Obama says he's Christian 'by choice'

[Luke65]

“Ye shall know them by their fruit.”

It’s good to see most Catholics here recognize the rancid fruit of Barack Obama. May God continue to bless His people.

 

[Beau_Ouiville]

I’m about signed off on this guy, Obama. He is nothing more than a politician who has seen that being a “non-Christian” is a political liability.

That’s why he’s been professing Christianity for the last 30 years?

This the FOURTH consecutive report and headliner where Obama has to call attention to his “faith” and he keeps the Christian qualifier.

Now, didn’t someone ask each time? Or do you prefer the politicians who flog religion around on their sleeves for everyone to admire? Isn’t that pharisaical?

 

[kitkatty]

Obama may have said this at one time,correct me if I am wrong but I am sure I have never heard the man say he loves Jesus. Anyone who can only talk of Jesus in terms of liking His teachings/philosophy can`t be called a Christian as I see it. I also agree with the poster who said we never hear him speak about believing in the Ressurection. Actually I get the impression from what I have heard him say about Jesus runs more along the lines that Jesus was a great teacher with a philosophy to be admired, and even at that I think Obama picks and chooses which Christian teachings he admires.

 

[Christopher68]

Obama’s comments were part of a town hall style event where the focus was on the economy. The person who questioned Obama about religion obviously broke from the script of the event, but Obama’s comments came across as genuine, at least from my perspective. I am not a Democrat or a Republican, so I don’t have any partisan blinders on - I’m just calling it like I see it.

 

[rlg94086]

The statement is not uncharitable and I’m not always sure people make a conscious decision. For some,** I suspect it is more of a glorified habit**.

Interesting. You have a problem with people questioning Obama’s religious convictions, but you don’t have a problem judging cradle Catholics, as a group. …not uncharitable, at all.

 

[Robert_Bay]

NOTICE

Some rules of the road here:

1. Don’t pass judgement on President Obama’s spiritual life.
2. Don’t pass judgement on other Catholic’s spiritual life either.
3. If the man says he is a Christian, we take him at his word here.
4. Don’t call people names.
5. Always post charitably
6. Discuss the issues, not each other.

 

[markbrumbaugh]

ALBUQUERQUE — President Obama expounded Tuesday on the reasons he became a Christian as an adult, telling a group of residents here that he was a “Christian by choice” and that “the precepts of Jesus Christ spoke to me in terms of the kind of life that I would want to lead – being my brother and sister’s keeper.”

I think he has a different interpretation of what “being my brother’s keeper” means.

 

[Suudy]

Read this and decide for yourself.

blog.beliefnet.com/stevenwaldman/2008/11/obamas-interview-with-cathleen.html

M

From the interview:
FALSANI: What is sin?**OBAMA: **Being out of alignment with my values.

FALSANI: 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.

Fascinating. The perfect example of moral relativism. Obama apparently believes that each gets to define their own sin and that the only real punishment comes from deviating from one’s own values. Now, Beau says that Obama has been “professing Christianity for the last 30 years,” but I don’t know any Christian denomination that thinks people get to decide for themselves what is sin.

 

[autdrew]

The part I have had a problem with was that he wrote, himself, in his book, Dreams from my Father, that he decided he needed “street cred” in Chicago as a community organizer, so he looked around at what church the black community there was identifying with. It was a political calculation.
That being said, God does work in mysterious ways. I cannot say whether he had a true conversion of heart after he began attending. There is no way for any of us to know that. All we can go by is what he says & does.

Also wanted to add, the Republicans did not make an issue out of the church. I believe it was Sean Hannity that played the clips from Jeremiah Wright and, I think, rightly asked if these were also the views of Obama. They werent so much theological questions but political points of view. He did listen to those things for 20 years, if he didnt agree he could have found another church. It is possible that he stayed for political advantage and then left when it no longer was advantageous for him. He actually named his other book after a sermon he heard at that church. It was fair that those questions were asked because he got an almost complete pass from the media. When that association became a problem for him, he chose to leave for political advantage. Saying that he sat there for 20 years and never heard anything like that was unbelievable. He got a total free pass from a usually more skeptical media.

 

[GaryTaylor]

Fantastic, we’ll see how he fairs when he’s out of office shortly.

BTW Obama hasn’t been Christian for 30-years. Obama alligned himself with a fringe Christian Church when he started his political career. And that was 1996.

 

[DawnInTexas]

"President Obama said Tuesday that he is a “Christian by choice” and that his decision was influenced by gospel teachings about salvation and the importance of loving one another.

His mother and the grandparents who helped raised him weren’t regular churchgoers, Obama told a group here. But he became a Christian later in life because of the religion’s basic principles, he said.

“It was because the precepts of Jesus Christ spoke to me in terms of the kind of life that I would want to lead,” Obama said. “Being my brother’s and sister’s keeper. Treating others as they would treat me.”

Obama also spoke of the doctrine of salvation and of Jesus Christ “dying for my sins,” a set of beliefs many Christians consider fundamental to the profession of faith."

chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sc-dc-0929-obama-campaign-20100928,0,571396.story

That’s better than getting it in the cradle. He made a conscious decision.

Now, if he can only find a Denomination of Christianity that fits his Agenda…

…still looking?

God Bless.
+Jesus, I Trust In You!
Love, Dawn

 

[Charlotte408]

Some poster- Actually in his case it isn’t. He’s never done anything to demonstrate his being a Christian. Ever.

Beau- He’s been to church.



This was the funniest exchange, ever. Oh well that makes it official, Beau…he’s been to church!

Whats that saying, about parking bikes in garages? It doesn’t make them cars?

 

[4Squarebaby]

Now, if he can only find a Denomination of Christianity that fits his Agenda…

…still looking?

God Bless.
+Jesus, I Trust In You!
Love, Dawn

That would be easy, but he must also find a Black congregation and Pastor which also meets that need. Eventhough he no longer plays to a Chicago but a national audience old habits are hard to break.

 

[DawnInTexas]

Father Jonathan Morris, on Fox just now stated something like: How many Christians do you know say they fell in love with the precepts of Jesus?

Answer: They usually fall in love with Love itself!
He said to ask Christians what made them convert, and Obama’s is an odd answer.

Amen. (I believe).

God Bless.
+Jesus, I Trust In You!
Love, Dawn

 

[SwizzleStick]

Obama says he is a Christian. Fine. But, I think his idea of what it means to be a Christian and my idea of what it means (along with likely many, many other Christians as well) differ greatly. While my version is Christ-centered Catholicism, Obama’s was Black Liberation Theology, a religion that centers on the idea that blacks are oppressed victims of whites and Christ knew what that was like because he too was poor and oppressed. (I say “was” because Obama attended services with Rev. Wright for a couple of decades, but I think he has yet to find another place or kind of worship.) To get an idea of what Christianity means to Obama, research Black Liberation Theology. Here’s a start:

"The Marxist Roots of Black Liberation Theology
…
…James Cone, the chief architect of Black Liberation Theology in his book A Black Theology of Liberation (1970), develops black theology as a system. In this new formulation, Christian theology is a theology of liberation – “a rational study of the being of God in the world in light of the existential situation of an oppressed community, relating the forces of liberation to the essence of the gospel, which is Jesus Christ,” writes Cone. Black consciousness and the black experience of oppression orient black liberation theology – i.e., one of victimization from white oppression.

One of the tasks of black theology, says Cone, is to analyze the nature of the gospel of Jesus Christ in light of the experience of oppressed blacks. For Cone, no theology is Christian theology unless it arises from oppressed communities and interprets Jesus’ work as that of liberation. Christian theology is understood in terms of systemic and structural relationships between two main groups: victims (the oppressed) and victimizers (oppressors). In Cone’s context, writing in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the great event of Christ’s liberation was freeing African Americans from the centuries-old tyranny of white racism and white oppression. …

Excerpted from: acton.org/pub/commentary/2008/04/02/marxist-roots-black-liberation-theology

 

[SwizzleStick]

Obama says he is a Christian. Fine. But, I think his idea of what it means to be a Christian and my idea of what it means (along with likely many, many other Christians as well) differ greatly. While my version is Christ-centered Catholicism, Obama’s was Black Liberation Theology, a religion that centers on the idea that blacks are oppressed victims of whites and Christ knew what that was like because he too was poor and oppressed. (I say “was” because Obama attended services with Rev. Wright for a couple of decades, but I think he has yet to find another place or kind of worship.) To get an idea of what Christianity means to Obama, research Black Liberation Theology. Here’s a start:

"The Marxist Roots of Black Liberation Theology
…
…James Cone, the chief architect of Black Liberation Theology in his book A Black Theology of Liberation (1970), develops black theology as a system. In this new formulation, Christian theology is a theology of liberation – “a rational study of the being of God in the world in light of the existential situation of an oppressed community, relating the forces of liberation to the essence of the gospel, which is Jesus Christ,” writes Cone. Black consciousness and the black experience of oppression orient black liberation theology – i.e., one of victimization from white oppression.

One of the tasks of black theology, says Cone, is to analyze the nature of the gospel of Jesus Christ in light of the experience of oppressed blacks. For Cone, no theology is Christian theology unless it arises from oppressed communities and interprets Jesus’ work as that of liberation. Christian theology is understood in terms of systemic and structural relationships between two main groups: victims (the oppressed) and victimizers (oppressors). In Cone’s context, writing in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the great event of Christ’s liberation was freeing African Americans from the centuries-old tyranny of white racism and white oppression. …

Excerpted from: acton.org/pub/commentary/2008/04/02/marxist-roots-black-liberation-theology

Here’s a link to a thread here on CAF that discusses Black Liberation Theology.

What is Black Liberation Theology?
forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=237261

 

[viveret]

A Christian by choice? Sure, I can believe that.
A Christian by commitment? I don’t know.
My impression is that Obama, and many people calling themselves Christians out there, have a cut-to-fit version of Christianity. When they speak about their faith, they mean, literally, their faith, not that of an institution, not that which might have an objective existence.
In other words, we really are at the mercy of this person’s faith. We have no way of knowing or holding him to any ethical standard because his faith is informal and uncommitted in any formal sense.
Where his faith takes him, we are bound to go also.
This is not a good situation.

 

[viveret]

Christianity is a human religion, not a black religion.
The liberation of all is more important than the liberation of some.
And it is only possible through Christ, who “stretched his arms of love out on the hard wood of the Cross that all might come within the reach of his saving embrace.”
Charles Henry Brent.

 

[Beau_Ouiville]

Obama says he is a Christian. Fine. But, I think his idea of what it means to be a Christian and my idea of what it means (along with likely many, many other Christians as well) differ greatly.

And I think that would apply to many other politicians, also.

You know, I don’t think that the concept of a black liberation theology really pertains to this discussion. Folks sure seem to have a problem with that and with black nationalism because digressive riffs on them just keep occurring.

 

[rlg94086]

And I think that would apply to many other politicians, also.

You know, I don’t think that the concept of a black liberation theology really pertains to this discussion. Folks sure seem to have a problem with that and with black nationalism because digressive riffs on them just keep occurring.

I think people have problems with “black nationalism” in the same way that most people have a problem with “white power” movements. Race-based politics and religion are automatically distasteful to most people.