Terry Mattingly—Missing some fundamental facts on Obama and faith

Posted by Kendall Harmon

For the life of me, I cannot understand why so many people in conservative-church pews and pulpits cannot grasp the fact that Obama is a liberal Christian. Yes, he may be so doctrinally liberal that, when it comes to eternal questions, he believes that there are no ultimate differences between Christians, Jews, Muslims and everybody else — but he is certainly not alone in believing that. The leaders of many denominations believe that. Legions of seminary professors agree with him.

In oh so many ways, Obama is a perfectly normal liberal Protestant Christian.

However, as recent Pew Forum research made clear, the world of liberal Protestantism is no longer at the heart of American life. The old mainline is now on the sideline, to the left of the mainstream. That does not mean that oldline churches are not important or worthy of balanced, nuanced coverage.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Christian Life / Church Life • Church History • * Culture-Watch • Media • Religion & Culture • * Economics, Politics • Politics in General • Office of the President • President Barack Obama • US Presidential Election 2012

6 Comments
Posted November 2, 2012 at 6:00 am [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]



1. Jim the Puritan wrote:

The problem is many of us don’t think “liberal Christians” are Christians.

November 2, 2:21 pm | [comment link]
2. Br. Michael wrote:

Amen!

November 2, 6:08 pm | [comment link]
3. drummie wrote:

How can you advocate what God forbids, gay “marriage” and murder for birth control and be considered Christian. Don’t actions speak louder than words? Denying religious freedom seem to be sort of anti-Christian as well.  I have to look at the moral positions a man takes rather than what he mouths.  Obama talks a good game but does he live it? Not that I can tell. He might be in private, but I don’t think so.

November 2, 6:53 pm | [comment link]
4. Mark Baddeley wrote:

Terry Mattingly isn’t using the term ‘Christian’ to mean something like ‘saved’, as a Greek Orthodox convert, he’d have questions about the spiritual standing of all Protestants.

He means that Obama represents liberal Christianity, and his values and outlook are exactly what you’d expect from someone who has inculcated liberalism. He’s not muslim, he’s not even secular. He’s a final gasp (but possibly not the last, as Democrats would have to know that a ‘spiritual but not religious’ candidate for President would be a hard sell at this stage) of the rapidly shrinking liberal ‘mainstream’ Christianity.

November 2, 7:39 pm | [comment link]
5. John A. wrote:

I would say that many nominal Christians are at least as heretical as Mormons.  I agree with Mattingly that Obama is simply a liberal “Christian” and not Muslim but so what?

Considering the complexity of the issues it does not particularly bother me that the Christian community is divided about this election but it greatly saddens me that Christians who believe in the unique salvation through Christ and the authority of scripture seem to be unable to discuss their differences calmly.

We should be leading the nation by discussing the important issues of the day with each other respectfully and really making this a country that is by the people and for the people.

November 2, 9:10 pm | [comment link]
6. Charles52 wrote:

The most interesting aspect of Pres. Obama’s pushing his liberal religion using scripture is that no one screamed about an impending theocracy. He (mis) used scripture and Jesus Himself, and no one called it a violation of “the separation of church and state.”

Fascinating!

November 2, 10:43 pm | [comment link]
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