Barack Obama sets the record straight at Christianity today: “I am a Christian, and I am a devout Christian. I believe in the redemptive death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. I believe that that faith gives me a path to be cleansed of sin and have eternal life. But most importantly, I believe in the example that Jesus set by feeding the hungry and healing the sick and always prioritizing the least of these over the powerful.”

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Richard Clark

Richard Clark is the Founding Editor of Christ and Pop Culture. He is also the managing editor of Gamechurch and a freelance writer for Unwinnable, Paste, and other outlets. He lives with his wife in Louisville, KY and has a MA in Theology and the Arts from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
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5 Comments

  1. There’s that old Democratic emphasis coming out, isn’t it…”But most importantly, I believe in the example that Jesus set…”

    Notice the most important belief is not in the redemptive work, but in the example set. I don’t want to over analyze his statement, but political Democrats do tend to emphasize Jesus’ healings as a religious support for their social welfare plans. And even if I grant that Jesus did give us a great example in his “humanitarian” work, it hardly stands as the most important if it is detached from His cross.

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  2. Maybe I’m too much of a Democrat myself (I confess!!!)but I was gratified by what Obama said. I think we can get very narrow and legalistic if we insist that every Christian describe his experience in precisely the same terms many of us would use.

    And James does say faith without works is dead. So it needs to be both.

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  3. I am not sure that it has as much to do with describing one’s “experience” as it does with describing what is the most important feature of the work of Christ.

    Certainly drawing a hard line on his “active” and “passive” work (what terrible theological terms those are) would be bad. Nonetheless, Obama’s remarks about his faith sound just like those of every other Democrat.

    His “confession of faith” doesn’t really tell me anything interesting about him. Just that he’s a typical Democratic Candidate.

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  4. I guess I am reading him as saying that the most important thing for the purpose of public discussion is…

    And that does seem to me to be an important point in a pluralistic society. Every time I hear the Mike Huckabees of the world talk about America as a “Christian nation” or suggest that the constitution needs to be brought more in line with Christian principles, even I cringe. I appreciate it when political leaders frame their faith in terms that are honest, but that do not exclude large numbers of people who may not believe as they do.

    And the fact that I’m a dyed-in-the-wool Democrat probably plays into it :-)

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