Posted on 08/24/2010 6:18:45 AM PDT by unspun
When questions came up during the campaign about Barack Obama’s religious affiliation, his aides flatly asserted that he was a “practicing Christian” and was “baptized” in the Trinity United Church of Christ. However, some of the same questions have come up again in the wake of opinion polls finding people confused about Obama’s religious identity. Our media cannot understand the confusion.
For most in the media, it is cut-and-dried: Obama is a Christian. People who don’t believe it are dumb or misled.
But calling yourself something is not the same thing as proving it is the case. This claim deserves to be scrutinized, even when it involves a sensitive and personal matter such as religious belief.
Unfortunately for Obama and his backers, the same Obama campaign apparatus which claimed that he is a baptized Christian asserted that the mysterious “Frank” in Obama’s book, Dreams from My Father, was just a black civil rights activist. It turned out that “Frank” was Frank Marshall Davis, a Communist Party member under surveillance by the FBI who served as a mentor for a young Obama in Hawaii. The 600-page FBI file on Davis even suggests he was an espionage agent on behalf of the Soviet Union.
Dupes, a forthcoming book by Professor Paul Kengor, promises to take another close look at Obama’s Frank Marshall Davis connection.
So what the Obama presidential campaign says about Obama’s religious affiliation is not something to be taken at face value. They have a vested interest in making Obama look more acceptable to the American people.
As President, he has gone to church only a few times, which undermines the claim that he is a practicing Christian. People see him playing golf on Sunday; they don’t see him going to church.
In fact, however, being a Christian is not just a function of attending church services. Rather, it is related to being baptized. Did this critical development occur in Obama’s life?
In this context, it is important to take a look at what Obama’s own books, Dreams from My Father and The Audacity of Hope, say about the President’s religion, or lack thereof.
He acknowledges in Dreams that his grandfather was a Muslim (page 104) and that he spent two years in a Muslim school in Indonesia studying the Koran (page 154). In The Audacity of Hope, he says (page 204) that “my father had been raised a Muslim” but that by the time he met his mother, his father was a “confirmed atheist.”
His stepfather was not particularly religious and his mother professed “secularism,” Obama wrote (pages 204-205), but as a child he went to a “predominantly Muslim school,” after being first sent to a Catholic school. His mother, he said, was concerned about him learning math, not religion.
Obama’s reference to being baptized is found in his second book, The Audacity of Hope, published in 2006, not in Dreams, published in 1995. Obama wrote on page 208, “I was finally able to walk down the aisle of Trinity United Church of Christ one day and be baptized.”
Traditionally, Christianity teaches that baptism is a sacrament involving the use of water to signify acceptance of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. Since Obama was not born and baptized a Christian, in order to become a Christian he had to enter into the sacrament of baptism some time later in life.
In this regard, Obama does not indicate anywhere in his books that he came into contact with what Christians regard as the “living water.” Instead, he says that, in his baptism, he made “a choice,” knelt beneath a cross, and “felt God’s spirit beckoning.” He said, “I submitted myself to His will, and dedicated myself to discovering His truth.”
This sounds like a powerful religious experience but it is not what Christians regard as baptism.
In Dreams from My Father, Obama discusses his pastor, Jeremiah Wright, noting that he had been “dabbling with liquor, Islam, and black nationalism in the sixties” but that “the call of faith had apparently remained” and that he went on to study religion, including “the black liberation theologians.” For his part, Obama visited Wright to discuss membership in the Trinity United Church of Christ as an extension of his community organizing activities and the hope that he could get “involvement” in this effort from churches like Wright’s.
As Obama contacted the churches and their ministers, he reveals that they thought he was a Muslim (page 279) or, he jokes, an Irishman, “O’Bama.”
Obama talks about hearing a Wright sermon, “The Audacity of Hope,” which inspired the title of his second book. However, there is no mention of any baptism in this—his first—book. The reference to being baptized came in the second book, as Obama was preparing to launch his presidential campaign. The timing is significant.
These are the facts as Obama himself reported them. So how have the media handled them? Needless to say, there has been no serious investigation into whether the claims are true and what they mean.
“Obama’s religious biography is unconventional and politically problematic,” Newsweek’s Lisa Miller reported. “Born to a Christian-turned-secular mother and a Muslim-turned-atheist African father, Obama grew up living all across the world with plenty of spiritual influences, but without any particular religion. He is now a Christian, having been baptized in the early 1990s at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago.”
The phrase, “having been baptized,” is apparently based on Obama’s claim about being baptized. Our major media haven’t questioned the claim.
Miller went on to say, “His baptism presents its own problems. The senior pastor at Trinity at the time of Obama’s baptism was the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr., the preacher who was seen damning America on cable TV…”
Notice the formulation, “at the time of Obama’s baptism.” She carefully does not say that Wright performed the baptism. In fact, there’s no evidence it was a baptism in the traditional sense that it was performed by Wright or anybody else. It looks like Obama walked down the aisle and made a profession of faith. That is not a Christian baptism.
The Canada Free Press published a very interesting article in February by Madeline Brooks, who asked, “Where is the baptism certificate? We do not see one because there was no baptism. That central part of Christianity was not required at Obama’s former church, the Trinity United Church of Christ, during the years Obama attended…”
She cites the research of a pastor, Usama Dakdok, who had called Obama’s church to ask about membership:
“Do I have to be baptized to join the church?” asked Pastor Dakdok. “No, you don’t,” was the answer. “You can be a member without being baptized.”
“And what exactly is required to become a member?” The answer: “You attend two Sunday school classes in a row about membership, and then you walk the aisle.”
Walk down the aisle? That sounds exactly what Obama described in his book. This is how one becomes a member. But it is not a baptism into Christianity.
“I called the Trinity United Church of Christ and they confirmed that baptism is merely optional for members,” Brooks added.
Pastor Dakdok reports that he also asked a spokesperson for Trinity, the membership director:
“If I am a Muslim man, and I believe in the prophet Mohammed, peace be upon him, but I also believe in the prophet Jesus, do I have to give up my Islamic faith to join your church?”
The answer was, “Absolutely not! We have so many members of our church who are Muslims.”
Dakdok asked the Trinity spokesperson, “Is that how Senator Barack Obama became a member?” The membership director of the church refused to answer.
Madeline Brooks calls this “Muslim Christianity,” which she says is theologically impossible.
In fact, the contradictions don’t end there. Obama’s pastor for 20 years, Jeremiah Wright, could be described as a “Marxist Christian,” which is also theoretically impossible, since Marxism is materialistic and atheistic. Yet, as we revealed last November, Wright gave a speech in which he praised Marxism and faulted the media for claiming that communism and Christianity were somehow opposed to one another.
So the question regarding Obama is not just whether he is a Muslim but a Marxist, based not only on his attendance at Jeremiah Wright’s unusual church but the influence exercised over him during his growing-up years by Communist Frank Marshall Davis.
Dakdok, who was brought up in Egypt, a Muslim country, is adamant that Obama is a Muslim, based on the fact that his birth father was a Muslim and that there is no evidence that Obama ever specifically rejected Islam. Christian radio host Brannon Howse interviewed Dakdok, at the urging of conservative columnist David Limbaugh, brother of the national talk show host, Rush Limbaugh. Dakdok was also interviewed recently on Stacy Harp’s Christian radio show. He speaks around the country in front of Christian audiences.
While Obama may have been a Muslim by birth, that doesn’t mean that he accepts the Muslim faith or philosophy. Instead, Islam may be seen as just another religion/ideology that can be used for his own political purposes.
The case for Obama being a Marxist is far more convincing. He was exposed to Marxist ideology in church under Wright, as well as from Frank Marshall Davis.
The American people now seem to get it, even though the truth about Obama’s relationship with Davis has never been thoroughly explored by the major media. A poll from the Democracy Corps, a Democratic Party firm, found that 55 percent said that Obama could accurately be described as a socialist.
This is far more than the number of people who see him as a Muslim.
If and when the media start examining the Frank Marshall Davis connection, the “socialist” label could take on more sinister connotations.
This is why, of course, they will avoid it.
Cliff Kincaid is the Editor of Accuracy in Media, and can be contacted cliff.kincaid@aim.org
Personally, I don't think Obama really believes in any power higher than himself. Marxism and Secular Humanism are two distinct factions of atheism and I think he has been influenced by both, with a little more of the latter in his adult life.
Then again one should ask, how is Marxism not a religion?
0bama is islamo-marxist. He plays a role and hides his identity.
Except for his ideology which is above all else, I agree with you. He believes in no earthly or heavenly power above himself. It seems like he views both islam and marxism as tools to reach totalitarian goals and dissociates himself from any deity except himself.
Marxism could be seen as an “anti-religion” religion......................
FIRST & FOREMOST A GLOBALIST/MARXIST/FACIST
2ND a faint hint of a pseudo-’Christian’ blackwash pretending to be whitewash.
3rd a traitorous hedonist bustard puppet
Marxism is the replacement of God with the State.
It is idolatry, as Sharron Angle says.
Whether folks “worship” the State or not, the “sheep” Marxists do treat government as their god - the source of all that is good, beneficient, and right.
Doesn't sound like any baptism I ever heard about. Or saw. Or performed.
yes, I affirm that “walking the isle” and “church membership” are stressed more in the black church than real repentance and rebirth.
Hence my tagline.
I believe it is very much a muzzie that uses the strong arm of collectivism/progressivism to further the entrenchment of izslum in the fabric of our Republic...
once the protocols of absolute power are in place, the mask will come off, such as it is...
Yes, no, and definitely.
Go to Trevor Louden’s NewZeal Bolg for a veritable treasure trove of info on Obama’s Marxist connections.
If one then uses that info to do a Two-Degrees-of Obama analysis, there can be no doubt about the Marxist/Communist question.
Correct answer.
But, of all of the world's religions and alleged religions, he is most sensitive, sympathetic, and empathetic towards Islam.
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There’s no doubt that Obama, who (by Islamic law) was born a Muslim, is STILL a Muslim.
Just a bit of the evidence is listed below:
Quotes from Obama’s various speeches:
“Islam has a proud tradition of tolerance.”
Barack Hussein Obama
“it is important for Western countries to avoid impeding Muslim citizens from practicing religion as they see fit”
Barack Hussein Obama
“We will convey our deep appreciation for the Islamic faith, which has done so much over so many centuries to shape the world for the better, including my own country.”
Barack Hussein Obama
“The contribution of Muslims to the United States are too long to catalog because Muslims are so interwoven into the fabric of our communities and our country”
Barack Hussein Obama
“I have lived in a Muslim-majority country... I know, because I am one of them.”
Barack Hussein Obama
“As a student of history, I also know civilization’s debt to Islam.”
Barack Hussein Obama
“Islam has demonstrated through words and deeds the possibilities of religious tolerance and racial equality.”
Barack Hussein Obama
“And since our founding, American Muslims have enriched the United States.”
Barack Hussein Obama
“And I consider it part of my responsibility as President of the United States to fight against negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they appear.”
Barack Hussein Obama
“Moreover, freedom in America is indivisible from the freedom to practice one’s religion. That is why there is a mosque in every state of our union, and over 1,200 mosques within our borders. That is why the U.S. government has gone to court to protect the right of women and girls to wear the hijab, and to punish those who would deny it.”
Barack Hussein Obama
“We are not nor have we even been at war with Islam”
Barack Hussein Obama
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This is what the Marxist/Muslim has done with American tax dollars while Americans lose their jobs and homes. BILLIONS FOR JIHAD!
Obama’s 2009 Supplemental Appropriations for Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Pandemic Flu was revised and “passed by the full committee.” Not sure what the next step is, but based on the summary, it gives billions http://creepingsharia.wordpress.com/2009/05/13/obamas-supplemental-bill-passes-gives-billions-to-enemies/
of U.S. taxpayer dollars to countries and entities that support Sharia law and/or harbor, hide and support those who want to destroy the U.S. and our allies.
Read the summary from David Obey’s office that was quietly released last week with nary a word from any media.
• $3.6 billion, matching the request, to expand and improve capabilities of the Afghan security forces
• $400 million, as requested, to build the counterinsurgency capabilities of the Pakistani security forces
• Afghanistan: $1.52 billion, $86 million above the request
• West Bank and Gaza: $665 million in bilateral economic, humanitarian, and security assistance for the West Bank and Gaza
• Jordan: $250 million, $250 million above the request, including $100 million for economic and $150 million for security assistance
• Egypt: $360 million, $310 million above the request, including $50 million for economic assistance, $50 million for border security, and $260 million for security assistance
• Pakistan: $1.9 billion, $591 million above the request
• Iraq: $968 million, $336 million above the request
• Oversight: $20 million, $13 million above the request, to expand oversight capacity of the State Department, USAID, and the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan to review programs in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq
• Lebanon: $74 million
• International Food Assistance: $500 million, $200 million above the request, for PL 480 international food assistance to alleviate suffering during the global economic crisis
• Refugee Assistance: $343 million, $50 million above the request, …including humanitarian assistance for Gaza. Funding for the UN Relief and Works Agency programs in the West Bank and Gaza is limited to $119 million (Note: Gaza = Hamas)
• Disaster Assistance: $200 million to avert famines and provide life-saving assistance during natural disasters and for internally displaced people around the world, including Somalia, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, the Middle East and South Asia
• Peacekeeping: $837 million for United Nations peacekeeping operations, including an expanded mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and a new mission in Chad and the Central African Republic
• Department of Justice: $17 million, matching the request, for counter-terrorism activities and to provide training and assistance for the Iraqi criminal justice system
The mainstream media remains silent on this but the International News has now picked up the story http://www.thenews.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=22164
— and then there is Obama’s $108 billion IMF bailout scheme http://michellemalkin.com/2009/05/13/obamas-100-billion-imf-bailout-scheme/
in addition to the Supplemental.
in addition to the Supplemental.
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From Obama’s books:
From Dreams From My Father: “THE PERSON WHO MADE ME PROUDEST OF ALL, THOUGH, WAS MY [half brother], ROY..HE CONVERTED TO ISLAM”.
From ‘Dreams From my Father’, “IN INDONESIA, I SPEND TWO YEARS AT A MUSLIM SCHOOL” “..I STUDIED THE KORAN..”
‘Audacity of Hope: “LOLO (Obama’s step father) FOLLOWED ISLAM....”I LOOKED TO LOLO FOR GUIDANCE”.
From ‘The Audacity Of Hope, “I WILL STAND WITH THEM (MUSLIMS) SHOULD THE POLITICAL WINDS OF WAR SHIFT IN AN UGLY DIRECTION..”
http://replay.waybackmachine.org/20080101164820/http://www.examiner.co m/a-536474~_Trapped_between_two_worlds_.html?cid=dc-article-obama
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OBAMA MOCKS THE BIBLE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FCNK...w.phforamerica
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0bamas’ hidden records: Why are these off limits?
Why has he paid out millions to lawyers to keep all this hidden???
1 Certified copy of original birth certificate
2 Columbia University transcripts
3 Columbia thesis paper
4 Campaign donor analysis requested by 7 major watchdog groups
5 Harvard University transcripts
6 Illinois State Senate records
7 Illinois State Senate schedule
8 Law practice client list and billing records/summary
9 Locations and names of all half-siblings and step-mother
10 Medical records (only the one page summary released so far)
11 Occidental College Transcripts
12 Parent’s marriage Certificate
13 Record of baptism
14 Selective Service registration records
(Did Obama Actually Register for Selective Service?
This supposed revelation of 0’s SS records has been debunked here and here.)
15 Schedules for trips outside of the United States before 2007
16 Passport records for all passports
17 Scholarly articles
18 SAT and LSAT test scores
19 Access to his grandmother in Kenya
20 List of all campaign workers that are lobbyists
21 Punahou grade school records
22 Noelani Kindergarten records are oddly missing from the the State of Hawaii Department of Education.
23 Obama 1964 Divorce Papers - 13 Pages - Missing Pg 11
24 Why isn’t Barack Obama still a member of the Illinois bar and where are all of the relevant documents?
25 Why isn’t Michelle Obama still a member of the Illinois bar, after only about four years of practice, and where are all of the relevant documents?
Anyone who cares about their country would be very concerned that a POTUS had hidden every scrap of information of his life that he possibly could.
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Obama said the Muslim call to prayer is “one of the prettiest sounds on earth,” in an interview with Nicholas Kristof, published in The New York Times. Kristof described Obama’s recitation of the Muslim call to prayer, the Adhan, “with a first-class [Arabic] accent.”
The opening lines of the Adhan (Azaan) is the Shahada:
“Allah is Supreme! Allah is Supreme!
Allah is Supreme! Allah is Supreme!
I witness that there is no god but Allah
I witness that there is no god but Allah
I witness that Muhammad is his prophet... “
According to Islamic scholars, reciting the Shahada, the Muslim declaration of faith, makes one a Muslim. This simple yet profound statement expresses a Muslim’s complete acceptance of, and total commitment to, the message of Islam.
(All links to this have been scrubbed- as have most of the dirt on Obama on the net)
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Obama admits he’s a Muslim
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCAffMSWSzY
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Obama appoints Muslims to key security posts:
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/134466
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Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit said he had a one-on-one meeting with Obama, where Obama told him that He was still a Muslim, and that he was sympathetic towards the Muslim agenda. http://beforeitsnews.com/story/76/647/Egyptian_minister:_Obama_told_me_he_is_a_Muslim.html
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Little known facts about Obama, the muzzie:
In 2001, Obama sponsored Illinois Senate Bill 750 creating the “Halal Food Act,” providing for inspections by the Department of Agriculture to ensure that all food labeled Halal is prepared according to Islamic law. http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/legisnet92/summary/920SB0750.html
This act plays into Islamization. Here’s how it works and how Halal food plays a role:
“From 5% on they exercise an inordinate influence in proportion to their percentage of the population.
They will push for the introduction of halaal (clean by Islamic standards) food, thereby securing food preparation jobs for Muslims. They will increase pressure on supermarket chains to feature it on their shelves — along with threats for failure to comply
(United States)
He’s a Muzzie.
Go to The Obama File http://www.theobamafile.com/index.htm
by Beckwith.
Read the ‘Religion’ section:
http://www.theobamafile.com/ObamaReligion.htm
and ‘Islam’:
http://www.theobamafile.com/_Islam/ObamaIslamIndex.htm
The United States Library of Congress has selected
TheObamaFile.com for inclusion in its historic collection
of Internet materials.
http://www.theobamafile.com/LibraryOfCongress.html
.
Yes, No, Yes
Its not just Frank Davis. His mom, his grandparents were I believe communists too.
He admits his affinity to communists in his youth. He spent his life doing the work essentially of a communist organizer. His best friends are all communists. His inner circle are all communists. He’s a communist.
He does have a strong attraction to all things muslim. I don’t think he would see any great contradiction between Islam and Marx. I get the strong impression that even the jihadists have a marxist understanding of economics.
What he is not is a Christian. A lot of people thought he might be, even hoped he might be, a lot of people were curious about him, surprised that someone who seemed so Christian could be a Democrat but hey. But that all evaporated after we were introduced to Reverend Wright. I don’t think anyone believed he was a Christian after Wright got through speaking.
Sure, because Islam is easily used as a force for conquest. He has a ready army of fanatics who can identify with him because of his “muslim” upbringing. Islam is insidious. Under his plan, it will be the new state religion, with plenty of pro-Marxist propaganda thrown in with Islam’s already abundantly pro-statist outlook. They’ll call it shari’a law, but it will just be a rehashing of Marxism.
You have me officially scared out of my wits.
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