Weekly Rant: How religious is President Obama?

Posted at June 9, 2009

President Obama’s “true” religion has been the subject of much debate. Though he says he’s a Christian, many Americans don’t believe it. Almost 12 percent still believe he is a secret Muslim, and psychos like Ann Coulter, claim it’s a conspiracy to hide his atheism.

While most freethinkers, like myself, believe Obama’s version of “faith” is a vast improvement over President Bush’s, Politico.com, has published an article which suggests we should reexamine the whole thing.

He’s done it while talking about abortion and the Middle East, even the economy. The references serve at once as an affirmation of his faith and a rebuke against a rumor that persists for some to this day.

As president, Barack Obama has mentioned Jesus Christ in a number of high-profile public speeches — something his predecessor George W. Bush rarely did in such settings, even though Bush’s Christian faith was at the core of his political identity.

Does this mean, Obama is more “Christian” than we realized? Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, doesn’t think so:

“…I think it’s a veneer, a facade that covers over a lot of policies that are anti-Christian.”

I must admit, I agree somewhat with Perkins. I don’t think Obama is “anti-Christian,” but I do believe he uses what I call “Christianese” (see this video) as a way to placate the religious in America. However, there is this to consider:

…Obama has placed his Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships — run by a 26-year old Pentecostal minister named Josh DuBois — under the White House’s Domestic Policy Council. That was widely seen as an effort to involve a religious perspective in the administration’s policy decisions.

Also, religious leaders meet with White House policymakers on a regular basis — and help to shape decisions on matters large and small. A White House speechwriter working on Obama’s Egypt speech called several faith leaders to get their thoughts. After the White House unveiled its budget in April, officials convened a two-hour conference call with religious leaders to discuss how the spending plan would help the poor.

David Kuo, who worked in President Bush’s “faith-based” office believes Obama has more than political gain on his mind. He feels Obama is trying to resurrect the long dormant Christian Left. If this is the case, then we nontheists do have something to worry about. We risk being forced further into the recesses of American politics.

We need to remember that while the Democrats may currently be on the side of liberty, this has not always been the case. It wasn’t too long ago that the religious Democrats stood in the way of segregation and equal rights for all.

In 1998, Barry Goldwater, warned the Republican party to not become pawns of the religious right. He said:

By maintaining the separation of church and state, the United States has avoided the intolerance which has so divided the rest of the world with religious wars… Can any of us refute the wisdom of Madison and the other framers? Can anyone look at the carnage in Iran, the bloodshed in Northern Ireland, or the bombs bursting in Lebanon and yet question the dangers of injecting religious issues into the affairs of state?”

“The religious factions will go on imposing their will on others, unless the decent people connected to them recognize that religion has no place in public policy. They must learn to make their views known without trying to make their views the only alternatives. . . We have succeeded for 205 years in keeping the affairs of state separate from the uncompromising idealism of religious groups and we mustn’t stop now… To retreat from that separation would violate the principles of conservatism and the values upon which the framers built this democratic republic.”

While progressive libertarians (like myself), long for the restoration of their party, we should all demand the Democrats not make the same mistakes as the Republicans. We need to make it clear that we will not tolerate the mixing of religion and politics by any politician. Even if he’s not sincere, we need to let our voices be heard every time Obama uses the name of Jesus. We should echo the words of the executive director of Americans United, the Rev. Barry Lynn, who in the article says: