A Window Into Barack Obama’s Theology
by Rob Schwarzwalder
October 15, 2010
During the presidential campaign, then-Sen. Barack Obama famously told Pastor Rick Warren that determining when human personhood began was “above my paygrade.”
A professing Christian, he could not bring himself to concur with the plain teaching of the Bible that from the moment of conception, human life in all its biological fullness begins at conception.
An educated man, he could not sufficiently evaluate the clear scientific evidence that with the entire DNA any person ever possesses present within the embryo from conception onward, personhood starts at conception.
A father, he could not affirm that his precious daughters deserved legal protection in their mother’s womb, from conception until birth.
Since then, his income must have dramatically changed, as he has initiated a nationwide health care mandate that funds and subsidizes abortion-on-demand, exported abortion overseas through American funding thereof, and even sought to have taxpayers subsidize abortion on our military bases.
As President of the United States, Barack Obama has been a deliberate, systematic evangelist of the culture of death.
Yet despite his professed theological mystification regarding the sanctity of unborn life, President Obama has no moral or intellectual difficulty in asserting that homosexuality is not a choice but the result of “people being born with ‘a certain make-up’.”
At a televised event targeting the nation’s youth,
… (when) asked directly if gay or transgender people have a choice or are born that way, Obama told a town-hall style event with students that he was no expert, then added: “I don’t think it’s a choice. I think people are born with a certain make-up.”
“We’re all children of God,” Obama said. “We don’t make determinations about who we love. That’s why I think discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation is wrong.”
The President is wrong: Biology offers no sanction to the view that homosexuality is genetic, nor does Christian theology applaud or passively accept same-sex intimacy. The God of love is also the God of truth Whose Word teaches that any kind of sexual intimacy other than that experienced by a man and a woman within marriage is offensive to Him.
No pay-level is needed to affirm these things: They are obvious from science and Scripture.
President Obama might be, as the Leftist religious commentator Jim Wallis asserts, “almost a public theologian.” He is just not a very biblically faithful one.
The Bible tells Christians to pray for their political leaders. This includes, of course, President Obama. May we pray that this man who so obviously cherishes his own wonderful family sees that abortion and homosexuality are not morally neutral choices to be facilitated by a government founded on the principle that the “right to life” is a gift of the Creator.
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Comments
[...] It never fails to amaze me how whenever President Obama talks about his faith, the reaction from the Religious Right is to accuse him of being wrong and a bad Christian. [...]
Isn’t it interesting that it’s not even that pro-choicers will argue that life begins at birth. Alas, their position is much worse! For they believe that life begins at birth only when the mother does not desire a child. But for the mother desiring the baby, she will (rightfully) pursue murder charges should she lose her child from a physical attack on her womb.
To Randy: First, thank you for the civil tone of your post. Too often, here at FRC we are on the receiving end of obscene non-sequiturs masquerading as commentary. I appreciate your thoughtful comments and also the seriousness with which you treat these important issues.
Psalm 139 is a passage that seems pretty plain about conception as the time when personhood begins. In another passage, David writes, “My sinful nature was transmitted to me when conceived within my mother” (Ps. 52:5; King James, “In sin did my mother conceive me”). The unmistakable inference is that the transmission of the fallen nature occurs at the moment of conception. Jeremiah and Paul both spoke of being called by God from their mothers’ wombs. The earliest book in the Hebrew Testament, Job, refers to the conception of a “man-child” (3:3). I could cite many other references that implicitly or explicitly teach that personhood starts at conception.
The collection of cells to which you refer are undeveloped but unmistakeably human. Essential genetics tell us this. What changes over time is not the humanness of the embryo but the stages of his/her development. And what changes at time of birth is not the personhood of the child but his/her place of being (9 months in the womb, the rest of his/her life outside it). This is logical and is rooted in scientific data.
I’m glad to provide more material should you wish. May God bless and keep you.
Sincerely,
Rob Schwarzwalder
Rob Schwarzwalder
I am sick of the mud slinging; I have never met a president who had his theology aligned with the WCF, never mind the bible. As much can be said of GWB Jr. In fact, he is responsible for who knows how many Embryonic stem cells were destroyed in experimentation which from a Christian perspective is akin to murder:
On Aug. 9, 2001, President George W. Bush announced that federal funds only may be used for research using human embryonic stem cells if all the following conditions are met:
• • •
1) The cells’ derivation process was initiated prior to 9 p.m. on Aug. 9, 2001
2) The cells were derived from an embryo that was created for reproductive purposes and no longer was needed
3) Informed consent was obtained for the donation of the embryo without involving any financial inducements
As far as his position on Gay rights; During his debate w/ Kerry in 2004:
“Q: Do you believe homosexuality is a choice?
A: “I don’t know. I just don’t know. I do know that we have a choice to make in America and that is to treat people with tolerance and respect and dignity. It’s important that we do that. I also know in a free society people, consenting adults can live the way they want to live. And that’s to be honored.”
Source: Third Bush-Kerry debate, in Tempe AZ Oct 13, 2004
I want to be clear here, any president that takes office will be wishy-washy in their theology. They all lie or change their platforms and positions based upon circumstances from moment to moment.
I can’t expect that the President of the United States of America will be able to answer question 12 of the Heidelberg Catechism-it’s just never gonna happen.
Let us pray for our president and leaders and quit the mud slinging.
~Proverbs 18:6 A fool’s lips enter into contention, And his mouth calls for blows.
By: Randy | October 15, 2010 at 11:43 pm
Regarding your blog about: I think I must be one of those biblical illiterates, for I am not aware where in the bible there is the “plain teaching” that life begins at conception. However, I have read the bible from cover to cover and I must have missed that part. Please enlighten me on this point. Secondly, this is the most confusing “window” into the President’s theology I have yet seen. For example, you cite scripture and science on when life begins and then switch your discussion to personhood about which science has said nothing. As far as I can recall, and again please excuse my ignorance, there is no personhood-ology, like biology, or cytology. As I mentioned in my first point, even your assertion that it is the “plain teaching” of the bible that life begins at conception is confusing, for the bible is not a scientific book, so how can it make authoritative statements about when life begins physiologically. That is relevant, for I believe you are trying to claim that a collection of cells is alive AND that it is a person without establishing either case other than by assertion. Not a way to win skeptics such as myself over to your side.