You’re wrong. Wright officiated Obama’s wedding and baptized his children, and Obama’s second book (“The Audacity of Hope”) gets its name from a Wright sermon. He never said he went to church every week and he may never have gone regularly but they did have a relationship going back to the '80s. That’s part of why the whole “God damn America” thing was a problem for Obama.
His parents were atheists, and so was his stepfather. I don’t remember anything about what his maternal grandparents believed but I don’t think they were particularly religious either.
Could his religion just be a PR thing? It could. I’ve never seen any reason to believe it is, so I take him at his word because I don’t give a crap. But it’s stupid for a lot of reasons that this stuff keeps going on. And for that matter I wish the White House would make more of a point of saying “he’s not, and even if he were it wouldn’t matter.”
GWB never went to church much either. Neither did Reagan.
Obama has never had a Muslim “background” at any point in his life. He’s made it clear that his religious “background,” such as it was, was completely secular. His mother was an atheist. His father was raised as a Muslim, but had abandoned Islam and become an atheist himself before he met Obama’s mother. His Indonesian stepfather had likewise abandoned Islamic practice and identified as agnostic while he was married to Obama’s mother. Barack himself was never raised with any Muslim practice at all and never lived with any Muslims. He lived briefly, as a small child, in a Muslim country and while he was there alterated between attending a private CHRISTIAN school (when his mother could afford it), and a public Indonesian school, which was majority Muslim in its population, but which was secular in its adminstration (he never went to any fucking “Madrassa” as the right wing media machine has tried to make people believe).
It would not surprise me at all to find out that Obama wasn’t really much of a believer, or (as I suspect from having read some of his writing on religion) simply has a much broader, more ecumenical, non-dogmatic theistic view. From what I’ve read, I think he has kind of an “all roads lead to Rome” view of spirituality, and while he has chosen Christianity as his “road,” I don’t think he views specific doctrine as all that important.
All presidents go through the motions.They have to attend church regularly to keep the born again critics away. They have varying degrees of belief that can not be accurately evaluated. Bush was a born again who had no problems waging wars and killing innocent people. Obama has blood on his hands too and church attendance will not remove it either.
It was on the net a couple days ago that 42 percent of conservatives think Obama is a Muslim. They are believing with no evidence at all. They believe because they want to. It makes hating him easier. He is still black after all. You can not say you hate him for being a black. But you can hate him for being a Muslim.
I remember reading quotes like this from Obama before he was elected and it was one of the reasons I voted for him:
“Democracy demands that the religiously motivated translate their concerns into universal, rather than religion-specific, values. It requires that their proposals be subject to argument, and amenable to reason. I may be opposed to abortion for religious reasons, but if I seek to pass a law banning the practice, I cannot simply point to the teachings of my church or evoke God’s will. I have to explain why abortion violates some principle that is accessible to people of all faiths, including those with no faith at all . . . Politics depends on our ability to persuade each other of common aims based on a common reality. It involves the compromise, the art of what’s possible. At some fundamental level, religion does not allow for compromise. It’s the art of the impossible. If God has spoken, then followers are expected to live up to God’s edicts, regardless of the consequences. To base one’s life on such uncompromising commitments may be sublime, but to base our policy making on such commitments would be a dangerous thing.”
He knows many Americans are religious but seems to know religion has it’s place and should not dictate policy.
I might’ve read this part of your post too narrowly, but no, I don’t think he picked the church at random. He did have a long association with it even if he didn’t go very often (and I don’t think he did). Did he play it up for the campaign? Wouldn’t surprise me. I have no way to know.
So? I’m still Catholic by heritage but I haven’t been to a church (outside of relatives’ weddings) in, like, 6 years. When I get married and baptize my kids, I’ll need a priest and a church. I’m still affiliated loosely with my church back home, in the sense of going to the school’s fundraisers and donating to their mission trips.
But you’ll never see me attending Mass there again. Because I’m not Catholic anymore.
So yeah, I think Obama’s associated with Wright in the same way I’m associated with “my” church.
marshmallow, would you mind terribly if I save your post and quote it in the future? I’m not entirely sure what it means, but it looks like it could be really useful.
Wow, that’s impressive. Three quotes, from three different righty-tighty posters, all equally wrong. Do you guys get together and hash out what talking points you’re going to bring to a thread, or does it just happen organically? I have the mental image of you guys on a three-way call in the morning as you get dressed for work, talking about what arguing points you’re going to introduce during the day.
No, it’s NOT okay when a Democrat does it, so fuck THAT argument. However, Obama has not yet revealed the same depth of God-fellating that Bush the Younger entertained. Personally, I’d be really happy if a political servant’s religious leanings were none of anyone’s business, but the sad reality is that if you don’t say you worship a Magical Sky Pixie, your odds of getting elected dwindle quickly. Instead of (falsely) blaming us for not holding our politicians to the same standard we hold yours, why don’t you hold your side accountable for requiring religion in our supposedly freedom-of-religion government?
Now I’m sure one (or all!) of you will attempt some sort of rebuttal, probably related to the Hypocritical Democrat Defense. Save it- I don’t fucking care. Read my lips- it’s NOT okay when a Democrat does it, and I will be among the first the burn Obama in effigy if he ever says that God tells him what to do. So when the hell will you guys try to hold YOUR side responsible?
Rev. Franklin Graham was on the news this morning saying that Obama was born a muslim but renounced it. I don’t remember obama ever saying he was ever a muslim and I don’t buy the whole “his father was a muslim so he must be too” thing either. I don’t have time right now to bother google mining info on it, and I don’t take much stock into what Frank or Billy Graham say anyway.
Franklin Graham is completely full of shit. There’s no such thing as being “born a Muslim,” in the first place, but neither of Obama’s parents were Muslim anyway. He was not even born TO any Muslims.
Anyway check out the post I made a few minutes ago.