This post is for those who currently find themselves opposing Obama because of religious reasons, rumors they’ve heard, and things like that. I want to emphasize, now in the last hours before voting, but also potentially for the sake of our next president, that Obama is a Christian. He has a personal connection to and commitment to his faith.
If you disagree with him on matters of economics and politics that’s OK. He may well be a Christian who is wrong about things. I fit into the same category, and if you think that you do not, then you are deluded and, more than that, are beset by a pride that is itself antithetical to the Christian faith.
We have plenty of examples of Paul writing to Christians and seeking to persuade them to change their view on some matter or other. And surely no one who supported George W. Bush because he is an evangelical will claim that he has never been wrong about anything.
But the key point is this: If Obama is not a Christian because he “holds the wrong political opinions” then presumably there is every bit as much chance that you are not a Christian, since you hold the wrong political opinions. The Bible cannot be said to clearly support the political and economic aims of either party, but it certainly has a lot to say about poverty and social justice, even going so far as to take land that the rich had acquired fair and share and return it to its original owner once in a generation. The Bible is far more radical at times than either of our American parties. Neither is “Biblical” in any obvious sense of the word.
Whatever a candidate’s personal faith, we are not choosing someone to represent “us” but to represent and stand up for the rights of all Americans. Vote for the appropriate candidate as your conscience and reason dictate. But don’t take the shortcut of simply dismissing Obama as not a Christian. By the same standard, perhaps neither are you…
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