I was recently fortunate enough to come across a post on the blog of Michael Hyatt, the President & CEO of Christian publishing house Thomas Nelson, offering a free copy of the recently published The Faith of Barack Obama by Stephen Mansfield to the first 200 bloggers who were prepared to both read and then post a review of the book on their blog. I was already familiar with the work of Mansfield as I own one of his earlier books - ‘The Faith of George W Bush’ - and so I didn’t hesitate to request a copy. I was very interested in a book that would explore and hopefully explain the faith of the Illinois Senator and presumptive Democratic nominee for the most powerful position in the world, President of the United States of America.
Before beginning to read the book I cast my mind back both to a comment Michael had made on his blog reminding us of the wisdom to be found in Proverbs 18:13 “He who answers a matter before he hears it, it is folly and shame to him” and to one of my favorite sayings “Minds are like parachutes - they work best when open” (Opinions 1)
And so as I turned the first page of the book I was trying hard not to pre-judge the contents and to keep an open mind. I got to the third page of the introduction before my open mind was severely challenged. Whilst commenting on Obama’s words at the DMC in July 2004 where he said “We worship an awesome God in the Blue States” Mansfield remarks:
No longer, he was saying, would the political fault lines in America fall between a religious Right and a secular Left. Instead, a Religious Left was finding its voice: We, too, have faith they proclaimed. Those of us on the political Left who believe in a woman’s right to choose an abortion and who defend the rights of our gay friends and who care for the poor and who trust that big government can be a tool of righteousness - we also love God…………………..The Religious Right has nothing on us anymore.
“Defend the rights of our gay friends”? How about defending the rights of those who cannot defend themselves, the unborn baby in the womb? What kind of faith is it that kills babies and prefers to defend the rights of gays?
I heard a loud “thud” as my open mind closed. I forced myself to open it again. I had questions that I wanted answered. Is Obama a Muslim? Is he a Christian? What about the controversial Reverend Wright? I read on.
Is Barack Obama a Muslim?
We’ve all heard the rumors circulated by his detractors - Barack Obama is a Muslim and was sworn in on the Koran. Mansfield puts this to rest in the opening chapter where he gives an in-depth account of Obama’s early years.
The facts are that Barack Hussein Obama was born on Aug 4 1961 to a white mother - Ann Dunham - and a Kenyan father - Barack Obama Sr. Ann had declared herself an atheist long before meeting Obama Sr, who for his part had rejected the Muslim faith of his youth since moving to the West. She filed for divorce in 1964 and subsequently married a man called Lolo Soetoro, a Muslim, and the three of them moved to Indonesia. As Lolo, his stepfather, was a Muslim, young Obama was listed as a Muslim in official documents. Occasionally Obama would accompany Lolo to a nearby Mosque on Fridays.
In 1968 Obama began first grade at a Catholic school because it offered the best education in the area but two years later the family moved to a better area where Barack entered a public school and was again listed as a Muslim - as a consequence he studied the doctrines of Islam during the required two hours a week of religious instruction.
Was Barack Obama a Muslim whilst in Indonesia? Mansfield says not. He explains that if Obama was a true Muslim, then his conversion to Christianity in his later years would make him murtadd in the eyes of Muslims: an apostate. Obama is not regarded as an apostate, at least at the time of writing.
Is Barack Hussein a Christian?
The meat of the book is where Mansfield discusses Obama’s introduction to United Trinity Church, the controversial Reverend Jeremiah Wright, and black liberation theology, in fact almost an entire chapter is devoted to Trinity and the beliefs and theology of its pastor.
As is well known, it is at Trinity that Obama confessed his faith in Christ. But there is much about Obama’s faith which I find deeply disturbing. Mansfield states that he (Obama) “does not use the language of the traditional convert to Christianity” and demonstrates this with various quotes taken from Obama’s own books.
Obama believes “there are many paths to the same place”. Well not in my Bible there aren’t. Just the one path through Jesus Christ, it clearly says so in red ink in John 14:6 where Christ Himself says “I am the way the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me”. According to Obama that’s just “a particular verse” and he is of the opinion that its meaning depends on how the few words are interpreted.
When asked by his daughter what happens after death he was “unable to assure her about heaven”. Not only is he unclear about heaven, he doesn’t do any better with his understanding of hell, saying “I find it hard to believe that my God would consign four-fifths of the world to hell”.
In supporting civil unions for gays he says that he is “not willing to accept a reading of the Bible that considers an obscure line in Romans to be more defining of Christianity than the Sermon on the Mount”.
I don’t believe you can pick and choose from the Bible as you wish, you either accept all of it as God’s word or you don’t. Frankly if you want to pick selective verses from the Bible you can make it mean virtually anything you want. Or you can make it mean nothing.
Mansfield claims that Obama’s brand of Christianity is shared by most of the mainline Protestant denominations today. Whether or not that is true I don’t know. But I do know that it’s not my brand of Christianity.
There is much more in the book, some of which enlightened me and some of which troubled me, indeed parts of the book (Reverend Wright and Black Theology) both enlightened and troubled me at the same time.
Overall I think that Stephen Mansfield has produced a well written - albeit rather short - book that will appeal to anybody who wants to know more about the faith of the man who could be our next president.
Mansfield will not be voting for Obama and neither will any of my friends or family.
As for me, I won’t be voting for Obama either - which is just as well because as a US resident but not a citizen I am not eligible to vote.
David
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