Time To Move On

Last night I had the misfortune to watch an episode of Larry King Live. It wasn’t Mr. King who made this an unfortunate experience, though. It was the guests. One had written a book attacking Barack Obama for just about everything possible and the other guest spoke in the senator’s defense yet was armed only with the kind of “Am Not!” comeback I first heard on the playground.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I think there are some things we ought to ask Mr. Obama to explain. I find his abortion policy unbelievably confused. I actually like his energy policy—on the days that he sticks to it. And I’d love to pin him down on how he is going to cut taxes and increase social services. These are the discussions I’d like to hear.

But, no, we seem to be stuck on two matters that simply need to go away. First, the charge that Mr. Obama is a Muslim. Second, the charge that Mr. Obama is not a Christian.

The “Obama is a Muslim” charge is easily dispelled. Here are the facts. Obama was born to an atheist mother and an atheist father who had once been a Muslim but had long given it up. When Obama’s mother later married another man named Lolo Soetoro in 1966, he took the family to Indonesia. There Barack was exposed to a variety of religious influences. He attended a Roman Catholic school for a while. He listened to his mother’s secular preachments. He attended public school where, because he was listed as a Muslim due to his stepfather’s faith, he attended Muslim religious instruction. And, yes, on Fridays he occasionally went to a local mosque to pray at his stepfather’s side. I should say, too, that Barack’s father was far from conservative in his faith. He drank whiskey, womanized and even employed a cook who was a cross-dresser, something an orthodox Muslim would never have allowed.

Barack left Indonesia in 1971 and never again had a religious connection to Islam. Did his early experience make him a Muslim? No. According to the majority opinion of Islamic scholars, a man cannot make a credible declaration of faith in Islam until he is at least an adolescent. Obama left Indonesia and Islam long before his teen years and is therefore not to be considered a convert.

The faith he did turn to was the gospel of Jesus Christ as preached by Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. This gospel was a mixture of the traditional Christian salvation story with an angry overlay of black liberation theology. This meant that Obama became a believer in the resurrected Jesus Christ, Son of God. It also meant that he came to believe that the church’s role in the world is to liberate the oppressed. This means the poor, the prisoner and the infirm, yes, but it also means gays, unwed mothers wanting abortions and Palestinians oppressed by a U.S. backed Israel.

Is he a Christian? Yes, but of a very theologically liberal, post-modern kind. Will this shape what he does should he become president? Yes, he says it will. And this is where the discussion should begin: “Mr. Obama, can you tell us how you view Islam and what this will mean for your Middle East policy should you ascend to the White House?” Where we are stuck, though, is “Mr. Obama, why are you trying to deceive us about your Muslim faith?”

It is time to move on. The man attended a church for more than two decades, prays every day, publicly affirms faith in Jesus Christ as the Son of God and has been welcomed by leading Christians in this country as a fellow believer. He is not necessarily my brand of Christian and he may not be yours. But, for heaven’s sake, let’s get down to discussing the business of governing and move away from the silly insistence that Barack Obama is some kind of Muslim Manchurian Candidate.

One more thing. How did it become bad news to Christians in America that a young black man who was exposed to Islam and secular humanism early in his life later chose Jesus Christ? This should be good news to us and if he isn’t the brand of Christian some of us would prefer, we should follow the example of our Lord by loving Obama, praying for him, and hoping for a deeper work of the Spirit in his life. Hating him, by the way, is not an option.

It is time to move on.