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Obama, Values, & the Bible

If you were like me, the past few months leading up to the election have been draining.  I’ve learned a lot about the candidates and myself.  I posted my share of Obama criticisms (more than my share probably), and frankly I’m glad it’s all over.  I have a new President, and that’s that.

But, this morning, I came across a transcript of an interview that was done with Barack Obama about his faith when he was running for the Senate.  It’s an interview that I had heard bits and pieces of from the media, but had never read fully.  Well, now it’s up for all of us to see.

I’ll save my comments for any discussion that takes place, because I’m not really feeling like arguing right now and I really don’t want to get into me judging someone’s faith.  But, I do feel qualified to look objectively at an interview about faith and ask the question, “Where does truth come from?”

Cal Thomas tells a story about himself being on an air plane.  He got into a conversation with the person next to him.  I don’t recall the exact question, but it had something to do with whether or not Cal believed in hell & whether God would send people there.  First of all, that’s a loaded question.  God doesn’t send anyone to hell.  He simply lets us choose to be apart from him.  It’s not the question that is important, in this case.  It was Cal’s response.  He started off his response not with an “I believe” or “I can’t believe” statement, but with a “It doesn’t matter what I believe.  Let me tell you want the Bible says” statement.

This interview touches on a lot of basic Christian theological issues.  But not one time does the “truth” come from anywhere other than Barack Obama.  That’s fine.  Perhaps all of his values are rooted in scripture, but I know for me – if someone were asking me those questions I would put it back on God.  What does the Bible say?  That’s where my truth comes from.

Here are just a few tidbits from the interview.

FALSANI:
So you got yourself born again?

OBAMA:
Yeah, although I don’t, I retain from my childhood and my experiences growing up a suspicion of dogma. And I’m not somebody who is always comfortable with language that implies I’ve got a monopoly on the truth, or that my faith is automatically transferable to others.

————————————————

FALSANI:
Do you pray often?

OBAMA:
Uh, yeah, I guess I do.

Its’ not formal, me getting on my knees. I think I have an ongoing conversation with God. I think throughout the day, I’m constantly asking myself questions about what I’m doing, why am I doing it.

————————————————-

FALSANI:
Who’s Jesus to you?

(He laughs nervously)

OBAMA:
Right.

Jesus is an historical figure for me, and he’s also a bridge between God and man, in the Christian faith, and one that I think is powerful precisely because he serves as that means of us reaching something higher.

And he’s also a wonderful teacher. I think it’s important for all of us, of whatever faith, to have teachers in the flesh and also teachers in history.

————————————————–

OBAMA:
Where do you move forward with that?

This is something that I’m sure I’d have serious debates with my fellow Christians about. I think that the difficult thing about any religion, including Christianity, is that at some level there is a call to evangelize and prostelytize. 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.

—————————————————

FALSANI:
Do you believe in heaven?

OBAMA:
Do I believe in the harps and clouds and wings?

FALSANI:
A place spiritually you go to after you die?

OBAMA:
What I believe in is that if I live my life as well as I can, that I will be rewarded. I don’t presume to have knowledge of what happens after I die. But I feel very strongly that whether the reward is in the here and now or in the hereafter, the aligning myself to my faith and my values is a good thing.

When I tuck in my daughters at night and I feel like I’ve been a good father to them, and I see in them that I am transferring values that I got from my mother and that they’re kind people and that they’re honest people, and they’re curious people, that’s a little piece of heaven.

—————————————————

FALSANI:
Do you believe in sin?

OBAMA:
Yes.

FALSANI:
What is sin?

OBAMA:
Being out of alignment with my values.

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