Obama: Christian or Muslim?

Obama: Muslim or Christian




When Obama first took office nearly 12% of the population thought him to be a Muslim. Now nearly 33% of Americans think Obama is a closet Muslim. There are pictures floating the internet of Obama removing his shoes as he is about to pray with certain Muslims. But, there are others pictures of Obama at the wailing wall with what looks like a Jewish kippah, or skullcap on his head. We don’t know where he was born, we don’t know who his father was, we don’t know why there are no records of his college life. No one really seems to know who Barack Obama is.

That kind of mystery feeds the frenzy surrounding his religious claims. He claims to be a Christian. I suppose only God knows but if he is a Christian he is certainly a mediocre Christian at best if there even is such a person. We could count on one hand the number of times he’s taken his family to church in the last 18 months. He says he receives a daily devotional from Josh DuBois, the director of the Faith-Based Initiatives Office, on his blackberry. The Bible would be a better source of inspiration than a Blackberry. By his own admission he said he didn’t attend Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s church often enough to realize that the pastor who married he and his wife and mentored him for 21 years had a deep seated hatred for America and all she stands for.

If Obama is Christian then he is mediocre at best. The Bible has some pretty harsh words for those who would choose mediocrity. “Because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.” (Rev. 3:16)

So, let’s assume Barack is a closet Muslim. Would the Muslims want to claim him. If we measured Obama by the five pillars of Muslim he comes up very short.

1. A Muslim believer will make this profession: “There is no god but Allah, and Mohammed is his messenger.” I’ve never heard Obama utter those words.

2. A Muslim believer is directed to give 2.5% of his income to the needy. Tax records reveal that the Obamas gave less than 1% of their income to charity in the five years leading up to his run for the presidency.

3. A Muslim believer must pray toward Mecca five times a day. If Obama does this he is a match for the late Houdini.

4. A Muslim believer fasts during the month of Ramadan. There is no evidence that Obama has ever conducted a fast during that month.

5. A Muslim believer is expected to make at least one pilgrimage to Mecca in his lifetime. There is no record that Obama has done that.

If he is a Muslim, he is not very devout. He is mediocre at best.

I suspect that Obama is neither a devout Christian nor is he a devout Muslim. I believe strongly that he is a devout humanist. I teach humanism as a religion in my Apologetics class. According to the Humanist Manifesto, humanism is a “philosophical, religious and moral point of view.” Most humanists would deny their beliefs are a religion because they don’t want to be expelled from public schools.

Humanists believe in an ethical relativism or the belief that no absolute morals exist. Man adjusts his ethical standards according to the situation (situational ethics) in which he finds himself. What’s right for you may not be right for me. Man, not God, makes up the rules. We don’t really discover any existing truth, we sort of develop truth as we go.

Past presidents who were most aware of the existence and presence of God were the most humble of presidents. Arrogance and pride replace humility when we center our beliefs on humanity instead of the Divine. I remember frequent references to God by Ronald Reagan and George “W”. I even remember Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter referring often to the Almighty One. I would be interested if someone did a search to discover the number of references Obama has made to God compared to previous presidents.

Christian…questionable. Muslim….they wouldn’t have him. Humanist seems to fit him well.