What is the “Faith” of Barack Obama?

Posted on September 8, 2008 by rbirkey

Cover: The Faith of Barack Obama

I recently finished reading The Faith of Barack Obama by Stephen Mansfield [Thomas Nelson, publisher].

I agree with Mansfield’s introductory book premise that understanding a man’s religious vision and personal faith will illuminate how he will lead. To Mansfield, Barack’s faith uniquely positions him as a “healer” and prophetic conscience for our nation, on the level of Lincoln, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr., Ghandi, Desmond Tutu, William Wilberforce and others.

The pertinent question, then, is what IS Barack Obama’s faith and religious vision and how will it inform his leadership?

Although Barack professes to have a personal relationship with Jesus (the historical object of Christian faith), this book reveals little about how Barack’s faith is rooted in that relationship. To me the book reveals his faith to be more rooted in traditions, ethics, black liberation theology and an attractive community life that fits with his personal values, rather than in a personal submission to the God-man, Jesus Christ, as revealed to us in Scripture.

As Mansfield observes, Barack’s faith is in a belief that “Christianity is but one religious tree rooted in the common ethical soil of all human experience.” For Barack, “there are many paths to the same place.”

According to Mansfield, Obama “is the product of a new, post-modern generation that picks and chooses its own truth from traditional faith, much as a man customizes his meal at a buffet.”

I also find it enlightening that his religious vision and faith is guided, not by revealed truth, but by doubt. “Doubt is at the heart of Obama’s religion. Indeed, it is not going too far to say that for Obama, doubt is a form of worship.”

Mansfield moves from these quotes and statements to his conclusions in the last chapter. That religion, to Barack Obama, “is transforming, lifelong and real. It is who he is at the core . . . While Americans are used to religious insincerity from their political leaders, Obama seems to be sincere in what he proclaims. It was his faith that gave him the will to serve in public office and the worldview of that faith that shaped his understanding of what he would do once he came to office.”

“Obama’s faith infuses his public policy, so that his faith is not just limited to the personal realms of his life; it also informs his leadership.”

In what way will a faith rooted in doubt and customized at will inform leadership? Every person must wrestle with doubt, but do doubt and uncertainty qualify a person for leadership? What does it say about our times and culture that our most admired individuals are those who cannot affirm what they believe? That not knowing truth is valued above knowing truth? If doubt is a form of worship for Barack Obama then our country’s infatuation with Barack Obama belies an infatuation with doubters and those who readily admit that truth is unknowable.

We would all do well to remember the famous and timely words of C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity:

I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: “I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God.” That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a good moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic-on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg-or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about His being a great moral teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”

In conclusion, there is much to admire about Barack Obama. He is gifted and able in many areas. I commend him for his many good qualities, and respect the hardships he has overcome, and hope that many will emulate the positive choices he has made in his life. But on the question as to whether or not his faith as presented in this book makes him more attractive to me as a leader and presidential candidate, it does not. Rather, the faith of Barack Obama is deeply concerning to me–for him as a person, and for our country.

Unlike Mr. Mansfield, I do not see Barack Obama as a prophet, ready to heal the wounds of our nation. Rather, he is a brilliant politician, a winsome, sincere and transparent communicator, who is seriously confused about the object of his professed faith.

Even though I disagree with the conclusion of this book, I would recommend it to anyone seriously following the presidential candidacy of Barack Obama and the critically important choice ahead for our nation on November 4th.

My Introduction to “Pagan Christianity?”

Posted on February 23, 2008 by rbirkey

I am just finishing reading a book that my father sent to me (Thanks, Dad!) and that has been one of the most challenging and enlightening books I’ve read in recent years. The impact it will have on me personally will take much more time to realize and digest because there are so many ways that this book speaks to me, and the timing is not coincidental. I’ll explain more on that later. The book is called Pagan Christianity?: Exploring the roots of our church practices. It seeks to answer the question: “Are We really doing church by the book?” It is authored by Frank Viola and George Barna, and published by Tyndale House.

Frank Viola is a voice in the contemporary house church movement, and has been gathering with organic house churches in the US for the last 20 years. He is actively engaged in planting New Testament styled churches. He has written 8 books on radical church restoration including God’s Ultimate Passion and The Untold Story of the New Testament Church [www.frankviola.com].

George Barna is the chairman of Good News Holdings, a multimedia firm in Los Angeles that produces movies, television programming, and other media content. He is also the founder and director of The Barna Group [www.barna.org], a research firm in Ventura, California. George has written 39 books including Revolution and Revolutionary Parenting.

The joint venture of Pagan Christianity? is sort of a twin to Barna’s 2005 book REVOLUTION: Worn out on church? Finding vibrant faith beyond the walls of the sanctuary, also published by Tyndale House.

Here’s an excerpt from the book jacket:
Many Christians take for granted that their church’s practices are rooted in Scripture. Yet those practices look very different from those of the first-century church. The New Testament is not silent on how the early church freely expressed the reality of Christ’s indwelling in ways that rocked the first-century world.Times have changed. Pagan Christianity? leads us on a fascinating tour through church history, revealing this startling and unsettling truth: Many cherished church traditions embraced today originated not out of the New Testament, but out of pagan practices. One of the most troubling outcomes has been the effect on average believers: turning them from living expressions of Christ’s glory and power to passive observers.

Like me, have you ever wondered:

Why does the pastor preach a sermon at every service?
Why do church services seem so similar week after week?
Why does the congregation sit passively in pews?
Why do we keep thinking of the church as a building?
Why are we so fixated on the idea of a senior pastor?

If these questions have caught your attention like they did to me, then you might be interested enough to visit the paganchristianity.org website and download a free introduction chapter to read. And, if that increases your interest, you should just buy the book and read it! It’s an easy and engrossing read!

The Pagan Christianity website has other resources including a downloadable discussion guide, as well as links to other articles and resources by Frank Viola and George Barna.

After I complete the final chapter: “A Second Glance at the Savior: Jesus the Revolutionary,” I intend to reread the book, and post my thoughts here on each chapter. I would welcome your comments.

“Experience supplies painful proof that traditions once called into being are first called useful, then they become necessary. At last they are too often made idols, and all must bow down to them or be punished.” — J.C. Ryle, Nineteenth-Century English Writer and Minister

The “God Delusion” Debate

Posted on October 4, 2007 by rbirkey

Richard Dawkins and John Lennox Last night at 7 PM Chicago time, a debate was broadcast on Moody Radio Network between Richard Dawkins, author of “The God Delusion,” and John Lennox, professor of Mathematics and Philosophy of Science, both at Oxford University, England. Dawkins is considered one of the leading intellectuals in science today, and a spokesman for the “New Atheism.”

The debate was held at The Alys Stephens Center at the University of Alabama, and was sponsored by a group called Fixed Point Foundation. I heard about the debate from my brother Barry, and also saw it advertised in Christianity Today magazine.

The debate was positioned to center on Dawkins’ views as expressed in his book, and their validity over and against the Christian faith. Lennox is a well-know Christian apologist, and has written a rebuttal to Dawkins’ book entitled: “God’s Undertaker: Has Science Buried God?” Dawkins was given the first and last words for the evening debate out of “Christian charity” as the host humorously noted.

I was able to listen to the first 30 minutes before attending a previous commitment. In that time I heard introductions of the speakers by the moderator, and a 5 minute biography introduction by each debater.

I plan to purchase the DVD of the event through the Fixed Point website as soon as it is available. I’ll do a more detailed analysis after viewing that.

What I found personally interesting is that when I was in Oxford in 2006 for the RZIM Summer School (see my 2006 Summer School Posts), John Lennox was one of the lecturers that I heard on a daily basis. We also heard our evening lectures from Ravi Zacharias and other RZIM speakers, in the British Museum of Natural History, where Richard Dawkins has his office.

Kind of ironic!