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To some, Obama is the 'wrong' kind of Christian
CNN ^ | October 21, 2012 | By John Blake

Posted on 10/21/2012 5:48:02 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer

...Historians may remember Obama as the nation’s first black president, but he’s also a religious pioneer. He’s not only changed people’s perception of who can be president, some scholars and pastors say, but he’s also expanding the definition of who can be a Christian by challenging the religious right’s domination of the national stage.

Obama is a progressive Christian who blends the emotional fire of the African-American church, the ecumenical outlook of contemporary Protestantism, and the activism of the Social Gospel, a late 19th-century movement whose leaders faulted American churches for focusing too much on personal salvation while ignoring the conditions that led to pervasive poverty.

No other president has shared the hybrid faith that Obama displays, says Diana Butler Bass, a historian and author of “Christianity after Religion.”

“The kind of faith that Obama articulates is not the sort of Christianity that’s understood by the media or by a large swath of Christians in the U.S.,” says Bass, a progressive Christian. “He’s a different kind of Christian, and the media and the public awareness needs to reawaken to that fact.”

(Excerpt) Read more at religion.blogs.cnn.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 2012electionbias; boycotttimewarner; cnnlied; demagogicparty; dianabutlerbass; godgap; jeremiahwright; johnblake; obamaonreligion; obamatruthfile; partisanmediashills; pravdamedia; religiousleft; religiousvote; secularhumanist; timelies
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Barack Obama is not a Christian, or anything else.

He only worships the guy in the mirror.


41 posted on 10/21/2012 6:34:44 AM PDT by Mrs.Z
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

No No No, God Damn America. White folks greed runs a world in need. All that for a Damn flag.

That President? That Christian?


42 posted on 10/21/2012 6:38:22 AM PDT by PA-RIVER
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To: HannibalHamlinJr

Yes, he’s the new kind. The kind that supports throwing a living baby into a trash can.

Allah Akbar.... The kind that celebrates Rahmadan. The kind that hides in Hawaii on a beach so people can’t see him celebrate the birth of Jesus. That kind.

The kind that is raised memorizing the koran.


43 posted on 10/21/2012 6:46:07 AM PDT by PA-RIVER
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

He’s not a Christian. He is a communist (”no God”) and a black separatist with strong sympathies for the middle-eastern ideology cleverly disguised as a religion.


44 posted on 10/21/2012 6:46:07 AM PDT by I want the USA back
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

So are they saying he really took to heart all those hate-filled Wright sermons that previously he was said to have been sleeping through?


45 posted on 10/21/2012 6:46:28 AM PDT by FreedomPoster (Islam delenda est.)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer
I thought I was witnessing CNN slowly circling and eyeing the demographic Fox News recently abandoned -- those on the political right.

But apparently not.

There is a business opportunity out there for a gutsy person.

46 posted on 10/21/2012 6:49:01 AM PDT by Lazamataz (The Pravda Press has gone from 'biased' straight on through to 'utterly bizarre'.)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

I doubt Obama is a believer because he (and his mentor Wright) cannot say with certainty that Jesus is the only way. There are several quotes to be found where he hem hawed around this acid test of faith: Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life...and every other way isn’t.

This permeates all Scripture. It transcends the gnostic claptrap found in discussions about “right wing” or “progressive” Christianity. Everyone needs the Lord as he really is, not as our intellectual flesh might wish him to be.


47 posted on 10/21/2012 6:51:07 AM PDT by avenir (I'm pessimistic about man, but I'm optimistic about GOD!)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

I doubt Obama is a believer because he (and his mentor Wright) cannot say with certainty that Jesus is the only way. There are several quotes to be found where he hem hawed around this acid test of faith: Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life...and every other way isn’t.

This permeates all Scripture. It transcends the gnostic claptrap found in discussions about “right wing” or “progressive” Christianity. Everyone needs the Lord as he really is, not as our intellectual flesh might wish him to be.


48 posted on 10/21/2012 6:51:07 AM PDT by avenir (I'm pessimistic about man, but I'm optimistic about GOD!)
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To: Venturer

Muslim on the down low.... That’s funny!!!


49 posted on 10/21/2012 6:52:03 AM PDT by PA-RIVER
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

A hybrid Christian....
CNN and this writer just need to go out of business and just go away!


50 posted on 10/21/2012 6:53:10 AM PDT by conservativesister
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

I wonder if CNN understands why their ratings have taken a nosedive?


51 posted on 10/21/2012 6:59:47 AM PDT by moovova (I work well with others, as long as they leave me alone.)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Quotes from article:

“Mansfield called Obama’s boyhood a “religious swirl. He was exposed to Catholicism, Islam, and strains of Hinduism and Buddhism while growing up in Indonesia during the 1960s.

“In our household, the Bible, the Koran and the Bhagavad Gita sat on the shelf alongside books of Greek and Norse and African mythology,” Obama said in Mansfield’s book. “On Easter or Christmas Day, my mother might drag me to church, just as she dragged me to the Buddhist temple, the Chinese New Year celebration, the Shinto shrine, and ancient Hawaiian burial sites.”

...

In a 2006 speech before a Sojourners meeting, Obama talked about his approach to the Bible:

“Which passages of Scripture should guide our public policy? Should we go with Leviticus, which suggests slavery is OK and that eating shellfish is abomination? How about Deuteronomy, which suggests stoning your child if he strays from the faith? Or should we just stick to the Sermon on the Mount – a passage that is so radical that it’s doubtful that our own Defense Department would survive its application?”

...

For some, Obama’s actions in the Oval Office seem to contradict Christianity...

The Bible talks about the sanctity of marriage between a man and a woman. Obama invoked Jesus when he came out in support of same-sex marriage. “The thing at root that we think about is, not only Christ sacrificing himself on our behalf, but it’s also the Golden Rule,” Obama told ABC News during his announcement.

Jesus talked about helping the poor. But he never said anything about creating a massive health care law that taxed the rich to help the poor, some Christians argue.


52 posted on 10/21/2012 7:00:09 AM PDT by Siegfried X
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

HE’S. A. mUSLIM.

He is NO Christian; never was.


53 posted on 10/21/2012 7:00:17 AM PDT by Carriage Hill (The 0bummer Penguin & Bidet Joker: We played this country like a harp from hell.)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

you shall know them by their fruits. all I need to know about Obama’s faith.


54 posted on 10/21/2012 7:02:31 AM PDT by ro_dreaming (G.K. Chesterton, “Christianity has not been tried and found wanting. It’s been found hard and lef)
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To: MestaMachine

“...not...understood by the media or by a large swath of Christians...”

Gosh, I feel so unwashed and...illiterate.

Thanks for pointing that out, CNN.


55 posted on 10/21/2012 7:04:14 AM PDT by moovova (I work well with others, as long as they leave me alone.)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

“The kind of faith that Obama articulates is not the sort of Christianity that’s understood by the media or by a large swath of Christians in the U.S.”

He’s a Christian and my 12 year old son is middle line backer for the Denver Broncos. But its probably because I’m just to dumb to understand the nuance in his Christianity. If you nuance the Bible enough. And then nuance the nuances. Out pops Barack Obama, Christian.


56 posted on 10/21/2012 7:05:49 AM PDT by ModelBreaker
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To: Northern Yankee

Yep


57 posted on 10/21/2012 7:06:54 AM PDT by patriot08 (TEXAS GAL- born and bred and proud of it!)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Egads! Political party affiliation and the politicians who represent it do NOT define Christianity. Only the Bible defines it. How absurd and offensive.


58 posted on 10/21/2012 7:09:00 AM PDT by CityCenter (It's too late, Obama yeah, it's too late.)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

We are what we DO and LIVE, not what we SAY we are.

obama’s a muslim. Clearly.


59 posted on 10/21/2012 7:09:36 AM PDT by joethedrummer
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To: AdmSmith; AnonymousConservative; Berosus; bigheadfred; Bockscar; ColdOne; Convert from ECUSA; ...

Nice that a CNN op-ed spewer is an expert on religion, eh?

John Blake is just another Partisan Media Shill from the Demagogic Party.

Thanks Oldeconomybuyer.


60 posted on 10/21/2012 7:11:03 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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