There's an article at Politics Daily called, "Obama Tries to Reassert His Christian Bona Fides, With Words and Deeds." According to the column, along with poll numbers showing that 1 in 5 Americans think the president is a Muslim, Obama has reacted to conservatives using various incidents to question whether he is really much of a Christian.
if the accusations strain credulity, they can also affect public perceptions. So it was likely no coincidence that during the holidays the president seemed to take every opportunity to put the "Christ" in Christmas.Obama has been making numerous references to his Christian faith, using biblical quotations, and conducting a couple of church photo ops. Politico claims that there has been a massive upswing in religious-type rhetoric of late.
Obama has publicly mentioned his “Christian faith” more times in the past three months than he has over the past year. He has more frequently cited passages of the Bible, including repeated references to the spirit of Genesis 4:9 — “I am my brother’s keeper; I am my sister’s keeper” — which was a mainstay of Obama’s 2010 campaign stump speech. And he’s taken his family to church twice, a shift for a president who has preferred to worship privately since the end of the 2008 campaign.In my opinion, his actions are completely pointless. People who think he's a Muslim -- despite the evidence -- are unlikely to be swayed by much of anything, since their beliefs aren't exactly based on rational analysis. Conspiracy-theory thinking is immune to real evidence. In fact, Obama's increased Christian posturing will probably be viewed as a transparent attempt to conceal his true Muslim faith.
As for other Christians who question whether Obama is really a serious believer, I doubt that sprinkling in some Bible verses, showing up at church a couple times, and generally acting more religious is going to convince many people. It's going to come off -- rightly in my opinion -- as cynical political pandering. Why even bother?
The only time a president's faith or any personel in higher office for that matter, bothers me is when they start preaching from the house or senate floor, in the oval office, or during speaches such as the state of the union. Bush was always proned to make some Christian remark and now Obama is being forced to. I hate it. Whatever happened to freedom of worship and expression?
ReplyDeleteSo I'm not the only one who thinks Obama is more of an agnostic. (I don't think he's intellectually curious enough to have done the thinking it takes to be an atheist.)
ReplyDeleteVoD,
ReplyDeleteYes, especially annoying is the fact that it is in effect a requirement for high office. If you aren't seen as a Christian you aren't going to get elected to most national positions, let alone president. Therefore even politicians who have never been especially religious feel like they have to emphasis their strong faith.
Kelly,
I don't know if he's an agnostic, but from what I've read of him he's never seemed to be in any way devoutly religious. I suspect his membership in Rev. Wright's church was primarily for political purposes, to shore up his base of support and to connect with the community.