In an interview in 2004 with a religion reporter for the Chicago Sun Times, Barack Obama answered in some revealing ways the depth of his religion: The reporter posted it on his blog The Dude Abides. Here’s some snippets:
GG:What do you believe?
OBAMA: I am a Christian. So, I have a deep faith. So I draw from the Christian faith.
On the other hand, I was born in Hawaii where obviously there are a lot of Eastern influences. I lived in Indonesia, the largest Muslim country in the world, between the ages of six and 10.
My father was from Kenya, and although he was probably most accurately labeled an agnostic, his father was Muslim. And I’d say, probably, intellectually I’ve drawn as much from Judaism as any other faith.
Is this the most political answer you’ve ever heard? He mentioned just about every major religion including agnosticism. Give me a break. Someone who believes in all those things, most likely believes in nothing. But he does believe very strong in one thing: Barack Obama. I found this next snippet to be of even more interest:
GG: Do you believe in sin?
OBAMA: Yes.
GG: What is sin?
OBAMA: Being out of alignment with my values.
Is that a complete answer? Whose values? Is there nothing outside of the mind of Barack Obama to which he aspires? Sin, to Obama is not being out of alignment with God but it’s not doing what Barack Obama says.
Since Obama has defined sin as occurring when he is out of alignment with Obama’s values, does it therefore follow that I sin when I am out of alignment with Obama’s values. Is my likely vote for McCain a sin worth mentioning in my Confession?
If you weren’t sure of Obama theology, he confirms it with his next answer:
So you got yourself born again?
OBAMA: Yeah, although I don’t, I retain from my childhood and my experiences growing up a suspicion of dogma. And I’m not somebody who is always comfortable with language that implies I’ve got a monopoly on the truth, or that my faith is automatically transferable to others.
I’m a big believer in tolerance. I think that religion at it’s best comes with a big dose of doubt. I’m suspicious of too much certainty in the pursuit of understanding just because I think people are limited in their understanding.
I think that, particularly as somebody who’s now in the public realm and is a student of what brings people together and what drives them apart, there’s an enormous amount of damage done around the world in the name of religion and certainty.
So the only good religion is an uncertain one? So how does Obama know when he sins? Is he uncertain of that? I’d bet no. He knows what he thinks. Here’s the thing and there’s no way getting around it: Religion without rules is license to do what you want to do and feel good about it. If your religion doesn’t ever conflict with what you want to do, it’s not a religion.
Ok. I didn’t think I was capable of it but I’m even a little more frightened of Obama becoming President than I was yesterday.
June 3, 2008 at 3:41 pm
Consider me a sinner! I don’t believe in anything that guy believes. And I won’t be going to Confession about it either.
June 3, 2008 at 6:44 pm
Wait a second here. Don’t you consider abortion out of your line with your values. Don’t you say abortion is evil because your values say it’s wrong. Don’t you speak for God all the time.
You hypocrites! He talks about his values and then you criticize him.
And the funny thing is, he said he’s a Christian. So you don’t even like it when he agrees with you.
You people don’t know what you want.
June 3, 2008 at 6:45 pm
Wait a second here. Don’t you consider abortion out of your line with your values. Don’t you say abortion is evil because your values say it’s wrong. Don’t you speak for God all the time.
You hypocrites! He talks about his values and then you criticize him.
And the funny thing is, he said he’s a Christian. So you don’t even like it when he agrees with you.
You people don’t know what you want.
June 3, 2008 at 8:55 pm
Obama is not a Christian. That’s it.
June 3, 2008 at 9:06 pm
He’s a Moral RELATIVIST. He is his own god. Period. That does not go hand in hand with Christianity. It is the antithesis of Christianity.
June 3, 2008 at 11:07 pm
Man. The more I hear and learn about Obama the scarier it’s getting.
June 3, 2008 at 11:18 pm
Relativeist, not Christian = Obama, it’s scary what we’re learning. Common sense will prevail and it will be McCain as pres.
June 4, 2008 at 11:45 am
I hope you make McCain your president. I’d hate to see your great country be destroyed.
June 4, 2008 at 12:31 pm
Yes be afraid, be very afraid. This guy’s a whack job.
June 4, 2008 at 3:54 pm
It seems to me that the more he speaks off the cuff, the more I’m starting to suspect he’s not all that smart. He makes more errors than the Mets infield. I say keep hitting him ground balls and watch him flub them. (This sports metaphor is now completed.)
June 4, 2008 at 10:29 pm
Anonymous,
A value is what I think is important. A virtue is what God thinks is important.
As Catholics, contrary to the thinking of the prevailing culture, we believe that God has revealed His will; that we can know God’s will through divine revelation. This revelation is handed on to us through the Church, “the pillar and foundation of truth,” by means of Scripture and Tradition.
It is the centuries-old, consistent teaching of the Church that abortion is an objective moral evil, and a grave evil. We take this to be the revelation of God. We also take it as the only rational conclusion, given the objective evidence for the integrity of human life inside the womb, which has only been strengthened by recent medical advances and technology.
So, to say that we oppose abortion because it’s consistent with our values is as hollow as saying we oppose murder because it’s consistent with our values. Hopefully, murder is universally condemned on the basis of more than our personal values. Hopefully, I say …
Bob Hunt
June 5, 2008 at 4:07 pm
Lets hope Hillary doesnt join him on the ticket. If she does, we are in big trouble. Especially since neither of them ever commited a sin.
June 16, 2008 at 7:20 am
He is not a Christian. His religion is relativism…
“…there’s an enormous amount of damage done around the world in the name of religion and certainty.”
This is absurd and uneducated statement. It is relativism that is causing so much damage and he’s completely ignoring the good about religion. Imagine if we applied relativism to science?
Should we not be “certain”? I don’t want to follow any faith by which I don’t feel certain about it’s truth. The harm is caused not in the certainty, but in the concept that each individual is his own authority. Like a frog in slowly heating water… eventually that frog is going to die.
August 6, 2008 at 6:31 am
The more I hear about Obama’s willingness to acknowledge the existence of other religion outside the Christian faith the more I want him to be the president. Period. Now let the posts about how I’m an idiot and don’t know what I’m talking about begin.
November 7, 2008 at 3:48 am
Obama is the only president I know who has not claimed to be a christian or belted under the pressure of popular faith…christianity does not equal to a good president…if that was the case, history would be full of wonderful politicians…he is also the only politician in the world who has talked about values…isnt honesty, integrity, faith and love more important today than policies and tax cuts? I think we all should start to open our minds and think for ourselves…the time is up for a dunce like Bush or for that matter anyone else to take decisions for us.