President Obama is not a Muslim; but his spirituality fails clear definition based on his actions alone.
By Micah Hanks
Back during the presidential debates in 2008, at one point Barack Obama, then only a presidential hopeful, was asked by the late Tim Russert whether he believed there was life beyond earth. “I don’t presume to know,” Obama said with a grin. “What I do know is that there is life here on earth, and that we’re not attending to life here on earth. We’re not taking care of kids who are alive and who are unfortunately not getting health care. We are not taking care of senior citizens who are alive and who are seeing their heating prices go up. So, as President those are the people that I will be attending to first.”
“There may be some other folks on their way,” he added, making a gesture towards Congressman Dennis Kucinich, who previously had been asked about an alleged UFO sighting he had, as described in a book by his friend Shirley MacLaine.
There is, in fact, a good bit of debate (albeit tongue-in-cheek) about whether Obama might have otherworldly origins. Jim Geraghty’s “Morning Jolt” newsletter today even featured a section titled “Obama: Christian? Muslim? Space Alien?” in which the National Review pundit lightheartedly criticized the commander in chief. “I’m going to rule out space alien, for now,” Geraghty writes, “Because you figure any civilization that could figure out faster-than-light travel and get one of their sleeper agents elected leader of the free world would have had a better plan for the economy.”
Alien civilizations haven’t been the typical focus of most of the “sleeper agent” debates pertaining to Obama, however. With recent comments that dealt with the potential construction of a mosque at the Ground Zero site in Lower Manhattan, many of the old fears that stem particularly from the evangelical Christian conservative base have begun to emerge yet again. A recent pew poll found that 31 percent of GOP voters think that the President is actually a Muslim; a similar poll conducted by Time Magazine found the number closer to 46 percent, while 43 percent had little or no idea what the President’s faith may actually be.
Greg Sargent commented at the Washington Post that “The more people dislike Obama, the more apt they are to label him as a Muslim,” pointing out that general resentment Americans may feel has led to a prevailing notion that Obama “has falsely represented himself to the American people in some way.” Writing for Time, blogger Amy Sullivan noted that “Voters like to feel that they can relate to a president or at the very least understand who he is,” writing that in Obama’s case, “if a politician doesn’t define himself, his enemies are more than happy to do it for him.” Although the White House has been adamant in responding about Obama’s Christianity, many pundits have pointed out that the President himself seldom addresses his spirituality, which leaves certain room for question and, inevitably, criticism.
Of the two aforementioned outcomes, criticism has been particularly strong, especially during the aftermath of revelations that Obama’s former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, had used controversial phrases such as “God damn America, it’s in the Bible” during his sermons. Though Wright certainly displayed a radical streak, which even led to Obama’s renunciation of Wright and things he had said while attending as a member of his congregation, one thing seems less disputable: the fact that Obama was attending a Christian church during the time many of the controversial statements were made. If nothing else, this should illustrate that Obama had been participating in Christian worship services prior to his presidency. This corroborates with the White House position on Obama’s faith today: our President is a Christian, and he prays daily.
In some ways, Obama might be commended for attempting to carry himself above the accusations his political opponents might level against him, opting for taking a stance of silence against unfounded speculation, rather than justifying the claims with an answer. In politics, on the other hand, people tend to want their answers delivered to them directly, in a clear-cut fashion that removes any need for further speculation. Both sides of the aisle, while Obama’s spiritual position remains clearly defensible, would likely argue that he has failed generally in representing this position clearly as President (though, strangely, years ago he seemed willing to be more clear about his beliefs). All things considered, we might have been just as likely to consider Obama a space alien after all, let alone ponder whether he was a Christian, Muslim, or anything else based solely on what he alone has told us.
Image by EricaJoy via Flickr.
