Is Barack Obama a Christian?

There are, of course, a plethora of people willing to assert, without hesitation, a resounding, “No.”  These folks, unfortunately, tend to be of the “He does things I don’t like, so he must not be a good Christian like me, so let me figure out some reasons to think that other than that I don’t like him and he scares me” type.

(One might ask what difference it makes, or, more pointedly, who the hell are these people to judge what lies between Obama and his Creator … but that’s what’s called a “nuanced” argument, which means it’s obviously a rhetorical trick of the Devil.)

On occasion, though, someone actually enumerates reasons to deny Obama the label of “Christian”. So it is, most recently, with the “Christian Anti-Defamation Commission” (CADC) which — amidst breathless notes that this is ” the most DANGEROUS election in our history” and requests to “donate online today and join our fight against anti-Christian discrimination” — has come up with:

10 REASONS WHY BARACK OBAMA IS NOT A CHRISTIAN

Note that this is up from their earlier definitive 7 REASONS list. And they are the goofiest retread imaginable of every “Obama’s an un-American, anti-Christian, atheist socialist Marxist Muslim Kenyan Communist” assertion that has been advanced (and debunked) since he started running for President.

Let’s roll the film …

1.) Economics: Obama advocates for failed Marxist/socialist economic schemes that are based on envy and class warfare that divides the country and uses the government to steal from one group to give it to another.

Marxists and socialists the world over are laughing in their beers over the idea that Obama is one of theirs. While his political proposals have been radical from the perspective of a wildly-shifting-right Tea Party GOP, they are nearly all been word-for-word proposals that were backed by such fellow radicals as Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, and John McCain as little as four years ago.

By the way, would you call un-Christian someone who defined the highest moral actions to care for the poor and the sick and the hungry, and who repeatedly condemned wealth.  Would such a person be stoking the fires of “envy” and “class warfare”?  Really? Even if he was wandering around 1st Century Judea?

2.) Marriage: Obama abdicated his sworn presidential duty to defend the laws of the United States by refusing to defend the Defense of Marriage Act and even actively worked to undermine the law.

Most fervently anti-gay folks would say, “He violated his oath, therefore he should be impeached.” For some reason, the CADC  takes this more as a “See, he’s not a Christian” thing.

Of course, Christians violate their oaths and promises and fervently prayerful resolutions all the time.  We are, after all, human.  If that makes them non-Christians, then the Apostle Peter was not a Christian based on his failure to acknowledge Jesus three times before the cock crowed.

I’m not saying that Christians violating their oaths is a good thing — but it’s not what defines one as (or as not) a Christian.

Further, Presidential activity to not enforce or follow laws they feel are unconstitutional is not without precedent, either in terms of not protecting a law in court, or in terms of issuing Signing Statements indicating areas of laws that they consider unconstitutional.

It’s not a tactic I particularly care for, but it’s hardly a sign of someone not being Christian.

Indeed, since the oath includes to “preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution,” one could argue that if a president believes a law or a part of it is, in fact, un-Constitutional, they have a sword obligation to not defend it in court.

3.) Religious Liberty: Obama signed “Hate Crimes” legislation that can result in prosecution for speaking against homosexuality. Even pastors who preach the biblical view of sexuality could face prosecution in certain situations.

Bushwah.   Point to me to one person in the US who has been prosecuted for speaking against homosexuality, or a pastor who preaches their Biblical interpretation that homosexuality is wrong.

Really.

I’m waiting.

Speaking out against homosexuality from the pulpit (no matter how I feel about it) is no more prosecutable as a hate crime than speaking out against women in the workplace, or against the mingling of the races, or how non-Christians are doomed to hell.

All of those counter-examples, if they were used as the basis of a crime, could let it be prosecuted as a “hate crime.” But simply saying them?  That’s protected speech under the First Amendment.  Read about it, some time.

4.) Abortion: Obama’s policies have caused taxpayer funded abortions in other nations and fund of embryonic stem cell research that kills human embryos. He gave $50 million to UN population agency for promoting abortion and working with China’s murderous “one child” policy. He eliminated federal funding for abstinence-only education and overturned the ban on funding abortions within Washington, D.C. During the 2011 budget debates, Obama refused to end funding for Planned Parenthood, almost causing the government to shut down.

Leaving aside your odd view of what it means to “cause” or “promote” abortion (a procedure that is legal within the US), your half-truths about foreign aid, and your askew view of what Planned Parenthood does … your position seems to be is that anyone who is not doing everything they can politically to oppose abortion is, in fact, not a Christian.  Do you advertise that it is a disqualification to Christianity for the majority of Americans who think abortion should be legal in certain circumstances, or even (gasp) at the judgment of the pregnant woman?

5.) Homosexuality: Obama signed a bill repealing the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy which opened the door to open homosexuality in the military.

Of course, homosexuals have served in the military for time out of mind — they just were force to lie about it, officially. Interesting  that you consider lying a better course of action.

Now military chaplains will be pressured to perform homosexual unions.

Except, of course, they won’t, any more than Catholic chaplains are pressured to perform Jewish marriages, or Muslim chaplains are pressured to perform Mormon marriages.

Obama had militant homosexuals as part of his inaugural events and even hosted a reception in the White House celebrating the fortieth anniversary of the homosexual rights movement.

Your position is clearly that anyone who thinks that homosexuals should be seen in public (if not that they shouldn’t be thrown in jail, or perhaps stoned) is not a Christian.  I (and my Christian denomination) reject your base position and that it defines Christianity.

6.) Liberal / Marxist Liberation Theology: Obama sat under a radical, Marxist minister, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, for 20 years and has adopted all of his Marxist ideology.

Well, we’ve already addressed the whole “Marxist” thing. And while there are are aspects of Rev. Wright’s beliefs I don’t agree with, I don’t feel qualified to say that he’s not a Christian, as he identifies himself, and as his congregation identifies itself.

Obama denies Christ’s atonement and mocks the Bible and rarely attends church, yet we are supposed to believe he’s Christian.

Yeah, because a true Christian would never say such denying and mocking things as:

I am a Christian, and I am a devout Christian. I believe in the redemptive death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. I believe that that faith gives me a path to be cleansed of sin and have eternal life. But most importantly, I believe in the example that Jesus set by feeding the hungry and healing the sick and always prioritizing the least of these over the powerful. I didn’t ‘fall out in church’ as they say, but there was a very strong awakening in me of the importance of these issues in my life. I didn’t want to walk alone on this journey. Accepting Jesus Christ in my life has been a powerful guide for my conduct and my values and my ideals.

We’ve had multiple presidents who rarely or intermittently attended church.  George Washington was (in)famous for never receiving communion on those occasions when he attended; was he not a Christian?

Do you really have to attend church to be a Christian?  What’s the creedal basis for that particular assertion?

 Many believe he’s really a Muslim, and for some good reasons.

Yes, because he (gasp) spent some period of life in Muslim countries, and he’s a funny color with a funny name, and there’s a bunch of people who keep calling him a Muslim for nonsensical reasons, and that’s why “many” believe he’s a Muslim.  Oh, wait, none of those are particularly good reasons.

7.) National Christian Heritage: In a speech given in Turkey, Obama said, “we do NOT consider ourselves a Christian nation.”

Really? You’re going to explicitly argue that a prerequisite of being a Christian is recognizing or professing that the United States is a Christian nation?

Which, of course, it’s  not.  Even if  it’s two-thirds-plus made up of people who call themselves Christians … well, we already know a bunch of them are in favor of legalized abortion, and gay rights.  So, really, ironically, by your narrow definition of what it means to be a Christian, we’re not a Christian nation.

Obama’s full quote is:

One of the great strengths of the United States is … we have a very large Christian population — we do not consider ourselves a Christian nation or a Jewish nation or a Muslim nation. We consider ourselves a nation of citizens who are bound by ideals and a set of values.

I for one agree fully. Which, I guess, means I’m not a Christian.

By the way, does this point apply to non-American Christians, too? Do they have to bow down five times a day toward Washington, DC, in order to be considered Christian, too?

Obama intentionally misquotes the Declaration of Independence omitting “our Creator” as the source of our unalienable rights.

Obama has, on occasion, misquoted the Declaration of Independence.  He has, on numerous other occasions, not done so.

8.) Supreme Court Appointments: Justice Elena Kagan is a hardcore liberal on abortion, gun rights and homosexual marriage and is suspected to be a lesbian.

Eek!  Because we should definitely deny someone’s Christianity based on suspicions about someone whom he has nominated to a federal office.

Kagan was confirmed by 67 US Senators.  Are they not Christians? (Some of them may not be.  Most of them claim that they are.  Are you going to campaign against all of them, too?)

Kagan wrote a brief supporting Clinton’s veto of a ban on partial birth abortion. While a Dean at Harvard, Kagan banned military recruiters from the campus. Kagan also opposed the Federal Defense of Marriage Act.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor is a liberal and activist judge who believes courts should make policy not just interpret the constitution. Sotomayor argued for unlimited abortions for any reason throughout pregnancy and for taxpayer funding of abortions.

I could probably add two or three dozen paragraphs explaining how your sound-bite of the record of these two justices is strewn with zany misrepresentation, ad hominem attacks, and the like .   Suffice it to say that neither justice is any sort of proof (one way or the othehr) as to whether Obama is a Christian.

9.) Obama-care: Your tax dollars will pay for abortions …

No, they won’t, because that’s part of the law.

… and the older you get your life will be considered a liability and expendable. Some bureaucrat on a “DEATH PANEL” will ultimately decide if YOUR life is worth saving or not.  

A condition that already exists in the private insurance industry, but has nothing to do with the Health Care Reform Act.  I mean, what is this, 2009?

 10.) Radical Czars:

Oh, Lordy, not the “czars” thing …

Kevin Jennings, Obama’s Safe School “czar,” is a militant, homosexual activist from Massachusetts.

From Massachusetts?! Dear Lord, think of the children!

 Radical pro-abortion advocate Kathleen Sebelius is Obama’s Secretary of Health and Human Services. She took a quarter of a million dollars from George Tiller, the notorious late term abortionist.

Would this be the same abortion-crazy Sebelius who just overrode the FDA’s recommendations to make Plan B OTC?  Obviously, she’s being fiendishly crafty with her radicalism.

 Chai Feldblum, a lesbian law professor was appointed to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Feldblum said in any conflict that might arise between religious liberty and homosexual “rights,” she would have a hard time coming up with any case in which religious liberty should win.

I will bet you a $10,000 donation to your cause that is not what she said.

So, those are the ten reasons, which I think I can summarize as:

1. He put forward policy that we dislike, and we’re Christians, so we’ll simply label that as anti-Christian activity.
2. A bunch of people have said batshit crazy stuff about Obama for the last four years as being a Marxist and a Muslim and an Atheist and someone fiendishly cackling, awaiting the day the DEATH PANELS come to take grandma away and turn her into Soylent Green for the poor.  So it must be true, and therefore Obama couldn’t possibly be a Christian, because there’s no room left on his business card.
3. He has the nerve to associate with (and even sometimes hire) people who are openly gay (therefore militant homosexuals) or pro-choice (therefore radical pro-abortionists), and therefore he must not be Christian.

Never mind that all this would limit who qualifies as a “Christian” in America to about 10,000 rabid conservatives running around the offices of groups like the CADC.  These folks seem to delight at not just condemning particular actions, but at making judgments as to who is, or is not, a True Christian™ — a club they want to be as elite, and (of course) select as possible, even while lining it up as an ideal that everyone should aspire and kow-tow to.

Now, me, I’d probably leave whether someone is truly a Christian to, oh, Christ.  I might suggest where particular actions or rhetoric don’t line up with what I understand to be Christian ideals (perhaps with a Bible verse or two thrown in), but to actually deny someone’s Christianity?  That takes some special kind of hubris.  Hubris that would have very little problem declaring this post proof that I, too, am not a Christian.

As I read through this, I really considered whether I wanted to go over all the same old arguments about Obama like this.  I mean, there’s really nothing new here.  It’s all been said, and laughed at, before.  But as this list shows, it’s still out there, and folks are still making these ludicrous calumnies against Obama, and (since it seems to be keyed into money-raising efforts), apparently with some success.

To paraphrase the spurious Burke quote  “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil Internet trash is for good men to blog nothing.” And, unfortunately, with the coming election it’s only going to get worse, not better.