From the New York Times:
by Sheryl Ann Stollberg
Now comes fresh evidence of misperceptions about the president taking root in the public mind: a new poll by the Pew Research Center finds a substantial rise in the percentage of Americans who believe, incorrectly, that Mr. Obama is Muslim. The president is Christian, but 18 percent now believe he is Muslim, up from 12 percent when he ran for the presidency and 11 percent after he was inaugurated.
The findings suggest that, nearly two years into Mr. Obama’s presidency, the White House is struggling with the perception of “otherness” that Candidate Obama sought so hard to overcome — in part because of an aggressive misinformation campaign by critics and in part, some Democratic allies say, because Mr. Obama is doing a poor job of communicating who he is and what he believes. ...
But Mr. Kohut also said the numbers reflected that Mr. Obama had “not made religion a part of his public persona” as much as he did during his presidential campaign — so much so that even his own supporters are confused.
Among Democrats, for example, just 46 percent said Mr. Obama was Christian, down from 55 percent in March 2009, two months after he took office. ...
The White House says the public — and the press — are not listening. Since taking office, Mr. Obama has given six speeches either from a church pulpit or addressing religion in public life — including an Easter prayer breakfast where he “offered a very personal and candid reflection of what the Resurrection means to him,” said Joshua DuBois, who runs the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.
But the Easter address attracted scant attention in the news media. And the fact that the Obama family has not joined a church in Washington — the president has said his presence would be too disruptive — has not helped, because the public rarely sees images of them attending services.
Initially, Obama made a big deal about his belonging to Rev. Wright's church, until the public was finally clued in -- after 42 states had held their primaries -- as to what Rev. Wright's church was really like. James Edwards calls it a Black Muslim church in Christian drag, and the prominent left-of-center British man of letters Jonathan Raban visited Wright's church before the storm broke and came to roughly the same conclusion about Wright's church, and concluded that Obama appears to be an agnostic.
Obama officially renounced membership in Trinity around June 1, 2008, and more than two years later he still hasn't joined another church.
But that's all pretty boring. By this point we know that Obama will do what he has to do to win the big prize, but not much more -- he's not made out of energy, you know.
Here's what is interesting in this NYT article:
The White House says Mr. Obama prays daily, sometimes in person or over the telephone with a small circle of Christian pastors. One of them, the Rev. Kirbyjon Caldwell, who was also a spiritual adviser to former President George W. Bush, telephoned a reporter on Wednesday, at the White House’s behest. He said he was surprised that the number of Americans who say Mr. Obama is Muslim is growing. “I must say,” Mr. Caldwell said, “never in the history of modern-day presidential politics has a president confessed his faith in the Lord, and folks basically call him a liar.”
Kirbyjon Caldwell? Where have I heard that name before?
Oh ... yeah ...
It's in George W. Bush's speech to the October 15, 2002 White House Conference on Increasing Minority Homeownership:
And then there's my friend Kirbyjon Caldwell. He not only provides counseling and job training, he actually decided to encourage a development of homes in the Houston area. People -- low-income people are going to be able to more afford a home in Texas because of Kirbyjon's vision and work. He's answered the call of faith to help people help themselves and to help them realize dreams.
The other thing Kirbyjon told me, which I really appreciate, is you don't have to have a lousy home for first-time home buyers. If you put your mind to it, the first-time home buyer, the low-income home buyer can have just as nice a house as anybody else. And I know Kirbyjon. He is what I call a social entrepreneur who is using his platform as a Methodist preacher to improve the neighborhood and the community in which he lives.
Kirbyjon Caldwell is a black Wharton MBA turned investment banker turned megachurch preacher turned Bush adviser turned author of The Gospel of Good Success turned real estate developer turned Obama supporter turned officiator at Jenna Bush's wedding turned Obama adviser.
Pastor Kirbyjon told Time Magazine in 2006, "It is unscriptural not to own land."
Pastor Kirbyjon told Time Magazine in 2006, "It is unscriptural not to own land."
Whew, that's a relief! So we can rest easy knowing that Obama is turning for advice to the same minister who gave Bush such good advice on how first-time low-income homebuyers need zero downpayment mortgages so they can have just as nice a house as anybody else.
Posts
52 comments:
I'm assuming that Obama is an Atheist who assumes a veneer of religion when dealing with the Great Unwashed.
Me, I'm assuming that B. Hussein Umomma is a foreigner who prefers the Muslim call to prayer to the sound of Christian church bells.
Is he also an atheist? Who knows?
The very idea that Obama, that deeply-stupid, overgrown adolescent, affirmative-action parasite, even believes in God is laughable. The effort to pretend he does is probably utterly exhausting for that natural liar, cheat and thief.
He's really too stupid to even hide the fact that he is a left-wing fascist tyrant because to him it's a perfectly reasonable default mode.
He reminds me of some of the imbeciles I've seen running diversity training and human resources departments. Evil, stupid and proud of it.
Gosh, I can't imagine why Barack Hussein Obama would be considered an "other".
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/08/13/fox-news-poll-percent-think-wrong-build-mosque-near-ground-zero/
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2010/05/12/wsjnbc-poll-hispanics-strongly-oppose-ariz-immigration-law/
As for Obama's religion, he's a leftist, spiritual agnostic. As always, all we have to do is consult Obama's own words, a task apparently too complex for anyone in the MSM to undertake. From Dreams:
"I was unable to answer my daughter about heaven; I wondered if I should have told her the truth - that I was not sure what happens when we die; anymore than I was sure of where the soul resides or what existed before the big bang."
Can you imagine Pat Robertson saying something like that or even Jim Wallis?
Tom Wolfe's imagination must be stopped. He keeps dreaming these people into existence that torment our portfolios.
Im terrified of what "Back to Blood" is going to bring forth over the next 20 years.
I think Obama worships his own egotism; he's not cerebral enough to decide issues like, "Should I worship Mammon, or just be an atheist?"
Obama is a puppet of lobbyists, just as Bush was. He's the Bribe-taker in Chief. He's just a cashier who handles money for the important decision-makers.
It's like asking, "Does Bill Gates' limo driver know how to manage programming projects?" The limo driver is just a tool.
God help us all.
It's so damn fun reading this blog.
It makes sense that W's -- and now Obama's -- 'spiritual adviser' is a prosperity gospel Texas megachurch preacher.
I would love to, but I really can't believe these polls are right with regard to the Muslim thing. People are just messing with the pollsters. I know it said that even about half of self-reported democrats said he was not a Christian. What it didn't say were how many democrats thought he was a Muslim. Most people saying he's a Muslim are probably just saying that because they don't like him. I doubt they would put money on it. But I do believe that people suspect his sincerity about religion.
As far as this spiritual adviser, all I can do is a facepalm.
Slightly OT:
The below link is a PDF of a Pew study from 2007. See page 2 of the report:
"Just 40% of Muslim Americans say groups of Arabs carried out those attacks."
http://pewresearch.org/assets/pdf/muslim-americans.pdf
Here's a Pew study of global Muslims from 2006. See page 4 of the report and you'll see in no Muslim country polled does a majority of the population believe that Arabs carried out the attacks of September 11, 2001:
http://pewglobal.org/files/pdf/253.pdf
"Obama is a puppet of lobbyists"
lol
Lyndon Larouche, there you are
Of course Obama is an atheist. So are most of the elite in this country. We just mouth the appropriate noises to sooth the masses.
I can understand why the percentage of people who believe Obama is a Muslim is increasing.
When addressing the Muslim audience on the topic of the ground-zero mosque, you heard real vehemence in the voice of this cool, detached president, of the sort that was lacking after the Christmas bombing attempt and the Fort Hood massacre. He was visibly angry at the assertion that Muslims should not build their mosques wherever they want to. The last time I can recall seeing him so emotionally engaged was when his friend Skippy Gates was arrested.
As long as the president doesn't display the same level of emotion about things that average Americans care about, he's not going to be regarded as one of us. And it's too late now for him to start making the effort.
Of course Obama is an atheist. So are most of the elite in this country. We just mouth the appropriate noises to sooth the masses.
Some of the elite may be "atheists" but they are possessed of an undeniable religious fervour. I see them as fundamentally religious types that say they are are non-religious because they know its a poke in the eye to the people they despise the most. Its exactly analagous to their stance on creationism. They privately hate Darwinism (or at least its ramifications) but they publicly *say* that its creationism that they hate. Again their claimed embrace of Darwin is just more posturing. Anyway the long in short of it is that there's nothing wrong with atheism per se. Religious conservatives have basically scuttled the ship so let's not hear any more of this talk of returning the the embrace of the church.
Obama is anything you want him to be. Spend some time in the ghetto and you will come across many of these types.
"We just mouth the appropriate noises"
"We"?
An "elite" goes by the handle of "Burp"? Lookie how far we've fallen, laws, yes.
What David said.
Obama worships (drum roll)... Obama. He's the narcissist in chief with millions of enablers out there as co-dependents. The paid spinmeisters working on his behalf are really pretty clever and glib. When I hear this sort of thing I don't know whether to laugh or barf.
"Whew, that's a relief! So we can rest easy knowing that Obama is turning for advice to the same minister who gave Bush such good advice on how first-time low-income homebuyers need zero downpayment mortgages so they can have just as nice a house as anybody else."
Steve, you are a buried national treasure. I wish the mainstream would dig you up.
James Edwards calls it a Black Muslim church in Christian drag
That's pretty funny. But still, the people who seriously think Obama is a Muslim are basically retarded.
OF COURSE Obama is a Muslim. He was raised a Muslim. His Father and Grandfather were Muslims. His StepFather was a Muslim. His room-mates at Occidental and Columbia were Muslims. His half-brother who he celebrates converting to Islam ... is a Muslim.
Obama even wrote a book about himself, something to do with "Race and Inheritance" I believe. He said in it, that if it came to America vs. Muslims, he would side with Muslims.
Obama at Occidental hung out with some Muslim guy from Pakistan who was the son of a wealthy family. When he left, Obama was basically nobody, and transfered to Columbia. [With by his own admission, poor grades.] He rooms with a man who is not a student, a Pakistani Muslim, who he criticizes in his book for turning away from Islam to drugs. [A common theme for Obama -- Islam beats booze/drug addiction, powerful stuff for the son of an alcoholic who himself struggled with drugs.]
As noted by others above, he has a passion only when addressing Islamic groups. Because his race/inheritance is Muslim.
This is why a significant portion of the public believes he is a Muslim. His actions and concerns as President reveal his character. He is in fact, a Muslim. One that probably conceals that. [The White House wanted to ban the Christmas Creche, banned Christmas decorations, Obama like all Muslims does not celebrate birthdays which is a "Christian" custom, Obama is condemnatory of Christianity but praising of Muslims, etc.]
B.O. - like Billie Bob Clinton -knows the red state boobs still cling to their "Guns, God, and anti-immigrant prejudices."
So he pretends to be a Christian. Maybe, Billie Bob needs to lend him that over-sized Bible.
Obama is a monotheist - he worships himself.
I don't know how to determine the difference between an agnostic who'd make a great leader and an agnostic who wouldn't, but I do know the difference with Christians: "we are the worldish" Christians who only care about the Gospels and "compassion" (George Bush, Jimmy Carter) and embarrassed by the Old Testament are pretty much useless.
Give me a Christian who believes in the Old Testament, fire and brimstone stuff, minus belief in the snake and the apple and the ark. They see the world with clear eyes.
Burp said..."Of course Obama is an atheist. So are most of the elite in this country. We just mouth the appropriate noises to sooth[sic] the masses."
Forsooth.
'An "elite" goes by the handle of "Burp"? Lookie how far we've fallen, laws, yes. '
Much of the elite in this country owe their current position to that genius, Momofuku Ando, whose invention provided sustenance to generations of proto-elites and rivals the calculus of Newton and Leibniz. And the integrated circuit. And air conditioning.
Without Ando, no Internet, no Human Genome, no Facebook. Only darkness.
So, Burp !
The strange thing is you can be a Muslim, a Jew and a Christian all at the same time. If your father is a Muslim, you are a Muslim under Islamic law. If your mother is a Jew, you are a Jew under Jewish law. And if you believe that Christ is the son of God, you are a Christian under Christian "law".
So what is Obama? He is a Muslim at least because his father was. He may also have sincerely recited the shahada at some point which, if true, would make him a Muslim by conversion if he wasn't by birth.
He says he is now a Christian. Assuming he knows what that means, and he is sincere, then he is a Christian, too. Which also means he is an apostate Muslim, too, and therefore lives under a Muslim death sentence.
Since being a Christian is a state of mind, most Christians don't understand or appreciate the tribal/racial aspect of being a Muslim and a Jew.
Once you have converted to Judaism or Islam, you make your descendants eternal members of either group, following matrilineal descent for Jews and patrilineal descent for Muslims.
A Jew or Muslim can fall away for a hundred years -- five hundred years -- and if he is able to satisfactorily prove his bloodline that far back, neither Jews nor Muslims would insist on his "conversion".
Most Christians are so steeped in religion-as-belief and not religion-as-tribal-membership-and-loyalty that these distinctions go right over their heads.
. . .but I do know the difference with Christians: "we are the worldish" Christians who only care about the Gospels and "compassion" (George Bush, Jimmy Carter) and embarrassed by the Old Testament are pretty much useless.
When was the last time you've heard a US President say "Jesus Christ"? I can't say I've ever heard a President mention the name.
" But still, the people who seriously think Obama is a Muslim are basically retarded."
I don't think they're retarded at all. My Italian Catholic father died at the age of 80, not having attended mass, except funeral masses, since he was a teen. Did he still think of himself as a Catholic. Yes, because being Italian and being Catholic were culturally inseparable to him and because both his ethnic and religious "heritage" were things of his youth.
I doubt Obama's belief in a God, but I don't find it strange at all that he would feel himself part of a Muslim heritage considering the events/experiences of his youth.
I have never felt that he "feels American" the way most of us do and again, considering his mother and father, I can see why.
Steven Pinker once (or twice) quoted Steve Sailer for support--I think that Mr. Pinker needs to be outed as a: RACIST.
The MIT folks need to know about his racism.
"When was the last time you've heard a US President say "Jesus Christ"? I can't say I've ever heard a President mention the name."
GWB was asked who his favorite philosopher was. I can't believe you don't remember this because this was repeated, and repeated, and repeated, for years afterwards.
"That's pretty funny. But still, the people who seriously think Obama is a Muslim are basically retarded."
Hilarious; right on cue after you post that, Whiskey posts his latest ravings demonstrating once again that he is basically retarded.
Whiskey thinks that you get "Muslim" by proximity: it rubs off on you. Spending a couple of decades attending a Christian Church is just a "ruse": Christianity doesn't rub off on you by either proximity or outright conversion, apparently.
Of course Obama isn't a Muslim; just because he has a typical leftist sympathy for Muslims doesn't make him a secret Muslim. Obama sees Muslims in leftist or multi-culti liberal terms: as another "minority" group or special victim group, in need of the help of kind hearted liberals such as himself.
His hostility to whites and to conservative Christianity, his sympathy for Muslim causes: this is pure modern liberalism of the SWPL/Moonbat variety, ie, the stuff that leftists typically believe whether they or agnostic, atheist, liberal Christian, or "other".
Obama is a secular agnostic, mildly religious (or posing as religious) Christian. Maybe not much of a Christian, but hardly a Muslim.
Kirbyjon Caldwell? Where have I heard that name before?
Maybe here? Sort of.
"When was the last time you've heard a US President say "Jesus Christ"?"
Not just presidents. I suppose I sometimes say it in bits, as in the mild "Jesus Prune!" or the somewhat more heartfelt "Christ on a bicycle!". But the whole "Jesus Christ!" oath was more a feature of my father's generation.
Big Bill sez:Most Christians are so steeped in religion-as-belief and not religion-as-tribal-membership-and-loyalty that these distinctions go right over their heads.
This is a new post-WWII development. Previously Christians were aware of both distinctions.
Jews, Muslims and the media have a vested interest in dumbing Christians down. The charismatic or evangelical movement has reinforced that ignorance, usually by implicitly threatening that Christians who think in racial terms face the wrath of God and lose membership of some mega church. Of course these same rules never apply to Jews, Muslims or black Christians.
Obama spent his intellectually formative teen years with his grandparents. They went to a Unitarian Universalist church in Hawaii. UUs don't really have any set theology. One can be a UU pagan, a UU Christian, a UU Buddhist, a UU 'free-thinker'. A UU church's main function is as a gathering place for trendy left PC types to organize their 'activism'. UUs' primary focus these days seems to be gay marriage.
Over the years UUs have bemoaned their inability to attract minority members. Minorities are not obsessed with gay marriage, feminism, environmentalism, etc. the way SWPL 'intellectuals' are. Obama was probably the only black in his congregation. He would surely have been treated there as a god-child. In Indonesia Barry Sotero was a chubby oddball. He goes to Hawaii and is greeted as a superstar.
Obama's UU connection explains a lot.
Any person who prays daily should be disqualified for the Presidency for stupidity.
"But the whole "Jesus Christ!" oath was more a feature of my father's generation."
My father used to say,"Christ on a cracker!"
Sooner or later Walter Reed Army Medical Center is going to CAT scan Obama's head and through FOI, all will be revealed.
"Sylvia said...
I'm assuming that Obama is an Atheist who assumes a veneer of religion when dealing with the Great Unwashed."
I'm an atheist and I strongly suspect Obama is an atheist as well.
Obama must be a Muslim because he arose from Muslim Hyde Park, has surrounded himself with Muslim advisors and is waging war in the Middle East to further Muslim objectives. Notice also that he is has the full support of the Muslim-controlled mass media in America. What more do we need to know?
Much of the elite in this country owe their current position to that genius, Momofuku Ando, whose invention provided sustenance to generations of proto-elites and rivals the calculus of Newton and Leibniz.
Newton was not an atheist and neither was Leibniz. Perhaps that explains why the elite ain't what it used to be.
Depends on your definition of "Muslim". For many people it is the union of the following two statements.
1. A follower of Islam.
2. Anyone ethically related to #1.
Then there's the George Bushish definition.
Either you're anti-muslim, or you ARE a muslim.
-BWB
"Can you imagine Pat Robertson saying something like that or even Jim Wallis?"
No, unfortunately for Pat and Jim, I can't.
"OF COURSE Obama is a Muslim. He was raised a Muslim. His Father and Grandfather were Muslims. His StepFather was a Muslim. His room-mates at Occidental and Columbia were Muslims. His half-brother who he celebrates converting to Islam ... is a Muslim."
Oh that doesn't mean much does it Whisk? I mean, your grandfather, father, siblings and classmates in college were all pretty smart people, weren't they?
BHO belongs to a religion called secular humanism. Their priests are called anthropologists.
No one seems to have mentioned taqiyya.
The theory is that Barrack Obama is a devout Muslim who conceals his religion and his true beliefs as a form of taqiyya. The problem of course is that this is not just rather paranoid but is completely immune to refutation no matter what the evidence. According to this theory Obama is a kind of Manchurian Candidate politician except unlike Lawrence Harvey in the movie he is completely self aware and is pulling his own strings. He is a man with a hidden agenda.
As far as I know, none of the major religions other than Islam encourages lying. But Islam considers lying to advance Jihad to be an obligation of faith.
So its possible that Obama has this hidden agenda but of course by that logic its also possible that I too am a hidden Muslim - just more hidden.
Whiskey for once is right about something, this time about Obama and Islam. In his extended family of many brothers, sisters, uncles and aunts he is the only non-Muslim. This means that he is in danger of being judged an apostate which can be a state with fatal consequences among Muslims. I'm sure the Secret Service worries more about Muslim assassins than right wing gun nut survivalists or Tea Partyers.
Albertosaurus
Any person who prays daily should be disqualified for the Presidency for stupidity.
Any person who things prayer isn't good for you hasn't tried it. And I don't just mean talking inside your head to God, I'm talking about real prayer.
It makes not a whit of difference if God exists or not - real prayer is good for you.
(Here is the post I removed to improve the speed on the links at the end.)
The only concrete religious belief that I have seen directly associated with Barry is the phatwa of his longtime pastor, the Hon. Rev. Wright. "GOD D*MN AMERICA!"
Barry's own religious statements seem to be the usual horseapples all presidents produce to calm the common folks.
(Except, perhaps, for his statement to the NYT's Kristof that the sound of the Muslim call to prayer was "one of the prettiest sounds on earth." W.T.F.?)
Obama worships himself.
If OHB were a Muslim, would he really let Michelle show so much leg? It's obscene. And the way she and the girls don't cover their hair in public? Whatever happened to modesty?
Plus, while he usually eats with his right hand, I've seen pictures of him touching food with the left. Dirty infidel.
I'm sure Obama is agnostic, yup. He's neither a believing Christian nor a believing Muslim. I'd be very surprised if Bill and Hillary Clinton were not agnostic also.
Post a Comment