Obama's a What?

By Joseph Farah
WorldNetDaily

You know what they say about religion and politics.

These are two subjects you should avoid discussing around the Thanksgiving dinner table if you want to keep things calm and non-contentious.

It certainly doesn't work that way at my house. That's all anyone wants to talk about.

The religion reporter for Politics Daily, apparently a feature of AOL, sure opened himself up to attention with his recent column on how Democrats blew the midterm election because they didn't exploit the "fact" that the leader of their party, Barack Hussein Obama, is a "committed Christian" and "religiously fluent."

He's a what?

Now, look, I suppose someone can call himself anything he wants. But that doesn't make it a reality. I can call myself the shortstop of the New York Yankees, but I think Derek Jeter might have something to say about it.

Does anyone actually believe Obama is a "committed Christian"? I know he has called himself a Christian, but I can't recall even Obama adding the adjective "committed."

His only experience with the church came under the tutelage of Jeremiah Wright – not exactly the personification of spiritual orthodoxy.

But you have to wonder how someone who works as a full-time religion writer could make this statement, apparently with a straight face:

"Exactly who lost the 'God vote' is becoming a matter of some dispute with Democratic circles, and whether the schism widens or heals could make a difference in 2012 as well. Some point to the administration, and wonder how a party led by a committed Christian who is as religiously fluent as Barack Obama could allow itself to be outflanked on faith outreach."

Here's the truth: Obama is not a Christian. He doesn't even know what it means to be a Christian.

I would cite his own words to make that case.

The most extensive comments ever offered by Obama about his faith came in a 2004 Chicago Sun-Times interview I first wrote about in May 2008.

Asked what he believes, Obama said:

"I am a Christian. I'm rooted in the Christian tradition. I believe that there are many paths to the same place, and that is a belief that there is a higher power, a belief that we are connected as a people. That there are values that transcend race or culture, that move us forward, and there's an obligation for all of us individually as well as collectively to take responsibility to make those values lived."

Many paths to the same place?

This is the antithesis of what Jesus reveals in Scripture, for example, in John 14:6:

"Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." (Italics mine)

Obama also says in the interview he doesn't know if he is going to heaven, nor does he believe the alternative is hell.

That's pretty remarkable for someone professing to be a Christian. While I know, because Scripture tells us so, there will be many turned away from the narrow gate that leads to eternal life on Judgment Day, it's unusual for someone claiming to be a believer to be uncertain about his eternal fate. It suggests a high degree of spiritual confusion.

Obama also reveals in this interview at least an equal amount of constitutional illiteracy.

"Alongside my own deep personal faith, I am a follower, as well, of our civic religion," he says.

"I am a big believer in the separation of church and state. I am a big believer in our constitutional structure. I mean, I'm a law professor at the University of Chicago teaching constitutional law. I am a great admirer of our founding charter and its resolve to prevent theocracies from forming and its resolve to prevent disruptive strains of fundamentalism from taking root in this country. I think there is an enormous danger on the part of public figures to rationalize or justify their actions by claiming God's mandate. I don't think it's healthy for public figures to wear religion on their sleeve as a means to insulate themselves from criticism, or dialogue with people who disagree with them."

Of course, nowhere in the Constitution will you find the phrase "separation of church and state" – not the U.S. Constitution, anyway. You will find it in the old Soviet Union constitution. The closest the U.S. Constitution comes to this subject matter is the First Amendment's restrictions on Congress against passing laws abridging the free exercise of religion and against establishing a state church.

Yet, this "constitutional scholar" evidently sees the First Amendment as a license to "prevent the disruptive strains of fundamentalism from taking root in this country." Apparently he doesn't understand this country was founded by "fundamentalists" to escape persecution in the Old World.

While boasting a "personal relationship with Jesus Christ," in the same breath he says,

"I think there is an enormous danger on the part of public figures to rationalize or justify their actions by claiming God's mandate. I don't think it's healthy for public figures to wear religion on their sleeve as a means to insulate themselves from criticism, or dialogue with people who disagree with them."

Obama says he prays regularly. But look how he describes that process:

"It's not formal, me getting on my knees. I think I have an ongoing conversation with God. ... I'm constantly asking myself questions about what I'm doing, why I am doing it. The biggest challenge, I think, is always maintaining your moral compass."

So whom is he talking to in these conversations? He's talking to himself! He's talking to his under-developed mortal conscience – the same one, apparently, that told him, as a state legislator in Illinois, it was the right thing to do to legally block doctors and nurses from offering life-saving support to babies born alive after botched abortions.

This interview, and others he has done since, reveals Obama has no concept of what it means to be a follower of Jesus.

He states that he has no idea of what will happen to him when he dies.

He suggests his eternal destination has something to do with being a "good father" to his children and transferring values he got from his atheist mother.

He says there are many paths to heaven.

In other words, he doesn't have a clue as to what it means to be a Christian. That, of course, is not surprising given the only church experience he has had in his life has come in that hate-filled, racist, neo-Marxist, liberation theology-based Trinity United Church of Christ. There "Christianity" is used to sell other religions – anti-Americanism, black victimization, socialism.

Here's the key to Christianity: Followers of Jesus accept His atoning, sacrificial death on the cross as full, unmerited payment for their sins and the sins of the world. They further believe they need to do their best to be obedient to His commandments.

Christians should have confidence that if they do those two things, they will have eternal life, because that's what God's Word reveals.

There is nothing else I can do to "earn" eternal life. It's not about good works. And it's certainly not about the evil works of selling the false gods of socialism, secular humanism and government tyranny.

And that's something to be truly thankful for this season.

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