Let’s Talk About Obama’s Christianity: Part 1
Earlier this week much was made about Hillary Clinton claiming to have felt the “presence of the Holy Spirit” thanks to a link on the front page of Drudge. I would urge those who scoff and mock to remember Mr. Obama’s June 2006 speech to Call to Renewal’s Building a Covenant for a New America conference. In the speech he talks about his “conversion” experience (not insinuating anything there… non-believer converting to believer is all I’m saying):
But kneeling beneath that cross on the South Side, I felt that I heard God’s spirit beckoning me. I submitted myself to His will, and dedicated myself to discovering His truth.
The talking heads have made Hillary sound crazy for claiming to have felt the presence of God, but I must tell you that as a Christian I have absolutely no doubt. Hillary, as wrong as she is on so many issues, is still human and has that “measure of faith” that we’re all given by our Creator. He is real, His Spirit is real, and His presence can certainly be felt — just as Mr. Obama claims to have felt it. I sincerely hope that Hillary not only feels it, but will someday allow herself to be led by it.
That’s issue number one.
Reading the speech I just mentioned in its entirety, however, raised a second issue. How Mr. Obama feels about literalists — those of us who believe that the Word of God isn’t just allegory and hyperbole, but rather that we were created by God, that Noah built an ark, and that Moses parted the Red Sea.
In speaking about the contest in 2004 against Alan Keyes for the U.S. Senate seat he now inhabits Obama discusses a claim that Keyes made that Jesus would not vote for Obama. He talks about how he was given advice to let it go and forget about it, but that he wanted to respond more harshly:
But what they didn’t understand, however, was that I had to take Mr. Keyes seriously, for he claimed to speak for my religion, and my God. He claimed knowledge of certain truths.
Mr. Obama says he’s a Christian, he was saying, and yet he supports a lifestyle that the Bible calls an abomination.
Mr. Obama says he’s a Christian, but supports the destruction of innocent and sacred life.
And so what would my supporters have me say? How should I respond? Should I say that a literalist reading of the Bible was folly? Should I say that Mr. Keyes, who is a Roman Catholic, should ignore the teachings of the Pope?
Unwilling to go there, I answered with what has come to be the typically liberal response in such debates - namely, I said that we live in a pluralistic society, that I can’t impose my own religious views on another, that I was running to be the U.S. Senator of Illinois and not the Minister of Illinois.
I must say that on first reading it doesn’t seem like much, but when you realize that he’s confessing how he felt was the truthful and more intuitive way for him to respond, there’s reason for pause. Can it be that Mr. Obama feels that a literalist reading of the Bible is folly? That the Pope, whose teachings he referenced in the same breath, should be ignored? I can’t say for certain, but it looks that way to me.
I know his next words are “unwilling to go there” but that doesn’t mean that he didn’t believe it. It simply means that he wasn’t willing to make a mistake that could hurt his Senate chances.
Mr. Obama may call himself a Christian, but if you listen to his words — all of them — you quickly gain the sense that he certainly isn’t a Christian that is committed to full Biblical Truth. He believes, and has even intimated this, that he is able to pick and choose what parts of the Bible to believe, and that his faith is enough to make him a Christian. Allow me to set the record straight — faith alone does not make you Christian. You must act on that faith in a way that is in line with Biblical truth. Mr. Obama says he believes in Jesus, but it’s important to note that belief doesn’t make him a Christian, either. That’s right— I said that if you believe in Jesus that isn’t enough to save you or to make you a Christian:
“What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him?… Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone… Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble. But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?…Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only… For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.” (James 2)
More shortly…
One Response to “Let’s Talk About Obama’s Christianity: Part 1”
By Katrinka Yobotz on Mar 15, 2008 | Reply
So. Who, of the presidential candidates, has both faith and action? Alan Keyes. He hasn’t dropped out, and doesn’t intend to. He is deeply saddened by the lack of a candidate who will represent the people and fight to regain government of, by and for the people. Watch for an announcement of a third party run. http://www.alankeyes.com
Note: go to the upper righthand corner of the Alan Keyes website and read what pledge signers have had to say. Then investigate for yourself what Alan will do for America.