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Barack Obama: Man of Faith
Men's News Daily ^ | 23 August 2004 | Nicholas Stix

Posted on 08/23/2004 10:46:47 AM PDT by mrustow

"I am a Christian.... So, I have a deep faith. I'm rooted in the Christian tradition. I believe that there are many paths to the same place, and that is a belief that there is a higher power, a belief that we are connected as a people.

"That there are values that transcend race or culture, that move us forward, and there's an obligation for all of us individually as well as collectively to take responsibility to make those values lived."

Thus, U.S. Senate candidate for Illinois Barack Obama in a campaign contribution by Chicago Sun-Times columnist Cathleen Falsani.

Obama's supporters include not only constituents and corporations giving him monetary contributions, but scores of alleged journalists who see their job as doing everything in their power to get him elected. As Chicago Tribune columnist John Kass observed, "A conservative Ditka candidacy would also have forced Barack Obama, the anointed one, to actually campaign for the Senate rather than wait for more air kisses from Hollywood liberals and the Eastern press, the Midwestern press, the Western press."

Obama, an Illinois state senator representing the South Side of Chicago, is in fact a far-left politician who -- as I've previously shown -- seeks to force ever more socialist and racist laws and programs on the American people.

Meanwhile, Obama's media devotees have launched such a successful crusade on his behalf, that in what took on the airs of a coronation, just before the late July Democratic National Convention in Boston, he was chosen by the Kerry campaign to be a keynote speaker. And he acquitted himself stupendously. Between the lines, one can read Obama's media cadres going from touting the biracial (half-white, half-black) candidate as potentially "only the third African-American to take a seat in the Senate since Reconstruction" (the New York Times' Bob Herbert), to seeing in him potentially the nation's second "black" president. It is worth examining the spiritual world of this rising national player.

After emphasizing the transcendence of Obama's Christianity, Cathleen Falsani would appear to contradict herself, by claiming that "Obama's theological point of view was shaped by his uniquely multicultural upbringing."

Since his mother was a secular humanist -- and between the lines, sounds like an atheist -- and his stepfather was a Moslem (the late Barack Obama Sr., a Moslem-raised but non-religious Kenyan economist, deserted his family when his son was only two years old), how would that shape the faith of someone who, according to Falsani, "is unapologetic in saying he has a 'personal relationship with Jesus Christ.'"

I say, appears to contradict herself, since Falsani's column makes a gruel of Christianity. But on one point, she is clear:

"Alongside my own deep personal faith, I am a follower, as well, of our civic religion," he says. "I am a big believer in the separation of church and state. I am a big believer in our constitutional structure. I mean, I'm a law professor at the University of Chicago teaching constitutional law. [Actually, Obama is not a law professor, but a "senior lecturer." As Chicago Sun-Times columnist Lynn Sweet has pointed out, and I know from six-and-a-half years as a full-time, college adjunct lecturer, "In academia, there is a vast difference between the two titles." As Sweet also notes, however, Obama's misrepresentation of his academic position is the least of his credibility problems.]

"I am a great admirer of our founding charter and its resolve to prevent theocracies from forming and its resolve to prevent disruptive strains of fundamentalism from taking root in this country.

"I think there is an enormous danger on the part of public figures to rationalize or justify their actions by claiming God's mandate. I don't think it's healthy for public figures to wear religion on their sleeve as a means to insulate themselves from criticism, or dialogue with people who disagree with them."

Falsani quotes lefty activist, Roman Catholic Fr. Michael Pfleger, of St. Sabina Church on Chicago’s South Side, "I always have felt in [Obama] this consciousness that, at the end of the day, with all of us, you've got to face God. Faith is key to his life, no question about it. [It is] central to who he is, and not just in his work in the political field, but as a man, as a black man, as a husband, as a father.... I don't think he could easily divorce his faith from who he is."

(Martin Luther King Jr. would appear to have been the greatest spiritual influence on Fr. Pfleger, who is obsessed with what he perceives to be white racism, but blind to the very real black variety. Logic is also not Fr. Pfleger's strong suit, witness the following statement on whites and MLK: "Their anger came from the fact that he would not react to their anger and hatred.")

So, Obama's religious faith is and is not transcendent. Thank you, Cathleen Falsani.

Obama the Christian is a devout believer in unlimited abortion rights. He denies the existence of Hell. He came to Christianity through social organizing with activist religious. His devout Christianity derives from the secular humanist "values" his atheist mother imbued him with. He believes, with all his heart, in the separation of church and state -- except when he campaigns in black churches, in violation of that separation, and in violation of the tax code. (According to U.S. tax law, any house of worship that permits politicians to campaign within its walls, loses its tax-exempt status. But then, as another Chicago politician, Cong. Jesse Jackson Jr., announced on the radio talk show Nashville This Morning in October, 2000, the separation of church and state and the tax code simply don't apply to blacks.) Obama wears his religion on his sleeve in black churches, but in dealing with the mainstream media, attacks the same behavior, at least as far as white, conservative Christians are concerned.

The only recognizably Christian position Obama takes is his opposition to same-sex marriage, due to the "religious connotations" of marriage. ("Religious connotations"? What about "civic religion"; the "separation of church and state"; the "enormous danger on the part of public figures to rationalize or justify their actions by claiming God's mandate"? Don't ask.) This is surely due to the fact that blacks are the racial/ethnic group most adamantly opposed to same-sex marriage, and Obama does not want to rile the one voter bloc on which his candidacy is most dependent. However, I would expect his position on same-sex marriage to begin "evolving" around, say, ... November 3. Once Obama is safely ensconced in the U.S. Senate, he knows that his black base will stick by him, for richer or for poorer, for better or for worse. Then he will doubtless begin the sort of "education" of the Christian black electorate in matters of same-sex marriage, which black leaders earlier conducted in the matter of abortion.

Regarding Obama's religiosity, which appeared out of nowhere during his social activist work, following his graduation from law school, a line from Chicago Tribune columnist John Kass comes to mind, when the latter explained why Mike Ditka was not prepared for political life. "Ditka doesn't need a political life. And he hasn't spent decades planning for the scrutiny."

Obama's closest religious advisers -- Fr. Pfleger, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright of Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ, and Illinois State Sen. James Meeks, who moonlights as the pastor of Chicago's Salem Baptist Church -- may have quotes from Scripture always handy, but are theologically closer to Karl Marx and black nationalism, than to Christianity. (Union Theological Seminary theologian James H. Cone, who is credited with having founded liberation theology, is a black nationalist who speaks the lingo of Marxian dialectic. And as white Marxists have over the past 40 years adopted the language of race war, socialism and black supremacy have increasingly come to resemble each other. I call the common movement, which is more typically referred to as "multiculturalism," racial socialism.)

The transcendent-non-transcendent motto the Rev. Wright has given Trinity is, "Unashamedly Black and Unapologetically Christian."

According to State Sen./Rev. James Meeks' humble, personal church Web page, "Meeks' practical and charismatic style of instruction motivates the hearer to take action and has resulted in accomplishments of miraculous proportions." When the good Senator/Reverend is not accomplishing miracles and other feats "never before documented in history," he serves as the executive vice president of Jesse Jackson Sr.'s National Rainbow-Push Coalition. Why a man of God would want to be identified with Jackson's personal den of iniquity is a question only the Rev. Meeks can answer.

Keep in mind the parallels between Obama, his black constituency, and the Democrat party. As black Chicagoans have suffered less and less under racism, they have become increasingly racist. Conversely, once the Democrat party gave up its role as a pillar of Jim Crow, it increasingly has come to trade in race hoaxes. And as leading black preacher-politicians (witness Jesse Jackson Sr.'s former opposition to abortion) and white Democrat pols alike have made "Christianity" indistinguishable from the program of the left wing of the Democrat party, so too have millions of black Christians "revised" their Bibles. And so, just as "rights" have become merely a euphemism for whatever black, "progressive," or homosexual Democrats desire, so too has Christianity.

Apparently, the only thing that the "Christianity" of Barack Obama, Fr. Pfleger, the Rev. Wright and the Rev. Meeks forbids, is voting Republican.

Now that Obama has a Republican opponent in Alan Keyes, Obama's media acolytes are working hard to discredit Keyes, a talk-show host who is a former ambassador, and presidential and senatorial candidate. Meanwhile, Obama, who when Jack Ryan was his opponent wanted six debates, has no desire to debate Keyes. Obama & Co. had better stick to their new script or Keyes, a brilliant man who knows the Constitution better than "Professor" Obama does, and whose own Christian faith comes not from Karl Marx or black nationalism (or possibly Unitarian Universalism), but from Christianity, might put some hard questions to Barack Obama.

Nicholas Stix


New York-based freelancer Nicholas Stix has written for Toogood Reports, Middle American News, the New York Post, Daily News, American Enterprise, Insight, Chronicles, Newsday and many other publications. His recent work is collected at www.geocities.com/nstix and http://www.thecriticalcritic.blogspot.com.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Editorial; Government; News/Current Events; Philosophy; Politics/Elections; US: Illinois
KEYWORDS: alankeyes; barackobama; bobherbert; cathleenfalsani; democratparty; futurepresident; jackryan; jamesmeeks; jeremiahwright; jessejackson; jessejacksonjr; johnkass; lynnsweet; michaelpfleger; mikeditka; obama
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1 posted on 08/23/2004 10:46:48 AM PDT by mrustow
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To: mrustow
"I am a Christian.... So, I have a deep faith. I'm rooted in the Christian tradition. I believe that there are many paths to the same place, and that is a belief that there is a higher power, a belief that we are connected as a people."

Sorry, Obama, but if you don't believe Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life, you are not, by definition, a Christian.

2 posted on 08/23/2004 10:48:49 AM PDT by MEGoody (Flush the Johns - vote Bush/Cheney 04)
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To: mrustow
I'm rooted in the Christian tradition. I believe that there are many paths to the same place, and that is a belief that there is a higher power, a belief that we are connected as a people.

Whenever you hear someone talk about being "rooted in the Christian tradition," that's a pretty good sign they're a Christian on the outside only. And whenever you hear someone talk about "many paths to the same place," that's a really good sign they're not a believer in Christ at all.

3 posted on 08/23/2004 10:51:35 AM PDT by My2Cents (http://www.conservativesforbush.com)
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To: MEGoody
"That there are values that transcend race or culture, that move us forward, and there's an obligation for all of us individually as well as collectively to take responsibility to make those values lived."

Nice words, but do they add up to anything? Nice liberal Pap, Obama. Looks a bit new ageish. Won't help you to take a stand when the going gets tough.

4 posted on 08/23/2004 10:52:19 AM PDT by sr4402
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To: MEGoody

I had the same thought, "many paths" , I don't think so.


5 posted on 08/23/2004 10:57:01 AM PDT by exnavy
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Comment #6 Removed by Moderator

To: MEGoody; billbears; 4ConservativeJustices; Ff--150
I believe that there are many paths to the same place

There's only one way to Heaven.

7 posted on 08/23/2004 11:01:48 AM PDT by stainlessbanner
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To: MEGoody
John 1:1 - You beat me to it.

Satan believes there is a higher power too!

8 posted on 08/23/2004 11:03:34 AM PDT by Slump Tester
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To: sr4402
"That there are values that transcend race or culture, that move us forward,

As in, "progressive" values.

9 posted on 08/23/2004 11:05:28 AM PDT by mrustow ("And when Moses saw the golden calf, he shouted out to the heavens, 'Jesus, Mary, and Joseph!'")
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To: My2Cents

I just don't see how anyone who follows Jesus could possibly vote for a Democrat. They are just so anti-Christian.

But that does not mean that the Republican party is Godly by any means. Just less evil.


10 posted on 08/23/2004 11:07:52 AM PDT by Dogbert41
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To: JustPiper

Ping.

Deeply rooted in Christian faith? An atheist mother and Moslem father?

He's just teeing them up for Keyes!


11 posted on 08/23/2004 11:08:41 AM PDT by Right_Handed_Writer
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To: My2Cents
"Whenever you hear someone talk about being "rooted in the Christian tradition," that's a pretty good sign they're a Christian on the outside only. And whenever you hear someone talk about "many paths to the same place," that's a really good sign they're not a believer in Christ at all."

Spot-on, My2Cents. And people like Obama haven't a clue about how transparent they are to genuine Christians.

12 posted on 08/23/2004 11:08:46 AM PDT by NH Liberty ("For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus..." [1 Timothy 2:5])
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To: My2Cents

I'm rooted in the Christian tradition. I believe that there are many paths to the same place, and that is a belief that there is a higher power, a belief that we are connected as a people.

Whenever you hear someone talk about being "rooted in the Christian tradition," that's a pretty good sign they're a Christian on the outside only. And whenever you hear someone talk about "many paths to the same place," that's a really good sign they're not a believer in Christ at all.

How true. Typical liberal spill to appeal to the masses and make the unbeliever fill secure in his unbelief. Sad.


13 posted on 08/23/2004 11:10:29 AM PDT by taxesareforever
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To: mrustow
"I am a Christian.... So, I have a deep faith. I'm rooted in the Christian tradition. I believe that there are many paths to the same place, and that is a belief that there is a higher power, a belief that we are connected as a people."

Mr. Obama seems to have a little conceptual problem.

(Somebody send him back to Chritianity 101. Sheesh.)

14 posted on 08/23/2004 11:12:41 AM PDT by DaughterOfAnIwoJimaVet (Some of my best friends are white, middle-class males.)
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To: mrustow

Nobody can be considered a "man of faith" if he is pro-abortion.


15 posted on 08/23/2004 11:13:51 AM PDT by presidentbowen (God Bless Ronald Reagan!)
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To: Right_Handed_Writer

I don't care about his parents - I just wish he knew the definition of "Christian" before running around calling himself one.


16 posted on 08/23/2004 11:14:03 AM PDT by DaughterOfAnIwoJimaVet (Some of my best friends are white, middle-class males.)
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To: stainlessbanner
"I think there is an enormous danger on the part of public figures to rationalize or justify their actions by claiming God's mandate. I don't think it's healthy for public figures to wear religion on their sleeve...

He means that Washington, Adams, Patrick Henry, Witherspoon et al were wrong?

And Obama doesn't believe in Hell? One way or another, he will find out the veracity of that belief.

17 posted on 08/23/2004 11:16:41 AM PDT by 4CJ (||) Men die by the calendar, but nations die by their character. - John Armor, 5 Jun 2004 (||)
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To: mrustow; All
Barack Obama: Man of Faith

Nicholas Stix may as well do an article titled--

"Adolph Hitler: Man of Faith"

18 posted on 08/23/2004 11:16:58 AM PDT by tame (Are you willing to do for the truth what leftists are willing to do for a lie?)
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To: EternalVigilance; Aquinas; ApesForEvolution; unspun; JustPiper; WillRain; Coleus; BillyBoy

ping


19 posted on 08/23/2004 11:20:15 AM PDT by tame (Are you willing to do for the truth what leftists are willing to do for a lie?)
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To: MEGoody

That pseudo Christian babble from a faux Christian is intended to appeal to the masses of Americas who are also faux Christians; not to those who have genuinely repented and have given their life to the Lord Jesus Christ; which are the minority of those who call themselves Christians.


20 posted on 08/23/2004 11:28:42 AM PDT by Search4Truth (When a man lies he murders some part of the world.)
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