Strategic faith

We cannot judge another’s intentions. We can, however, learn about their motivations by their actions and words.

Barack Obama talked about religion plenty when he was a candidate. He engaged high profile members of different religious communities and expressed what his own faith meant to him, which appealed to a lot of Christian Americans. He told Pastor Rick Warren what his Christianity meant to him in the Saddleback Civil Forum, the essence of which was how he – daily – saw the Gospel mandate to care for “the least of these”.

But something happened after he was elected president…

“The increasingly notorious lack of church involvement or public religious observance by the United State’s First Family has led one Christian organization to question the level of dedication President Obama truly feels to the religious identity that once lent such appeal to his campaign image.

“After attending church regularly during the 2008 Presidential campaign, Obama has not attended church on a regular basis since being elected President and has yet to find a church home. Obama, while vacationing in Hawaii over Christmastime, failed to attend any religious services with his family; neither did he attend during Christmas in 2008 as president-elect.

“Yet as a candidate, Obama made his Christian faith and involvement in a local church community a central component of his campaign – an image widely believed to have attracted key votes that would otherwise have opposed his liberal policies.”

Okay, he largely stopped going to church. That’s one thing, and people can regard that as they will.

But these Christian leaders and scholars he connected with so strategically during his campaign recall believing a deep commitment to the faith in the candidate.

“Douglas Kmiec, the Pepperdine University law professor who drew immense criticism from Catholic circles for actively campaigning on Obama’s behalf, had argued that his trust in the pro-abortion candidate stemmed from his apparent commitment to Christianity.

“When, in a meeting of faith leaders in Chicago, Obama told me that his community work years before, helping the displaced and the unemployed, left him empty until he knelt before the Cross, I believed him,” wrote Kmiec in a January 2009 Commonweal op-ed defending against his critics. “No politics or philosophy or relationship is launched well when faith is missing; and I did not (and do not) doubt the genuineness of Obama’s Christian faith commitment.”

So why, we’ve asked before, did he ask the prestigious Georgetown University to cover up their cross when he visited there, the article asks again. Why did he decline to celebrate the traditional National Day of Prayer?

“While matter-of-factly noting that George Washington recognized Thanksgiving as celebrating “the many and signal favors of Almighty God,” Obama’s Thanksgiving proclamation was the first in U.S. history to exhort celebration of the holiday without actually acknowledging the existence of God or Divine Providence.

“For the first time in 43 years, the Obama Administration banned a military flyover at a “God and Country Rally” in Nampa, Idaho.

“On a White House Christmas tree, the President asked that no religious ornaments be displayed – yet, ironically, reportedly allowed an ornament displaying the image of Chinese dictator and mass murderer Mao Tse Tung.

“The issue is not whether a President has to attend church on a regular basis to be an effective President. They do not,” commented Rev. Patrick J. Mahoney, Director of the Washington, D.C. based Christian Defense Coalition. “The issue is one of integrity and honesty.”