Religion and the Obama Administration

Leading up to the election, there was a lot of chatter about President Obama's religion. He himself said he was a Christian, but for many believers, that wasn't enough. There were still questions. (Personally, I take Obama at his word. Only God knows his heart. If he says he's a Christian and really isn't, that's an issue between him and God.)

I read an article in The Christian Science Monitor that talked about the role of religion so far during Obama's transition into the presidency. Here's an excerpt:

For Obama, the broad outreach into the faith community isn't confined to ceremonies but is emerging as a key element in his approach to coalition-building, say religious leaders who worked on the transition.

"Barack Obama is himself a person of faith, but he also believes that the faith community has a real role to play in creating the kind of social change we need now," says the Rev. Jim Wallis, president of Sojourners, a network of Christian social activists.

Indeed, religious groups have been broadly advising the Obama transition team on issues ranging from poverty to criminal justice to foreign policy. "To move from a consuming, polluting, poverty-creating economy to one that conserves, is a good steward of the environment, and focuses on bringing people out of poverty, that's more than a structural crisis, it's a spiritual one," says Mr. Wallis.

As a Christian, I'm biased. Of course I think biblical perspective and faith organizations can bring true change and hope to uncertain times. Having watched the inauguration and listened to Obama's speech on Tuesday, I'm happy about how he's included religion and his faith so far.

What do you think?  Will faith flourish under an Obama presidency?  Will faith play a bigger role than many critics think?

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Comments (64)

I don't get why did Rick Warren decide to call Jesus by various names if He alone is the way, the truth and the life. He called him Jeshua (great), but then called Him Isa which is the muslim Jesus who for them never died on the cross and therefore never resurrected.
That is not the Jesus I know!!!!! You can't have Him as the only way to any way. He can't be resurrected and have never died and resurrected at the same time.
What's going on? Is that people now ask for a NEW RELIGION ORDER? or BELIEF ORDER? Do people really want this type of unity in man and not in Christ. By the way, the Quran was written in the 7th century by a man who had lived among Jews and Christians, perhaps you might find similarities but not the TRUTH!
Faith, in the broadest sense, was a necessary tool for Obama to stand a chance of being elected in the US. I think his priorities will not align much with conservative evangelical Christianity.

Obama is all about change for the betterment of people's lives. He's fairly young and hopes to really make a difference. If he succeeds in improving things it will send a message to the media-saturated, uncritical world that Bush failed because he was a conservative Christian and so now we have proof that left is good, secular with a sprinkling of faith is good etc.

Our challenge is therefore to show the world that real social betterment is most effectively achieved when Christian beliefs are put into practice regardless who puts it into practice or what faith they profess.
I too was so pleased that Obama selected two wonderful men of God to pray over the events of the day and did not restrict that they did not water down their message. I just wonder how Obama reconciles his policy views on abortion and homosexual unions, for instance, with his "Christianity"? Seems to be a disconnect, wouldn't you say?
I don't see any disconnect. Obama hasn't said that a homosexual union is a marriage, only that gay couples should be able to grant rights to each other regarding visitation in hospitals, property ownership, etc. I for one think that is just fine. Also, remember that nothing any government body does, including the Supreme Court of Massachusetts, is binding on churches. It is only about civil marriage licenses. As to abortion, there are millions of Christians who do not favor restoration of criminal penalties for abortion. I'm one of them. But most of all, these are both tiny tiny issues. Nobody's political integrity, or Christianity, can be judge only, mostly, primarily, or even largely, by these issues alone.
For a huge section of conservative Christians, myself included, these are not "tiny tiny" issues - particularly the abortion issue. They are central to the decline of our society as a God fearing, God respecting republic. I'm not attempting to bait you into a pro-choice / pro-life debate, but I am asking any person who claims Jesus Christ as their savior to examine their stance on the subject. God forgive us all.
I agree, we as christians not only need to examine the subject, we as christians need our hearts examined daily. for it is written "for EVERYONE who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light, for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But, whoeever lives by( PRACTICES )the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God(John 3:20-21). Any evil can be judged and will be judged. God is the judge and all you have to do is ask God, who is pure and Holy if it is allright with Him to murder babies FOR ANY REASON and allow homosexual behavior. No I am not going to throw stones, I would get them thrown back at me, I am not stupid! That is why I am talking about the sin being judged, not the sinner. I don't get to judge the person, that is Gods place, if He wants too or not. But, I will stand with God against the sin, and we should not condone such behavior that we know is WRONG. His word said so, not mine. I know when it is all said and done God will deal with it.We as christians don't have to get worked up about it. We don't know what is going on in these peoples lives, only God does,that is why He is the judge,not us. His son died for them like He did for you and I. He loves them too. Now, are part is simple, all God wants us to do is pray for them and show love, but that is not saying we agree with or condone that live style.We are to love people where ever they are in their lives. And to tell the thruth in love. Don't deny the thruth, you know, ANY part of the gospel. God is pretty firm about how He feels about these two subjects, and that is why there is a spiritual warfare going on about this, It is not against flesh and blood.The devil knows how much God hates sin. Remember, it is sin that God hates, not the sinner.Otherwise, He would hate you and me. Lets start praying for all sinners, maybe they will get saved and lets pray for each other, we need it too to resist all evil temptations, more praying, less talking. Maybe we will be able to be used by God more to minister to them, but He can't use us if we are to busy condeming them to hell. Come on, how often do we try to go out and reach them, we just sit back and condemn them and get all worked up and talk about them, about how wrong that is. Have you ever had a heart to heart talk to people who practice sinful behavior. I challenge you to try it, pray to God first. Let's put an end to spending so much time debating, we don't have any energy left to go tell them that Jesus loves them and wants to heal thier hearts that is what a true christian is all about .Spend that energy going out and DOing SOMETHING FOR GODS PEOPLE. Not arguing. You will have great joy! Sorry Steve, I just took off on your wagon!
You are absolutely right about his faith - it is a matter of the heart with God. I remain cautious about his impact because of his liberal approval of gay rights and abortion and worry that executive orders will put in motion "anti hate speech" legislation that will silence the church or the effectiveness of the gospel. His choice of the outwardly homosexual pastor in his inauguration signaled the drift to inclusion of liberal non biblical views. We can only take all of these concerns back to God and pray hard.
I think it will be funny if Obama's administration turns out to be more Christian than the last.

I remember how excited Christian's were about George W Bush when he was coming up for election. He was this born again Christian who was gonna end abortion, get rid of poverty, and show Christ's love to everyone. Needless to say those things didn't happen.

I don't believe any one man no matter how powerful his position or walk is going to change the government. Our time would be better spent reaching out and loving those around us, rather than looking for the president to save us.
@Marianne
@ Mephibashef

I agree with you both. Abortion and gay marriage are going to be big issues when it comes to Obama/Christian relations. I pray that his faith will be stronger than the Democratic platform when it's time for him to deal with these issues. Any strides he's made so far with reaching out to Christians could be lost depending on how he handles these issues.
I have a really hard time reading some of this. I also am not going to pretend to know what is in Obama's heart, but I can say that by his actions (as well as his verbage), I don't know how he can claim to hold to Christian values, but still support the ideas he does. I am going to do a post on my blog about this actually. If any of you actually do not know what Obama believes in regards to abortion and gay marriage, I hope you did not vote. I say that because it shows that you did no research on Obama, which means you likely did little research on McCain. My personal opinion (and I do understand it is just that) is that uninformed people do not belong voting. I pray to that Obama makes the right decisions...but seriously people, take the blinders off!
He can claim to hold Christian values because the values he holds, he understands to be Christian. Think how many differences there are between Christian denominations, and between individuals within many denominations. For that matter, both sides in the Civil War proclaimed themselves to be Christian, and as Abraham Lincoln observed, prayed for victory to the same God. Also, Obama can claim to hold Christian values because he has accepted Jesus Christ as his savior, and told Franklin Graham, "for me, he's the only way." Obama has never endorsed either abortion or gay marriage, by the way.
In his autobiography he says he does not believe in a single truth (with regard to faith and religion). He says that he does not know where we go when we die. These are the 2 hallmarks of the saved: belief that Christ is the only FOR ALL mankind (not just self and others choose their diety of choice) and assurance of where they will spend eternity. I believed he was a Christian too until I read his own words on the matter. He like many has been decieved and created a God in his own image instead of complete to surrender to the God in whose image he has been made.
Perhaps you also have created a God in your own image. You no doubt read the Bible, but so do I. I find in Matthew 25, starting at the 31st verse, that many who profess faith in Christ will be sent to the right, with the goats, and many who never knew Christ will be sent to the left, to receive the reward prepared for them from the foundation of the world. There are self-professed Christians who read those verses differently, but I am confident that many Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, maybe a few atheists, will be with us in heaven. I believe two hallmarks of the saved are defined by what Jesus said were the two commandments on which hang "all the law and the prophets." And Jesus was quoting Hillel. I find Obama's actual words much closer to Jesus than yours. But that's just my opinion. God will judge, in the manner God chooses, in God's own time. Neither you nor I will have the final say.
I was in no way intending to make my words sound close to Jesus and of course I do not want to have final say of such matters. But, no where in God's word does he say that those who reject him shall spend eternity with Him. The way to salvation is made clear in God's word.
Nowhere in God's word? I cited the Biblical basis for my statement. In the hands of mere humans, the word of God is clear as mud, because we ALL impose our own preconceived notions on what we find, and, if it is the complete and perfect word of God, then none of us could hold even a tiny fraction in our own minds. I don't ask you to abandon what you found in God's word, it is obviously good for your individual relationship with God, but what God has for me is for me.
Good article. My job as a Christian is to pray for the President of the United States regardless if I voted for him or not. I found it very hard to do that for Clinton and at times for George W. Bush. I have matured over the last 16 years and will pray for the man in the office because God put him there. God is an awesome God and His reasons for doing things is all right with me. May God bless the USA and our President.
I have to agree with tx. It is our job to support our leaders and pray for them, even if we don't like their policies/beliefs/etc, because we choose to live here. I also agree that since nothing is outside of our Lord's control, that Mr. Obama has a purpose. As to what that is yet, I cannot say.

I support my new President, but I find it distrubing that he has so many contradictions going on at once. He is a man of many faces. Sure, he says he is a follower of Christ (it't not my call as to if he is or isn't), so I will trust him till he shows otherwise...but I have a problem when he says in his speech that science will "be put back in it's proper place".

And as to worried fellow's comments - nail on the head. Mr. Warren has been troublesome since the beginning. I have always had a dislike for him, as his version of the Bible is so watered down (he uses a lot of praraphrased bibles), and on top of that, he is very generic with his messages. Christ didn't come to us with a watered down feel good message. He came to us with a spur to action do-or-die message. This business with incorporating other religions in with his faith is just his latest step in leading people awry. Yes, I have had a very firm suspicion/feeling for quite some time now that Mr. Warren has an agenda of leading people down the wrong path. He sounds like one of my wife's friends who incorporates the choice pieces of any religion into her own, and it has grown to the point where her religion cannot be considered any one faith any more - so yes, you can say it - not New Religion Order, but New World Order. New Age. Against God.

We walk and live in a dark world. Let us continue to bring the Light to it until the very end.
AMEN this makes more sence then anything I've read on this blog sofar!
I think faith could really flourish under Obama and am hoping it does.

I wish I could just once see a conversation about how evangelicals can help affect positive change by working with Obama (or anyone different from them) _without_ mentioning gay rights or abortion. Just once! We all know his stance on these issues. He believes differently than you. I'd like to see us figure out how God can use him to make the world a better place. If God uses him for anything over the next 4 years, then we should be behind that 100% without the obligatory footnote about gays and abortion.
Anyone who thinks it is ok to kill unborn children is a danger and a Christian should know what God says about this. God says he knew us before we were ever born. God permits only one woman and one man to be considered as a married couple...Obama sees otherwise...I will still pray for Obama - that God will change his heart to come iln line with His...
God said he knew Jeremiah before God formed Jeremiah in the womb, therefore Jeremiah should get over his stage fright about public speaking. Personally, as a Christian, I think it is an act of unspeakable cruelty for a married couple, when the wife contracts rubella while pregnant, to carry the pregnancy to term, knowing the severe damage this will inflict upon the child they grow, nurture and deliver. Take the damaged tissue out, and start over with a healthy baby. (Likewise as to one man and one woman... Jewish tradition teaches that polygamy was never prohibited by God, but that Jews in Europe gave it up to survive among their Roman-influenced Christian neighbors.) My point is not that everyone should agree with me, nor that I agree with polygamy, but that we should be careful about quoting half-baked recollections of Scripture out of context, to tell anyone who understands differently "you are not a Christian." The law in this country is, the parents make the decision, not the state, whether the decision is to carry the pregnancy to term, or to abort, and the parents who make the decision take responsibility for the consequences. All of the above are answerable to God, not to the president, the Supreme Court, social workers, demonstrators, or the local police.
What a terribly "cruel" thing to say "take the damaged tissue out". Have you ever had a personal relationship with a Human Being who was a "rubella baby". These are human beings with immeasurable value for whom Christ died. They laugh, love, learn and are loved by their parents just as their typically developing children are. Why on earth would you refer to them as damaged tissue? Remember "...whatever you do unto the least of these you do unto Me"?
My dear brother in Christ, you are talking apples and oranges. When a baby has been delivered, nurtured, raised, and grown to childhood, adolescence, adulthood, it is definitely NOT mere damaged tissue. They are damaged human beings. I don't use damaged as an epithet, but if I can see, and another person cannot, because the cells that would have become eyes were ravaged by an infectious disease in utero, they are damaged. They may be a good friend, a brother or sister in Christ, but if an angel offered them restoration of sight, as a miracle gift from God, I have no doubt they would gratefully accept. Ditto for all kinds of other damage.

There was an article in TIME about children with relatively mild cases of Down's Syndrome who, with some matchmaking help from their mothers, had decided to marry. The bride asked her mother, if we have babies, will they have Down's Syndrome too. The mother truthfully said yes. The bride, after some tears, decided to have her tubes tied. She knew, as no-one else could, how difficult her life had been. While she was making the best of it, she resolved not to bring into the world a baby with the same difficulties. I applaud her courage and empathy.

One reason rubella is so much more devastating during pregnancy is precisely that the life growing within the mother is incomplete, undeveloped, and does not yet have fully developed faculties, so that the destruction wreaked by the infection may have more dire and irreversible consequences. I had rubella, measles, chicken pox, mumps, as a child, some years out of the womb, but it was merely a painful episode from which I recovered. I repeat, if rubella has damaged the tissues in an early stage of pregnancy, I would without hesitation remove the damaged tissue.
I was born with Muscular Dystrophy. In case you don't know what that is, it's a degenerative wasting of the muscles until you are incapable to move, speak or breathe. I am not 'damaged' but a human being! I think for myself and tell others what I need done. Children are not born 'damaged' as you stated and they are not 'garbage' to be thrown out they are living breathing human beings!! Thankfully, my parents thoughts were not like yours I believe they made an intelligent choice in giving me life. I love life and is loved by everyone around me. Yes. I typed and thought this up with my own my mind, not bad for someone you consider damaged, hey?!!
Not bad at all. To offer congratulations for such an accomplishment would be patronizing, but you have every right to be proud of it. Somehow, my reply to the rest of what you offered fell a few spaces down the column. Hope you can find it. Good luck and long life to you.

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