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 President Obama is not just a racial trailblazer, but some say a religious pioneer as well. No president has ever shared his type of Christianity, historians say. Some say he may revive a form of Christianity that once dominated America.
October 21st, 2012
06:59 AM ET
The Gospel according to ObamaBy John Blake, CNN President Barack Obama was sharing a pulpit one day with a conservative Christian leader when a revealing exchange took place. Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback, a conservative Christian who has taken public stands against abortion and same-sex marriage, had joined Obama for an AIDS summit. They were speaking before a conservative megachurch filled with white evangelicals. When Brownback rose to speak, he joked that he had joined Obama earlier at an NAACP meeting where Obama was treated like Elvis and he was virtually ignored. Turning to Obama, a smiling Brownback said, “Welcome to my house!” The audience exploded with laughter and applause. Obama rose, walked before the congregation and then declared: “There is one thing I have to say, Sam. This is my house, too. This is God’s house.” Historians may remember Obama as the nation’s first black president, but he’s also a religious pioneer. He’s not only changed people’s perception of who can be president, some scholars and pastors say, but he’s also expanding the definition of who can be a Christian by challenging the religious right’s domination of the national stage. When Obama invoked Jesus to support same-sex marriage, framed health care as a moral imperative to care for “the least of these,’’ and once urged people to read their Bible but just not literally, he was invoking another Christian tradition that once dominated American public life so much that it gave the nation its first megachurches, historians say. “Barack Obama has referred to his faith more times than most presidents ever have, but for many it’s the wrong kind of faith,” says Jim Wallis, head of Sojourners, an evangelical activist group based in Washington that focuses on poverty and social justice issues. Follow the CNN Belief Blog on Twitter “It is not the faith of the religious right. It’s about things that they don’t talk about. It’s about how the Bible is full of God’s clear instruction to care for the poor.” Some see a 'different' kind of Christian Obama is a progressive Christian who blends the emotional fire of the African-American church, the ecumenical outlook of contemporary Protestantism, and the activism of the Social Gospel, a late 19th-century movement whose leaders faulted American churches for focusing too much on personal salvation while ignoring the conditions that led to pervasive poverty. No other president has shared the hybrid faith that Obama displays, says Diana Butler Bass, a historian and author of “Christianity after Religion.” “The kind of faith that Obama articulates is not the sort of Christianity that’s understood by the media or by a large swath of Christians in the U.S.,” says Bass, a progressive Christian. “He’s a different kind of Christian, and the media and the public awareness needs to reawaken to that fact.” Some Christians, however, still see Obama as the “other.” He doesn’t act or talk like other Christians, says the Rev. Gary Cass, a conservative Christian president of the Christian Anti-Defamation Commission. “I just don’t see or hear in his accounts the kind of things that I’ve heard as a minister for over 25 years coming from the mouths of people who have genuinely converted to Christianity,” says Cass, pastor of Christ Church in San Diego. Cass says he’s never heard Obama say he’s “born-again.” There’s no emotional conversion story to hang onto. Obama talks about his faith and attends church, but Cass says that doesn’t mean he’s a Christian. “Joining a church doesn’t mean you’re a Christian. “You can put me in the garage, but that doesn’t turn me into a car.” The origins of Obama’s faith The suspicion about Obama’s faith may seem odd at first because he’s written and spoken so much about his spiritual evolution in his two autobiographies, “Dreams of my Father” and “The Audacity of Hope.” Other books, like “The Faith of Obama” by Stephen Mansfield, also explore Obama’s beliefs.  The 1925 “Monkey” trial of John Scopes, a high school biology teacher who taught evolution, drove fundamentalists underground, some say. Mansfield says Obama is the first president who wasn’t raised in a Christian home. Obama’s mother was an atheist and his grandparents were religious skeptics (Obama’s family has challenged the description of his mother as an atheist. Obama called her “the most spiritually awakened” person he’d ever known, and his sister called their mother an agnostic). CNN’s Belief Blog: The faith angles behind the biggest stories Mansfield called Obama’s boyhood a “religious swirl. He was exposed to Catholicism, Islam, and strains of Hinduism and Buddhism while growing up in Indonesia during the 1960s. “In our household, the Bible, the Koran and the Bhagavad Gita sat on the shelf alongside books of Greek and Norse and African mythology,” Obama said in Mansfield’s book. “On Easter or Christmas Day, my mother might drag me to church, just as she dragged me to the Buddhist temple, the Chinese New Year celebration, the Shinto shrine, and ancient Hawaiian burial sites.” Obama became a Christian while he was a community organizer in Chicago. He joined a predominantly black United Church of Christ. The UCC became the first mainline Protestant denomination to officially support same-sex marriage in 2005. Obama’s faith showed many of the elements of a liberal Protestant church: an emphasis on the separation of church and state, religious tolerance and the refusal to embrace a literal reading of the Bible. In a 2006 speech before a Sojourners meeting, Obama talked about his approach to the Bible: “Which passages of Scripture should guide our public policy? Should we go with Leviticus, which suggests slavery is OK and that eating shellfish is abomination? How about Deuteronomy, which suggests stoning your child if he strays from the faith? Or should we just stick to the Sermon on the Mount – a passage that is so radical that it’s doubtful that our own Defense Department would survive its application?” When many people think of Obama’s religious experience in Chicago, though, they cite his exposure to the angry sermons of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright and “black liberation theology,” a movement that emerged in the late 1960s and blended the Social Gospel with the black power movement. Bass, the church historian, says another black pastor shaped Obama’s theology more: the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. He attended liberal Protestant seminaries where he learned about the Social Gospel’s concern for the entire person, soul and body.  Obama has reached out to evangelical leaders like Rick Warren, seen here praying at Obama’s inauguration, but many still doubt his faith. King once wrote that “any religion that professes to be concerned about the souls of men and is not concerned about the slums that damn them, the economic conditions that strangle them …is a spiritually moribund religion awaiting burial.” But King and the black church also fused the Social Gospel with an emotional fervor missing from white Protestant churches, Bass says. Other presidents like Franklin Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson were influenced by the Social Gospel, but they weren’t shaped by the black church. “This is the first time we’re hearing the Social Gospel from the perspective of the black church from the Oval Office. It makes it warmer, more emotive, more communal," Bass says. "There is less fear of linking the Social Gospel with the stories of the Bible, especially the stories of Exodus and Jesus’ healings.” The emphasis on community uplift - not individual attainment - may strike some Americans as socialist. But the emphasis on community is part of King’s “Beloved Community,” Bass says. King once wrote that all people are caught up in an “inescapable network of mutuality… I can never be what I ought to be until you are allowed to be what you ought to be.” “When I listen to Obama, I don’t hear communism, I hear the Beloved Community,” Bass says. “But a lot of white Americans don’t hear that because they never sat in those churches and heard it over and over again. It’s the whole theology that motivated MLK and the civil rights movement.” Obama is not a Christian, some think For some, Obama’s actions in the Oval Office seem to contradict Christianity. Jesus was nonviolent. Obama has ramped up drone attacks in Afghanistan that have not only removed terrorists, but killed civilians. The Bible talks about the sanctity of marriage between a man and a woman. Obama invoked Jesus when he came out in support of same-sex marriage. “The thing at root that we think about is, not only Christ sacrificing himself on our behalf, but it’s also the Golden Rule," Obama told ABC News during his announcement. Jesus talked about helping the poor. But he never said anything about creating a massive health care law that taxed the rich to help the poor, some Christians argue. But Wallis of Sojourners says Obama’s push for health care was a supreme example of Christian faith. A situation where 50 million Americans don’t have health insurance is “a fundamental Christian problem,” Wallis says. “Health is such a Gospel issue. Jesus was involved in healing all the time, and to have some people excluded from health care because they lack wealth is a fundamental Christian contradiction.” Wallis has been one of the most persistent defenders of Obama’s faith. But no matter how much Scripture he and others cite, doubts about Obama’s faith have followed him throughout his political career. Focus on the Family founder James Dobson once said that Obama distorted the traditional understanding of the Bible “to fit his own world, his own confused theology.” The Rev. Franklin Graham, the son of Billy Graham, publicly questioned Obama’s faith, then later apologized. Conservative Christian books and websites are filled with stories of Obama allegedly trying to suppress the nation’s Christian heritage. The Rev. Steven Andrew, author of “Making a Strong Nation,” says Obama is trying to change the national motto from “In God we Trust” to “Out of Many, One,” and he’s ordered the Pentagon to remove biblical verses from its daily report. “That’s the most serious thing someone can do to a nation, trying to separate a nation from God,” he says. “He seems to be trying to change the Christian laws our Founding Fathers made.” Andrew says Obama is actually an enemy of Christianity. In his book, Andrew argues that the Founding Fathers were Christians who created a “covenant Christian nation” and calls for a “national repentance.” “I think he’s an anti-Christ,” Andrew says. Cass, of the Christian Anti-Defamation Commission, says Obama’s emphasis on helping the poor through social justice isn’t Christianity. Christians who talk about “social justice” are often practicing “warmed-over Marxism,” Cass says. “Do I believe in caring for the poor and oppressed? Yes. But you don’t do it along the lines of communistic redistributing.” Obama’s support of same-sex marriage and abortion rights also disqualifies him from being a Christian, Cass says. “It’s the most pro-abortion administration in the history of America. On every social issue – the sanctity of life and of marriage between men and women – Obama is on the wrong side of every moral issue,” he says. He says a progressive Christian is a contradiction. “No Christian says I believe in Jesus Christ and I reject the Bible,” Cass says. “These progressives who say they’re Christians are liars. They’re using Christianity as a guise to advance their own agenda.” Cass says he doesn’t know what Obama believes. “He’s conflicted,” Cass says. “He has Muslim sympathies from his upbringing." How progressive Christianity lost the public square There was a time when Obama’s brand of Christianity would have been understood by millions of Americans, historians say.  Obama along with first lady Michelle Obama and their daughters Malia and Sasha leave church after attending a Sunday prayer service. The Social Gospel and progressive Protestantism dominated the American religious square from the end of the 19th century up to the 1960s. At times, the traditions blended together so seamlessly that it was hard to tell the difference. The Social Gospel rose out of the excesses of the Gilded Age in the 1880s, when urban poverty spread across America as immigrants crammed into filthy slums to work long hours in unsafe conditions. Walter Rauschenbusch, a Baptist pastor in a New York slum, urged the church to take “social sins” as seriously as they took individual vices. Churches began feeding the poor and fighting against other social ills. “The notion that religious people should be about feeding the poor and helping the homeless is a carryover of the Social Gospel,” says Charles Kammer, a religion professor at Wooster College in Ohio. The Social Gospel was adopted by many Protestant churches in the late 19th and early 20th century, says Bass, the church historian. Some of the Social Gospel churches grew popular because they provided the poor with everything from English classes to sewing instructions and basketball leagues. “The first American megachurches were liberal, Social Gospel urban churches,” Bass says. The Social Gospel, though, sparked a backlash from a group of pastors during World War I. They were called fundamentalists. They published a pamphlet listing the “fundamentals of the faith:” Biblical inerrancy, the virgin birth, Adam and Eve. But the fundamentalists lost the battle for public opinion during the “Scopes Monkey Trial” in 1925. John Scopes, a high school science teacher, was tried for violating a Tennessee law that prohibited the teaching of evolution. Though Scopes lost, fundamentalist Christians were mocked in the press as “anti-intellectual rubes,” and a number of states suspended pending legislation that would have made teaching evolution illegal, says David Felten, author of “Living the Questions: The Wisdom of Progressive Christianity.” The trial drove fundamentalists underground where they created a subculture, their own media networks, seminaries and megachurches, he says. That subculture thrives today, Felten says, and has infiltrated the political arena. It has created an “alternative intellectual universe” that denies science, rational thought – and any beliefs that violate their definition of being a Christian, Felten says. “They have millions of adherents who believe in a literal six day creation and a literal Adam and Eve – so it’s not a stretch to believe that President Obama is a Kenyan-born secret Muslim bent on destroying the country,” Felten says. Progressive Christians eventually lost the messaging wars to this fundamentalist subculture, Bass says. Their nuanced view of faith couldn’t compete with the “spiritual triumphalism” of conservatives. “If you get up and say we’re right and we have the truth, then you have a powerful public message,” she says. “They have a theological advantage in the public discourse. It’s comforting to have things clear, to have things black and white.” The result today is that the Protestant tradition that shapes much of Obama’s Christianity is fading from public view. The share of Protestant Christians in the United States has dropped below 50% of the population, according to a recent survey by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. White mainline Protestants make up only 15% of the nation’s population, the survey revealed. The study also found that the fastest growing "religious group" in the country is people who are not affiliated with any religion. Another generation of Christians, though, may bring a new version of progressive Christianity back. The lines between younger conservative Christians and progressives are blurring, says Marcia Pally, author of “The New Evangelicals: Expanding the Vision of the Common Good.” Pally spent six years traveling across America to interview evangelicals. She says her research revealed that more than 60% of young evangelicals support more governmental programs to aid the needy, as well as more emphasis on economic justice and environmental protection issues. “What’s interesting is that these values, associated with Obama and the black Protestant tradition are now also the values of a growing number of white evangelicals,” she says. Her perspective suggests that Obama’s faith may be treated by history in two ways: He could be seen as the last embodiment of a progressive version of Christianity that went obsolete. Or he could be seen as a leader who helped resurrect a dying brand of Christianity for a new generation. soundoff (8,626 Responses)« Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 Next »
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The CNN Belief Blog covers the faith angles of the day's biggest stories, from breaking news to politics to entertainment, fostering a global conversation about the role of religion and belief in readers' lives. It's edited by CNN's Daniel Burke with contributions from Eric Marrapodi and CNN's worldwide news gathering team.  |
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Why does it matter what religion a candidate is? As long as they are capable to doing the job I don't care what religion (or non-religion) they are.
Russell, your are so right! Religion is just another idiotic way of demeaning someone. If a person, Man or Woman, can do a better at a position, then religion is not a factor.
"Is Obama the 'wrong' kind of Christian?"
You bet he is. He's psuedo-Christian and perishing just like every other unbeliever.
Why does people like Obama? Is it because he is so liberal? Is it because he is Black? Is it because he hasn't kept any of his promises? What?
Many get behind Barack because he is charismatic, of course forgetting that Satan (as Lucifer) was the most charismatic.
Is it that hard to figure out about Barack Obama??? Look good, say the right things publicly...do evil undercover. (like signing the NDAA on New Year's Eve when no one was noticing)
Most people are too asleep and/or too stupid to realize what's going on.
I say...look at his campaign promises:
Close Gitmo....still open.
Fix the economy....getting much, much, much worse.
Be "the people's President"....has moved more wealth from the 99% to the 1% than any other President in history.
Stop the excesses in government....penned Executive Order authorizing an Assassination List.
Fix the budget deficit....ADDED more debt than the first 41 Presidents COMBINED.
The one thing that Obama has done is he has made the SNL pathological liar character (Jon Lovitz) Tommy Flanagan look like an honest guy.
I like him because he is a down to earth guy.
Another "Barry" on religion:
“On religious issues there can be little or no compromise. There is no position on which people are so immovable as their religious beliefs. There is no more powerful ally one can claim in a debate than Jesus Christ, or God, or Allah, or whatever one calls this supreme being. But like any powerful weapon, the use of God’s name on one’s behalf should be used sparingly. The religious factions that are growing throughout our land are not using their religious clout with wisdom. They are trying to force government leaders into following their position 100 percent. If you disagree with these religious groups on a particular moral issue, they complain, they threaten you with a loss of money or votes or both.
I’m frankly sick and tired of the political preachers across this country telling me as a citizen that if I want to be a moral person, I must believe in “A,” “B,” “C” and “D.” Just who do they think they are? And from where do they presume to claim the right to dictate their moral beliefs to me?
And I am even more angry as a legislator who must endure the threats of every religious group who thinks it has some God-granted right to control my vote on every roll call in the Senate. I am warning them today: I will fight them every step of the way if they try to dictate their moral convictions to all Americans in the name of “conservatism.”
~Barry Goldwater
The problem is, what is the right kind of Christian? One who followed jesus' example and words? That person would be a slave owning communist.
So really, there is no 'right kind of Christioan' people define Christianist by themselves, since precious few have the insight to see their own errors and blasphemies. In other words, "I'm a Christian (even though I am a racist, classist, anti-charity, anti-welfare, anti-poor, uneducated drunken wife beating hick), so which candidate is most like me, the perfect Christian"
All Christians are the wrong kind
CNN – are you serious? THIS is the type of article I'd expect on FOX News?. It is stupid, demeaning, below my expectations of a serious news organization.
How is it stupid and demeaning? Do you realize that in recent polls from some southern (red) states, up to 90% of republicans said the President was not christian?
Wake up Folks! CNN is FOX #2! They have lower themselves, that it sickens us – even the times we watch it.
http://youtu.be/_qJDd-2tM-A
Let Penn Jillette open your mind about religion.
Take Penn's comments on religion?
He's an ILLUSIONIST. His whole career is a series of carefully crafted "lies."
We won't take Penn's opinion on anything.
James... So, if I understand you correctly.. you (and you characterize yourself as "we") dismiss an intelligent person's perspective simply because he is an illusionist by trade? What sense does this make? What do you do for a living??
@ 1Plus1, or if I may, "2"
Re: "...you dismiss an intelligent person's perspective..."
Have you listened to Penn very much? If you have, then you will have already realized he's actually not that intelligent. Being loud and opinionated doesn't mean being smart.
Re: "...because he is an illusionist by trade? What do you do for a living??"
My job entails me being 100% brutally honest, 100% of the time. Penn's job is SELLING situations where things APPEAR to be one way, but are actually completely different to how they appear. In other words, the whole reason this pinhead is even famous is because he is a master at pulling the wool over people's eyes. And you want to go to him for the "real story" about God and religion, g.d. that is funny!!!!
I can hear it now... (Penn Jillette): "Watch me pull the Truth about God outta my a$$."
R I D I C U L O U S
If you get your opinions from someone like that, I can only say you must have done something to deserve ignorance.
James, You've said nothing meaningful, intelligent, or convincing. All you've done is offer personal attacks, which is a clear sign of someone who is loosing an argument.
Try refuting some of the points he makes in this video.
Right, and Romney is the right kind of Christian - a Morman with a false prophet for a founder.
This is Alice in Wonderland. Up is down. Down is up. Romney is polytheistic and his religious roots centered on the doctrine of polygamy (for men) and yet these so-called "Christians" on the right wing question Obama's Christian bona fides? Myself, I think these right wing clergy are are crass politicians who are guided by Satan himself.
Not much of a Christian if you support gay marriage and abortions.
So true!
Because Jesus himself had so much to say on both those issues, right? Who on earth are YOU to decide who is a more faithful person? You show no signs of actually being a follower of Christ...
Or eat shellfish.
The fundiots are up early this morning displaying the three basic characteristics of contemporary American Christianity – arrogance, condescension, and hatred. They are nothing if not consistent.
I am a born again christian who is a democrat. I am very much follow Jim Wallis views. I can not vote for a mormon to be president but at the same time I was reading up on both candidates faith online. There was a article based on Obama doing 3 different interviews about his christian faith. What I found out is Obama said although he is a christian he believes there are many ways to get to God. Any christian knows theres is 1 way to get to God and that is threw Jesus. That is not judging that is what Obama said.
@Darrell,
"Obama said although he is a christian he believes there are many ways to get to God. Any christian knows theres is 1 way to get to God and that is threw Jesus. That is not judging that is what Obama said."
Which tell s you conclusively that he's not an authentic Christian and just pretending. And out of his own mouth. Nothing the discerning didn't already know
You could not be more wrong. All Christ said is we must go through Him. I would never ever ever vote for Romney (again – I lived under MittRule in MA – DISASTER), but it's not because he's a Mormon. You are a fool if you base your vote on someone's religion. This is a civil matter.
Darrell, I agree with you that there is one way to get to God and that is Jesus. But I also believe with God everything all things are possible. This is a dificult concept, but no less difficult to understand than the concept of the Trinity.
Darrell, just to be clear, I'm referring to the possibilty of non-Christians getting to Heaven. That is what I mean when I say that with God, all things are possible.
@Micheal,
"Darrell, just to be clear, I'm referring to the possibilty of non-Christians getting to Heaven. That is what I mean when I say that with God, all things are possible."
Ain't gonna happen. And that is not what is meant by "with God all things are possible." That would be eisegesis to try to employ that verse here.
who has the right to judge anyone for what he or she believes. we have the right to believe on whatever we want, I can believe on a stone if i want. and i am not hurting any one doing that. that is what matters.
Re: "...and i am not hurting any one doing that. that is what matters..."
Well, Obama signed an Executive Order allowing himself an Assassination List of people to be "legally" killed.
So much for your "not hurting anyone" analogy.
Mr. Cass, you need to go to theology class! EVERYTHING that President Obama says about social justice and it is STRAIGHT from the bible. It is not he who is trying to rewrite scripture but those from your side of the political spectrum. If Jesus came back tomorrow, he would not recognize what people like you have done to his teachings. Shame on you and shame on anyone who thinks like you and PLEASE stop co-opting my faith.
Lori- Christ told us to each do what we can for the poor. He never mentioned doing it by huge, incompetent government programs. That may be why Republicans give far more to charities than Democrats do (check the studies; it's true). Both sides want to help the poor. Dems want to tell you which groups get your money- using taxes to fund programs that DC chooses. Republicans want you to keep our own money, so you can choose how best to help others.
WOW ... If this is true.
http://www.westernjournalism.com/muslim-brotherhood-behind-benghazi-attack-with-link-to-obama/#comments
Bah, this is just stupid. I don't support Obama, but if he calls Jesus of Nazareth his Savior and Lord, then he's Christian. The rest is why denominations exist. The Christian Bible says we can tell if a person is a follower of Christ by the fruit that they bear. Let's let this die like it should have LONG ago.
Smearing Obama drives votes. The right wing will never let it go. They will only accelerate this. It will never stop, not now, not later, and not after Obama is done serving his second term. Never.
We don't need a religious leader in the white house. We need a president who can add and subtract. Obama fails in this category and will NEVER be able to improve the economy. His only desire is to redistribute wealth to those that didn't get an education or work hard to get it. He just spends blindly and has a real bozo crew of advisors. He needs to lose the election period.
Yes, he (Obama) has shown that he has NO BUSINESS being in the White House. He's ADDED more to the national debt than the first 41 Presidents COMBINED. That's just the tip of the iceberg.... money-incentives to move industries overseas, closing down coal plants, except for the ones belonging to his crony-capitalists, whom he has given waivers... creating an assassination list.... signing the NDAA, allowing indefinite detention of Americans, leaving them with no legal recourse... ie. imprisoned just for being ACCUSED of a crime!!!...etc.
So, YES... Barack Obama has not one good reason to be allowed to oversea any governmental monies, he is incompetent.
Just remember, that the global banksters OWN both candidates, so the programs of economic ruin will continue, whether it's Obama (the Devil we know) or Romney (the Devil we don't know).
The difference between Obama and Romney is the same as the difference between 6 and a half-dozen.
Obama got my vote last time too. Won't get it this go round. He's already come out and stated he was of the muslim faith and had a muslim upbringing. Thats a fact. I think we need a smarter man to run our country than we have had in years. Romney is that for me right now. Time will tell about him too if he gets elected. He is more direct and straight forward and has his facts together. Obama appears to be grasping at anything he can. Biden came off as a complete idiot in the VP debate. I think it's a fair shake to get Romney in office and get Obama out. Obama had his chance and he blew it!
What planet are you from???? Obama has REPEATEDLY said he was a Christian. If you've got the quote IN WRITING, post it and prove it or shut up.
This is a pro Obama piece written to say chucks guys Obamas a Christian too, A true spiritual Christian who knows his bible can feel out a Christian, Obama is a Cultural Christian, and more then likely a cultural Muslim as well. A man trying to straddle the fence between the religion he grew up with and the religion he needs to stay in power.
Keep it in the church and out of politics. Religion is a sure way to poison our country when mixed with our politics.
Amen!