Is Obama losing his religion?
I can't imagine how difficult it must be to have a normal worship life if you are President. I in no way support the type of preaching that the Obama family heard at Trinity UCC, but I do believe that public officials should be allowed to worship in peace. The few times that President Obama has tried to worship at a local congregation, it has been a complete media circus. So I understand his decision to worship in the more private setting of Camp David. The chaplain there is Carey Cash, a grand-nephew of the Man in Black.
In any case, that lack of public worship may be causing President Obama some problems. In a new poll, it is revealed that 18 percent of Americans believe he is Muslim (I remember during the campaign being surprised to learn that 14% of Republicans -- and 10% of Democrats! believed this). Some 43 percent said they have no idea what his religion is, up from 34 percent last year.
This poll, which was conducted at the beginning of this month, is just surprising across the board. It shows that only 43% of blacks and 46% of Democrats believe Obama is Christian.
Of those that believe Obama is Muslim, most say that they learned it from "the media." But 11 percent said "they learned it from Mr. Obama's behavior and words."
I'm utterly confused by these results. The CBS report includes this other tidbit:
Despite the confusion about Mr. Obama's religion, there is noteworthy support for how he uses it to make decisions. Nearly half, or 48 percent, said he relies on his religion the right amount when making policy choices, 21 percent said he uses it too little and 11 percent too much.
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Jul '10
Re: Is Obama losing his religion?
His religion is Marxism and he remains deeply, deeply religious
Re: Is Obama losing his religion?
Oh perfect, now I can be tagged as both racist and Islamophobic for opposing BHO's big-government policies.
Jul '10
Re: Is Obama losing his religion?
Frankly, you look like a greedy rich guy.
May '10
Re: Is Obama losing his religion?
This man is such a mystery. If he has a strong religious inclination he keeps it well hidden, but then he keeps many things well hidden. Perhaps it's just not there. If he wanted to slip away for worship he could arrange it. The press will give him whatever he asks for.
If he was really a Muslim, or a Muslim in any real sense, his religious life would be much more apparent. I don't get much sense of his true convictions except for a typically "Harvard" faith in progressive dogma.
Jun '10
Re: Is Obama losing his religion?
I think Obama is a frustrated evangelist...for Marxism. He'd like to march his constituents straight up Socialist Hill, but he knows he has to take the gentle winding path instead, or risk panic--more panic.
Aug '10
Re: Is Obama losing his religion?
As a person growing up with parents that were two different religions, I think Obama is what he claims to be, a Christian. He has respect for and even an inclination to support Islam, but I don't think this should be damning by itself. A POTUS doesn't really have time to practice much religion anyways...
Aug '10
Re: Is Obama losing his religion?
BHO is a man incapable of worshiping or believing in God. He believes he - and the forces behind him - are God, though he will never say it straight out. He's content to suggest, or allude to his great powers. All of which are (in truth) false, a mere projection.
Obama's a man entirely deluded by pride, belief in his puny abilities, and the glitter and glamor of the world. He's an extreme, poossibly malignant, narcissist.
It's not difficult to make the case that he's the Anti-Christ. Everything he stands for and believes in run completely contrary to the teachings of Jesus. This is why Obama's content with Islam.
Progressives do not believe in a Creator who loves and actively cares for man and His creations. I have spent many decades debating and questioning these people, and their convictions are as shallow as a wading pool. Underneath their pose of spirituality or piety (if they bother to display it at all) is anger, even rage, at the randomness and unfairness - as they see it - of the Universe. Science, for them, is God; but they have little or no understanding of the limitations of science.
Re: Is Obama losing his religion?
I think it's important to avoid conflating religious and political errors. There really is no way to judge any individual heart or mind, and we all sin -- so I think it's important to determine religious affiliation by an individual's public profession of faith. All that to say that President Obama is a baptized Christian.
I do wonder, however, if some of these poll results are about people honestly believing that Obama isn't a Christian or is a Muslim so much as they are an indication of the extreme frustration they have with President Obama's governance or attitudes. So they think he's not acting like a Christian or is too cozy with Islam against American interests or something.
I really can't figure out the poll results and think this might have something to do with them.
May '10
Re: Is Obama losing his religion?
Anytime I see poll results like these, I usually assume we've had a bad poll (either through questions or responses), assume there's nothing to be gained from parsing endlessly contradictory responses, and move on.
May '10
Re: Is Obama losing his religion?
In defense of Obama (yeah, I did say that), both Reagan and W worshipped privately at Camp David most of the time- precisely because they understood (Reagan spoke of this) that their presence in established churches on Sundays essentially eliminated any possibility of worship by the other congregants due to the media and securityu circuses. Every president who does the ostentatious Sunday visit is worthy of great suspicion of motives- as with Clinton's chior stunt during l'affaire Lewinsky.
FDR and Churchill held their own Sunday service during a WWII summit on the North Atlantic ship (FDR loved "O God, Our Help in Ages Past" and insisted on selecting the hymns), and Nixon solved the problem by having rotating ministers come to the WH for small private services open to 30 or so insiders.
So I can't blame TVG for respectfully staying away and going to Camp David. It is if he is in political trouble on some religion-related issue and he makes a show of going to a public service with cameras present that he will earn the opprobrium over this issue.
May '10
Re: Is Obama losing his religion?
I don't know if it is frustration over policy. I think they just can't figure the guy out, and "Muslim" is just a placeholder tag for "unfamiliar." With a different middle name they could believe him a Buddhist or Zoroastrian.
Look at the numbers you quote for African-Americans, who the polls say still support the President politically. They are generally quite familiar with religious, church going people and, much as they support Barack Obama, he doesn't seem like the church-goers they know. He also doesn't seem like the profane, church-rejectors they know. So they take wild guesses.
May '10
Re: Is Obama losing his religion?
Obama's not just a mystery by omission. He's a constant liar. And he lies as much through his actions as through his words.
So I wouldn't consider someone an absolute fool for believing Obama might be secretly Muslim on account of his Muslim father and childhood years in Indonesia. But I don't believe that.
I have no idea what Obama's religious beliefs are, but I suspect that he lies as often to himself as to other people. In any case, Kenneth and Dean seem right that Obama is driven by progressive ideas.
Aug '10
Re: Is Obama losing his religion?
Mollie, I have to point out your errors when you say:
"I think it's important to avoid conflating religious and political errors. There really is no way to judge any individual heart or mind, and we all sin -- so I think it's important to determine religious affiliation by an individual's public profession of faith. All that to say that President Obama is a baptized Christian."
Firstly, religion and politics are inextricably entwined. Every religious idea or principle has political ramifications. Abortion, the death penalty, the welfare state, national defense.... shall I go on?
Secondly, the actions of an adult, over time, show what's in their heart; no matter what they say. All older adults have experienced the pain, chaos, and damage that clever and violent liars wreak.
Obama has access to nuclear weapons and military power - enough to start a war. Or worse, not defend us if we're attacked. We'd better pay close attention to his every movement and let our will as a people be known. We'll be judged by God.Our actions now are the most important we'll ever make.
He's a Baptized Christian? So was Ivan the Terrible.
Jul '10
Re: Is Obama losing his religion?
My understanding of Islam is that one is not allowed to disavow the religion once one has been part of it. In fact, it is a capital offense if you leave the religion. Obama has been pretty clear that he was raised as a Muslim. Whether he claims the religion or not, unless he is an apostate, in which case religious Muslims are under an obligation to kill him, he is a Muslim much in the same way that once a piece of land has been Islamic it is always Islamic. That is sharia law. I assume he would about as direct in answering questions about this as he is about just about everything else in his past life.
May '10
Re: Is Obama losing his religion?
I can state with confidence that the Prez is not a Muslim. Or anything in particular.