This is exactly what we’ve come to expect from someone from the Moral Majority & FOX TV.

Disagreeing with how someone lives in their faith is understandable.  Deeming someone as without a Christian faith is sad & pathetic.

When the current President said publicly all faiths worship the same God, hatemongers like Thomas said nothing.  When people of faith were manipulated for elections & wars, the “moral” minds were silent.

Shame on Cal Thomas & the Baptist Press.

I have been reading many of the posts and responses about Obama over the past few weeks, but this is the first one to which I will respond. 

I am a very conservative Baptist pastor and I have never voted for a democrat as president. That will change this year.  I believe that Obama is the most serious and devoted Christian we have seen running for the office of president in many years.  I think he takes Jesus and the Sermon on the Mount more seriously than most politicians and (sadly) more seriously than many pastors and church leaders.

Why has his theology been so questioned? I seem to remember 8 years ago when George W. Bush was hailed by most Christians (myself included) as a near messianic figure - his beliefs were hardly questioned. We all just believed he was a great Christian for one reason - he said so.  He used the right language.  He gave lip service to the one or two social issues we have selective moral outrage over. 
What is behind this “mistrust” of Obama, someone who for more than two decades has demonstrated in very real, tangible ways the evidence of a vibrant faith in Jesus Christ? Why do people want so much more “proof” from him than they’ve required from any other candidate in memory? 

The above article could have been written in criticism to vague statements made by G.W. Bush, but it wasn’t.  There is a larger agenda at work here and we shouldn’t be blind to it. 

Sorry for the long rant ... everyone has a right to their opinion.  I really believe that Obama is the walking the walk and it’s frustrating to always hear people saying, “he’s not a real Christian” or “He’s a Muslim, you know.” This is ridiculous and thinly veiled bigotry, in my opinion. 

By the way - the speech made by Obama that Dobson was so offended over- I encourage everyone to read it in its entirety.  It was a great and thoughtful speech. If that’s the worst that Dobson could dig up, then that says something in itself.

So let me get this straight:

We have Obama who at least tries to profess the Christian faith and does it better than any front running candidate that I can ever recall despite his theology being a little wishful…

... or we have John “uh… what… what is faith” McCain who assume he will automatically get the Christian vote based on the sheer fact he is the Republican candidate.

Let us face facts, my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, that our next President is not a Christian.

Like I have been telling people for the last 2 years: it doesn’t matter what our government is, we still have to bow and worship our kind King.

“He certainly beats Howard Dean, now the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, who once offered Job as his favorite New Testament book.”

I don’t know.  I recall Obama referring to Romans 1 as an “obscure” part of the New Testament.  The quote of a “many roads to God” type philosophy is also pretty bad, ignoring John 14.

I also agree with Matt’s point about the perception President Bush being seen as a Christian.

--
CS

I think there are bigger issues for Christians to work on than calling each other non-Christians. 

Did I miss the verses where the Great Commission is defined as judging another’s doctrinal purity? 

How does that create disciples? How does that make the Kingdom of God grow near?

Why don’t we go back to the days where Catholics and Protestants were at war and begin there?

Before we judge Obama for the splinter in his eye we might ought to look at the beam in ours.

I know a lot of committed Christians who are voting for him, and it is an insult to these disciples to tell them they are voting for an apostate.

Those who presume to judge another’s faith may not care about that, but I suggest they are operating a little beyond love of God and neighbor.

Wow, that didn’t look that long on a MS Word doc.

Sorry

For me, the question boils down to is Obama deliberately trying to deceive Christian people about his beliefs in order to get their vote?  In other words, is he saying he’s a Christian when he does not believe that he is a Christian?  If he is not being deliberately deceitful, then he is (possibly) in error—but I will not be the first to judge his heart or his status before God. 

We have to remember that we are not calling our next pastor; we are voting for our next president, and different standards and expectations apply to each.

It’s like me standing in my garage and making car noises with my mouth and screaming to my neighbors, “I’m a car, I’m a car!!!” Everyone knows that I’m not a car. I simple don’t meet the definitions of what a car is. Just because you believe that you are something doesn’t mean you can throw off the constraints of language and live in your own little self-defined universe.

Unless language is completely meaningless (which it obviously is not or I would not be writing this blog post right now and you wouldn’t be reading it) we have to have boundaries on the language we use to to identify the differences between the words “chair” and “cat”.

Reminds me of my religion prof. from college who insisted that he call himself a Christian all the while completely denying all the tenets of belief of those who started the movement. It’s not very helpful and it just continues to add to the cultural confusion about what a Christian is. I appealed to him once to find a different word other than “Christian” to refer to his belief system. He didn’t buy it.

Somehow I don’t think Obama would buy it either.

Matt,

I don’t believe Bush is a Christian either, in fact I think he is considering “converting” to the cradle of Apostasy… Roman Catholicism at this very moment according to close friends of his.

I also agree with many who have stated that our hope doesn’t lie in oval room in Washington.

I’ve just been reading about Brian Mclaren, who has shamed conservatives for years for being co-opted by politicians, now he’s officially working for the Obama campaign.

The one truth in all of this is that we are all hypocrites, though it’s only politically correct to wag that finger at wealthy, White, conservative evangelical men.

Just a quick note to everyone pulling out all of the “do not judge” quotes - as Christians, we are called to use discernment and to actually discern whether something is of God or not. Oprah does not talk about the same Jesus I know revealed in the Bible. Mr. Obama, based on the quotes I’ve seen, does not believe in, or at least follow, the God of the Bible as I have seen him revealed.  Sure he’s got some “great” ideas for social reform (more access to abortion, higher taxes for bigger government, same-sex marriage nationwide), but that doesn’t mean that he’s a Christian because he says he is.

Based on his words and actions, I would have to decide that he doesn’t truly understand Christianity. All paths do not lead to heaven and if you aren’t secure enough in your faith to know what’s going to happen when you die, you may need to re-examine your faith. He has good intentions, but good intentions do not make you a Christian.

Now, before anyone thinks I’m completely biased against Mr. Obama, I don’t think that Mr. McCain would qualify as a Christian, either, based on his words/deeds.  To be fair, Cal Thomas should do a similar piece on McCain. I am saddened and more than a little surprised that he came out as the Republican nominee. He represents my values more than Mr. Obama, but by a depressingly small amount.

Lastly, being Christian (or any other religion) is not required to be President of the USA. Someone’s faith and how it affects their life and decisions is important - I don’t think it can or should be “switched off” just because you’re in public service. However, if an atheist who truly understood the Constitution were to be elected, it wouldn’t bother me any more than a Mormon or Buddhist being elected who held the same views.

I don’t plan to vote for Mr. Obama, but just because I can’t support his positions on life, marriage, taxes, big government, health care, or most of what he is on the record as voting for in his career. I don’t agree with everything President Bush has said/done, either. I liked some of his ideas, but think (e.g.) that he was and is flat out wrong on illegal immigration.

Peter,
Good comments.  Let me expand on them.  I don’t care what side of an issue you chose, but I do care how you got there.  You mentioned illegal immigration.  I will accept the following

1.) God is a God of order and tells us to obey our government and laws.  Illegal immegrants are just that, illegal therefore should all be sent back.
2.) God is a God of love and kindness and often tells of treating less fortunate and stranges in your land kindly, so therefore we should give them all citizenship and aid.

I will NOT accept the following.

1.) They are cheap labor so I make more proffit or they lower wages so I will not be able to afford the new plasma TV, boat, etc.
2.) They work in industry that will make them union members and I can influence the unions vote for my benefit and agenda.

It is not where you are as much as how you got there.  I want a leader that I believe will make decisions based on God’s word, even if I disagree with that decision.  It is called a Biblical world view.

I want to be as loving as I can here.

Obama has been courting evangelical Christians and calling himself a Christian. If he is asking for my vote partially based on His Biblical view (which actually DEFINES what a Christian is)...then I have the right assess his beliefs based on what he says and does. He is the one who has initiated this discourse and asked for my vote.

Jesus tells us not to judge people to hell or to condemn them to hell, I would not do that with Obama or anyone else...We are not to judge for condemnation but we must judge for identification. That is why Jesus also tells us that wolves will come dressed up as sheep and that we are not to cast our pearls before swine. So how am I to know what a wolf is or what a swine looks like if I do not make a simple judgement for identification based on what the Bible says?

Obama has asked us to consider His faith and Cal Thomas has done that based on the clear statements that Obama has made, taking nothing that I can read out of context. It is Obama who has asked us to judge him in essence with our vote for against his presidency. So, do not get mad at Cal for doing what he has been asked to do, with the platform that he has. I tend to think that many true evangelicals believe in the exclusivity of Christ and His atoning death on the cross.
One more thing, this has nothing to do with my vote. The Bible doesnt tell us that we have to vote for a Christian. I would rather vote for a person with experience and strong ethical convictions (though they may not be a Christian) then an unqualified novice who is a Christian or says that he/she is one.