A Pew Forum survey revealing that 24% of Americans believe President Obama is a Muslim—more than twice the number at the time of his election—is focusing attention on this administration’s odd handling of religion.
First, to the point. No, Barack Obama is not a Muslim. Yes, he practiced Islam as a child at his stepfather’s side but he did not make a confession of faith after he entered adolescence, which is Islam’s requirement. Then, as we now know so well, young Barack found his way to Trinity United Church of Christ on the Southside of Chicago and thus came to embrace an exceptionally liberal, “all religions lead to the same place” kind of Christianity. Yes, he believes that Jesus is the Son of God. Yes, he believes that Jesus died on a cross for the sins of the world. Yes he believes that God raised Jesus from the dead again. Beyond these certainties, though, Obama picks and chooses from traditional theology. He believes that some scripture is of human origin and he does not hold that all traditional theology has to be embraced to embrace the faith itself.
Yet all this was known as of his election. What has caused such confusion is his inconsistent embrace of religion while in the White House. He hosted Jewish Seders, Muslim Iftar dinners and even Hindu ceremonies—as have other presidents including the evangelical George W. Bush. Yet when it came to evangelicals and, more broadly, Christians as a whole, Obama became distant. He stayed away from National Day of Prayer events—dear to Christians nationwide—and did not even send a representative to a National Prayer Breakfast. He is in the running for making fewer statements of faith than any other recent American president at this point in his term. He seems eager to reach to the Muslim world—perhaps sensing that his history and race position him as a healer of Muslim wounds—yet has done little to reach to the Dobsons and Robertsons and Grahams of whom he has often been critical.
Some would make much of his refusal to attend a Washington D.C. church. This is a distraction. Where the Obamas go to church is a private matter. Moreover, a presidential visit to a DC church usually produces a chaotic sacrilege and it is not hard to understand why the First Family would choose the quiet and privacy of Camp David where they do, in fact, worship and where they are well tended by fine military chaplains. This issue, like that of the president being a Muslim, simply needs to go away and conservatives who believe otherwise should remember that the revered Ronald Reagan seldom darkened the door of a church except on special occasions. No one of right mind questions his faith.
The simple fact is that the Obama administration has made hash of any coherent articulation of the president’s religious beliefs. I made this point on CNN this morning and was countered by one of the president’s spiritual advisers. Argue with me if you will, though, the statistics tell the story. The number of people who believe the president is a Muslim has more than doubled since he took office and nearly half of all Americans have no idea what he believes. This during an economic crisis in which the hurting turn to faith and hope their president does as well. This during not one but two wars about which Americans hope their Commander-in-Chief prays to a trusted God.
Perhaps religious liberalism thrives in uncertainty, is best sustained in murky theological waters. Perhaps politics forces even the religiously certain into vague and insincere pious mush. These matters should be debated by the serious minded and the patriot. What is without doubt is that one of our most articulate presidents has left his nation feeling confused and even betrayed in matters of faith. Surely we deserve better in times like these.
