religion is Christianity, but what Barack Obama said about his religion prior to setting his sights on the White House (see below), as well as his choices and background, raise questions about his religion.

The first religion in Barack Obama's life was the Islam of his father, who named him Barack Hussein Obama before divorcing when his son was 6 years old. Barack Obama's mother then married an Indonesian Muslim whose beliefs had an inclusive flair. In his autobiography, Barack Obama described his stepfather's religion as, "a brand of Islam that could make room for the remnants of more ancient animist and Hindu faiths."

Barack Obama moved with his mother to his stepfather's Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim nation, where the future president spent one year studying at a Muslim school after three years at a Roman Catholic school.

Barack Obama began to attend church as an adult. From 1989 until his 2008 presidential campaign, he was a member of Chicago's predominantly African-American, Trinity United Church of Christ, which introduced itself online as, "a congregation with a non-negotiable commitment to Africa ... and remain true to our native land, the mother continent."

In 2004, prior to setting his sights on the presidency, the then Illinois State Senator Barack Obama spoke candidly about his religion during an interview with a Chicago newspaper:

"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." - Barack Obama, Chicago Sun-Times, April 2004

The "call to evangelize" is both a duty and a privilege for all Christians (see Personal Testimony of Faith), not "the difficult thing" for just those "at some level." And "the belief... that if people haven’t embraced Jesus Christ as their personal savior, they’re going to hell" isn't just "in some quarters"; it is in the Bible (see Bible verses about Heaven and Hell).

And who goes to hell?

Jesus told us, "For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." (John 3:17-18)

But Barack Obama opined, "What I believe in is that if I live my life as well as I can, that I will be rewarded. I don't presume to have knowledge of what happens after I die." - Barack Obama, Chicago Sun-Times, April 2004

What constitutes living well a life of good works?

"Then they said to Him, “What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?” Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent." (John 6:28-29)

But Barack Obama continued, "I believe that 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, that there are values that transcend race or culture, that move us forward, and that there’s an obligation for all of us individually as well as collectively to take responsibility to make those values lived." - Barack Obama, Chicago Sun-Times, April 2004

The "many paths" in Barack Obama's religion sound open-minded, inclusive and magnanimous but have one problem: they contradict the exclusivity of Jesus' declaration:

"I am the way, the truth and the life. No man comes to the Father EXCEPT through ME." (John 14:6, emphasis added; for an explanation of why there is no other way, see Justice of God.)

Note also that the "paths" in Barack Obama's religion lead not to a person but a "place," and not to "the Father," but to a "higher power."


What is the source of Barack Obama's insights?

"I think I have an ongoing conversation with God. Throughout the day I’m constantly asking myself questions about what I’m doing, why I am doing it." - Barack Obama, Chicago Sun-Times, April 2004

If he has "an ongoing conversation with God," he should be asking God those questions; if he is "constantly asking myself" those questions, then the conversation he is having is with himself, not with God.

In early 2008, the presidential candidate Barack Obama declared himself Christian to a Christian publication:

"I am a Christian, and I am a devout Christian. I believe in the redemptive death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. I believe that that faith gives me a path to be cleansed of sin and have eternal life. But most importantly, I believe in the example that Jesus set by feeding the hungry and healing the sick and always prioritizing the least of these over the powerful." - Barack Obama, Christianity Today, January 2008

"Feeding the hungry and healing the sick" may be the "most important" if there were no life after death. But our existence continues in heaven or hell for eternity, compared to which our lives on the earth are but "vapor":

"... For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away." (James 4:14)

What is "most important" to Christians isn't how well fed and healthy we are during our vanishing vapor, but Jesus' sacrifice on the cross, which doesn't merely provide "a path" to be cleansed of sins; it is what cleanses us of our sins so that we can spend eternity with Jesus in heaven instead of paying the penalty for our sins on our own in the fire of hell:

"... It is better for you to enter into life maimed, rather than having two hands, to go to hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched." (Mark 9:43)

Barack Obama's own words reveal his religion to be centered on neither the cross of Christ (see Justice of God) nor the Bible. Instead, his focus is the poor and the outcast, which he was in his youth. As a young lawyer, he found churches already helping the poor and the outcast in Chicago's south side whom he desired to help, and joined one of them.

For Barack Obama, Christianity appears to be the means to the end of helping those he considers to be oppressed by the "powerful," including the poor, African Americans (see Racism & Obama), homosexuals and "punished" women (see Obama & Abortion).

As indicated by his current Rating, Barack Obama will accelerate America's Decline.

>> Continued
1. Are you a Christian?
Barack Obama: (response pending)

2. When and how did you become a Christian?
Barack Obama: (response pending)

3. How has becoming Christian changed you?
Barack Obama: (response pending)

4. How would you define and describe your relationship with Jesus today?
Barack Obama: (response pending)

5. In the past 12 months, how many hours have you read the Bible per week?
Barack Obama: (response pending)

6. Which gift has the Holy Spirit given you, and what fruits has it borne?
Barack Obama: (response pending)

7. What has been your greatest failure as a Christian?
Barack Obama: (response pending)

8. What is the greatest challenge you face today as a Christian?
Barack Obama: (response pending)

9. If you had to choose between God and country, which would you choose?
Barack Obama: (response pending)

10. Whom do you think Jesus wants as our next President, and why?
Barack Obama: (response pending)


11. Do you believe Jesus is God or the Son of God?
Barack Obama: (answer pending)

12. Do you believe Jesus was born to a virgin, died and rose from the dead?
Barack Obama: (answer pending)

13. Do you believe Jesus ascended to the Father and will return riding on clouds?
Barack Obama: (answer pending)

14. Do you believe the bread & wine turn into Jesus' flesh & blood when blessed?
Barack Obama: (answer pending)

15. Do you believe Jesus and Satan were once brothers?
Barack Obama: (answer pending)

16. Do you believe heaven and hell are places that really exist?
Barack Obama: (answer pending)

17. Do you believe only those who obey Jesus as master will go to heaven?
Barack Obama: (answer pending)

18. Which books do you believe to have been inspired by God and without error?
Barack Obama: (answer pending)

19. Which passage(s) from those books troubles you, and how do you deal with it?
Barack Obama: (answer pending)

20. The beliefs of which Christian leader alive today resembles your beliefs?
Barack Obama: (answer pending)