Obama is a Muslim, say 20% of Americans in ABC News

In 2009, I wrote an article for US News and Views exploring President Barack Obama's odd behavior towards religion -- choosing to give a speech at Catholic Georgetown University, but then covering up symbols of Christ (Obama could have just spoken from the East Room of the White House); announcing overseas that America is not a Christian nation; and praising the historic role of Islam in America's history. (While Islam has played a major historic role in the world, it has played no role at all in the history of the United States, other than Muslims of Northern Africa declaring war on America when Thomas Jefferson was President, caused Jefferson to send the Marines to Tripoli.) Obama told a New York Times reporter that the Muslim call to prayer -- a screaching howl -- is one of the most beautiful sounds on Earth, and then sang it from memory with a perfect Arabic accident.

In order to try to smear conservatives like Christine O'Donnell, Mother Jones then falsely reported that I claimed Barack Obama was a "SECRET MUSLIM" -- like a secret agent skulking around in a trenchcoat with a secret decoder ring. Of course I never said any such thing. But that's the news media for you. In 2010, Christine O'Donnell's campaign cut me a check to reimburse the last of my 2008 campaign expenses for her campaign, so Mother Jones assumed I was working on her 2010 campaign, and that Christine must also think like I do. (Of course, Christine always has her own opinions about everything, and doesn't automatically buy into anyone else's views. Christine would be far more likely to debate me on anything than to agree with my opinion.)

Instead, I explored events in the news and raised questions about whether Barack Obama's experience at Rev. Jeremiah Wright's Chicago political club -- sometimes called a church -- afforded Obama with an understanding of and encounter with the real Jesus Christ. I argued that Rev. Wright focused mainly on politics and rarely if ever seemed to mention Jesus Christ as Savior. Thus, how could one expect Obama to have encountered a Jesus he never really heard about?

Now, ABC News reports that 43% of Americans don't understand Obama's religion and 20% of Americans believe that Obama is currently a Muslim. (I documented that Obama clearly was a Muslim as a child, apparently believes he has become a Christian, but clearly does not understand what it means to be a Christian.)

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/amid-crises-president-obama-prays/story?id=13250087

Despite Obama's public professions on religion and spirituality, many Americans continue to doubt the president's faith.

Nearly one in five Americans incorrectly believes that Obama is a Muslim, according to a poll by the nonpartisan Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life released late last year.

The poll found the number surveyed who knew correctly that Obama is Christian actually declined, from 48 percent in March 2009 to 34 percent in August 2010. Forty-three percent of Americans now say they don't know what Obama's religion is at all.

[snip] The Obamas, once regular churchgoers, have not formally joined a new church since moving to Washington, D.C., and have publicly attended services less than a dozen times.

But sources familiar with the president's personal life in the White House say Obama remains a faithful Christian, practicing his beliefs regularly in private with family and the aid of his BlackBerry.

Of course, with all due respect to the religious power of Obama's BlackBerry, and ABC News' attempts to defend our Dear Leader, the problem is that 20% of Americans realize that there is more to becoming a Christian than simply attending church or telling the news media that one is a Christian. Jesus spent most of His ministry on Earth lambasting religious leaders for falsely believing themselves to be in good standing with God. Jesus spent most of His time challenging the legitimacy of people's inadequate encounters with God and their incomplete relationship with God.

So the religious authorities at ABC News declare that one-fifth of the country "falsely" believes that Obama is a Muslim. To ABC News, if one issues a press statement, that alone decides their religion.

ABC News, like many, have never figured out that for many religious Americans, it takes more to become a member of a religion than simply to issue a press statement. It is a common saying among many Christian groups that if you go out and sit in the garage, that does not make you a car. Sitting in a church pew does not make you a Christian, either. For many Christians, there is a more involved and elaborate process to becoming a Christian. And by their standards, Obama -- like many superficial participants in American culture -- has not yet taken that step.

As I argued in my 2009 article, which Mother Jones smeared, I hope that Obama will encounter the real Jesus Christ and complete his journey towards salvation in Jesus Christ. I compared Obama in 2009 to Abraham Lincoln in that regard.