Source: http://www.simplysharing.com/assuringlight/obama.htm
“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 that there’s an obligation for all of us individually as well as collectively to take responsibility to make those values lived.” (snip)
He is saying, essentially, that all people of faith – Christians, Jews, Muslims, animists, everyone – know the same God. It is, perhaps, an unlikely theological position for someone who places his faith squarely at the feet of Jesus to take. But that depends on how you hear a verse from the Gospel of St. John, where Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me,” Obama says.
That's actually a pretty ambiguous statement.
I’m not sure what to think about this guy. He confuses me.
This is a 2004 interview on his religion. Afer reading his interview, it confirmed to me that he used Trinity church as a means to politically secure himself in Chicago. He appears have a new-age type of thinking. These are a few highlights:
When I tuck in my daughters at night and I feel like I’ve been a good father to them, and I see in them that I am transferring values that I got from my mother and that they’re kind people and that they’re honest people, and they’re curious people, that’s a little piece of heaven.
Obama: Part of the reason I think it’s always difficult for public figures to talk about this (religion) is that the nature of politics is that you want to have everybody like you and project the best possible traits onto you. Oftentimes that’s by being as vague as possible, or appealing to the lowest commong denominators. The more specific and detailed you are on issues as personal and fundamental as your faith, the more potentially dangerous it is.
OBAMA:
Being out of alignment with my values.
GG:
What happens if you have sin in your life?
OBAMA:
I think it’s the same thing as the question about heaven. In the same way that if I’m true to myself and my faith that that is its own reward, when I’m not true to it, it’s its own punishment.
(He laughs nervously)
OBAMA:
Right.
Jesus is an historical figure for me, and he’s also a bridge between God and man, in the Christian faith, and one that I think is powerful precisely because he serves as that means of us reaching something higher.
And he’s also a wonderful teacher. I think it’s important for all of us, of whatever faith, to have teachers in the flesh and also teachers in history.