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1/8/2007
Celebrity Senator Barack Obama uses the
lingo of the Old Time Religion, but that doesn’t mean it’s his.
By Rev. Rob Schenck
“All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate
them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And He
will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left.” (Matthew
25:32-33 NKJV)
The very popular Christian website Crosswalk.com listed among its top news
stories of 2006 the controversial appearance of US Senator Barack Obama in the
pulpit of Saddleback Church. He spoke at the invitation of Rick Warren, Saddleback’s
pastor and author of The Purpose Driven Life. At the time, I issued one of the
few formal public criticisms of Pastor Warren for yielding “the sacred desk”
to Mr. Obama. In addition to compromising the doctrinal integrity of an Evangelical
pulpit, I warned that the event could be misread as both an endorsement of Obama’s
liberal religiosity and his potential presidential candidacy.
Warren responded with assurances that he and Obama were only allies in the
war against HIV/AIDS in Africa, and that he didn’t necessarily agree with
the Senator on every issue. But later, on national television, Warren told CNN
reporter Wolf Blitzer that Obama “has it.” He went on to clarify that
Obama has what it takes to be a “good president” because he is a man
of “good character.” Consider the endorsement made.
Since then, this story has only gained prominence. Obama’s rumored consideration
of a presidential run in ‘08, his cross-country book tour and the utter infatuation
of the liberal old-line media has made him a sensation. I’ll confess even
I am attracted by his personal style, articulate communication and compelling
life story. And, like so many others, I find him impossible to ignore.
The most interesting aspect of what is being called “Obama-mania”
is how quickly it has penetrated the Evangelical community. During a recent home
Bible study group which my wife and I hosted at our house, one of our friends
said, “What did you think of that Obama at Rick Warren’s church? Looks
like we finally may have a Democrat we can get behind.” Yet, when I asked
this same woman how much she knew about Obama, she indicated she really knew nothing
about him.
My impression is that there are millions of Americans like our friend; they
find Obama appealing, but don’t know any more about him than his good looks,
easy-going manner and gorgeous family. If first impressions can be lasting ones,
Obama is in good shape among a healthy percentage of traditional Christians.
The Senator from Illinois says he is a Christian, but we’re not told exactly
what kind. For this reason, I set out to research who and what Barack Obama is,
but only as far as his faith is concerned. It was not my intention to explore
his economic, social or foreign policies, except where they explicitly intersect
with his personal religious philosophy. I’ll let the political experts look
at those other things. I did look at his legislative record, but again, only as
it manifests his religious beliefs.
The profile of Obama that emerged should be of interest to all traditional
Christians, but particularly to Evangelicals. Obama has suggested one of his goals
is to reach out to the evangelical community. He seems to be doing that at a fever
pitch. And, whether or not he runs for president in ’08, there is no doubt
Democrats will continue to use him as a point man to, in his own words, “engage
millions of Americans in the larger project of American renewal.” (Read:
“bring millions of Evangelicals back into the Democratic fold.”)
So, for the good of the whole, I present to you my findings on Barack Obama’s
religious identity. While it may not tell you exactly what kind of Christian Obama
is—it will tell you what kind of Christian he is not. Barack Obama is definitely
not an Evangelical.
BACKGROUND
Barack Hussein Obama was born in 1961 in Honolulu, Hawaii, to a Kenyan Muslim
father of the same name and an American secular humanist mother named Ann Dunham.
While Obama’s father was raised in Islamic culture, he had become a functional
atheist by the time he reached college. Despite his parents’ lack of religion,
young Obama received his early education in both Catholic and Muslim schools.
Obama’s parents divorced when he was only two years old. Henceforth, the
senior Obama was “almost entirely absent”[i] from his son’s life.
Four years later, Ann Dunham relocated to Indonesia with her son to join her new
husband Lolo Soetoro. A daughter, Maya, was born to the couple before their divorce.
She returned to Hawaii where she went on to earn her MA in anthropology from the
University of Hawaii. In his first book, Dreams from My Father, Barack Obama wrote
of his mother, “She was a lonely witness for secular humanism, a soldier
for New Deal, Peace Corps, position paper liberalism.”[ii]
Obama’s mother was a huge influence in his life. In an interview with
Oprah Winfrey in October 2006, he said, “My mother—when I think about
the values I hold most dear, they came from her.”[iii] In a speech given
at a Moms Rising event in 2006, he said, “Everything that I think is good
about me, I got from her.”[iv]
While Obama’s mother was a quintessential secular humanist, he told Newsweek’s
Jonathan Alter and Daren Briscoe, “[S]he was a deeply spiritual person, and
when I moved to Chicago and worked with church-based community organizations,
I kept hearing her values expressed in the church.”[v] Dunham died of ovarian
cancer at age 53 before her son rose to national prominence.
For much of his childhood, Obama lived with his maternal grandparents. He describes
them as having no religious faith. He says of his mother’s mother, she was
“always too rational and too stubborn to accept anything she couldn’t
see, feel, touch or count.”[vi] His maternal grandfather, who he describes
as a “dreamer,”[vii] had an innate rebelliousness and a “complete
inability to discipline his appetites.”[viii] Perhaps this influenced Obama’s
own youthful experimentation with marijuana and cocaine.[ix]
While in Hawaii, Obama attended the exclusive Punahou School, a nominally Christian
private school. Upon graduation, he went off to Occidental College in Los Angeles.
After two years, Obama transferred to Columbia College, the undergraduate wing
of Columbia University in New York. He studied political science with a specialization
in international relations. Following graduation in 1983, Obama worked for a year
at a business-related publishing company, before moving to Chicago where he helped
churches organize job training programs for residents of poor neighborhoods.
Obama left Chicago to study at Harvard Law School where he was elected the
first African American president of the Harvard Law Review. He obtained his Juris
Doctor degree magna cum laude in 1991. On returning to Chicago, Obama supported
a voter registration drive, and then worked for the civil rights law firm Miner,
Barnhill & Galland. He also taught constitutional law at the University of
Chicago Law School from 1993 until his federal election.[x]
RELIGIOUS JOURNEY
During his early years in Chicago, Obama says he was a religious “skeptic
. . . wary of expedient conversion, having too many quarrels with God to accept
a salvation too easily won.”[xi]
Obama met the Reverend Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. while attempting to recruit Chicago’s
Trinity United Church of Christ for a community organizing drive. The very liberal
United Church of Christ denomination notes, “In a sea of conservative black
churches, Trinity stands out in that it has welcomed gay members, done outreach
to people living with AIDS and advocated progressive positions on many social
issues.”[xii] Wright is the man to whom Obama has turned to “help him
explain how his liberal positions jibe with his faith.”[xiii] Today, after
20 years, Obama still calls Wright his pastor, friend and mentor.[xiv]
It was under Wright’s tutelage that Obama made his public profession of
Christian faith. This, in response to a sermon preached by Wright and entitled
(like Obama’s recent book), The Audacity of Hope. For Wright and his church,
the gospel is fused with the black experience in America. The church’s mission
statement reads, “Unashamedly Black and Unapologetically Christian... Our
roots in the Black religious experience and tradition are deep, lasting and permanent.
We are an African people, and remain ‘true to our native land,’ the
mother continent, the cradle of civilization.”[xv]
Trinity also has “adopted the Black Value System,”[xvi] 12 “precepts
and covenantal statements”[xvii] that form a sort of Ten Commandments-like
code. The System’s preamble charges, “These Black Ethics must be taught
and exemplified in homes, churches, nurseries and schools, wherever Blacks are
gathered.”[xviii] The second value, after “Commitment to God,”
is “Commitment to the Black Community.” The eighth is “Disavowal
of the Pursuit of Middleclassness.” And the eleventh is “Pledge Allegiance
to all Black leadership who espouse and embrace the Black Value System.”
This exclusive commitment to a cultural and national identity played a major
role in Obama’s decision to identify himself with Christianity. He explains
that he probably would have remained apart from any faith, “had it not been
for the particular attributes of the historically black church, attributes that
helped me shed some of my skepticism and embrace the Christian faith.”[xix]
Still, this embrace came with the condition, “that religious commitment
did not require me to suspend critical thinking, disengage from the battle for
social justice, or otherwise retreat from the world that I knew and loved—that
I was finally able to walk down the aisle.”[xx]
This “walk down the aisle” had a distinctly different character from
Evangelical conversion. Obama set out his own criteria for what he would and would
not accept from the Christian faith. Pastor Wright, Trinity and the Christianity
they proclaimed met his criteria. In other words, Obama came to Christ on his
own terms, rather than surrendering unconditionally to Jesus’ Lordship. This
is important for all Christians to know, and particularly for Evangelical Christians
whom Obama is actively courting for political purposes.
OBAMA NOT A “BIBLE CHRISTIAN”
One of the most succinct definitions of Evangelicalism is found in John Wesley’s
“A Short History of Methodism.” The great 18th Century evangelist wrote
that he and his fellows at Oxford, “resolved to be Bible-Christians at all
events; and, wherever they were, to preach with all their might plain, old, Bible
Christianity.”[xxi]
This “Bible Christianity” places Holy Scripture, the Word of God,
at its very core. Evangelicals take their cue on the primacy of Scripture from
Paul’s Second Letter to Timothy, chapter 3, verse 16, “All scripture
is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for
correction, for instruction in righteousness.” The great majority of Evangelical
statements of faith include a non-negotiable tenet such as that of the Evangelical
Church Alliance (ECA), America’s oldest association of Evangelical clergy,
“We believe that both Old and New Testaments constitute the divinely inspired
word of God, inerrant in the originals.”[xxii] The largest of Evangelical
groups, the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE), has, as the first affirmation
of its Statement of Faith, “We believe the Bible to be the inspired, the
only infallible, authoritative Word of God.”[xxiii] Evangelical scholar and
theologian Donald Bloesch of Dubuque Theological Seminary, writes in his Essentials
of Evangelical Theology, “Evangelical theology appeals to the authority of
Scripture because it sees Scripture as the written Word of God.”[xxiv]
This commitment to the plenary authority and centrality of the Bible does not
describe Barack Obama’s Christianity. In fact, Obama picks and chooses what
parts of the Bible he will accept or reject. For example, on the subject of same-sex
relationships, Obama writes,
“I am not willing to have the state deny American citizens
a civil union that confers equivalent rights on such basic matters as hospital
visitation or health insurance coverage simply because the people they love are
of the same sex—nor am I willing to accept a reading of the Bible that considers
an obscure line in Romans to be more defining of Christianity than the Sermon
on the Mount.”[xxv]
It is clear that Obama uses his own human criteria for what he will believe
and what he won’t believe. This is unacceptable to Evangelicals. The Word
of God instructs us; we do not instruct it. We conform to God’s Word; God’s
Word does not conform to us.
OBAMA’S FAITH NOT A CONFIDENT FAITH
A hallmark of Evangelical faith is trust in the atoning work of Christ on the
Cross. This is “saving faith” and results in a great hope of our eternal
well-being.
One of the stipulations Obama says he laid down before joining Trinity United
Church of Christ was that, “religious commitment did not require me to suspend
critical thinking.”[xxvi] While for the purposes of clarification or understanding
there is certainly room to raise questions about any point of revelation or doctrine,
Evangelicals believe that persistent doubt is antithetical to faith and that faith
is the key to appropriating salvation: “But without faith it is impossible
to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is
a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” (Hebrews 11:6)
Saving faith results in spiritual confidence, a great distinctive of Evangelicalism.
This is not a self-confident sanctimoniousness; instead it is a simple trust in
the assurances of God and His Word. (See Ephesians 3:12; 2 Timothy 1:12; Hebrews
10:22; Hebrews 6:11, 19; 1 John 3:14, 19; 4:18; Isaiah 32:17) We can be certain
of our faith, God’s promises towards us and our eternal destiny not because
of anything we have done, but because God is gracious towards us when we turn
to Him in repentance:
“Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God
has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.”
Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter
and the rest of the apostles, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?”
Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized
in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the
gift of the Holy Spirit.
For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar
off, as many as the Lord will call.”[xxvii]
Obama doesn’t seem to have this assurance of his salvation and, sadly,
he risks passing that doubt along to his own four year old daughter:
“I thought of Sasha, asking me once what happened when we die—
‘I don’t want to die, Daddy,” she had added matter-of-factly—and
I hugged her and said, ‘You’ve got a long way to go before you have
to worry about that,’ which seemed to satisfy her. I wondered whether I should
have told her the truth, that I wasn’t sure what happens when we die, any
more than I was sure where the soul resides or what existed before the Big Bang.”[xxviii]
OBAMA’S “PROGRESSIVE” CHRISTIANITY NOT COMPATIBLE WITH EVANGELICALISM
OR CLASSICAL ORTHODOXY
Obama defines himself as a “progressive.”[xxix] He admonishes those
of us who believe in the inerrancy of the Bible that we have an added burden of
translating our religious principles into what he calls “universal values.”
According to him, failure to do so in a “pluralistic democracy” means
forfeiting even our highest moral standards because “we have no other choice.”[xxx]
Obama’s progressivism, however, leads him to conclusions that are morally
untenable, if not reprehensible, to Evangelicals and other traditionalist Christians.
He approves of same-sex romantic and sexual relationships, as do his church, his
pastor and his denomination. He supports abortion for any reason, by any method,
at any stage of pregnancy including during the birth process. In an E-mail under
his wife Michelle’s signature, his campaign for US Senate championed Roe
v. Wade and partial-birth abortion.[xxxi] In 2002 as an Illinois legislator, Obama
even voted against the Induced Infant Liability Act, which would have protected
babies that survived late-term abortion.
OBAMA HAS A LONG WAY TO GO BEFORE MEANINGFULLY ENGAGING THE EVANGELICAL
AND TRADITIONAL CHRISTIAN COMMUNITIES
Barack Obama routinely appeals for an engagement of “all persons of faith
in the larger project of American renewal.”[xxxii] But there are many obstacles
preventing Evangelicals and other traditional Christians from answering his call.
To gain our support, he must speak our language, not the other way around.
Obama must acknowledge that he may be wrong about such essentials as the Bible,
doctrine, the means of salvation and morality. (He will probably have to stop
smoking too, as that would be one the simplest ways of avoiding offense with the
large number of Evangelicals who hold to holiness codes.)
Obama is a member in a church that places devotion to race and nationality
on par with devotion to Christ. His cultural exclusivity stands in direct opposition
to the Evangelical concept of the transcendent universality of the Gospel. Jesus
permanently nullified racial and gender barriers when he reached out to the Samaritan
woman. (See John, chapter 4.) St. Paul writes in Galatians 3:28, “There is
neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor
female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.” Furthermore, Obama is affiliated
with a denomination that has decisively rejected the cardinal truths of the Christian
faith. This will be an enormous impediment toward his goal of unity.
Obama will also likely need to explain why his mentor, Pastor Wright, unapologetically
uses language that insults millions of Americans, many of whom are Evangelicals.
In one interview, Wright called those of us who voted for George Bush “stupid.”
The fact is Barack Obama isn’t really different from other liberal Christians.
And, as is so often the case with liberals, he condescendingly reaches down toward
those considered his benighted hillbilly Evangelical cousins with a kind offer
of enlightenment. He does it more smoothly, with a bit more panache, but he does
it just the same. If, as his pastor says, he truly “respects the beliefs
of others—even when they differ from his own,”[xxxiii] he must do more
than attempt to win our votes. Ideally, he would say, “I may very well be
wrong on these critical issues, and I am open to learn from you.” Then, he
must stop talking and lecturing, no matter how congenially, and simply listen.
For humanity’s sake, Obama must err on the side of preserving those things
that matter most: the public acknowledgment of God, the Sanctity of Marriage,
and the Sanctity of Life. Should the Senator discover that a life in the womb
is as precious as God declares it to be (see Psalm 139), we must presume he would
not want any more irreparable harm to be done. Jesus said we will “know them
by their fruits.”[xxxiv]
Barack Obama is not an Evangelical Christian. Each of us must decide how much
weight to give this fact as he continues to make the rounds in our churches, but
we must keep it at the forefront of our minds. Only then can we properly and prayerfully
decide whether or not to take the Senator up on his invitation to talk. Should
he run for president, Obama’s religious identity and the policies that result
from it will be critical in assessing whether or not he has earned the Evangelical
vote.
Notes:
[i] Obama, Barack. The Audacity of Hope. New York: Crown Publishers, 2006,
204.
[ii] Obama, Barack. Dreams from My Father. New York: Three Rivers Press, 2004,
50.
[iii] “Keeping Hope Alive.” The Oprah Winfrey Show. 18 Oct. 2006.
[iv] Obama, Barack. Moms Rising Event. Capitol Hill, Washington, DC. 28 Sept.
2006.
[v] Alter, Jonathan and Daren Bricoe. “The Audacity of Hope.” Newsweek,
27 Dec. 2004.
[vi] The Audacity of Hope, 202-203.
[vii] The Audacity of Hope, 202-203.
[viii] The Audacity of Hope, 202-203.
[ix] Dreams of My Father, 93.
[x] Wikipedia contributors, "Barack Obama," Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia.
2 Jan. 2007 <http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Barack_Obama&oldid=97909218>.
[xi] Dreams of My Father, 286–287.
[xii] ibid.
[xiii] ibid.
[xiv] “Legendary Pastor Mentors Thousands, Including U.S. Senator Barack
Obama.” United Church News. March–April 2005. < https://www.ucc.org/ucnews/apr05/legendary.htm
>.
[xv] “About Us.” Trinity United Church of Christ. 2 Jan. 2007. <http://www.tucc.org/about.htm>.
[xvi] ibid.
[xvii] ibid.
[xviii] ibid.
[xix] The Audacity of Hope, 206–208.
[xx] ibid
[xxi]“John Wesley: Holiness of Heart and Life.” General Board of
Global Ministries. 2 Jan. 2007 <http://gbgm-umc.org/umw/wesley>.
[xxii] “Tenets of Faith.” Evangelical Church Alliance. 2 Jan. 2007
<http://www.ecainternational.org/faith.html>.
[xxiii] “Statement of Faith.” National Association of Evangelicals.
2 Jan. 2007 <http://www.nae.net/index.cfm?FUSEACTION=nae.statement_of_faith>.
[xxiv] Bloesch, Donald G. Essentials of Evangelical Theology, vol. 1, God,
Authority and Salvation. Peabody, Massachusetts: Prince Press, reprinted by arrangement
with HarperSanFrancisco, a division of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., 1998, 51.
[xxv] The Audacity of Hope, 222.
[xxvi] The Audacity of Hope, 206-208.
[xxvii] Acts 2:38-39 NKJV
[xxviii] The Audacity of Hope, 226.
[xxix] Obama, Barack. “Politicians Need Not Abandon Religion.” USA
Today 10 Jul. 2006. <http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2006-07-09-forum-religion-obama_x.htm>.
[xxx] Ibid.
[xxxi] Obama, Michelle. Email to e-maillist@obamaforillinois.com. 17 Feb. 2004.
[xxxii] The Audacity of Hope, 216.
[xxxiii] Kinnon, Joy Bennet. “Barack Obama: New Political Star Attracts
Attention.” Ebony Nov. 2004, 196.
[xxxiv] Matthew 7:16 NKJV
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