Volume 3 Number 14 July 23, 2008

MarketFaith Ministries is an equipping ministry which is focused on helping Christians become more effective
in living out their faith in the midst of the increasingly diverse worldview environment of modern society.
Introduction

Is it relevant what Barack Obama believes about religion? It is in a couple of ways. First, as a prominent political leader he
has influence among many people and the power to help implement policies which reflect his religious views. Secondly,
his religion reflects a set of beliefs which are very prominent in modern society, and which we must interact with every
day.

Today’s article addresses these issues and gives us a means for understanding how this plays out in life and how we
need to address it as Christians. It is my hope and prayer that your understanding about your place in God’s economy will
become even clearer to you as you seek to serve him in our increasingly pluralistic marketplace.

Who do you know that might be interested in what Barack Obama believes? I’ll bet most of your Christian friends would
be. Would you take a moment and forward this on to them and encourage them to sign up for this free newsletter.

One more thing. We are currently working on setting up a four-day worldview summit for pastors after the first of next
year. Our desire is to help equip this important group of equippers on the topic of worldview. Also, we want to do it without
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What Does Barack Obama Believe about Religion?

The fact that Barack Obama is a presidential candidate puts
a little higher profile, than might normally exist, on the topic
of his understanding of religion. But that is not really the
most important matter at hand. The thing that is even more
critical is that his point of view is so prominent among a
very large segment of American culture. While it is good to
know what our presidential candidates believe, it is even
more critical to have our finger on the pulse of society in
general. And since Obama is such an eloquent spokesman
on this particular topic, we will use his explanation of reli-
gious belief as a means of understanding a larger range of
belief.
Not too long back, Barack Obama lashed out at Dr. James
Dobson because of some comments that Dr. Dobson made
about him. He actually accused Dr. Dobson of “making stuff
up.” Dr. Dobson then retorted that he had made nothing up,
and that he was actually responding to a speech that
Obama himself had given in 2006 painting a false picture of
Dobson’s beliefs.
As it turns out, the text and video of the original speech that
Obama gave is available on the internet for anyone to view.
Going through the speech piece by piece, it is possible to
hear Obama’s understanding of religion and its role from his
own mouth. (You can hear this for yourself at
http://www.citizenlink.org/content/A000007770.cfm.)
The speech was given to an organization called “Call to Re-
newal” on June 28, 2006 (the organization has since
changed its name to Sojourners). This was part of a confer-
ence called “Covenant for a New America.” The organiza-
tion claims to be a faith based group, and its mission is to
articulate the Biblical call to social justice, inspiring hope
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(Introduction - Continued from page 1)

cost to them. Of course, it will cost money to provide this training opportunity, and we want to offer you the chance to
partner with us to provide this service. If you would like to help sponsor this summit, you can send your tax deductible
contribution to: MarketFaith Ministries, 321 Anton Dr., Tallahassee, FL 32312. Of course, you may also donate online
by using the “Donate” button on our secure website to make a contribution by credit card. If there is some other kind of
product or service that you would like to contribute to this effort, please feel free to contact us.

Let me hear from you. I highly value your thoughts, opinions and suggestions.

God bless,
Freddy

(Obama’s Religion - Continued from page 2)

and building a movement to transform individuals, communities, the church, and the world. It is primarily supported by
the black community with an emphasis on social justice in this world, rather than focusing on the eternal elements of
faith.

The following are some of the key points which Obama made in his speech.
Obama specifically gives support to homosexuals and to abortion. He claims that he does not personally support
their agendas, but he does not feel that he can “impose” his religious beliefs on others. Thus, he will not oppose
those particular agendas in the political arena.
The Bible is not authoritative. One person’s interpretation is as good as another.
He was specifically drawn to participation in the black church because of its power to create social change (in the
temporal world).
Faith is an agent for hope in the world. His focus in this regard is strictly on temporal matters rather than eternal.
The main problems in the world are temporal matters: racism, poverty, etc.
Religious people don’t have a monopoly on morality. Secular morality is equivalent to the religious, and secular peo-
ple need to bring their morality to the table where it should be fully accepted.
Social change in this world is the most important purpose of religion.
We need morality in our political debate. (He doesn’t acknowledge, however, any objective basis for morality. One
person’s moral beliefs are as good as another’s.)

He goes on to list three ground rules which need to be acknowledged between religious and secular people.
1. Separation of church and state. By this, he explains that we must not mingle government and religion – that is, we
must not allow religious belief to affect the secular arena. He states that we are no longer a Christian nation and we must
include everyone. He goes on to share that even if we were all Christian, we would have to fight over which version of
Christianity we would use.
2. Democracy demands that religiously motivated people translate their concerns into universal, rather than religion spe-
cific, values. He explains that this means we can’t use religion to argue for Christian values – since he believes that there
is no objectively true set of values and no objective truth. Because of that, we must be willing to compromise our values
with non-Christians when it comes to public policy.
3. Any reconciliation between faith and democratic pluralism requires some sense of proportion. What he means here is
that we have to discern between what is central to the faith and what is culturally derived, and be willing to compromise
our positions. Interestingly, religious values are considered to be culturally derived.

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Find these books along with other

great worldview resources at
www.marketfaith.org

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(Obama’s Religion - Continued from page 2)

As we look at Obama’s religious point of view, it quickly becomes evident that he is a relativist and a pluralist. Basically,
rather than acknowledging an objective set of truths and values which are given by God, he believes that there is no such
thing as objective truth, and that the people in society have to negotiate with each other to come up with a set of moral
values that everyone can live with. This ultimately takes morality to the lowest common denominator in that we cannot
accept any moral value which someone else disagrees with. For Christians, this means we must to be willing to compro-
mise every belief that non-Christians would not agree with.

Where Does this Point of View Come From?

Barack Obama is very adamant that he is a Christian. He joined a Christian church and has been a member there for over
twenty years. But the really important question is: What really makes a person a Christian? Is it calling yourself one, or is
there some objective standard which determines it?

In fact, there is an objective criteria. Just because a person self-identifies as a Christian does not mean he or she really is
one. Jesus was very clear on this point in Matthew 7:21when he said, "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will
enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven (NIV). And in the case of deter-
mining who is a real Christian, “doing the will of my Father” means that a person has entered into a personal relationship
with God through Jesus Christ. Being a Christian is not simply a matter of being a member of a church which self-identi-
fies with Jesus. It is having a personal relationship with God.

Obama identifies his Christian faith through his church, not through his relationship with God. To him, serving mankind,
based on his personal understanding of what that
means, is made to be equivalent to serving God. This ap-
proach to understanding faith is actually straight out of Nat-
uralism, not out of the Bible. Subscription Information

This is particularly evident as you evaluate the theology of
his church. Black Liberation Theology is based on socialist
economic and social principles. Evil in the world is not seen
to be a spiritual concept, but rather the worldly expression
of prejudice and oppression. The key to solving it, then, is
not to seek God, but to solve the problems of society as
they see them (See Worldview Made Practical – Issue 3-
8).
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and click on the sign up link.
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http://www.marketfaith.org.

We must be clear at this point. It is not that Obama does
not believe in God. However, the God he believes in is not
the one described in the Bible. As such, God is not seen to
be a person who has revealed objective truth. The result is
that truth is considered to be relative based on the needs
of society (as understood by the ones creating the agen-
da). While this is not pure Naturalism which completely de-
nies the existence of anything supernatural, the concept of
relativism as it is applied to morality is borrowed from Natu-
ralism.
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How Should Christians Consider this Point of View?

So, as Christians, how should we consider this information.
First of all, this is not a political issue. Sure it has political
implications as people who hold these views serve in politi-
cal office. A relativistic understanding of religion will play
out in the policies that a president Obama would imple-
ment.
But it also has implications in the workplace, in our educa-
tional institutions, in the media, in the entertainment indus-
try and in every other part of life. We need to understand
that this is not simply a problem with Obama. It is part of
the very fabric of the society we live in.
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send your tax deductible contribution to MarketFaith Minis-
tries, 321 Anton Dr., Tallahassee, FL 32312.

(Continued on page 4)
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(Obama’s Religion - Continued from page 3)

This entire approach to life is one hundred and eighty degrees contrary to the Christian worldview. Our Christian faith
teaches us the there is an objective personal God who has a will concerning morality and who has shared that will with us
in a definitive and concrete way. There is such a thing as right and wrong and God is that one who defines it, not our-
selves.

Additionally, it is not this physical world and its social and economic problems which are the most important issues in life,
as important as they are. The most important thing relates to whether or not individuals establish a personal relationship
with God through Jesus Christ. This spiritual dynamic is foundational to life, not the physical.

As Christians, we need to be active in countering the spiritual and moral relativism which is so prominent in our society,
and share the true gospel that Jesus is the Christ, that God is personal, and that we can know God and overcome evil by
our relationship with him.

But in order to do this, we must take ourselves to a higher level in our faith life than we currently are. And this must hap-
pen not only on a personal, individual level, but must begin to take hold of all of us as the body of Christ. This will not hap-
pen simply by believing in the Bible and having Jesus in our hearts. We not only have to know what we believe, but why
we believe it. It is this “why” element that is so missing in the Christian community. We simply will not be able to counter
the relativism which is so prominent in society until we know why it is wrong and why our belief in an objective God who
has revealed an objective morality is right.

At this point, you need to be encouraged to begin gaining an intensive understanding of worldview – what it is, what the
possibilities are and why the worldview revealed in the Bible is the truth. In doing this, you will put yourself in a position to
be effective in countering the societal corruption that relativist religion represents.

In the next Issue: Really Now, What Is So Bad about Abortion?