Church - Contemporary Issues

Is Barack Obama a Christian?

By Dr. Paul M. Elliott
The controversy over President Obama's religious faith reveals a deeper problem in the Evangelical church.

From the TeachingtheWord Bible Knowledgebase

The controversy over President Obama's religious faith reveals a deeper problem in the Evangelical church.

A Long-Standing Controversy Gains New Momentum

March 2015 - In recent weeks there has been a renewed firestorm of controversy between those who claim that Barack Hussein Obama is a closet Muslim, and those who claim he is a Christian. For several days the Internet tabloid The Drudge Report headlined a picture of Mr. Obama, apparently taken in a church with a cross behind him, with the caption, "Is He Or Isn't He?"

The controversy is not new. It dates back to the days when Obama was a candidate for President of the United States. At the height of the presidential primary campaign season in April 2008, USA Today reported that a Pew Research poll had found that 10% of Americans believed that then-Senator Obama was a Muslim while 53% thought he was a Christian.1 A similar poll in March 2009 found that 11% believed he was a Muslim.2 But an August 2010 Pew poll, released a few days after Obama had strongly endorsed construction of a mosque at the site of the September 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Centers, showed that the number who believe Obama is a Muslim has doubled to 20%.3

In response to these developments, on August 25, 2010 a group of over seventy "prominent Christian leaders" released an open letter that said in part:

As Christian leaders - whose primary responsibility is sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ with our congregations, our communities, and our world - we are deeply troubled by the recent questioning of President Obama's faith. We understand that these are contentious times, but the personal faith of our leaders should not be up for public debate.

President Obama has been unwavering in confessing Christ as Lord and has spoken often about the importance of his Christian faith. Many of the signees on this letter have prayed and worshipped with this President. We believe that questioning, and especially misrepresenting, the faith of a confessing believer goes too far.4

It must be noted that among these "prominent Christian leaders" it is doubtful that there was a single truly regenerated individual. Most were mainline liberal Protestants or Roman Catholics. The list of signers included T. D. Jakes, Pentecostal megachurch preacher, entrepreneur, and Trinity-denier; Brian McLaren, the Emergent church guru who denies the need for individual salvation and observes the Muslim feast of Ramadan; and Kirbyjon Caldwell, a United Methodist prosperity-gospel preacher who delivered the benediction at George W. Bush's first inauguration but endorsed Obama for president in 2008.

Division Even Among Obama's Opponents

Even Obama's most vociferous political opponents are divided on the issue. Irreverent (and I mean that in a Biblical sense) pundit Ann Coulter offers this -

Evidence for the Proposition That Obama's a Muslim: His father was a Muslim; his mother, an atheist, married two Muslims; he attended a Muslim school in Indonesia from age 6 to 10; and, during the campaign, he proudly posted on his webpage his statement that America is "no longer" a Christian nation, a statement he has repeated as president, while announcing on French TV that America is "one of the largest Muslim countries in the world."5

On the other hand, Washington Times columnist Wesley Pruden and Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who claim to be Evangelical Christians, both take Barack Obama's word for it, as he gave it in an interview for Christianity Today magazine during the election campaign:

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.

There is one thing that I want to mention that I think is important. Part of what we've been seeing during the course of this campaign is some scurrilous e-mails that have been sent out, denying my faith, talking about me being a Muslim, suggesting that I got sworn in at the U.S. Senate with a Quran in my hand or that I don't pledge allegiance to the flag. I think it's really important for your readers to know that I have been a member of the same church for almost 20 years, and I have never practiced Islam.6

Pruden, a Southern Baptist, calls those who deny that Obama is a Christian unjustified "fruit inspectors."

Many believers, passing lightly over Christ's admonition not to judge others lest they be judged, but eagerly embracing the Scripture that a tree is known by the fruit it bears, are ready to become fruit inspectors. They think some of the fruit is strange indeed. Exhibit No. 1 is Mr. Obama's affiliation with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright in Chicago, where the president sat in the pew of Trinity United Church of Christ for 20 years listening to the pastor's rants against white folks, Jews and his native land. Exhibit No. 2 is the president's obsession with abasing himself, and the people who elected him, with craven apologies to the Islamic world for sins he imagines America to be guilty of.

However, he has offered an eloquent description of his faith, which is neither dark nor dubious. There are enough arguments over politics, policy and the alien agenda for changing America to keep us busy from now until Nov. 6, 2012. Weighing Mr. Obama's job performance is right and proper, but measuring his faith is God's business, and God doesn't need any help from us.7

The Deeper Issue: Evangelicals' Delusions About "Faith"

Although Pruden's conclusion is as wrong as can be - an utter perversion of Scripture - he has pinpointed a central issue that transcends the question of Barack Obama's religious affiliation. This problem is not with Barack Obama; it is with many who call themselves Evangelical Christians.

We can expect such wrong-headed thinking from mainline liberal church leaders and their secularist allies. And there was a time when we could expect something different from those who call themselves Evangelicals - but not any more.

The postmodern Evangelical church has largely forgotten, and today even deliberately suppresses, one of the central doctrines of the Bible: The prima facie evidence that a person is truly a Christian - possesses true saving faith in Christ, wrought by the regeneration of the Holy Spirit - is righteous living. The nature of this righteous living is not subjective or ill-defined. It is clearly delineated in the pages of God's Word.

Authentic Biblical Christianity knows nothing of the kind of artificial partition between "private" faith and "public" conduct of which Pruden and so many others, including many professing Evangelicals, speak. This false precept was used to promote toleration and acceptance of Southern Baptist philanderer and adulterer Bill Clinton, even though some of his most notorious "private" sins were committed in the Oval Office. Embrace of this kind of counterfeit Christianity is the reason why the divorce rate is essentially the same in the Evangelical church as in the world at large, and the number of Evangelical church members who are habitually engaging in sexual relationships outside of marriage is growing toward parity with the rest of the culture.

Is Obama a Greater Danger as an Imposter "Christian" or a Closet Muslim?

Is Barack Obama a greater danger to America and the world as an imposter Christian, or as a closet Muslim? That is debatable. Is he, in either case, any more of a danger than his partners-in-government, such as Mormon Democratic Senate Leader Harry Reid, or Roman Catholic former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi? Just as Barack Obama says that "accepting Jesus Christ in my life has been a powerful guide for my conduct and my values and my ideals," Nancy Pelosi names the name of Christ as ostensible cover for her dogged promotion of the most immoral and anti-Christian legislative agenda in American history. At a Catholic Community Conference on Capitol Hill, Mrs. Pelosi said,

They ask me all the time, "What is your favorite this? What is your favorite that?... And one time, "What is your favorite word?" And I said, "My favorite word? That is really easy. My favorite word is the Word... And that is everything. It says it all for us. And you know the Biblical reference, you know the Gospel reference of the Word."

"And that Word," Pelosi said, "is, we have to give voice to what that means in terms of public policy that would be in keeping with the values of the Word. The Word. Isn't it a beautiful word when you think of it? It just covers everything. The Word.

"Fill it in with anything you want. But, of course, we know it means: 'The Word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us.' And that's the great mystery of our faith. He will come again. He will come again. So, we have to make sure we're prepared to answer in this life, or otherwise, as to how we have measured up."8

Little do Pelosi and Obama know what they will face when Christ comes again in judgment. The public policies that Pelosi pursues, "in keeping with the values" of Jesus Christ, include battling to keep abortion (and infanticide in the form of so-called partial-birth abortion) legal; legal protection for sodomites and pedophiles; paving the way for legalized and even mandatory euthanasia under the guise of "health care"; and suppression of the freedom of speech of those who preach the authentic message of God's righteous wrath against sin, and the one true Gospel of the Christ she does not know. Barack Obama is the executive champion of these and many other legislative abominations, which spit in the face of the Christ in whom he claims to have "redemptive" faith.

True Christians Must Not Be Deceived

The world may be deceived, but those who are truly born again must not be. Heed the words of Jesus Christ:

"Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.

"Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore by their fruits you will know them.

"Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!'

"Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall." (Matthew 7:13-27)

The Evangelical church must repent of its delusional belief in a "faith" that is empty of the evidence of faith - a righteous life bearing the fruits of genuine saving faith in Jesus Christ. The turning of the nation must begin with the repentance of the church. And, we must pray for God's mercy upon this nation. We must pray for the salvation of our leaders in Washington - nothing is too hard for the Lord! We must also pray that God will raise up righteous men to enter the halls of government, and that He will give them the spiritual discernment and fortitude to recognize that man is not the problem, but Satan - that they "wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places," and that they must "take up the whole armor of God," that they "may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand" (Ephesians 6:12-13).

 

References:

1. "Poll: 1 in 10 Think Obama is Muslim", USA Today, April 1, 2008, as viewed at http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2008-04-01-obama-muslim_N.htm

2. "No Decline in Belief That Obama is a Muslim", Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, April 1, 2009, as viewed at http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1176/obama-muslim-opinion-not-changed

3. "Growing Number of Americans Say Obama is a Muslim", Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, August 19, 2010, as viewed at http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1701/poll-obama-muslim-christian-church-out-of-politics-political-leaders-religious

4. "National Church Leaders Condemn Misrepresentations of President Obama's Christian Faith", Eleison Group website, as viewed at http://www.eleisongroup.com/content/faith-not-political-issue

5. Ann Coulter, "MSNBC Swears to Allah that Obama's Not a Muslim", http://www.anncoulter.com/cgi-local/printer_friendly.cgi?article=383

6. Sarah Pulliam and Ted Olsen, "Q & A: Barack Obama", Christianity Today, January 23, 2008, as viewed at http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/article_print.html?id=53376

7. Wesley Pruden, "The Lonely Lives of Fruit Inspectors", The Washington Times, August 26, 2010, as viewed at http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/aug/26/the-lonely-lives-of-fruit-inspectors/

8. Nicholas Ballasy, "Pelosi Says She Has a Duty to Pursue Policies in Keeping With The Values of Jesus, 'The Word Made Flesh' ", CNS News, June 1, 2010, as viewed at http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/66208

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