Franklin Graham: "The seed of Muslim is passed through the father like the seed of Judaism is passed through the mother"

ny times didn’t agree. luttwak contributed an opinion article. he wasn’t / isn’t employed by the paper. the public editor responded critically:

Hoyt, Clark (June 1, 2008). ” http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/01/opinion/01pubed.html Entitled to Their Opinions, Yes. But Their Facts? “. The New York Times.

I interviewed five Islamic scholars, at five American universities, recommended by a variety of sources as experts in the field. All of them said that Luttwak’s interpretation of Islamic law was wrong.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/morning-fix/-1-2-3-1.html The official White House statement is that the President is a committed Christian.

[Ron Bean] http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/morning-fix/-1-2-3-1.html The official White House statement is that the President is a committed Christian.

Do you actually believe he is a committed Christian?

No, Obama is committed to Liberation Theology (with an emphasis on the sub-category of Black Liberation Theology) and sat under its teaching, held to its views and practiced its tenets for over 20 years which is no Christian theology at all. While all Christians are imperfect and we can compare one another as all the same with respect to being imperfect, there is a vast and wide canyon that separates George W. Bush from Barack Obama in belief and expression.

The President was born a Muslim according to most interpretations of the Koran, and was schooled in Islam during his time in Indonesia. These facts are indisputable. He has also declared his faith in Jesus Christ. Christians must accept his declaration of faith because only God knows whether Obama belongs to Him or not.

But I see two problems with Obama’s declaration. The first problem is the President is first and foremost a politician. He wants to be a Muslim to Muslims and a Christian to Christians. “Splitting the difference” may work in the Senate or on the campaign trail, but not in the realms of either faith.

Secondly, Jesus warned us about false prophets. How do we determine false prophets? “By their fruit you will recognize them.” And in this writer’s opinion, Obama’s “fruit” is mostly political, not spiritual. In fairness to the President, he does not claim to be a prophet or a spokesman for Christianity. Similarly, many “Christian” politicians also bear political “fruit.”

These are thorny issues. Obama leaves himself open to charges of being a secret Muslim because he will not declare himself to be either a Muslim or a Christian. He leaves that task to underlings who are forced to explain his contradictory statements.

[Matthew Christensen]

[Ron Bean] http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/morning-fix/-1-2-3-1.html The official White House statement is that the President is a committed Christian.

Do you actually believe he is a committed Christian?

I believe that he’s lost.

[Ron Bean] I believe that he’s lost.

Thanks for the clarification. I just wanted to make sure that just because some statement is made stating a person is Christian that it wasn’t taken as proof of it being so. I personally have to keep this in mind. I might know someone who says they are a Christian but in reality they are not. So I need to be aware that I may need to share the gospel with them and made sure they understand it.

[Matthew Christensen]

[Ron Bean] I believe that he’s lost.

Thanks for the clarification. I just wanted to make sure that just because some statement is made stating a person is Christian that it wasn’t taken as proof of it being so. I personally have to keep this in mind. I might know someone who says they are a Christian but in reality they are not. So I need to be aware that I may need to share the gospel with them and made sure they understand it.

No problem. I understand. I was born at night…but not last night. Have a great weekend.

Jim,

Until the last two years, I also thought that Carter was the worst American president in history.

[Jim Peet]

By the way … I agree with Roy Bean (above)

It’s “Ron”…although I’m related to Judge Roy Bean. :D

Louise,

I don’t know if you know this, but Carter has attacked many major doctrines of Scripture, including inerrancy. He has taught SS for a long time. So I am not comfortable saying someone is a believer who has studied and still attacks inerrancy. At the very least, he is way off.

In 2004, while he was running for the Senate, http://www.suntimes.com/news/falsani/726619,obamafalsani040504.article] Obama was interviewed for an hour about his faith by a columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times.

[Barack Obama] So, I have a deep faith. I’m rooted in the Christian tradition. I believe that there are many paths to the same place, {emphasis added} and that is a belief that there is a higher power, a belief that we are connected as a people…

The difficult thing about any religion, including Christianity, is that at some level there is a call to evangelize and proselytize. There’s the belief, certainly in some quarters, that if people haven’t embraced Jesus Christ as their personal savior, they’re going to @#!*% …

I don’t presume to have knowledge of what happens after I die. When I tuck in my daughters at night, and I feel like I’ve been a good father to them, and I see in them that I am transferring values that I got from my mother and that they’re kind people and that they’re honest people, and they’re curious people, that’s a little piece of heaven.

(Well, he didn’t actually write it, but you know what I mean.)

Anyone who follows politics knows that Barack Obama will say or do anything to get elected. I think it’s safe to assume that claims he made about his faith are measured and calculated to appeal to the Christian community without offending other faiths.

Here is another snippet of Obama’s testimony of faith in Jesus. http://www.getreligion.org/?p=2502] So one Sunday, I put on one of the few clean jackets I had, and went over to Trinity United Church of Christ on 95th Street on the South Side of Chicago. And I heard Reverend Jeremiah A. Wright deliver a sermon called “The Audacity of Hope.” And during the course of that sermon, he introduced me to someone named Jesus Christ. I learned that my sins could be redeemed. I learned that those things I was too weak to accomplish myself, He would accomplish with me if I placed my trust in Him. And in time, I came to see faith as more than just a comfort to the weary or a hedge against death, but rather as an active, palpable agent in the world and in my own life. It was because of these newfound understandings that I was finally able to walk down the aisle of Trinity one day and affirm my Christian faith. It came about as a choice, and not an epiphany. I didn’t fall out in church, as folks sometimes do. The questions I had didn’t magically disappear. The skeptical bent of my mind didn’t suddenly vanish. But kneeling beneath that cross on the South Side, I felt I heard God’s spirit beckoning me. I submitted myself to His will, and dedicated myself to discovering His truth and carrying out His works.

[Louise Dan] He’s as committed a Christian as George Bush was. Which is probably not much. But he’s not Muslim.

Obama’s theology is basically the same as George W. Bush, that there are many paths to heaven and that the Bible is not literally true. It was Bush who was the first to say that “Islam is a religion of peace” and Bush who was the first to claim “Muslims and Christians worship the same God.” And both of them vastly overplayed their commitment to Christianity to get elected (Bush more so than Obama). You prefer one to the other only because of your own cultural background and political leanings.

And incidentally, the folks who got so chagrined over “black liberation theology” should have done more to oppose white liberation theology - better known as segregation - when it really counted. Far too many fundamentalist and conservative evangelical Christians didn’t, and that was the reason why most voters shrugged at the Jeremiah Wright issue.