Obama’s Muddled Religious Views

• November 27, 2008

Obama talks religion and confuses pretty much everyone:

Obama: 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.

Now, I’m not a religious person, but isn’t believing that your particular flavor of worship is the right one and everyone else’s is wrong pretty much the reason why we have so many different religions? I mean, what’s the point of being Catholic or Lutheran or Buddhist or Muslim if it’s all just the same thing? How can you claim to belong to the one true faith if there isn’t really any distinction between yours and theirs in the end?
I mean, I know what Obama’s getting at. It’s all that “one world” and “one faith” utopian pap liberals like Obama enjoy going on about, but it’s a pretty muddled view of religion I think.
And it’s pretty odd coming from a member of Rev. Jeremiah “God Damn America” Wright’s church.

Tags: Domestic Issues, Politics

http://Array di butler

I just wish it came with a translation…
http://truthisrevolutionary.blogspot.com/ James Kuhn

I was fairly sure Obama wasn’t a Christian before this. (I had watched a clip of him mocking the Bible.) But now it is incontrovertible. He is part of the large portion of Americans who think they are Christians, but are not. (I would know, I was in that camp for 17 years.)

Yes, it shouldn’t be a part of determining the presidency, but at least it can no longer be claimed that he is a Christian.
http://www.bikebubba.blogspot.com/ Bike Bubba

Obama’s not that muddled in light of where he’s worshipped. He’s more or less expressing what theological liberals (who yes are often politically liberal too) have been saying for a century. You can hear views like that at most any seminary of mainline churches like the UCC,Episcopalians, United Methodists, or ELCA.

I disagree with him intensely, but I know where he’s coming from.
http://norseberserker.blogspot.com/ Rugby Reader

Religion is muddled. There are religions of Christianity, Judaism, Islam, etc. All claim to be “the only one.”

The most important point is that there is no religious litmus test for one to hold elected office.
JazzyKat

likwidshoe

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 agree with Obama here and have made this very point many times.

God doesn’t consign anyone to hell. They choose to go there by themselves. If you received a gift on Christmas but never opened it, although it would still be your gift, you would not enjoy it or receive any benefit from it. That is salvation. It is a free gift to all man, paid for in full by Jesus Christ. If man chooses to ignore it, reject it or refuse its benefits of eternal life with God, then his choice will determine his eternal destination.

God is a just and righteous God and no sin can enter His presence. He will judge the sinfulness of mankind just like a judge would judge the criminal. A criminal pays the punishment for his crime when he’s caught, tried and convicted. If his crime is worthy of the death penalty, then he is executed. This is a death penalty case for every man.

Jesus is our attorney before God, our advocate. We’re all guilty and deserve death, but he took our punishment that we deserve, so that when we stand before God when this temporal life is over, God see’s Jesus’ sacrifice as payment in full and we are not condemned. Our rejection of Christ as our advocate before God, will force everyone who rejects His free gift to face the eternal Judge alone, as guilty! The punishment is eternal death and total separation from God with Satan and his angels, which is hell. It is man’s choice where he spends eternity because God provided a full pardon in Jesus Christ!

Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father, but by me!” There is no other way to be accepted by God the Father, but through Jesus. It is appointed unto every man to die, and after this the judgment! I choose Jesus as my advocate before the Father and all who do, will not be condemned.
Neiman

I always wonder at those supposedly raised in the Christian Church or in any way knowledgeable about it, would ever blame God for anyone suffering eternal loss and damnation.

God saved everyone in Christ Jesus, if people refuse that Salvation, that is their choice, you cannot blame Him for not forcing it on them. I have related this teaching many times, but here it is again:

Many years ago there was a young man justly convicted of a most heinous murder. He was subsequently sentenced to death and was sent to prison and death row awaiting his execution. His parents loved their son very much despite what he did and they invested all their time and money in trying to get his sentence reduced to life. As the day for his death rapidly approached his parents were finally able to appeal directly to the governor of their state. In an unusual act of mercy the governor in an act of compassion for these parents issued a Pardon for their son. A pardon is not a simple reduction in sentence, but a complete legal forgiveness of the crime. The pardon excuses the offender as if the crime had never been committed at all.

The pardon was sent to the warden of the prison, where he went to this young man’s cell on death row and announced the good news that he would not be executed and would be set free. The young man, overcome by guilt and self-hatred refused the pardon, insisting he was guilty and wanted to die. No appeals or explanation of the importance of the Pardon could change his mind. The warden was confused, not knowing the proper course of action and he went to the Judge that had sentenced this young man to death to get his advice. The judge said, “A pardon is not a pardon unless it is accepted!” Since the young man still refused the pardon, the warden carried out the wishes of the court and the young man was immediately executed.

That is how it is with all lost souls in the world! When Christ paid for the sins of the whole world on Calvary’s Cross, Almighty God issued a perfect Pardon for “whosoever” (A wonderful, all-inclusive word) would believe in His Son and accept His Pardon. This pardon has been offered to every human being who ever lived and is a complete payment for all their sins, past present and future. The only condition is that this Divine Pardon has to knowingly, earnestly be accepted by every person to be in force. Everyone that goes into eternity guilty of their sins and enters into eternal punishing in the fires of hell, will be lost because of a choice of their own free will, solely because they refused His Pardon of Grace for their sins. To the man or woman without Christ there is a Perfect Pardon for all their sins which will grant them eternal life with God, but it is important to remember this Divine Law – “A Pardon is not a Pardon unless it is accepted.”

That will not satisfy most outside of Christ, they still insist that there are billions that never heard the Gospel, which is untrue. There are many, perhaps many millions souls not having heard it to be sure, but God has given us witness in His Divine Handiwork of His existence, so that none are without excuse. No matter where they are or what their circumstnace, anyone truly seeking God will find Him, because he will make a way to meet them on their own Damsacus road of life.
http://proof-proofpositive.blogspot.com/ proof_positive

It’s not that his religious beliefs are muddled, or heterodox…it’s that the supposedly unbiased media was in the tank for him and did not reveal potentially embarrassing information about him until after the election!
http://www.multi-food.de/ NahrungsergÃ¤nzung Sportler

i never thought it will came out on his own mouth, I had lots of respects for him, but come what may, I’ll just wait for the next thing to happen to him.
2Hotel9

So Barri has no religious beliefs. Why didn’t he just admit he is an Atheist from the start?
http://sayanythingblog.com/ likwidshoe

Gene – Barri is defining a belief called Universalism. All people are saved. All are heaven bound.

He may believe in it, but there is no evidence in the quote above.
http://northerngleaner.blogspot.com/ Gene

Barri is defining a belief called Universalism. All people are saved. All are heaven bound. It’s a widely held belief particularly in many liberal black churches. We even had one of our own Pentecostal Pastors fall off the end, Carlton Pearson. I knew him.

Obama believes a lie.

Even for the person who has never heard the name Jesus, he is responsible to the light he has. If he responds and seeks after God as Cornelius did in the Book of Acts he will find peace in God. And, Heaven. That is NOT universalism.
That’s Romans 1:

18For God’s wrath is being revealed from heaven against all the ungodliness and wickedness of those who in their wickedness suppress the truth. 19For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God himself has made it plain to them. 20For since the creation of the world God’s[l] invisible attributes–his eternal power and divine nature–have been understood and observed by what he made, so that people[m] are without excuse. 21For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him. Instead, their thoughts turned to worthless things,[n] and their senseless hearts were darkened. 22Though claiming to be wise, they became fools 23and exÂchanged the glory of the immortal God for images that looked like mortal human beings, birds, four-footed animals, and reptiles.

I think about that fellow who beat up and murdered that little boy that Neiman posted about, short of true repentance, is he going to heaven?

Evil has consequence. An evil terrorist religion has consequence. Killing innocents is not an act without consequence.

When a suicide bomber blows him or herself up killing others with the hope of salvation he wakes up in Hell with Hot Coals being stuffed down his or her throats and demons demeaning him.

So, the Messiah is Wrong on this one if he makes this blanket statement. Makes me nervous.
JazzyKat

I knew he wasn’t a Christian when I researched Black Liberation Theology preached by Jeremiah Wright. A Christian wouldn’t sit under that kind of hate-filled racist dogma for 20 years.
http://sayanythingblog.com/ likwidshoe

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 agree with Obama here and have made this very point many times.

The Christian God judging not only the actions and the hearts of “His” supposed “Children” are one thing, but forgiving those who are really evil to “His” other “Children” merely because the souls believe and have contrition for their evil, while at the same time damning those who are good and pure, but don’t believe, makes the Christian God malevolent.

Christians tell us that God saves the bastard evil sinners, but not the good who don’t believe. In so many ways, that’s an ugly view of the hereafter and the nature of God.

I can easily see where Obama would have problems with the idea. I can’t fault him for the view.
http://sayanythingblog.com/ likwidshoe

James Kuhn – It says that the way to damnation is broad. Not through the decree of God, but the choice of Man.

Now that is poetic. There’s righteousness still present there.

If only more Christians spoke and viewed it that way.
http://truthisrevolutionary.blogspot.com/ James Kuhn

Thanks for the compliment, likwid.
Calvinists would be the ones to believe differently about man’s choice vs. God’s decree of Hell.

Two things about the words in your earlier post about a malevolent Christian God. First, “good” is judged by one person alone, and it ‘ain’t you or me’. Second, there is only one theological heresy left within the Protestant church that I know of that is still accepted by a few and considered orthodoxy. It is called Hard Determinism. It is uber-hyper-Calvinism. Saying that God makes even the choice of salvation ‘for you’. This is based on a misinterpretation of Romans 9:20-22.

After rechecking the post title, this might not be hijacking the thread too much

To the thread: as Christians we want to be very careful about proclaiming who is saved and who isn’t. Often times we don’t know. Occasional bad behavior, believing in unjust ideas, and other ‘flags’ can not take away the Master’s grace. Only when someone makes a statement like Obama just did is it the duty of Christian apologists and evangelists to temperately distinguish between truth and falsehood for others who may not yet believe.
Craig

The big thing, I think, people miss in Christianity is that it is not about being “good.” The Christian knows that he (and all others) are inherently not good. We are by nature selfish and self serving (doubt me, look at the average 2 year old, 8th grader, and honestly assess your motives [am I doing this because I want too, or because I should]). Through Christianity I begin to act Good, because I have no choice but give to others from the gift I’ve been given (much the same way I smiled more when I fell in love with my wife. I didn’t try to smile more; I just did).

I highly recommend C.S. Lewis’s “the Great Divorce.” It provides (in my opinion) an entertaining education on the concept of heaven and hell, and how those in Heaven can not understand why someone wouldn’t want to be there, and how those in hell would rather be in hell than give up what separates them from God.
http://truthisrevolutionary.blogspot.com/ James Kuhn

The Bible has at least one parable on that very question, Texan Across the Pond. Christians not only believe in God, but believe in the veracity of his Word, the Bible. It says that the way to damnation is broad. Not through the decree of God, but the choice of Man.

God offers every soul the opportunity to know and love him every second of every day.

So as to maintain forum etiquette and not hijack this thread, if you wish to talk about this more Texan, start a readerblog thread on it. Cheers.
Texan Across the Pond

Our ways are not God’s ways…how do we know God does not in the final moment of life offer every soul the opportunity to know and love him?
Marty

“Nevermind what Jesus actually said about anything, we Christians are much more enlightened that he was”

Meh. This man is his own God.
http://www.valleydeals.com/cgi-bin/board2/YaBB.pl Kevin

I can’t imagine that my God would allow some little Hindu kid in India

They always exploit children to further their agenda!
http://sayanythingblog.com robport

The most important point is that there is no religious litmus test for one to hold elected office.

Who said there is one? Or should be one?
WOOFX

Each according to the dictates of his own conscience

SayAnythingBlog.com

Obama’s Muddled Religious Views

Create a SAB Readerblog

Recent Comments