...Actually, "The Right's Problem With Obama's Religion" would be a more accurate headline for this post, but what I've got is sexier, donchathink?
Because make no mistake about it, they've got a problem. To wit: They don't like it, but they don't know why.
- The American Thinker wonders if he'll be killed for being an Islamic apostate.
- Grant Swank in his typical psyllocibin-induced screed thinks Obama is insufficiently Christian. (By the way, Mr. Swank, it's just UCC, not UCC (Congregational).)
- Moonie-affiliated Insight Magazine thinks Obama's a Muslim wolf in Christian sheep's clothing. They trace their just-this-side-of-slander back to Hillary's campaign.
- Time's Mike Allen insinuates that Obama can't really be religious because he supports reproductive rights.
So, depending on how you look at it, Obama is too Muslim, not enough Muslim, or not enough Christian.
Melissa Rogers has this to say about the Insight piece:
In more recent years, Barack Obama also has said, quite eloquently I might add, that he became a Christian as an adult. And he is obviously close to his pastor at Trinity United Church of Christ. It's been our practice to take presidential candidates at their word on these matters. We have every reason to do so here. It's bizarre and offensive to suggest that this man has somehow been pulling the wool over our eyes, professing Christian beliefs while actually being a Muslim.
And, by the way, speaking from a Baptist/evangelical perspective at least, no one is born a Christian. After one reaches an "age of accountability," one may decide to follow Jesus Christ. That's when one becomes a Christian. So all Christians are converts. And one is not any less of a Christian if one practiced another faith before that conversion.
I'd say that hits the nail on the head. Obama is a Christian because he chose to become one as an adult (his congregation practices adult baptism), and there's no reason to doubt his sincerity on that score. Nor is there any reason to say that he can't be a Christian and yet be in favor of choice. That's a quite mainstream position, so there is again no reason to doubt his self-description. In fact, there's more scriptural backing for questioning Pres. Bush's Christianity based on his demonstrated war-mongering than there is for doubting Obama's. In any case, Melissa thinks this story is "shopped around," which isn't quite true. It's been making the rounds on wingnut e-mail chains for quite a while, and eventually, it'll make it's way up to being a standard slur used against him by the right.
What's interesting to me about all this is that when you get down to it, Obama presents conservatives with a category error. Democrats are liberal, and therefore cannot be religious, q.e.d. It simply fries their circuits that Obama won't stick in the pigeonhole they've constructed for him. It's going to be a hard election season for them: As Grillmaster pointed out to me the other day, Edwards, Gore, Clinton, and Obama are all comfortable with the language of religion. The Republican front-runners - McCain, Guilliani and Newt - not so much.
And just for fun, allow me to point out that many folks on the left share the same perspective, albeit from a different angle. A real Democrat can't be religious!
To be fair to Prof. Myers and those who agree with him, what they're saying is more properly, "a real Democrat shouldn't be religious." They're entitled to their opinion, whether or not we agree with them.
At the same time, I don't think it's an accident that all the Democrat front-runners can "talk God." It's not that they've gotten a memo telling them to "be more friendly to people of faith". That's a very facile way of looking at it. What has been missing in American political discourse for decades - since Reagan left office - has been some thread of social ethics. Very simply, we haven't had a president who has been able to ask the question "Is our country moving in the right direction?" in a way that has been responsive to the concerns of the average citizen. Bill Clinton tried, but he was derailed by his sexual ethics. Pappy Bush was a technocrat, not a preacher. Junior - well, Junior put up a good front on this as on so many different issues. There's a real hunger for someone who can answer that question, and people tend to gravitate to those candidates who they believe will do just that. Traditionally, those questions have been approached in the language of faith in our country, though there's no reason that they must. Russ Feingold is a good model of a politician who can talk morality in a religion-neutral fashion.
As Dems move into ascendancy not just politically but in the social discourse, these criticisms are going to keep coming from both left and right. They're a sign that things are changing, and hopefully for the better.
Update [2007-1-19 14:33:31 by pastordan]: Wow, that didn't take long. Think Progress says FoxNews is already reporting on the Insight piece, speculating on what it would be like have a Muslim in the White House without mentioning that Obama is, you know, a Christian. (Cookies to Attaturk, sitting in for Atrios.)