Pastors who pray with Obama say he's a devout Christian

[bloomington-lib]

Source: Miami Herald

Some of Obama's more socially liberal positions on gay rights or atheists' role in society could be contributing to the corollary belief that he isn't a Christian.

However, the pastors also said that his preference to practice his faith privately rather join a Washington church or to wear religion on his sleeve might have helped minimize the public's impression of him as a religious person.

Hunter described the president's call to him earlier this summer when he learned that Hunter's granddaughter had brain cancer.

"He said, 'Remember now, the Lord's with you,' " Hunter recalled. "He became my pastor for just a conversation. It was very genuine, very personal and very much at his initiative. It's one of those glimpses no one else is able to see, and if they were it wouldn't even be a question" of his faith.

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/08/19/1783910/pastors-who-pray-with-obama-say.html#ixzz0x6seXCuE


Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/08/19/1783910/pastors-who-pray-with-obama-say.html

---

Not that I think religion matters AT ALL, it's just another example how conservatives are always wrong. Plus I think it says Obama,in general, is a genuinely caring person. At least more than Bush by a mile.

[DJ13]

1. Obama just gave the GOP hope for 2012

Now they know it doesnt take much to get him to react to BS.

They will keep pushing and pushing from here on out.

The WH needs to stop pandering to the right, stop caring what they think, before a pattern develops that they will bludgeon him with through 2012.

[BootinUp]

5. I seem to recall in '08

Obama had to talk about his faith quite a bit. The fact is we have a lot of voters that want to feel good about the Prez's faith. Why? Well because they are... um kinda paranoid and fearful, you know, of boogie men, evildoers and shit like that.

I wouldn't worry about it coming up, Obama has it covered I think.

[Pirate Smile]

8. That is total crap.

[depakid]

10. So you think he should keep reacting to BS and pandering to the right?

:shrug:

[cosmicone]

13. What if it is a machiavellian idea by Obama

to have third parties air doubts in the undercurrent giving him an opportunity to slug a response out of the ballpark?

The 17 percenters will never be convinced abd they are irrelevant, but moderates and independents need to hear the truth and this is one way to put the truth in focus for them.

I don't think this is something the WH orchestrated, but if they have, I'd say it is brilliant.

[Douglas Carpenter]

15. yeah that will really hurt him politically out in the heartland - given how everybody hates Jesus

The President was very, very clear as a U.S, Senator about his religious beliefs:

Senator Barack Obama's keynote address to the Call To Renewal's Building a Covenant for a New America conference sponsored by the progressive Christian magazine Sojourners on 06/28/06 in Washington DC.:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=385&topic_id=495384

.


.

[madrchsod]

2. i do think he is a religious or a spiritual man

and i could care less if he goes to church or not. as any good christian knows he will be judged by his deeds.

[msongs]

3. equality bad war good. ok nt

[McCamy Taylor]

4. And this gets us more jobs how? Way to distract.

[Adsos Letter]

6. "It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no God.

It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg." --Thomas Jefferson--

It totally disgusts me that we even have to deal with these issues in a legally secular government.

[Nihil]

19. Excellent quote that ...

> "It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no God.
> It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg." --Thomas Jefferson--

:applause:

Thanks for posting it (and for the reminder to those who have forgotten that
it is supposed to be a "legally secular government").

[AlbertCat]

7. Since there are supposed to be no religious tests to hold office....

.... why would I care about any of this?

[primavera]

35. +1

Kinda unbelievable that we're wasting time trying to pin down which set of primitive superstitious rituals the President practices, as if one variety of mumbo jumbo was superior to another.

[Lucky Luciano]

9. "Some of Obama's more socially liberal positions on gay rights..."

:rofl:

Is this a joke?

[The Wizard]

17. And what does Islam do with homosexuals?

Most reich wingers agree with the Sharia solution, death. Thus, it is fair to conclude the teabaggers are the American Taliban, and the President is the true Christian.

[Lucky Luciano]

18. What Islam have to do with my post??!!?!?!&$;)&&????!!

[Posteritatis]

28. Well, he's less likely than the Republicans to want them gassed, at least. (nt)

[LostinVA]

38. Yeah, that struck me too

That Sociopath Cheney, Elizabeth Hasselbeck, Ted Olson, and Cindy McCain are all advocates of marriage equality. It is mindblowing.

[on point]

11. No one should care what his religion his. That he has to clarify is a typical fascist tactic.

The proper response here should have been it is none of your business. To be forced into having to clarify, is to then say in essence "oh I am not one of those nasty Muslims, I'm a christian".

This is despicable and reeks of Nazi fascists tactics "Oh I'm not jewish, I'm a christian" would be a similar response from a different era.

Giving in to these nutcases, instead of going after them and calling them out to be the fascists they are, is to help them in their mission to take over the country.

I am so tired of these people complaining of the "gay agenda" trying to take over the country (I have never seen such an agenda), where the christian lunatic right agenda is very clear and very pernicious. They want to institute a christian fundi nation, where there is no separation of the church and state. They are actually just projecting and revealing their own tactics.

In fact, I think the whole move to privatize schools is their reaction to being told they can't teach religion in public schools. Their response "OK then, we will just kill the public schools. All that will be left is private schools and we can teach in some of those"

These people are dangerous to health of the nation.

[FreeState]

33. When he uses it to form policy I have a problem with it n/t

[deacon]

12. Again, it's all the medias fault. They brag about how inept they are. If they were doing their job

everyone would know he's a christian. The media is destroying this country.

[Beartracks]

14. G. Washington was also private in such matters.

I recall reading where George Washington opted to keep his spirituality out of the public eye, specifically because his personal beliefs on such matters should not have been anyone's concern regarding his role as a public servant, and he did not want public knowledge of his beliefs, whatever they were or were not, to sway anyone's perception of his actions as President.

----------------------------

[dencol]

Keep the prayers up, Obama.

They're working wonders for this country.

[dencol]

16. Keep the prayers up, Obama.

They're working wonders for this country.

[Maeve]

20. the more I see of this stupid hoo-ha, the less faith I have in democracy

If 18% of Americans think he's a Muslim, how can they be trusted to vote?

[mike r]

21. We need to see a notarized affidavit from Jesus on this

Not a certification. A real notarized affidavit signed by Jesus.
:sarcasm:

[and-justice-for-all]

22. I do not think he is being paid to pray...nt

[totodeinhere]

23. How is whether or not he is a devout Christian relevant?

And even if he were a Muslim, which of course he is not, what would be wrong with that? I hope that one day we will have a Muslim president and a Jewish president and an atheist president.

[hamsterjill]

24. Practicing his faith privately

I admire Obama for doing this. His religious preferences should be a non-issue.

We are never going to be a united country until the fools learn that they cannot get attention by proclaiming "he's different from me, so let's all hate him". It is the fools' own insecurity that makes them worry about someone being "different than they are", to begin with.

Gosh, wasn't this country founded on the right to believe as one chooses?

[Vehl]

25. What boggles my mind is that the need for eny explanation at all!

By trying to explain/disprove the outlandish claims by right wingnuts, the administration is giving some semblence of sanity to the stark raving birther/obama is a muslim crazies out there!

[defendandprotect]

31. Agree .....

[old mark]

26. I just wish he was a devout Democrat.....nt

[Ratty]

27. Jesus H. Christ! It never ends does it?

[USA_1]

29. Reichwingers

on the one hand they say President Obama is Muslim, on the other hand they say he is a disciple of Christian Rev Jeremiah Wright

[defendandprotect]

30. Who, but idiots, care ...? We need less praying and more liberal/progressive action!!

[dimbear]

32. This is politics.

Idiots are a large and important subset of all voters. Remember 2000?

[defendandprotect]

40. Truly have no basis to say you're wrong ... but also remember ....

Corporate $$$ -- computer voting -- the large computers used by MSM which gave them

new powers to predict and call elections and presidential winners -- and what we

saw in 2000 was simply a reversal of those new powers --

Don't forget the GOP-sponsored fascist rally to stop the vote counting in Miami-Dade

County which was mandated by the Florida State Supreme Court and that there was absolutely

NO police interference with that rally which became quite disruptive and which did shut

down the counting -- permanently!!

I think previous to this the official count brought Bush's "lead" to something like

34 votes?

And then also remember that MSM was do all they could to mislead and herd the public to

the side of Bush --

Granted 300,000 "Democrats" in Florida did vote for Bush -- !!

But I still think a few other things can be blamed for what went down vs American

idiocy! Tho . . . I don't entirely discount it!!

:evilgrin:

[superconnected]

34. From what I can tell, this means he has to prove he's Christian

I'm going to guess that it's because they don't want people to think he's Muslin. Apparently even a perceived Muslin president would be bad for the polls or the Nov elections.

Kinda shows where America really is on religion. I mean maybe the people here on DU are fringe because we tend to ignore this and call the rest of America uninformed. Uninformed as they may be, they're calling the shots as far as who the politicians are pandering to. Now if we could figure out how to speak to them and get them to come to our side. Something Fox has done successfully and we are not pulling off.

[krabigirl]

36. Who cares? The word christian has been tainted anyway. In 20 years, no one will want to admit

That they are one.

[daleo]

37. But, does he believe in Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny?

As a Santa Clausian, I say we should have no truck with Easter Bunnians.

[Critters2]

39. I heard him speak about his faith at the UCC General Synod in 2007.

But then, he left the UCC after that...but no reason to think he quit being a Christian. He was quite eloquent in sharing how faith informed his life.

[No Elephants]

41. After announcing that he will make a statement, but will take no questions, President Obama should

read this statement to the WH Press Corps (or, perhaps even better, WH Press Secretary Gibbs can read it as a statement from the President, or, with some obvious changes, as Gibbs'own statement):



"The people of the United States of America elected me their President. As a result of that election, I took a solemn oath to preserve and defend the Constitution of the United States of America, an oath that the Constitution itself requires. Therefore, my solemn duty is to preserve and defend the Constitution of the United States of America throughout my tenure.

Both the Constitution and our very noblest history, from 1620 to the present, are very clear that that the government of the United States of America, of which the Presidency is a co-equal branch, is to take no step whatever toward establishment of religion.

Our history and Constitution also tell us that the government of the United States, of which the Presidency is a co-equal branch, is not to interfere in any way with individual religious belief.

From those two provisions of the First Amendment, we can safely conclude that the Framers of the Constitution of the United States of America intended religion to be a personal matter, not a government matter.

The Constitution of the United States of America makes no exceptions to the First Amendment. Therefore, we can safely conclude that even the individual religious beliefs of the President of the United States of America, of members of the Congress of the United States of America and of members of the federal judiciary of the United States of America are a personal matter, not a government matter.

As to the Presidency in particular, the Constitution of the United States of America is also very specific: There is to be no religious test whatever for the Presidency.

At some point, we, the citizens of the United States of America--including members of the media--perhaps will want to ask ourselves whether focus on a personal matter, such as individual religious beliefs, should appropriately have any limiTts in the United States of America.

As an aside, I note that the Bible says Jesus taught repeatedly that we should not make a public show of our individual religious or charitable practices. Perhaps, perhaps this is one of many instances Christian principles coincide or overlap with our government’s law. However, I will leave public interpretation of religious teachings to others. My focus in this statement is Constitutional values. Thank you."


Then, he should immediately turn and stride out of the room purposefully and never, ever take any question about this statement in the future. And, whenever the issue of his religion comes up again, the response should be that “the President has already answered every possible question about his religious beliefs and practices.” PERIOD.


(N.B. I purposely repeated "the United States of America" excessively, to make a point.)




Unfortunately, this may remind people that the oath got flubbed, but I think this statement needs making anyway, both for Obama's own benefit and for the benefit of our Constitutional values.

Sure, everyone has a First Amendment right to ask a President anything and to investigate any matter. But, the President has no duty to act as though the POTUS, whoever he or she may be at any given time, has to pass a Christianity litmus test whenever anyone feels like bringing up the issue of religion. To the contrary, as indicated above, the President may have a higher duty.

Obama, having already answered the question over and over, is now in an ideal position to be the President who says something like the above. Enough is enough is enough!


Another possible downside: After this speech, Democrats and/or the media might get criticized for publicizing things like Palin’s getting protected from witches by prayer, Romney’s Mormon mandated underwear, and so on. But, unless Obama himself plans to go down those roads, I don’t think anything in the above statement would come back to bite him individually. Strategists, pundits, reporters, etc. have a First Amendment right to say and ask whatever they want.