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So, at Long Last, What Is Barack Obama’s Religion?
President Barack Obama has said that he is “Christian.” But isn’t that a bunch of religions? Which is his? It’s actually complicated as to whether “Christian” is several different religions or “one true catholic and apostolic church,” as many claim. More on that in a moment.
For some reason, the President’s religion keeps popping up. Candidates are asked if Barack Obama is a Christian. Candidates are told by questioners that Barack Obama is Muslim. A recent poll shows one percent of Americans think he’s a Jew. This persists despite the President’s own testimony of being Christian.
If we are going to talk about the President not being a Muslim (after seven years you’d think the media would stop), can we in the same conversation reveal to which religion he actually belongs? Wouldn’t that help rid us of the problem of people claiming he is Muslim?
I’ve followed the President pretty closely and can’t find any time he has said to which of the Christian religions he belongs. I’m reminded of the row over his birth certificate, which subsided greatly once he released it. Why not give some detail about his religion to close out this debate?
So let’s take a closer look, but first let’s visit this issue concerning the difference between a religion and a church (and just to be more confusing, many use the two words interchangeably). The definition of religion, although containing variables by source, in its simplest form, is in two parts:
1. a set of beliefs and practices 2. followed by those committed to the service and worship of God.
The Roman Catholics (themselves suffering an east/west schism) see one church, and while they see Protestants in certain communion with them, it is an imperfect communion. That sounds like one religion with those protesting folks simply doing it wrong. The many Protestant churches (religions?) also see one church – a church they improved magisterially with their reformation in the 1500s. That sounds like one religion, with those Roman folks simply doing it wrong.
However, note that culturally and colloquially, many people see the various Protestant denominations not as separate churches in one religion, but separate religions. Ask a Roman Catholic his religion and he will say “Catholic.” Ask a Lutheran his religion and he will say Lutheran. The same goes for Methodists, Baptists, et al.
In making this determination of what is or is not a separate religion, we might look to what “confession of faith” and what “catechism” a church adheres to. Note that there is among the Protestants the Anglican Thirty-Nine Articles, the Lutheran Augsburg Confession and the Reformed Churches Heidelberg Catechism. While the various Protestant confessions and catechisms (Roman Catholics have their own) started with Zwingli, Luther, and Calvin, they were revised many times over the years in many directions.
There are many differences between the Roman Catholic and the various Protestant views of religion. The authority of the Pope is obviously disputed by Protestants. Catholics have saints and venerate Mary, while Protestants don’t. Lutheran and Reformed churches apply the doctrine of sola scriptura, where the Bible is both the highest authority and all one ever needs, while Roman Catholics add tradition as equally important. The Methodists and Anglicans ascribe to prima scriptura, wherein scripture is primary, but inspiration can come from other sources too. There are many more important differences, including those involving the presence of Christ in the Eucharist and the forgiveness of sin.
Considering the differences, it’s clear why so many treatments refer to Catholicism and the various forms of Protestantism as separate religions, not separate churches in a religion.
Those who claim there is one Christian religion now should note well there are even efforts to consolidate the Roman Catholics and Protestants into one (thus contrary to the point that it is one religion now). There is a Pontifical Council on Christian Unity. Read this 2013 agreement on baptisms. Or the Evangelicals and Catholics Together Agreement. Or this 1999 joint declaration on justification between Catholics and Lutherans that concerned a central point of disagreement leading to the reformation. In fact, on the 500th anniversary of the reformation in 2017, Pope Francis may sign a document that some believe will finally end the split (you’d think that would be getting more press).
So, at long last, what is Barack Obama’s religion?
I’m going to avoid the claim that holds, “A Muslim is born a Muslim if his father is one.” I’m also avoiding the conversation that says because the penalty for Muslim apostasy is death, he is hiding his childhood Muslim faith to avoid being killed. I’m also skipping the concept of taqyyia, which holds a Muslim is allowed to lie about his beliefs to avoid persecution (if any of you are interested in these things, write your own column – this one presupposes the President’s Christianity).
Let’s start with what we know. As an adult Barack Obama became a congregant of Trinity church in Chicago. That doesn’t tell us enough. Trinity is a local church of the larger religion into which one gets baptized — the United Church of Christ (UCC).
One could probably say that the President’s religion is the United Church of Christ and be technically correct. However, you’d be missing an important detail about his religion if you left it at just that. It would be like trying to predict what state a person is from if they told you nothing more than they were Midwestern.
The UCC was formed in 1957. It was the coming together of two churches: Congregational Christian and the Evangelical and Reformed Church, the latter being a prior merger of Reformed and Evangelical synods. The Evangelical and Reformed church used the Heidelberg and Lutheran catechisms and the Lutheran Augsburg confession. That made their protestant linage both Reformed and Lutheran.
The Congregational Christian Church, although started in 1931, obviously from its name had a history with congregationalism, and was Reformist. It also used the Heidelberg Catechism. There are differences in the Reformed and Lutheran beliefs, and there is a good detail of those difference offered here, as well as many other treatments you can find on the web.
Now here is a twist: According to the UCC Constitution, the local churches (like Trinity) remain completely autonomous (a nod to the Congregationalists) and are free to follow the confession and catechesis of their prior lineages, either Reformed or Lutheran.
This is where it gets a little tricky. Trinity UCC in Chicago, where the President is a congregant, doesn’t give any indication (at least not on its website, nor anywhere my Google kung fu can reveal) if it has adopted a confessional or catechism from any particular prior lineage, be it Reformed, Lutheran or otherwise.
And this is where it gets interesting: Trinity Church, being its own highest authority under the UCC constitution, has adopted its own creed (neither Nicene nor Apostles’ creed), written by its pastor found here.
But it doesn’t end there. Trinity, being a proclaimed Black church, has also adopted something called the “Black Value System,” inspired by a man named Manford Byrd and is found here. While I dig the emphasis on Black families, that part about “middleclassness” is shocking.
So what are we left with? What, at long last, is Barack Obama’s religion?
I still don’t know. While Trinity is technically part of the UCC, it appears to be neither Reformist nor Lutheran. Did Trinity start its own religion? The affiliation with the UCC suggests no, but Trinity doesn’t seem to have anything in common as a matter of doctrine with the UCC or any other church or religion. It may be its own religion, dedicated to Black Liberation Theology, which arguable excludes me.
Now it was the tone of Reverend Jeremiah Wright’s Black Liberation Theology that led the President to distance himself from Trinity Church. That opens up the questions, did he ever return? Is he somewhere else now?
So I don’t know to which religion, or even a church within a religion, that Barack Obama belongs. I’d say none of us really do. I bet if you asked him about confessionals and catechesis, he wouldn’t know himself. The next time Jimmy Kimmel sticks a microphone in your face and asks you if you know the President’s religion, bet him $1,000 he doesn’t know either.
If Republican candidates are going to be asked to what religion the President belongs, in fairness he should clarify the answer.
Published in Religion & Philosophy
Two thoughts. First, doesn’t the accompanying photo kind of answer the question?
Second, at this point, what difference does it make?
I would like to take issue with how you are using the term religion. Christianity is a religion. Islam is a religion. Catholicism is a denomination of Christianity. Protenstatism is a particular strain of Christianity which encompasses a great deal of denominations. Catholics and Protestants are all Christians.
I’ve had more than one case where someone asked me what religion I am and I say Christian. They respond with, “Yeah, I know, but which one.” There is only one Church. It encompasses Catholics and Protestants alike. Any Catholic or Protestant who tells you different is wrong.
There are some Christian cults which do not, in my opinion, are not Christianity. These are the ones that claim to follow Christ but deny things like His divinity, the nature of Satan, the Holy Trinity, etc.
If I were a Republican candidate and someone asked me that I’d say “Go ask him, why are you asking me? Is there a constitutional religion test I am not aware of?” Then I’d make a big deal about getting out my pocket constitution, and start searching through it…”hmmm…lessee…what part of
“The Con”, (edit: I don’t call it that, and re-reading it makes it sound bad; focus group, people!) as I affectionately call it, covers the requirements for being president? Oh you don’t know do you?….” Like that…Personally I think you’re way overthinking this. He’s not a Muslim, and he’s not a Christian, at least one that’s familiar to me. Like most Liberal, Harvard professors, he’s an atheist. He took on Christianity when he got into politics. And he went into that Rev Wright Church because it satisfied a certain black radical constituency. That’s how he got elected in the Illinois legislature.
The issue is quite complicated Spin, and not everyone is going to see it as clearly as you. As an RC there is no chance I see us as a denomination.
Those times you are asked and you don’t say Christian, what do you say?
Isn’t it bizarre that candidates are asked what someone else’s religion is?
One way to interpret the intent of such a question is that it intends to see if they know some important fact, like the price of a gallon of milk or the who the president of Belarus is.
But I think that’s not what’s going on here. The question is intended to put the candidate on the spot in the same way as asking them if they believe in global warming. The factual basis for the answer isn’t what’s important. What’s important about the answer is that it declares whose side you’re on. It’s sort of like asking whether or not the candidate believes that the president loves his country. It’s totally unprovable and subjective.
He has a Muslim name, his father and stepfather were Muslims, and he attended Muslim schools for some period of his childhood. To be asked “What is the president’s religion?” is to be asked if you will ignore all these facts in the name of political correctness.
Like all good Progressives, Obama’s religion is…the State
I’m with Spin. I see no reason why a Republican candidate would have to answer to Obama’s religion. Why would even Hillary have to answer for it?
I was once sitting around a cub scout camp fire, just before the 2012 election. The question came up “I really don’t like Obama, but he’s a Christian. I like what Romney has to say, but can I vote for a Mormon?” See, for evangelical Christians, this is a real dilemma. Here’s what I said “It’s easy: who would you rather vote for? Someone who says they are Christian but demonstrates that they do not share your values? Or someone who isn’t a Christian, but whose values you share?” Several in the group nodded their head. The one guy who disagreed was the guy who believed that President Obama’s values are consistent with Christianity.
I am with Spin. I am a Christian. No other response required. The Bible is good enough.
She did have to in 2008. Got beat up for her answer like everyone else, if I remember right because she delivered it with a shoulder shrug.
After saying that, you should add “Since everyone knows that he says he’s a Christian, are you asking me if I can read his mind and tell you if he really isn’t?”
Agree with Manny and Spin. If the press wants to know about Obama’s faith.
In absence an independent media ask yourself: If Obama was put on trial for being a Christian is there enough evidence to convict him?
You and Spin haven’t written 2 autobiographies, won’t have Presidential libraries and be studied by history (well, maybe that last part).
No one is asking politicians and the public about your religion and using that as a weapon either.
He should clarify to save us from the question, just as he needed to publish his birth certificate to rid us of that issue.
So, first, let me say, I understand your position. I was Catholic for a great part of my life. I left the Catholic church over this exact issue. But I understand why you don’t consider Catholicism as a denomination.
To your question, I would never answer any other way. I am Christian. I believe you are also a Christian. We have different theological views on a few things. When Christ comes, I think we’ll both stop looking at the words we use to describe our faith, and the differences in our theological views, and we’ll both realize just how wrong we were to focus on that instead of Christ.
I should also point out that I don’t see this as a purely Catholic issue. I’ve run in to many, many Protestants who think that the Catholic Church is not Christian. I met one couple who said their “ministry” was to reveal to the world that the Catholic Church was the “whore of Babylon” and that the pope (then John Paul II) was the “anti-christ”.
I don’t have a lot of tolerance for Christians who want to divide the Church. I don’t think Christ does either.
In fairness, neither has the President. Bahahaha!
I get what you are saying here. It is an issue which the media can use as a gotcha question. But just as he ought to come out and say it, instead of letting the media do this, Republicans ought to stop answering the question.
Understood. Researching for this piece was no easy task. Every issue I ran into had multiple interpretations. Simplifying it enough for a column was a challenge, and I’m sure there is no way I will escape a criticism of oversimplification, but I didn’t have time to write a hundred pages and knew that no one would read that much of me anyway.
Obama is an atheist.
I say that as an atheist looking in at another atheist in the White House.
That’s not to say that the President doesn’t believe in a god – he sees one every time he gazes into a mirror.
I am not sure what got shared as a birth certificate solved anything other than taking the issue off the front page. Why the sudden concern about his library and legacy. I am not donating to his library, are you?
Racist…
I feel like we owe it to history to shed some light here.
Look at Jefferson. That man is claimed by Episcopalians, Unitarians, deists, theists, atheists, agnostics, humanists, et als., and each group has a quote to prove it.
We have chance to avoid that if Obama makes a definitive expression about it.
Obama Don’t Worship Nothin’ But Obama.
Ok, but if he makes a definitive expression will it be honest? Additionally, if he says Christian or one of the aforementioned denominations is his conduct consistent with that claim?
Regarding Jefferson, he was very unique in this respect and even edited his own Bible. Additionally, during the founding deism was an acceptable denomination.
This would be true if some gop presidential candidates had not already claimed to know what is Obama’s religion .
When did we stop taking a mans word about what he believes?
When did he say? Find it for me!
I’m not sure which comment I like best here: Yours or Brent’s!
If I were asked, I would probably say that although no person can see inside the soul of another person, the evidence is that he was a long time attendee of the church of Rev. Jeremiah Wright and we should draw our conclusions according to the evidence.
And who are you to say I am not going to write an autobiography and make it to the big chair?