Barack Obama’s Christianity

This link will take you to a transcript of an interview that Barack Obama did with Cathleen Falsani of beliefnet.com.  The interview was conducted in the Spring of 2004, right as Barack Obama was entering the major political stage.  In 8 months, he would be elected to the United States Senate from Illinois.  This was five months before his keynote speech at the Democratic National Convention, where most pundits believe he solidified his place in major politics.

Please read the the interview before you read my thoughts, as they will not make sense unless you read the actual interview first.

This interview, as much as anything that I have ever seen before, perfectly demonstrates the need for Christians to pray for their leaders.  In fact, the need is a command from God (as shown in my last post).  All too often, I hear and see great mobilizations from the evangelical voting block when a Republican occupies the White House (don’t your remember all the stickers for the Presidential Prayer Team in Bush 43’s first term?).  I might be missing them, but I simply don’t see them when a Democrat is in the White House… that is, until the end of the term and you see bumper stickers that say, “Pray for the Election,” “Vote on Values,” etc.  Those are political statements designed to support a candidate, not pray for your leader.  This is one of the biggest criticisms that non-evangelicals have about Evangelical voters, and I think that it is a fair criticism. But the following shows why our President-Elect, should be prayed for as fervently as any other President.

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FALSANI:
What do you believe?

OBAMA:
I am a Christian.

So, I have a deep faith. So I draw from the Christian faith… So, I’m rooted in the Christian tradition. I believe that there are many paths to the same place, and that is a belief that there is a higher power, a belief that we are connected as a people…

I became much more familiar with the ongoing tradition of the historic black church and it’s importance in the community.

And the power of that culture to give people strength in very difficult circumstances, and the power of that church to give people courage against great odds. And it moved me deeply.

So that, one of the churches I met, or one of the churches that I became involved in was Trinity United Church of Christ. And the pastor there, Jeremiah Wright, became a good friend. So I joined that church and committed myself to Christ in that church.

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Jesus, for who Christianity is named, says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.” Therefore, I am deeply troubled when Mr. Obama says that he believes there are many paths to the same point.  This belief is incongruent with the Bible.

Secondly, the importance of the historic black church to its community is not bad in and of itself.  Many communities find strength, comfort, peace in their church, and it is a place to find it.  However, Mr. Obama has demonstrated the belief that the church is equally responsible for promoting the social gospel as much as it promotes the Gospel of Jesus Christ, of Christ crucified for the forgiveness of sin.  This is incongruent with the Bible.
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FALSANI:
Who’s Jesus to you?

(He laughs nervously)

OBAMA:
Right.

Jesus is an historical figure for me, and he’s also a bridge between God and man, in the Christian faith, and one that I think is powerful precisely because he serves as that means of us reaching something higher.

And he’s also a wonderful teacher. I think it’s important for all of us, of whatever faith, to have teachers in the flesh and also teachers in history.
OBAMA:
Where do you move forward with that?

This is something that I’m sure I’d have serious debates with my fellow Christians about. I think that the difficult thing about any religion, including Christianity, is that at some level there is a call to evangelize and prostelytize. There’s the belief, certainly in some quarters, that people haven’t embraced Jesus Christ as their personal savior that they’re going to hell.

FALSANI:
You don’t believe that?

OBAMA:
I find it hard to believe that my God would consign four-fifths of the world to hell.

I can’t imagine that my God would allow some little Hindu kid in India who never interacts with the Christian faith to somehow burn for all eternity.

That’s just not part of my religious makeup.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

I hate to play semantics (and it might be just that), but why is the first description of who Jesus is include “a historical figure?”  If Jesus, to Barack Obama, is first and foremost the “bridge between God and man,” why not say it first?  Am I reading into this more than I should?

I don’t think so, and here is why.  He says that the “difficult” thing about most religions, including Christianity, is the call to evangelize and proselytize.”  By this, I assume he means the difficulty in defending it to people who do not believe in God and people who are not Christians.  He then says that in some quarters [of Christianity], there is a belief that those who do not accept Jesus as their personal savior are going to hell.  Mr. Obama, that is what the Bible says.  If you do not accept Jesus Christ as your personal savior, you will not go to Heaven.  It is not acceptable to say “some quarters of Christianity,” as if it were some throwaway doctrine of the Bible.  It is a part of the Gospel, for if someone does not accept Jesus as their personal savior and still goes to Heaven, why accept Jesus at all?

Here is the big issue with this statement. If people who do not accept Jesus as their personal Savior are not going to hell, there is no need to evangelize.  However, if people who do not accept Jesus as their personal Savior are going to hell, then you MUST evangelize.  There is a compulsion to do do so out of love, so that they would not go to hell. Mr. Obama, your belief is incongruent with the Bible.  Again, John 14:6 says, I am the way, the truth, and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.”  That means that if you come to the Father another way, you never came.  You are still, as the Bible calls it, in your sin.  Romans 3:22-23 says, “the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”  Romans 6:23 says, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

If Barack Obama does not believe that God would consign 4/5 of the world to hell, why would he believe in Christianity at all?  If the world can still believe something different and everybody gets to the same place, than why not just leave Christianity on the table completely?

The issue here is that what Barack Obama believes about Christianity is simply not Biblical.  He wants to take the parts of the Bible that work for him and that fit his particular taste, but not believe those parts of the Bible that he might find distasteful.  But that is simply not Biblical.  It strikes at the very heart of what Christianity is all about.  Mr. Obama claims that his God would not send a Hindu boy who has never interacted with the Christian faith to hell.  But an equally valid question is, “So why believe that He would save you, Mr. Obama.  If God (or Jesus) isn’t who He says he is on one front, how can we trust ANYTHING He says on any other matter?”

Mr. Obama, the Bible is clear on this issue.  The Word of God is our ONLY source as to who God is and who He says He is.  Therefore, if even one part of the Gospel is a considered to be distasteful, the whole thing must be thrown out.

So I pray for you, Mr. Obama.  I pray that the Bible would become so crystal clear in your life that you would see it for what it is.  I pray that God would speak to you through His Holy Spirit, that you would be “cut to the heart” with the Gospel, the one and true Gospel, as Acts 2:37 says.  I pray that your wife and your daughters would know the “good news,” like in Biblical times, when the man would come to know Christ and the Bible says “he and all his household.”  I pray that those around you would live a life that points you to the only understanding of the Gospel – that man is a sinner, totally unable to save himself; that God made a way for man to be saved of his sin, but that the way, the only way, is by salvation in Jesus Christ, by grace, through faith.

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President-Elect Obama (and what it means for you, for me, and for the glory of God)

I have purposely held off in commenting on the election this past Tuesday until I had a chance to hear some of the victory speech that Barack Obama gave this past week in what was a more impressive victory than I had imagined.  My prediction, as you may or may not recall, was a victory of 300-310 for Obama, with McCain pulling down about 230 electoral votes. I was wrong on North Carolina and Virginia. as well as the ever-pivotal Florida.

First a personal note…  I did not vote for Barack Obama.  I did not vote for john McCain either.  For a purely political statement, I voted for Bob Barr, the candidate for the Libertarian Party.  I disagree with some of the Libertarian Party’s platform pieces, but my goal was to make a statement to the Republican Party, namely to start being Republicans again.  This election would have been much closer, if not different, had the Republican Party stuck to what they had done best – championing  limited government, values of everyday people, and keeping national security at the forefront of the country’s mind.

Barack Obama and I disagree on numerous issues.  We agree on few issues.  Yet God is still sovereign.  His choice for this election is President-Elect Barack Obama, and as a Christian, I am to respect, honor, and pray for him… and I will.

On one hand, I am very proud of our country.  Even though I am not old enough to remember life under an era of Jim Crow laws, separate but equal, etc., I am old enough (and from a geographic region of the country – Birmingham, AL) to see the disasterous effects of those laws and the deep racial divides that have resulted from those tensions.  The election of a black president is historic and should be remembered as such.  The Church should never be a hindrance to the process of ensuring racial harmony, as Christ intends to have a very colorful bride (see Revelation 7:9).

On another hand, I am disappointed.  Not because we elected a black president, but because the president that we elected (black or otherwise) is Biblically wrong on the issues most important to my heart, chief among them the murder of the unborn.  It would make my heart leap for joy if Barack Obama would be so overcome with the vileness of abortion that he would change his mind.  But a change of heart comes first, and only God can change hearts.  I earnestly pray that he would do so in the heart of Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and their advisers.

I am also disappointed for the Church, and let me explain.  (This might be a stretch, but follow along… and if you disagree, feel free to post a comment… I always like to see what others think.  Your comment will be posted so long as it is not rude, vulgar, or obscene)  Here it goes… The Church is losing its voice in an arena it should be heard loud and clear in.  The Church is God’s chief agent of change in the world. No candidate, Republican or Democrat, Black or White, Liberal or Conservative is a bigger agent of change in the world than the Church – loving each other and the world around them. That is why I am disappointed, because with the promises that I have heard made from Obama, the Church will not get to demonstrate the love of Christ so grandly as it as before.  By no means am I saying that it is doing everything it can – all evidence to the contrary.  The Church needs to do more, but they will not get the opportunity to (as well) with the election of a President who wants to do things that the Church should/could be doing.  Even if, as under our current President, Faith-based Initiatives are called upon to house the homeless, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, etc, will God get as much glory as if it were not using any tax-payer money?  The answer to that question is, “Yes and No.”  Yes because God will always receive the glory, and that His Word (The Gospel) does not return void – it accomplishes what God intends for it to accomplish (Isaiah 55:11).  But no because the government would be viewed as the benefactor, not God.  Barack Obama is the savior, not the Lord of Lords.

I know you already know thee references, but repetition is important.  I Timothy 2:1-3 commands us to pray “for all people, kings and those in high positions.” Romans 13:1-7 says, “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer. Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God’s wrath but also for the sake of conscience. For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed.” Psalm 22:28 proclaims, “For kingship belongs to the Lord, and he rules over the nations.”

And as I have pointed out before, “May the Lord do what seems good to Him” (II Samuel 10:12).

SDG!
MD

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excellent stuff here…

Read this blog post by Justin Taylor.

http://theologica.blogspot.com/2008/10/counterculture-of-life-in-church.html

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Final Election Prediction

Quick note – Why does Barack Obama start out his asinine thirty minute political ad (which the mainstream media gladly moved around their schedule for) in a room that looks eerily like the Oval Office?  Because he can’t imagine anything but being President.  He and the rest of the Democratic Party are so power-hungry that they will do or say anything to get elected.

For what it is worth, I’m going to give you my final prediction for the election on Tuesday.  I write this as I watch the thirty-minute ad on major networks, so whether or not he gets a boost, these predictions do nottake that into account.

Shocking… Barack Obama will be the President-Elect on November 5.  He simply is too far ahead and McCain is too far behind.  Which states will he win?  All of the normal blue states – all the West Coast, All the East Coast, including Virginia.  He will win Iowa and his home state of Illinios, as well as Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, and Pennsylvania.  He will the key Western states of Colorado and New Mexico – key not because of their huge electoral votes, but because of the generally conservative nature of those states. I’m giving McCain a win in ohio, although that race is going to be really close.  McCain will win North Carolina and Florida, as well as Missouri.  The final electoral count will be in the neighborhood of 300 – 230.

So far this thirty-minute ad is basically how George W. Bush screwed people over.  Yeah, it’s all his fault.

I have said this before, but it bears repeating.  Barack Obama has publicly said that he wants to “spread the wealth.”  He wants to take what is rightfully one’s and give to someone else.  His running mate, Joe Biden, has said that the reason he wants to do this is because it is the “patriotic” thing to do.  Really?  Does anyone else see an issue with this?  IT IS NOT PATRIOTISM IF YOU ARE COMPELLED TO DO WHAT YOU SAY YOU ARE DOING OUT OF PATRIOTISM!  If the government, at gunpoint (no, seriously… don’t pay your taxes and see what the IRS does… they carry guns when they come to arrest you for tax evasion), requires you to pay more in taxes one year than you do the previous year, how do you say that is patriotism?  That’s coercion!  There is no patriotism there.  Patriotism is saying, “I’m going to go out and serve my neighbor and provide his need for him because it is the right thing to do, not because I’m coerced to.”

Barack Obama is all about change.  He’s going to change things alright.  America will not look anything like it once did thanks to him.

But I hold faith that God has this election in His hands.  He has the whole world in His hands, and nothing that happens can surprise Him.  Nothing can befall Him.  And NOTHING that happens, good or bad, is outside the will of God.

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Abortion, Politics, Candidates, and the Glory of God

Read this about What Christians should think about abortion.  My thanks to Greg Pinkner for pointing this out.

http://theologica.blogspot.com/2008/10/robert-p-george-voting-for-most-extreme.html

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Why I Got Into Medical School

There is a certain comfort in being helpless… assuming that you know the point of your helplessness.  As I have written, I found out about medical school recently.  I am going to school for sure.  God has been faithful in that arena, and glory be to him for it. And I mean it…

When I found out that I was on the waitlist, I was disappointed (as I wrote about in this space previously).  As time went on, I began preparing for the possibility that I was not going to get into school this year.  I was praying about taking the MCAT again, and I was praying about whether this was even the will of God or if it was my will that I was trying to impose on God.  The feeling of helplessness grew.  The feeling of being totally out of control began to creep up and bite me.

That was the way it should have been.  I believe that God is completely and totally sovereign.  By that, I mean that He is in complete control of everything that happens to me (and for that matter, to all people).  I believe that nothing can befall him and nothing can surprise.  If you do something and think to yourself that you have pulled a fast one on God, keep thinking that… it is a dream, a wish, a fantasy.  If God does not control everything that happens in this world, then we have no reason to think or believe that He controls anything in this world.  It is the “all or none principle” (also, interestingly enough, a principle of muscle contraction).  So when I started feeling this helplessness and frustration, I didn’t necessarily think that meant anything in and of itself.  God answers prayers and does not grant wishes all the time, even though they come from fervent prayers of Godly men and women.  He knew and had worked it out that I would get in this year, on the very day that I found out.  But the answer at the time was “wait awhile” for a reason – He wanted to grow me.  He wanted to teach me.  He wanted to do something with my heart that  a “yes”  two months ago would have not accomplished.

I was with my dad a good bit this weekend in Birmingham.  My dad is a pillar of faith.  Although we differ in some ways, my dad is one of the wisest men I know.  He has been spot on in so many ways.  Many of the little sayings that I have and the ways I live my life are direct quotes and exact replicas of who he is (sometimes for worse, mostly for better).  One of the things that I have said before (but that he reminded of) is this… “When something happens that is unexplainable, that is beyond your control, know that God has you there for a reason, and enter with confidence.”  That is the way that I have been thinking about this glorious gift that I have been given.  Getting into medical school is totally and completely a gift.  It is nothing of my own doing.  If I were to say that I worked hard and that I deserved it, I would be putting myself in place of God, because who was it that gave me the brain to understand concepts and ideas that enabled me to test well enough to get into school?  On another front, my grades are average, maybe even slightly below average for medical students.  My MCAT scores are slightly below average for medical students.  I don’t have as much clinical experience as other people who got in, and probably not as much as some people who didn’t get in.  While I think that my letters of recommendation were from good sources, there are probably people who had better.

Why do I say this? Because I want to be self-deprecating so as to make myself look humble?  Absolutely not.  The reason I say this is to make sure that you know the reason I got into school.  It is a matter of grace – unmerited, undeserved favor and esteem.  That, incidentally, is the reason why we have everything we have.  Everything that we have, good and bad, is a matter of grace.  Every good in our life is a blood-bought gift, a gift that we would not have had He (Jesus Christ) not died.  Every bad thing that God turns to good is the same.  So when people congratulate me, I try (though not as well as I should) to remind them of this point.  It is not me.  I Corinthians 15:10, cliche though it may be, is truth: “By the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.”  I want to live my life so that the things that occur in my life can only be explained by saying “God did it.”  And you know what?  That is comforting.  Do you know how much stress that takes out of the equation?  Do you know how much anxiety that will relieve?

Just to be sure I am understood, this is not a call to laziness.  I am about to enter into a professional program that will demand work that I have never been subjected to.  I will have to work hard, and that is my calling.  But the issue is not ultimately how hard I work, but how God works though me and in my hard work.  As was the case in getting in, I want people to be able to point towards God when they look at my success in medical school.  I want them to say, “There must be something to his relationship with God, because there is no way in the world he could have done that by himself.”  That would be the highest compliment I could be given – not “man, you’re sure working hard” or “wow, look at him go,” but “Wow, isn’t God good? Isn’t He powerful? I want to know more about Him.”

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God is Good: The Joys of Waiting on Him

About two and a half months ago, I posted an entry entitled “Dealing with Disappointment.” I wrote about the disappointment I felt after being placed on the waiting list at medical school. I want to quote from what I said then:

“I got a letter in the mail this past week letting me know that I am on the waiting list at the medical school I interviewed at. The waiting list is obviously better than being denied outright, but the waiting continues. It could be as early as today that I might hear good news from the admissions committee, but it could also be as late as a few days before classes start in August. Probably not, but possibly. If you know me well you know how much I want to go to medical school. You know how much I have wanted to get in and start studying the human body and be able to learn skills that I can use to really impact the lives of those around me. As of now, I still don’t know if that is going to happen this year or not.

So I am disappointed. I am not angry with God. (How could I be angry with God? What do I have that is not a gift from HIm?) I am not fed up with God. (What… I could really justify saying that I’ve had it with the Creator of the universe?) I am simply disappointed.So what can I say about this experience now, regardless of how it turns out? The same thing that countless saints before me have said. “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21). “I know you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted” (Job 42:2). “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come, Your will be done” (Matthew 6:9-10). “Father, if your are willing, [place] this cup [before] me. Nevertheless, not my will, but Yours, be done” (Luke 22:42). “Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that’ ” (James 4:14-15). “The works of His hands are faithful and just; all His precepts are trustworthy” (Psalm 111:7). “Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, for his steadfast love endures forever” (Psalm 106:1).

It is hard to pray, “God, if this is not of you, I pray that You would keep it from happening,” but that is the way Jesus prayed in the garden before the Cross. That is the way of holiness and righteousness. More and more I am convinced that I am a pawn on the chessboard of life, moved by the providential hand of God. “May the Lord do what seems good to Him” (II Samuel 10:12).”

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I got a call on June 16 saying that I have been offered a spot in the Class of 2012 at DeBusk College of Osteopathic Medicine at Lincoln Memorial University. I delivered my deposit a day later and will start classes August 1… When the Director of Admissions called, I thought for a second he was just saying, “Hey, here’s where you are, it doesn’t look good for this year, but you can do this to make sure that you are competitive for next year.” But then I just knew… this is the call. He said, “How are you doing today, Michael?” “Just fine, how about yourself? “Doing well. I hope to make your day even better. I would like to offer you a spot in the Class of 2012……” I didn’t really hear anything else until he said, “Are you still interested in attending?” It took me a little bit to muster up a faint, “Yes, I am definitely still interested. Thank you so much for calling.”

So as of August 1, I’ll be a OMS-I (Osteopathic Medical Student, First Year). I am really, really excited. It kind of doesn’t even seem real in a way. Here I am, having worked so long for the opportunity to study medicine, and now its here. It is, as my wife told me, a bit overwhelming. But God is good. God is strong, God is powerful. He is a Rock that we can run to, not to hide behind, but to cling to. I am sure I will be doing plenty of that, and I know it will be good.

Please be praying for the transition from work to school. It’ll be very new, very exciting, and it’ll be more work than I could every imagine. But God is good. I hope that I have encouraged you by reminding you (as I have reminded myself, time and time again) of the sovereignty of God. If God is not sovereign, I want nothing to do with Him. If He is not in control, than why should I not be terrified at what the future might hold. But He is, and He has the whole world in His hands. He has the whole universe to display His glory. I would bet that the universe extends far beyond what we could even imagine seeing, much less physically see. All of it is on show to point us to Him. As I said to end up the post last time on this subject, “May the Lord (continue) to do what seems good to Him.” (II Samuel 10:12)

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My friend, Katherine Wolf

http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/katherinewolf

I can’t believe that I have not posted this before, so please forgive me. A friend of mine and my wife’s, Katherine Wolf, is currently recovering from a severe brain bleed caused by an atrioventricular malformation, or AVM. From my limited knowledge of AVM’s, they are present long before they actually present themselves medically. Katherine is married to Jay Wolf, a friend of ours from Samford University. Jay’s father is Senior Pastor of First Baptist Church Montgomery in Alabama, a church that has done some great, great things in the city and in the state. They also have a seven month old son, James. You can imagine how hard it is for your wife of three years to be in ICU for now six weeks. You can also imagine the thoughts going through Katherine’s head. She can’t feed or take care of her baby. She can’t take care of her husband, who just finished law school and is looking for a job.

Please remember Katherine, Jay, and baby James in your prayers.

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