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Even if both candidates are patriotic Americans, sincerely seeking to safeguard the welfare of American interest – neither is Christian.
What may be good for America, may not be good for Christ and His.
Andrew,
The President’s statement contradicts yours at least with respect to what he’s said about his own faith:
“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.”
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2008/januaryweb-only/104-32.0.html?start=2
And the other candidate has said he’s “a faithful Mormon.” And explains much more:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/05/mitt-romney-mormon-video_n_2077433.html
Faith is not made by mere words.
Words are all you have to make claims about others’ faith or lack thereof.
What’s the bible say … “Judge a tree by the fruit it produces ..” Believe what you will, I’m looking for fruit.
Oh, and by the way, if one is a ‘Mormon’, by definition that makes one ‘not a Christian’.
Right, Andrew. I think you’re referring to the last part of the sermon on the mount, where Matthew also has Jesus saying things like “judge not” and a very difficult set of statements (in chapter 7, verses 21-23 of the gospel) that sound an awful lot like works, not so much faith, for entry into the kingdom of heaven. Jesus never said he was a Christian or a Mormon. But what he did say about himself many claimed was false, and his accusers would say things about him like, “Believe what you will, I’m looking for fruit.”
Well there’s a bit of proof-texting if I’ve ever seen it .. to make a false point no less.
“Let’s see what the bible says AFTER it says “Judge not ..”
“Judge not .. that you be not judged.” [ESV Matt 7:1] and then on to say “For with the judgement you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you.”
In other words ‘what judgement we apply to others will be applied to us’.
If we read even a few words beyond the pithy little segment you’ve taken out of context we see the bible is NOT telling us NOT to judge, rather it’s telling us NOT TO BE HYPOCRITES when we do. To be sure however, don’t take my word for it but look what else the bible says about ‘JUDGEMENT’:
“The mouth of the righteous speaks wisdom, and his tongue talks of judgement” [Psa 37:30]
“Open thy mouth, judge righteously, and plead the cause of the poor and needy.” [Psa 31:9]
‘Jesus commended Simon, “Thou hast rightly judged.”‘ [Luke 7:43]
“But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man.” [1 Cor 2:15]
“Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life?” [1 Cor 6:2-3]
Not only is righteous judgement a hallmark of the righteous (and evidence that the ‘judge’ is judging by the spirit rather than the flesh), but Jesus commends Simon for exercising such judgement. When a Christian fails to judge righteously (at all) they are unworthy to judge the smallest matters and yet Christ promises we are to judge both angels and the world!
Clearly, this is the problem with proof-texting and taking the bible out of context! One is able to twist something true into something false!
Andrew,
I’m sorry for seeming to prooftext. That’s not at all what I was trying to do. Rather, I was hoping to understand which passage you might have been referring to and to suggest more of what it means in context.
Maybe we should just stick with your claim about the President and not to our hermeneutics on the New Testament.
Barack Obama has written in his autobiographies about his coming to Jesus. He’s also told Sarah Pulliam and Ted Olsen of Christianity Today (linked to above), worth quoting again.
“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.”
And more recently Judd Birdsall of CT – wondering if President Obama is evangelical – concludes that he is
“a committed Christian. For evangelicals, the commander-in-chief is a brother in Christ.”
Birdsall quotes others:
“I know he’s born again,” said Joshua DuBois, head of the White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships, in an interview with Mansfield. A pastor’s kid who served briefly in a Pentecostal pastorate himself, DuBois has queried the President about his faith and found that he “believes what the majority of Christians believe.”
Joel Hunter, pastor of Florida’s 15,000-member Northland Church and Obama’s closest spiritual mentor, is even more emphatic. “There is simply no question about it: Barack Obama is a born again man who has trusted in Jesus Christ with his whole heart.”
These are the testimonies of words, based on words and deeds. If you’re going to come to a different conclusion, then all you have is the same thing, words and your observations of deeds. The Christianity Today reporters (Judd Birdsall, Sarah Pulliam, and Ted Olsen) have a professional and public responsibility to get their story right. Joshua DuBois and Joel Hunter, similarly, as ministers, don’t need to go telling untruths. So how is it that they, giving careful first hand accounts as ones who have actually spent time talking and walking with the President, get this so wrong?
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2012/juneweb-only/barack-obama-evangelical-in-chief.html?paging=off
i certainly do hope our president is a believer, and i have voted for him for other reasons, but that ‘clinging to guns and religion’ comment seemed a little revelatory. that impromptu statement seems to me to reveal more contempt for religion than a thought-out interview with christianity today might show. if one is a christian, why would clinging to the faith be a bad thing? aren’t we to hold steadfast?