How Obama became Christian

So how did Obama become a Christian? Rush Limbaugh wondered yesterday.  Good question.

I have some resources.  First is Ed Klein’s book, The Amateur, in which he interviews about 200 people who have known Barack and Michelle for over 15 years prior to 2009.  Secondly, I belong to that group of oddballs who believe what my church teaches in the basics.  Orthodox Christians represent 9% of Christians (Barna statistics) and there are 9 shared beliefs of almost all Christians—stuff like salvation by grace, a real hell, virgin birth, scripture alone is inspired,etc.  And so when Obama and McCain gave interviews to Rick Warren in 2008, I asked several orthodox Christians and pastors what they thought.  Conclusions were same as mine.  Obama was a Nothing.  This fits with the narrative Klein got from Rev. Wright.  Obama’s wife was a Christian and he wanted to “join up” but whose background was entirely Muslim and atheist.  (Mother and Father were atheist/nothing, Step-dad was Muslim, mentor was communist-atheist)  As a teen who had hung around Hawaii, it didn’t take long to notice that if you wanted to mainstream yourself, you had to latch onto a Christian church.  Wright says that the Obama’s don’t attend church very much, about once in every 3 years, and the fable that he was Barack’s big mentor is false. Indeed, Wright isn’t sure that Barack is Christian and not Muslim.  Instead it appears that Barack chose this church because of its liberation theology and close ties to Marxism. (Oprah, another interviewee of Klein’s, says that she attended Wright’s church for awhile but it was too radical for her.)

The thing that tipped most of us orthodox guys about Obama’s veneer is when Warren asked him what the most important passage of scripture is.  Most Christians will recite John 3:16 or say something about forgiveness, that is, Christianity’s salvation message.  Obama said it was “do it for the least of these, my brothers” which he immediately links to wealth redistribution.  This is the kind of answer you hear from agnostics who are notional Christians.  They will say things like, “judge not, lest you be judged” and link it immediately to how you can’t judge their lifestyle.  Which is to say they run up the flag of Christianity but then show that the true core of it has small meaning in their life. If I had to guess about Obama, I would say he joined a church so he could run for office without controversy. 

Trump’s a little like this too.  But he hasn’t had an Ed Klein book or Rick Warren interview.