Christian Anti-Defamation Commission Challenges Obama Christianity Claims

Christian Group Reviews Obama History, Writings, and Interviews to Expose Presidential Candidate's Disingenuous Religious Proclamations

Contact: Sharaya Cass, The Christian Anti-Defamation Commission (CADC), 760-630-2232

MEDIA ADVISORY, October 30 /Christian Newswire/ -- Barack Obama, the Democratic candidate for president of the United States, has repeatedly claimed to be a Christian, but there is more evidence disputing that declaration than affirming it according to Dr. Gary Cass, Chairman and CEO of the Christian Anti-Defamation Commission.

Dr. Cass observes, "From his speeches and his writings, even his personal history--despite protestations to the contrary--it appears that Obama's 'Christianity' is carefully constructed to appease traditional American voters."

Americans expect their leaders to embody Judeo-Christian ideals and beliefs, so it is important for Obama to be perceived as a practicing Christian. Every one of the forty-three United States presidents, regardless of political party, has mentioned God in his inaugural address. George Washington, the hero of the American Revolution, the first president of the United States, and often referred to as the 'Father of Our Country' stated: "It is impossible to properly govern without God and the Bible."

Dr. Cass summarizes: "Here's a man, Obama, who desperately needs to convince half the voters in the United States that he believes in something that he doesn't truly understand...even two decades after his alleged conversion to Christianity."

Unfortunately for Obama, it is not his political opponents who expose this fiction, it is his own words, as well as those of his friends and family.

Obama's Muslim Roots

Dr. Cass explains, "The most glaring misstatement of fact in the packaging of Obama for the presidency is assertion that--in his words--he is rooted in Christian tradition. The claim is unsubstantiated. His mother was, at best, an agnostic. His biological father was a Muslim. His stepfather was from a devout Muslim family. Throughout his formative years, Obama lived in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim society where--according to a passage in his first memoir, Dreams from My Father--he studied the Koran. He lived his teen years with his maternal grandparents who, by his own description, were Universalists, not Christians."

In a 2007 New York Times interview, entitled Obama, A man of the World, Obama fondly recalled the Islamic evening call to prayer as "one of the prettiest sounds on Earth at sunset." According to the article, "Obama went on to recite its opening lines with a perfect Arabic accent: "Allah is Supreme! Allah is Supreme! Allah is Supreme! Allah is Supreme! I witness that there is no god but Allah! I witness that there is no god but Allah! I witness that Muhammad is his prophet!"

"A devoted follower of Jesus Christ would never say 'Allah is supreme and there is no god but Allah,'" argues Dr. Cass. "Sitting in a pew from time to time doesn't make someone a Christian. If anything, Obama is rooted in Islamic tradition."

Obama On "My Muslim Faith"

On September 5th, 2008, in an ABC television network on-air conversation with former Clinton advisor turned political pundit, George Stephanopoulos, Obama uttered the line, "You're absolutely right that John McCain has not talked about my Muslim faith." Stephanopoulos quickly saved Obama from political disaster by reminding him that he meant to say his "Christian" faith.

"I have never met a Christian, especially one who claims to have been a Christian for twenty years, mistakenly confuse Islam with Christianity when referring to his or her personal faith," notes Dr. Cass. "Perhaps this was Obama's only candid public comment on his belief system since people started keeping track of the things he has said."

Libyan Strongman Identifies Obama as Muslim

On June 11th, 2008, Libyan leader Mu'ammar Al-Qadhafi was videotaped and broadcast on Al-Jazeera TV at a gathering as he referred to: "A black citizen of Kenyan African origins, a Muslim who studied in an Islamic school in Indonesia. His name is Obama. All of the people in the Arab and Islamic world and in Africa applauded this man. They welcomed him and prayed for him and his success and they have been involved in a legitimate contribution campaign to win the American presidency."

Dr. Cass observes, "Clearly one of the world's most vocal anti-American Arab leaders is convinced that Obama is a Muslim and is cheering the possibility of having a brother Muslim named the leader of the free world. Just as troubling is the candid admission that Muslims in Arab countries and in Africa are making financial contributions to the Obama campaign. It is against U.S. election laws for foreign nationals to give money to any candidate for federal office, but that is apparently not a deterrent to Obama or to Qadhafi."

Marketing Obama In America

At a time when the United States is at war with Islamic fundamentalists, it has been vital that the candidate obliterate any connection to his Muslim roots. For the American public to buy the Obama brand, it was pivotal that the candidate convince voters that he was a bona fide Christian.

As Dr. Cass observes, "Once he decided to run for president, Obama and his surrogates started attacking anyone who questioned his Christianity. So, for an accurate insight into his duplicity, we need to look at an interview he gave to Chicago Sun-Times religion columnist, Cathleen Falsani, on March 24th, 2004, a few days after he was nominated to run for the U.S. Sentate from the state of Illinois and three years before he was considered a presidential candidate."

During the exhaustive interview with Falsani, Obama showed himself to be profoundly uninformed about the basic tenets of the Christian faith. Falsani, who currently also writes a blog for the pro-Obama website, The Huffington Post, authored the book, The God Factor: Inside the Spiritual Lives of Public People, a collection of spiritual profiles. (Published in 2006 by Farrar, Straus & Giroux.)

Obama's Statement of "Faith"

To Falsani's question, "What do you believe?" Obama answered: "I am a Christian. So, I have a deep faith. So I draw from the Christian faith." Then he qualifies that statement by saying, "On the other hand, I was born in Hawaii where obviously there are a lot of Eastern influences. I lived in Indonesia, the largest Muslim country in the world, between the ages of six and 10. My father was from Kenya, and although he was probably most accurately labeled an agnostic, his father was Muslim. And I'd say, probably, intellectually I've drawn as much from Judaism as any other faith."

Obama continued to distance himself from the teachings of Jesus when he finished his answer saying, "I'm rooted in the Christian tradition. I believe that there are many paths to the same place, and that is a belief that there is a higher power, a belief that we are connected as a people."

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