Obama's Christianity

Is Barack Obama a Christian? What exactly does he believe? These are questions that many people have asked over the past year. Recently, a Chicago Sun Times interview of Obama, conducted in 2004, was released to the public. This interview has been referenced many times over the past year, but it was previously never available in its entirety.

I encourage everyone to read the interview in its entirety. Here are a view quick quotes and comments.

Obama's first words were:

I am a Christian.

He then followed this statement with the following:

So, 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.

He later added to this by stating:

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.

Once again, tolerance gets redefined from "tolerating" to "agreeing with or confirming". This further confirms that contemporary culture and even our president are simply not concerned with truth. In fact, the very idea that there is truth is now being labeled as intolerant.

Here is another interesting exchange:

OBAMA:
It's interesting, the most powerful political moments for me come when I feel like my actions are aligned with a certain truth. I can feel it. When I'm talking to a group and I'm saying something truthful, I can feel a power that comes out of those statements that is different than when I'm just being glib or clever.

FALSANI:
What's that power? Is it the holy spirit? God?

OBAMA:
Well, I think it's the power of the recognition of God, or the recognition of a larger truth that is being shared between me and an audience.

When asked about Jesus, Obama stated:

Jesus is an historical figure for me, and he's also a bridge between God and man, in the Christian faith, and one that I think is powerful precisely because he serves as that means of us reaching something higher.

And he's also a wonderful teacher. I think it's important for all of us, of whatever faith, to have teachers in the flesh and also teachers in history.

This is how Obama defined sin:

FALSANI:
What is sin?

OBAMA:
Being out of alignment with my values.

Then he states what he believes about eternal destiny in general:

OBAMA:
There's the belief, certainly in some quarters, that people haven't embraced Jesus Christ as their personal savior that they're going to hell.

FALSANI:
You don't believe that?

OBAMA:
I find it hard to believe that my God would consign four-fifths of the world to hell.

I can't imagine that my God would allow some little Hindu kid in India who never interacts with the Christian faith to somehow burn for all eternity.

That's just not part of my religious makeup.

And, then what he thinks about his own eternal destiny:

What I believe in is that if I live my life as well as I can, that I will be rewarded.

All things considered, this interview is about what I would expect from the future president. Obama makes it clear that he is a pluralist and that he is looking to his good deeds to save him, not the atoning work of Christ. Actually this may not be correct, because Obama does not seem to believe that mankind is in need of salvation. He subscribes to a form of religion that seems to be best described as moralistic therapeutic deism.

Is Obama a Christian? Maybe some of you are comfortable putting the label of Christianity on this religious system of Obama's, but I am not. Christianity at its most basic level is built on the fact that everyone is a sinner and in desperate need of being made right with God, and that Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, came to earth and made atonement. I don't see any of the key distinctives of Christianity in Obama's religion.