By Beaver Believer,
Oregon writer,
President Barack Obama went into the most detailed open talk about his faith at a backyard gathering Tuesday. This comes days after he attended Sunday services at St. John’s Episcopal Church which was his first public worship service since Easter of 2009. Obama timing comes on the heels of polls showing that 1 out of 4 Americans think he is a Muslim and during a time of religious heated debates surrounding 99-1 this year. It is almost as if Obama is sharing his faith out of self-defense. If so, this does not look good for those who appreciate open discussion of faith in public and also not good for those who dislike it. No one should be in this position. I fear that politics is already interrupting an already unhealthy national debate on religious issues. (HINT to TV execs, now is the time to do some televised faith town halls to let America have an honest dialogue)
Here is what Obama said:
“I’m a Christian by choice. My family, frankly, they weren’t folks who went to church every week. My mother was one of the most spiritual people I knew but she didn’t raise me in the church, so I came to my Christian faith later in life and it was because the precepts of Jesus Christ spoke to me in terms of the kind of life that I would want to lead. Being my brothers and sisters’ keeper, treating others as they would treat me, and I think also understanding that Jesus Christ dying for my sins spoke to the humility we all have to have as human beings, that we’re sinful and we’re flawed and we make mistakes and we achieve salvation through the grace of God.
“But what we can do, as flawed as we are, is still see God in other people, and do our best to help them find their own grace. That’s what I strive to do, that’s what I pray to do every day.’’
“deeply believes that part of the bedrock strength of this country is that it embraces people of many faiths and of no faith.’’
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