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![]() President Obama speaking from the pulpit of a Washington church in 2010.
October 27th, 2012
10:00 PM ET
In Obama’s first term, an evolving Christian faith and a more evangelical styleEditor's note: This is the last in a series about the faith lives of the presidential candidates, which includes a profile of Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney. By Dan Gilgoff, CNN.com Religion Editor Washington (CNN) – President Obama’s prayers for a strong first debate may not have been answered, but that doesn’t mean the prayers weren’t happening. Before he stepped onto a Colorado stage earlier this month to face off with Mitt Romney for the first time, Obama joined a conference call with a small circle of Christian ministers. “The focus of that prayer was, ‘Oh, Lord, you know precisely what the president needs to say,'” says Kirbyjon Caldwell, a Methodist megachurch pastor from Texas who helped lead the call. “'You know what this country needs during the next four years.’” “'And so I would pray that your primary will and words that you want the president to say will fall from his lips,'” Caldwell goes on, recalling his prayer. Obama, for his part, was mostly silent. “There’s a profound and genuine humility in the presence of Christ himself,” Caldwell says, describing the president on such calls. “I think he recognizes it as a holy moment.” It was the second time Caldwell and Obama had prayed by phone in as many months. The two had connected in August on a prayer call Obama has hosted on his birthday every year since coming to the White House. Welcome to the intense, out-of-the-box and widely misunderstood religious life of President Barack Obama. Though he famously left his controversial pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the year he was elected to the presidency, a handful of spiritual advisers close to Obama say that his time in office has significantly deepened his faith. The making of a candidate: Mitt Romney’s faith journey Stephen Mansfield, a former Christian pastor who wrote the book “The Faith of Barack Obama,” goes so far to say that Obama has experienced a spiritual transformation. “I think we do have at heart a new man, so to speak,” says Mansfield, who worked closely with the White House and with some Obama religious advisers on his book. “He has undergone a pretty significant personal religious change in his first term.” ![]() Methodist minister Kibyjon Caldwell, right, has grown close to President Obama after serving as a spiritual counselor to President George W. Bush. Here, Caldwell and Bush share a stage in 2003. Obama’s faith advisers say Mansfield goes a step too far, though they acknowledge that when it comes to his faith, Obama has changed. “There is a deepening development in his relationship with God,” says Joel Hunter, a Florida-based pastor who has been in touch with Obama nearly every week since he took office. “He chooses to stay faithful in daily habits of study and prayer and consistent times of interchange with spiritual leaders.” “I am not sure he did that before he came to the presidency.” Whether or not Obama has been spiritually “reborn” in the evangelical sense, his spiritual counselors say the president’s faith has helped shape his first term in ways that haven’t been appreciated by voters or the news media. And they say the presidency is bringing Obama to a new place in his faith - building on a system of belief and practice that helped bring him to the White House in the first place. Talking like Billy Graham These days, when the president talks about his faith, he sounds like a born-again Christian. Addressing the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington this year, Obama recalled meeting the nation’s most iconic evangelical Christian, Billy Graham, and described his struggle to find the right words as he prayed aloud with the aging evangelist. “Like that verse in Romans, the Holy Spirit interceded when I didn’t know quite what to say,” Obama told the gathering, invoking the New Testament. It was hardly the only part of the speech where Obama was speaking “Christianese” – employing a lexicon familiar to evangelical Christians, who put a premium on quoting Scripture and communing directly with the Holy Spirit. Understanding Barack Obama’s gospel At the same breakfast, Obama spoke of spending time every morning in “Scripture and devotion” and dropped the names of “friends like Joel Hunter or T.D. Jakes,” both well-known pastors of evangelical megachurches. “He was talking like Billy Graham” at the breakfast, says Mansfield, who also wrote an admiring spiritual biography of former President George W. Bush. Even in the more secular setting of the Democratic National Convention, Obama hinted at an intense White House prayer life, along with his need for God’s grace. ![]() Some say President Obama sounds like an evangelical when he speaks about his religion, echoing the famous evangelist Billy Graham. The two men met at Graham's mountaintop home in North Carolina home in 2010. “While I'm proud of what we've achieved together, I'm far more mindful of my own failings,” Obama said in his acceptance speech, “knowing exactly what Lincoln meant when he said, ‘I have been driven to my knees many times by the overwhelming conviction that I had no place else to go.’" Such pious talk marks a departure from how the president discussed his faith life before his White House years. Back then, Obama cited his religion more as a basis for social action than for spiritual sustenance. He would temper declarations of belief with affirmations of doubt. Asked in a 2004 interview whether he prayed often, Obama, then a candidate for U.S. Senate in Illinois, responded: “Uh, yeah, I guess I do.” In a 2007 interview with the Chicago Sun-Times, Obama voiced skepticism about Scripture. “There are aspects of the Christian tradition that I’m comfortable with and aspects that I’m not,” he said. “There are passages of the Bible that make perfect sense to me and others that I go ‘Ya know, I’m not sure about that.’” These days, Obama forgoes such equivocations in favor of a full-throated Christianity. To Mansfield, the evolution of Obama’s comments on religion bespeak a born-again experience, prompted largely by the president’s break with Wright and his arrival into a circle of spiritual counselors that includes many evangelicals. The White House declined requests to speak to Obama. But Hunter, the president’s closest spiritual counselor, says Obama has technically been a born-again Christian for more than 25 years, since accepting Jesus at Wright’s Chicago church in the 1980s. But it's in the last four years that the president has become more evangelical in his habits. He now begins each morning reading Christian devotionals on his Blackberry. And then there’s the circle of pastors Obama has begun praying with before big events like the first presidential debate. A circle of evangelicals After landing in Washington following his 2008 election, Obama shopped around for a new church. But he wound up making his spiritual home instead among a circle of far-flung pastors that includes Hunter, Jakes and Caldwell, the minister from Texas. Conference calls with the group started while Obama was still a presidential candidate, including on the night of his 2008 victory. The president-elect spoke by phone with Hunter and other Christian ministers, rejoicing in victory but also grieving the death of his grandmother, who helped raise him, just a few days earlier. The migration from Wright – who almost brought down Obama’s campaign with videos that showed him sermonizing about “God damn America” and “the U.S. of KKK A” – to this new group, says Mansfield, has been underappreciated. “[Obama] went into the Oval Office … questioning the only pastor he’d ever had,” Mansfield says. “Wright left him humiliated.” “And there were deeper questions about the theology that [Obama] had received,” Mansfield continues. “Some part of Wright’s religious orientation had failed.” CNN’s Belief Blog: The faith angles behind the biggest stories Where Wright is a liberal mainline Protestant, emphasizing liberation and social action, Obama’s new circle of pastors includes theologically conservative evangelicals like Hunter and Jakes, who stress God’s grace and personal transformation. Mansfield notes that the chaplain who has presided for the last few years at Camp David, where Obama spends many Sundays, is also an evangelical. Some of Obama’s spiritual counselors credit Joshua DuBois, executive director of the White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships, with leading Obama to a more evangelical-flavored Christianity. Caldwell calls him the president’s personal pastor. A former associate pastor at a Pentecostal church in Boston, DuBois is the one responsible for sending Obama Scriptures and scriptural meditations five days a week; Hunter does it on the other two days. ![]() The evangelical pastor Joel Hunter, center, and White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships Executive Director Joshua DuBois, right, are the President’s closest religious counselors. Here they are in February. DuBois convenes a daily 8:15 a.m. conference call with pastors to pray for the country and the president, who is not on the call. (Lately, those calls have also included prayers for Mitt Romney.) And it’s DuBois who organized the president’s circle of spiritual advisers. After graduate school at Princeton, DuBois talked his way onto Obama’s staff at the U.S. Senate, repeatedly driving to Washington to make his case after job applications were rejected. When Obama launched his presidential campaign a few years later, DuBois was plucked as its faith outreach director. The 30-year-old White House aide plays down his influence on his boss. “He has always been on a Christian journey,” DuBois says of Obama, “and the challenges of the office, of being leader of the free world, provides a deepening and strengthening of faith, and that’s what you see with the president.” “I remember working with him around the Scripture he would use at the memorial service for the miners in West Virginia,” DuBois says, referring to the 2010 tragedy that left 29 dead. “These are obviously moments when one's faith is strengthened.” The unparalleled trials of the Oval Office have been known to deepen the religiosity of presidents ranging from Abraham Lincoln to Ronald Reagan. Hunter says the same thing has happened to this president: “His faith has been growing as the challenges of the presidency have become more naturally the main part of his own everyday life.” Follow the CNN Belief Blog on Twitter One of Hunter’s first Oval Office encounters with Obama came shortly after the president took office, at a time when the economy was shedding 750,000 jobs a month. “He acknowledged at that meeting what many may know but few remember: that by the time issues get to the president, there are no simple or clear answers or they would have been solved by others,” Hunter says. “So we prayed.” A few months later, Hunter was in the Oval Office again, noticing that “the unremitting heaviness of the office was setting in.” “I saw something that has been consistent ever since: He cannot just pray for himself and his family,” Hunter says by e-mail. “At least I have never seen it. His faith, his heart, always includes those who are being left out through no fault of their own.” Despite the changes they’ve seen in Obama, both Hunter and DuBois are uncomfortable with the word “transformation” when it comes to Obama’s White House faith life. “The president doesn’t deal in labels,” says DuBois. “He knows God’s grace is sufficient for him and beyond that doesn’t get into labels, evangelical or mainline. He’s a proud Christian.” Loving God by loving your neighbor When the Rev. Sharon Watkins and a group of fellow Protestant ministers sat down with Obama at the White House a couple years into the president’s term, she knew the pastors would get wonky about religion. “You get a bunch of ministers in the room and we’re all church geeks – it’s theological,” says Watkins, who along with the other pastors had come to talk about poverty. “But the president got every biblical allusion and reference. … He’s just a person who is biblically and theologically literate.” If Obama’s personal theology has grown more conservative, he is inclined to apply it toward liberal political ends. “I’d be remiss if my values were limited to personal moments of prayer or private conversations with pastors or friends,” Obama said at the National Prayer Breakfast in February. “So instead, I must try - imperfectly, but I must try - to make sure those values motivate me as one leader of this great nation.” In signing laws that have increased Wall Street regulations and stopped health insurance companies from rejecting patients with preexisting conditions, Obama said at the breakfast, he wanted to “make the economy stronger for everybody.” “But I also do it because I know that far too many neighbors in our country have been hurt and treated unfairly over the last few years,” he continued. “And I believe in God’s command to ‘love thy neighbor as thyself.’” ![]() Obama and first lady Michelle Obama and their daughters Malia and Sasha leave church after attending a Sunday prayer service. Obama went on to frame decisions as disparate as ending tax breaks for the wealthy and defending foreign aid as examples of biblical principles in action, quoting Jesus’ teaching that “for unto whom much is given, much shall be required” and invoking the “biblical call to care for the least of these.” That last biblical reference also loomed large in another 2011 White House meeting between Obama and a group of religious leaders. They’d come to urge the president to protect programs for the poor amid his fight with Congress over raising the nation’s debt ceiling. The Rev. Jim Wallis, a progressive activist, recalls the meeting: In pressing Obama to take cuts to those programs off the table, one Roman Catholic bishop told the president that “the text that we are obliged to obey does not say ‘as you have done to the middle class you have done to me.’” “It says as you’ve done to the least of these, you have done to me,” the bishop said. “So there was this very rigorous conversation,” Wallis says, “and we pressed him on applying Matthew 25 to this decision about protecting those who were the least of these.” Ultimately, the programs that the religious leaders were lobbying for were protected in the debt ceiling deal, though it’s unclear how big a role the religious leaders played. For liberal Christians, such victories embody the justice of the social gospel, the idea that believers should do God’s work – even aid the Second Coming - by improving society. “I do notice that sometimes, like on health care, when [Obama] says it’s the right thing to do, it’s him saying you love God by loving your neighbor,” says Watkins, who leads a mainline denomination called Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). “He’s doing the best he can to be guided by God so he can be a faithful follower of Christ.” Skeptics might write off Obama’s Bible talk as sanctimonious window dressing, aimed at no higher purpose than connecting with churchgoers in the purple and red states. But translating the Good Book into progressive politics has always been a mainstay of Obama’s political biography. ‘An awesome God in the blue states’ When Obama landed on Chicago’s South Side in 1985 as an idealistic 23-year-old, eager to start work as a community organizer, he was already a political liberal. He was also a man without a religion, the son of a spiritual-but-not-religious mother whom he would later describe as “a lonely witness for secular humanism” and an estranged African father who was born a Muslim but died an atheist. Obama’s work in Chicago, built around causes like tenants’ rights and job training for laid-off workers, was steeped in religion. His salary was paid by a coalition of churches. And the job took him into many black churches, among the most influential institutions in the neighborhood he was organizing, including Wright’s Trinity United Church of Christ. After a lifelong struggle to fit in, set in motion by his mixed-race parents, Trinity felt like home. “I came to realize that without a vessel for beliefs, without an unequivocal commitment to a particular community of faith,” he wrote later, “I would be consigned at some level to always remain apart.” ![]() The Rev. Jeremiah Wright, who brought Obama to Christianity, ignited controversy that almost brought down Obama's 2008 presidential campaign. The changes that Wright’s church wrought weren’t just personal. Baptism and active membership there equipped Obama with an ability to connect with churchgoers he was trying to organize – and, years later, with religious voters he was trying to win over – in a deeper way. Wright, who did not respond to interview requests for this story, gave Obama a moral framework for his liberal politics. The pastor espoused a black liberation theology that equates Jesus’ life and death with the plight of those who Wright saw as disenfranchised, from African-Americans to Palestinians. “Wright is the religious version of almost everything Obama already believed without religion,” says Mansfield, who spent time at Trinity for his book. “It’s a support of oppressed people anywhere in the world.” When Obama emerged on the national stage, his comfortable religiosity and sensitivity to the concerns of churchgoing Americans helped distinguish him as a Democrat. “We worship an awesome God in the blue states,” he declared to huge applause in his keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, catching the attention of young Christians like Joshua DuBois. But at that same convention, Obama’s party nominated John Kerry, a candidate who eschewed God talk and who lost his own Catholic demographic on Election Day. Four years later, Obama hired religious outreach staffers like DuBois for his presidential campaign and made a point of meeting with Christian Right leaders who’d never before heard from a Democratic presidential nominee. Obama went on to win in places like Indiana and North Carolina, evangelical-heavy states that a Democratic presidential nominee hadn’t taken in decades. If the Rev. Wright had almost brought down his presidential campaign, the controversial minister had also long ago laid the groundwork for Obama to connect with the churchgoing voters who had turned their backs on Kerry. The politics of confusion As president, the line between Obama’s personal convictions and his political prowess on religious matters can sometimes be hard to discern. Obama invited the conservative evangelical megapastor Rick Warren to give the invocation at his 2009 inauguration, ruffling liberal feathers. He introduced an annual Easter prayer breakfast as a new White House tradition. He gives shout-outs to young evangelical leaders in major speeches. ![]() Obama asked evangelical pastor Rick Warren to pray at his inauguration, riling some of the president's liberal supporters. All can be seen as genuine reflections of Obama’s faith and his appreciation for the role of religious leaders in public life. And in a nation where more people believe in angels than in evolution - a fact that the president himself has publicly noted - all promise political benefits. The same could be said for Obama’s predecessor, George W. Bush, and for presidents as diverse as Jimmy Carter and Reagan: All had deep spiritual streaks that enabled the political art of courting religious Americans, especially evangelicals. The irony, in Obama’s case, is that despite his orthodox utterances - there’s “something about the resurrection of our savior, Jesus Christ, that puts everything else in perspective,” he said at this year's Easter breakfast - polls continue to show widespread confusion about his faith. Only half the country can correctly identify Obama as Christian, according to one recent Pew poll, while 17% falsely believe he is a Muslim. “He’s a Christian and he professes his Christian faith - I don’t know what else this man has to do to get that into folks’ ears,” says Caldwell, who was also close to George W. Bush. ![]() President Obama at the 2011 White House Easter prayer breakfast, an annual tradition that he started. But Obama’s public piety has helped him bond with young evangelical leaders, who are less tied to the GOP than their parents’ generation. “I was struck by the specificity of what he described in terms of theology and what it means to him,” says Gabe Lyons, one such leader, describing a White House Easter breakfast he attended. “His message is very specific and very orthodox.” Where exactly that new orthodoxy comes from – the pressures of the White House, a new circle of religious advisers or, to a certain degree, from political calculation – may become clearer after Obama's presidency, if he opens up about such matters. Until then, the president is likely to keep speaking "Christianese" - and resisting Christian labels.
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The byline of this article, "...how Obama's Christian faith has evolved.", is revealing. A true Christian's faith doesn't evolve. While faith may grow or even weaken, it is a belief in, and on, (faith in) Christ and His work that is the basis of the new relationship with God. A TRUE believer's faith doesn't evolve. It either exists, or it doesn't, and this condition is the key to an eternal relationship with God: "And this is life eternal: that they might KNOW Thee, the only True God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent." He that has (believes on) the Son has (eternal) life. He that has not (believes not on) the Son of God has not life." Whoever wrote this article to turn faith into a political statement is way out of bounds!
Yes a true christian's faith does evolve when science and other things come into play, for instance the Catholics no longer kill people for working on Sunday nor do they go after the jews NOR give "Get out of hell" cards for a lump sum of money.
He said a true Christian, not a "church leader".
Osama Obama has no fate. If he had fate, he would not promote killing of the unborn.
Exaggerate much? All he is doing currently is upholding current law. Anti-abortionists often sound like someone screaming fire in a crowded theatre.
You are right, he has no fate; if there was fate there would be no free will. He does have Faith however, believing in some higher power; equally as stupid.
Please explain all the unborn children that god destroyed with Noah's flood? Or are you going to say they were wicked too and deserved it?
Where does anyone get off talking about someone else faith. You don't have a clue or insight to something that's personal of that nature.
But yet he time and time again talked about his MUSLIM faith. My Bible says man can not serve two masters.
Jesus is THE Way, THE Truth, and THE Light.
How can a pathological liar seriously think/say that he is a follower of Christ???????
@was blind, but now I see: "How can a pathological liar seriously think/say that he is a follower of Christ???????"
He's in good company, pathological lying is a strong Christian trait. Just look at televangelists.
I love how Obama writes that he believes A particular scripture....not the whole, but chosen passages. GODS word is GODS word!!! You must accept the whole, or, you degrade it all for your purpose. You don't evolve into a faith relationship with GOD. HE does not compromise to draw you to HIS side. HIS SON died to pay our sin debt in full. We respond to a completed work in full, or, not at all.
Anything less, and Satan smiles.
Like wearing cloths of two cloths, working on sunday, how to sell your daughter into slavery, do not eat pork, do not do oral ect. The bible is full of waky things you should be put to death for.
The devil believes in God. Just because one believes doesn't make him anymore a Christian than anything. "Thou believest in one God thou doest well. The devil also believes and trembles"
Well said ...in vedic scriptures ... this is called half-hen logic. A farmer had a hen that laid golden eggs and he thought if I keep only the part which gives the eggs and get rid of the mouth part where I have to feed then hen - that would be great. He got rid of the neck - and soon he had no golden eggs.
Means if you accept only the parts of the scriptures as a matter of convenience, you will never derive the full benefit.
And Moses said unto them “Have ye saved all the women alive?... Now therefore Kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known a man by lying with him, but all the women children, that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves” Num 31:1-2, 9-11, 14-18
Obama's faith has always been in socialism, and in his belief that America is an inherently evil country that has harmed and robbed the weak in other countries, and that America needs to be cut down to size. He has shown faith in people like Jeremiah Wright who pushes afro-centric racism, and he has shown sympathy for the faith he was originally raised in, Islam. In every sense, what Obama has shown "faith" in should be very troubling to all Americans.
One look up socialism...he isn't socialist any more than Medicare and Vet services are. Two America has done some pretty awful things, like injecting STDs into the Latin American countries, nuked our own soldiers, used black people for experiments in the south, put the Sha of Iran into power, put up dictators instead of letting Democracy flourish, ect. I can go on, but the President just knows history instead of falling asleep on the text book like you apparently did.
We are judged by the company we keep
Just give it a rest, he is like every other Christian. He says he is one and goes to church then does the exact opposite that Jesus does.
Give it a rest, Kalo. You are making statements that have absolutely nothing to back them up. You need to ask yourself why you are so angry.
Hewnet to the church of hate whitie for 20 years and now cnn is doing a puff piece on their boy!
Obama would do or say anything, mostly lies, about his so-called faith to get people's vote. Do not believe him. Has he mentioned how and why he did not send help to Benghazi, thus letting 4 Americans die?
It's all about being able to sell yourself during the election cycle. He's doing it just as Romney is doing it. Playing Christian seems to be the political thing to do.
Uh, accept that Romney is a life-long Mormon and Obama has gone from Islam as a child to a VERY loose version of Afro-centric / racist "Christianity" under the leadership of Jeremiah Wright. At any rate,the one part of his faith that has never wavered is his faith in the belief that America has been a force for evil in the world since it's inception.
The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned (1 Cor. 2:14).
There is a natural body and a spiritual body (1 Cor. 15:44).
The above article by Dan Gilgoff is misleading as he himself is spiritually blind and his article is a good example how distorted things have become in society with the media as the main culprit. For a better understanding we invite you to read the article ‘The Natural Body vs the Spiritual Body’, listed on our website http://www.aworlddeceived.ca
Also, for a better understanding of the role of the media we invite you to read the articles ‘Influence of the Media’ and ‘CNN Belief Blog – Sign of the Times’, listed on our website.
Dan Gilgoff's reference and use of the word ‘Christianity’ is also very misleading as so-called Christians are followers of an image of a false god and a false Christ (Matthew 24:24; 2 Cor. 11:13-15; Gal. 4:8). Please read the article ‘Can Christianity or Any Other Religion Save You?’ listed on our website.
Why is there so much division amongst the religions of this world? Please read on.
It is articles like the one above and that are so readily displayed by CNN that is the cause of so much hatred and division. Just take a minute and reflect on some of the entries on this Blog and the hatred and immorality that are being conveyed.
The local media, including CNN, Fox and your local TV stations and newspapers are a very important element of social and political behavior, as society is shaped by what it sees, hears and reads and it is conditioned by the events that influence the mind of every person. You reap what you sow.
To allow anyone to be directed by public opinion is dangerous because most public opinion is the view of the media. If the media does not like something, their bias taints information getting to the public, and this forms public opinion. Public opinion is never based on research and facts. The public uses the media for its sole source of information and for this reason social behavior will continue to deteriorate and wax worse and worse (2 Timothy 3:13).
The media does not provide accurate information on ‘Religion’ as it continues to ignore the truth and the history of deceptions (John 14:17). They only report how they want you to hear things. They have created the big chasm that now exists without offering any solutions.
Consider the truth about Catholicism, Islam, Mormonism, Judaism, Evangelicals and Christianity and all other religions and ask yourself the following question.
Are so-called Catholics, Muslims, Mormons, Israelites and Evangelicals and all those that call themselves ‘Christians’ followers of the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ and the Word of God, or do they follow after an image of a false god and a false Christ (Matthew 24:24; 2 Cor. 11:13-15; Gal. 4:8)?
For a better understanding of the history of Catholicism, Islam, Mormonism, Christianity, and Judaism and its spread throughout the world, we invite you to read the articles ‘The Mystery Babylon’, ‘Can Christianity or Any Other Religion Save You?’, ‘World History and Developments in the Middle East’ and ‘Clash of Civilizations’, listed on our website
http://www.aworlddeceived.ca
The media also makes references to religion as it relates to political issues without any understanding. For example: Mitt Romney’s and Barack Obama’s faith does not stand in the teachings of Christ but rather in an image of the spirit and the god of this world and a false Christ (Matthew 24:24; 2 Cor. 11:13-15; Gal. 4:8).
For a better understanding of the history of the Mormon Church and Mitt Romney’s quest for the Presidency of the USA, we invite you to read the articles ‘Mormon Church – Cult and Spiritual Harlot’ and ‘Barack Obama – President of the United States of America’, listed on our website.
All of the other pages and articles listed on our website explain how and by whom this whole world has been deceived as confirmed in Revelation 12:9.
But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man (1 Cor 2:15).
Seek, and ye shall find (Matthew 7:7).
My guess is that you are leaning towards truth. I am a new believer and coming to the Word of Christ every day. I learned today in Matthew 7:15 to "Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves."
Looking towards Britain, there are stained glass windows in so-called places of worship that mimic this very notion by Matthew. Behold, for the End is near.
My guess is that you are leaning towards truth. I am a new believer and coming to the Word of Christ every day. I learned today in Matthew 7:15 to:
'Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.'
Looking towards Britain, there are stained glass windows in so-called places of worship that mimic this very notion by Matthew. Behold, for the End is near.
Welcome2TheMatrix,
- or, "Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain. It is I, the great and powerful Oz!" - Paul of Tarsus's Wizard!
AvdBerg, what are you smoking?
You're going to have to be a lot more succinct if you actually want people to read your drivel
Who cares what the President's faith is? As long as he doesn't attempt to force it on the citizens of the country, I'm fine with a leader of any faith, or of no faith. Seriously, guys, this is pretty basic.
I wish we had an Atheist president that doesn't think the big red button is the rapture.
You ought to have more caution about not caring about this. All of what's happening today is due to prophecy...and has been the case for a long, long time. Today we are living in the age of false leaders and prophets, as the Bible foretold would come to Light. The fact that you portend to not care shows that what THEY are doing is working in your soul. I pray for you.
Because his PRIMARY and life-long faith is a very dangerous one. It is in a belief that America has been a big bully, that we are unfair, that we take advantage of the poor and the week, that we have done many evil things, that we need to be "cut down to size". He believes we have been "bad", and need to change. That's how he was raised. Please see the movie 2016 and you will fully understand.
Ahhahhahhaaa! So you base your opinion on a MOVIE???
What a bonehead.
Considering that his Christian predecessor so stupidly got us into the 2 wars that Obama is getting us out of, Christianity doesn't seem to be a very useful indication of intelligence or ability to lead well
Great article CNN. How about one the same length on Benghazi. Do your job!
Yeah there's still not something of substance it seems on Benghazi. For some reason it is making me think of Watergate, though.
i am unconcerned with any candidates religion as long as they have the good sense to realize that they represent the entire population and do not attempt to foist their beliefs onto the population at large in policy and legislation.
Jesus taught us how to pray. It was "thy will be done". Prayers for Obama have missed this most important concept of prayer. A Humble Spirit is the heart of Christian prayer.
@snowboarder: "and do not attempt to foist their beliefs onto the population at large in policy and legislation."
That's the problem with a Christian president. By definition Christians are supposed to foist their beliefs onto the population with extreme prejudice
Way to go CNN. Another article about Obama's Christian faith. But nothing about the non-Christian Mormon cult of Romney
Michael,
Pay attention:
http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2012/10/21/atheist-billboard-attacks-romneys-faith-but-mormons-say-its-misleading/
http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2012/10/27/the-making-of-mitt-romney-a-look-at-his-faith-journey/
- and several others which are open for your comments.
The onlty thing evolving is him now TRYING to look like a Christian, but his actions and his words have many convinced he is a closet Muslim. We all know what Muslims really think about America. This is just another CNN article trying to make Obama look better to Americans. Obama always talks about how Romney changes HIS beliefs, yet when Obama changes his, the word being used is "Evolving". The main person Obama worships is himself, and trying to make others worship him as well. . Time for Obama to evolve into another job.
Any persuasive actions or words you know about that you want to share with us?
It is interesting to hear that you can look into a person's soul . Hatred is an emotion that eats you up. You might think about that.
It says it clearly in Matthew 7:15. "Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves." Unfortunately, this most likely applies to Romney as well.
THEY will all be revealed in the end.
You are a blithering idiot.
Anyone that believes this B.S. about Obama changing faith is delusional. This is an all time new low for Obama! Now he is pretending to be Christian to TRY to win the election! Who wants a "born again" anything as President. Be who you are, that's more respectable. People too often try to be something they are not to please others. That is deception no matter how you look at it. Who wants to be led by deception? There is just too much we still do not know about the president. Sad thing is, he's been president for almost 4 years. WAKE UP AMERICA!!!
As Chris Matthews was asking whether he was carrying christian passport with him to identify as a christian.
How can old white men without teeth in south question the president religion.
Javier, when Obama was in the Ill senate, he was one of the chief pushers for live birth abortions. They push leaving a baby that survives an abortion to be left to die with no medical attention. Fortunately there are compassionate nures that go into the room and hold these babies until they die. I'd say that he goes beyond supporting abortins to supporting death for these innocients.
I call B-S on that. Present evidence or retract your statement, if you have the guts to.
That is simply not true.
I see that the MSM lackeys are still desperately trying to build dear leader's personality cult. Not working.