Obama’s Religious Ruse: His “Conversion” Part 2 of 3
- From: jose <josefsoplar@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 26 Oct 2008 07:10:16 -0700 (PDT)
Obama’s Religious Ruse: His “Conversion” Part 2 of 3
By Alex LaBrecque Thursday, October 23, 2008
During his presidential campaign, Obama the skeptic has touted his
Christian identity as defining who he is. After Christians continued
to question his faith’s authenticity and evidence of his Muslim
background had come to light, the champion of change changed his
conversion account and his pandering became uncharacteristically
evangelical.
One example — the ruse at the café in December 2007 — has already been
noted. His mouthing of evangelical slogans is no more credible now
than when he told voters that he has “always been a Christian” because
his atheist or agnostic mother “was a Christian,” “somebody who
believes in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.”(1)
A month later, in a questionnaire format that Christianity Today
posted online as an “interview,” he was asked to describe the nature
of his momentous altar-call experience twenty years ago at Trinity
UCC. Once again Obama said what he wants Christian voters to project,
but this time he affirmed Christ’s resurrection and the hope of
eternal life: “I am a Christian. 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.” He declared: “I have been a member of the same church for
almost twenty years, and I have never practiced Islam.”
Apparently the Christianity Today editors challenged none of this, as
Obama concluded his answer: “You guys really help by getting the story
straight.”(2)
“The story” impressed by this answer is that in 1987-88 he became a
believer in the crucified and risen Christ and has embraced the
resurrection faith and the hope of eternal life from then to this day.
A real interview would include follow-up questions such as:
At what point after the stark skepticism disclosed in a 2004 interview
and your 2006 book did you actually come to believe in Christ’s
resurrection and an afterlife, and why? Are you still uncertain that
God existed before your unquestioned Big Bang?
If now you really believe Jesus is risen, does this mean you now
believe he is Lord of all, or are other religions still equally valid
means to your experience of collective human consciousness?
What is the theological core of your church of twenty years, and what
is the role of Black Power in its definition of God’s love?
You deny that you ever practiced Islam; do you also deny that Muhammed
is God’s prophet?
Derision of Christians who “cling to religion.”
In late March 2008, two weeks after video broadcasts of his mentor’s
preaching became a liability to his campaign, Obama told voters in a
North Carolina townhall: “I’m a Christian and what that means for me
is that I believe Jesus Christ died for my sins and that his grace and
his mercy and his power — [that] through him that I can achieve
everlasting life.” “My mother was not a believer in the way I was,”
but “I’m sure that she’s in heaven even though she may not have
subscribed to everything I subscribed to.”(3)
Senator Obama: Muslims may “subscribe to” Islam, but Christians don’t
“subscribe to” the reality of Christ’s resurrection.. That God raised
Jesus from the dead is definitive of what we believe with our minds
and hearts, not a doctrinal tenet.
In December 2007 he claimed his mother was a Christian; three months
later she was not, and now he’s certain of an afterlife, having
“subscribed to” that notion of which he remained skeptical for two
decades since the altar call. In this same response, to divert
attention from his pastor’s racist ideology Obama cited that Trinity
belongs to a “99% white denomination” and “they’re praising Jesus.” As
of this date he was still defending Jeremiah Wright, still masking
Wright’s core beliefs, still concealing that Trinity’s Black Power
teaches another Jesus and another gospel alien to what Christians have
believed for 2000 years.
Just two weeks later in April, the self-described “devout Christian”
expressed privately to San Francisco millionaires his derision of
Christians who “cling to religion.”(4)
He plays to his audience. His answer to that questionnaire in January
created the impression that for twenty years he has believed in the
crucified and risen Christ as Christians do. That revision is more
explicit in a Newsweek article of July 2008. Originally accounts of
his altar-call response were more consistent with his ongoing
skepticism about the core of the Christian faith. The recent account
is quite different, lacking any skepticism, and even lyrical:
At the point of his decision to accept Christ, Obama says, “what was
intellectual and what was emotional joined, and the belief in the
redemptive power of Jesus Christ, that he died for our sins, that
through him we could achieve eternal life …I found that powerful.”(5)
Whereas Obama originally boasted of his skepticism, in the July
interview this skepticism has been transformed and minimized to
circumstantial “doubts.” Asked by Newsweek, “What is the role of doubt
in faith?” he replied:
I wrote about this in Audacity of Hope, that even after I accepted
Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior, that doesn’t mean that I don’t
have doubts. I had doubts when my mother died. I have doubts every
time I pick up the newspaper. (6)
He doubts his “deep” Christian faith every time he reads the
newspaper? But Christians are not troubled about his having
circumstantial doubts, which all may experience at times of personal
hardship. The issue is Obama’s ongoing deceit, concealing his
previously touted skepticism of what Christians believe about Jesus.
In Audacity of Hope (2006) he defines himself as “Christian and
skeptic,”(7) and his skepticism at that late date is starkly evident
in both his account of his mother’s death and his inability to answer
his daughter’s question of an afterlife with even a hint about God’s
care.(8) No one who believes in the reality of Christ’s resurrection
is skeptical of an afterlife.
Another change changes his attendance at Trinity for twenty years.
Before he decided Wright was wrong for his campaign, he had emphasized
his strong connection with the “church” that he attended regularly.
But in July 2008 he told Newsweek that “[he] didn’t hear a lot of
sermons at Trinity,” that at the beginning he attended “fairly
frequently,” much less when his children were born, then “probably
twice a month” as they grew older. But “there was quite a big chunk of
time, especially during the [2004] Senate race where we might not have
gone to Trinity for two, three months at a time” because the venue of
other churches’ services was “one of the most effective ways for us to
campaign.” In Falsani’s 2004 interview — just after he had won his
party’s nomination — Barry said he attends Trinity “every week. 11
o’clock service. Ever been there? Good service.”(9) At issue is not
his church attendance, but his pattern of deceit.
Campaign prop at the Western Wall
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus teaches against making a public show
of praying, as pretenders do to be seen as pious; instead, pray
privately and God who sees in secret will reward you.(10) But when
Obama made his pre-election victory tour to the Holy Land in July, at
Jerusalem he made a political display of his “piety.” The Obama
campaign desecrated the Western Wall — Judaism’s most sacred site —
with an entourage of supporters displaying his banner and signs.(11)
Mimicking the practice of devout Jews, Barry placed in a crack of the
wall a slip of paper containing a humble prayer he had hand-written;
on stationary of the King David Hotel the messianic candidate had
asked God to make him an instrument of his will.(12) We know the
prayer’s “private” contents because it was a campaign prop, and its
discovery was staged for public consumption.
The initial report was that a Jewish seminary student stole the prayer
from the wall and gave it to the Israeli newpaper Maariv, which then
published a closeup of the note next to a photo of the candidate
placing it in the wall. In the blogosphere Leftists collectively tore
their garments asunder, appalled by the sacrilege committed against
Barack Obama, a man of “social justice” who is also “a devout
Christian.” His humble act of prayer had been violated; his piety, a
victim of shameless media exploitation. Is nothing sacred?
The offense of publishing the note was potentially criminal, and
sources from the newspaper Maariv confessed that before the messianic
candidate went to the wall the Obama campaign had already given the
newspaper a copy of his “secret prayer.” Israel’s most popular daily,
Yediot Ahoronot, likewise received a copy of the prayer but chose not
to publish it.(13) The prayer was “stolen” by an Obama supporter(14)
(videotaped with his entourage) as a ploy for making its contents
public, with Barry the pious victim. Maariv has since rescinded its
original claim that it received a copy directly from the campaign, and
both papers turned silent on the matter. Under pressure? Given Obama’s
pattern of deception, the most plausible scenario is that the campaign
stunt was to impress voters of his piety — another of Barry’s many
ruses.(15) Verily, the pretender has received his reward.
More recently, at the Saddleback Church forum in August 2008 he
claimed that Christianity “means I believe that Jesus Christ died for
my sins and that I am redeemed through him.”(16) Could it be that
since his scorn for Christians in April, and after July’s revised
conversion story and the Jerusalem stunt, he has at last had a genuine
conversion? If so, let’s hear Obama explain the profound difference it
makes for him to now believe that the risen Jesus is Lord over all
peoples and cultures. Let’s hear him admit in repentance his sham
piety, his concealment and support of a Black Power cult exploiting
Christ’s name, and his campaign’s messianic charade. There would be
joy in heaven and in churches across America over Barack Obama’s
repentance.
Don’t hold your breath waiting. At that forum he defended his support
for infanticide and flippantly remarked that it is “above my pay
grade” to know when a baby acquires the rights of a human person.
To isolate these later “evangelical” statements as genuine requires
that we ignore all else that Obama has said, forget about his twenty-
year commitment to Trinity UCC, and close our eyes to his messianic
pretence.
Barack Obama is no more a Christian than is his longtime ally, the
terrorist Bill Ayers
Some Obamunists will argue that it is unchristian to question whether
his faith is genuine, or object that one’s faith is not a
constitutional requirement for becoming President of the United
States. These objections are specious. Of course one need not be a
Christian either to qualify for the presidency or to be a good
president. Some of America’s Founders were Christians, others were
Deists who believed that the creator is not active in human affairs.
But anyone who would mislead America about his faith, identity, or
ideology is not fit to be entrusted with the presidency or any other
office. For such a person, community organizer would be a better job
match.
As for the validity of judging Obama’s claim to be of the Christian
faith: evaluating persons of influence is a Christian and biblical
duty. At the end of his Sermon on the Mount Jesus warns to beware of
false prophets who are wolves disguised as sheep and who exploit his
name to deceive, and Jesus admonishes to identify them by
distinguishing between good and evil:
Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but
underneath are ravenous wolves. By their fruits you will know them. Do
people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Just so,
every good tree bears good fruit, and a rotten tree bears bad fruit. A
good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a rotten tree bear good
fruit…. So by their fruits you will know them. Not everyone who says
to me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the
one who does the will of my Father in heaven.(17)
That is a mandate from Christ himself to assess Obama’s history and
alliances and mentors and his claim to be a Christian — a claim that
the stealth candidate himself made prominent, to cloak his identity
and agenda. Likewise Jesus’ discourse at the Mount of Olives warns of
not only false prophets but false messiahs who will seek to lead
Christians astray:
If anyone says to you then, “Look, here is the Messiah! Look, there he
is!” do not believe it. False messiahs and false prophets will arise
and will perform signs and wonders in order to mislead, if that were
possible, the elect. Be watchful! I have told it all to you beforehand.
(18)
References
1. Aswini Anburajan, “Obama Asked About Connection to Islam,” MSNBC
First Read, December 22, 2007.
2. Interview by Sarah Pulliam, online editor, and Ted Olsen, news
director and online managing editor, “Q&A: Barack Obama. ‘I believe in
the redemptive death and resurrection of Jesus Christ,’” Christianity
Today, posted January 23, 2008, italics supplied.
3. Remarks March 26, 2008 at a town hall in Greensboro, North
Carolina, reported by USA Today, italics supplied.
4. “Transcript of Obama’s Remarks at San Francisco Fundraiser Sunday,”
Time, April 11, 2008.
5. Lisa Miller and Richard Wolffe, “Finding His Faith,” Newsweek, July
12, 2008.
6. Lisa Miller and Richard Wolffe, “‘I Am a Big Believer in Not Just
Words, But Deeds and Works,’” Newsweek, July 12, 2008.
7. The Audacity of Hope. Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream
(New York: Three Rivers Press, 2006), p. 9.
8. Ibid, pp. 225-226.
9. Cathleen Falsani transcript of March 27, 2004 interview.
10. Matthew 6:5-6.
11. Aaron Klein, “Obama Camp Plasters Posters at Western Wall,
Advertises Democrat Candidate’s Website, Official Slogan at Judaism’s
Holiest Site,” WorldNetDaily, July 24, 2008.
12. The full text of the note: “Lord — Protect my family and me.
Forgive me my sins, and help me guard against pride and despair. Give
me the wisdom to do what is right and just. And make me an instrument
of your will” (“Paper, Rapped for Outing Obama Note, Claims Campaign
Pre-Approved Leak,” Israel Insider, July 28, 2008).
13. “Another Israeli paper, Yediot Aharonot, published an article
Friday saying it had also obtained the note but decided not to publish
it, to respect Obama’s privacy” (Aron Heller, ‘Ma’ariv Blasted for
Printing Obama’s Note in Kotel,” Jerusalem Post, July 26, 2008);
“Attorney: Probe Israeli Paper for Printing Obama Note,” Jerusalem
Post, July 27, 2008.
14. Videotape shows the seminary student was part of the Obama
campaign’s entourage at the Wall. He confessed: “I’m sorry. It was a
kind of prank. I hope he wasn’t hurt. We all believe he will take the
presidency” (“Yeshiva Student Returns Obama’s Kotel Note,” Jerusalem
Post, July 28, 2008, italics supplied).
15. Helen Cadogan, “Obama’s Prayer — The Intended Audience (updated),”
The American Thinker, July 31, 2008.
16. “Transcript of Obama, McCain at Saddleback Civil Forum with Pastor
Rick Warren” (August 16, 2008), Chicago Sun-Times, August 18, 2008.
17. Matthew 7:15-21.
18. Mark 13:21-22.
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