All Comments (21)

The story of Obama by Golden Rule makes an interesting point. Reminds me of Jews in the eighteen and nineteen century Europe who converted to Christianity to be fully accepted by European society. I believe the term used was "assimilated Jew". Says a lot about criteria for full acceptance in such societies. And the Jews then takes great pains to hide their "background".

Golden Rule . . . I don't know if your background briefing on Sen. Obama above is accurate or not, but if it is it, I think he's got the kind of life experience that makes him an interesting democractic candidate.

I personally thought he lacked experience, and frankly milked the crappy images we're talking about on this website. Piety, high moral conduct, deep reverance for all living things -- this is simply crap coming from any politician and we all know it.

But since reading your comments, I'll listen more closely to what he says to see if rises above the usual crap.

Also -- and this is not a racist statement (I hope not anyway) -- a lot of African American politicians seem to play this "religious crap" card at every opportunity, (the James Brown funeral, for example) which just makes some of them seem stupid to me. Are they pandering to some niche demographic I don't get, or what?

Thank you.

I also need to add my voice opposing the swiftboat lies that the right wing is spreading about Obama. It's past time for America to stand up and tell the liars to stop their unAmerican and unChristian activities, assuming of course that they believe in American and Christian values (or any values except the lust for power).

goldenrule do you not realize that by printing this without the rebuttal you are actually spreading yourself the lies you hate?

the above post by goldenrule was taken from
ABOUT URBAN LEGENDS AND FOLKLORE

he neglected to print the rebuttal so here it is- ithe interestof fairness

Comments: As of this writing, Illinois senator Barack Obama has yet to officially declare his candidacy for the presidency, but an Internet smear campaign has already been launched against him. We are asked to believe that Obama, who professes to be a practicing Christian and has spoken publicly of his "personal relationship with Jesus Christ," is in fact secretly a Muslim and has lied all along about his true religious affiliation.

No proof is offered by those who make these claims -- no sightings of Barack Obama attending a mosque, no pictures of him reading the Qur'an, praying to Mecca, or observing Islamic holidays with his family. The entire case, such as it is, rests on a confused and error-ridden recitation of Obama's upbringing and purported childhood influences. It also rests on -- or exploits -- a deep fear and suspicion of the Muslim faith.

Virtually everything we do know about Obama's parentage and upbringing, it should be stipulated, comes from the senator himself. Obama told the story of his search to uncover his African heritage in Dreams from My Father (Three Rivers Press, 2004), and shared further autobiographical details in The Audacity of Hope (Crown Publishers, 2006). He spoke at length about his Christian beliefs in a 2004 Chicago Sun Times interview with Cathleen Falsani. Must we take his word for everything? Not necessarily, but in the absence of contrary evidence we have no reason to seriously doubt Obama's own candid account of his life history.

Was Obama's father, Barack Hussein Obama, Sr., a "radical Muslim who migrated from Kenya to Jakarta, Indonesia?"

No. Though Barack Hussein Obama, Sr. was raised a Muslim, he had lost his faith and become a "confirmed atheist" by the time he attended college, according to his son. Obama's parents separated when Barack was two, his father moving not to Jakarta, but to the United States, where he attended Harvard. Eventually he returned to Kenya.

About Poll
Do you believe Barack Obama could really be a 'stealth' Muslim?
Yes, I don't trust him.
No, that's a kooky idea.
I can't decide.
Current Results
Did Obama's mother go on to marry another Muslim named Lolo Soetoro who "educated his stepson as a good Muslim by enrolling him in one of Jakarta's Wahabbi schools?"

Yes and no. When Obama's mother remarried, it was indeed to an Indonesian man named Lolo Soetoro, whom his stepson describes as a "non-practicing" Muslim. But it was his "secular" mother who supervised his education, Obama has written, sending him to both Catholic and Muslim primary schools after the family moved to Jakarta. There is nothing on record to indicate Obama attended a madrassa (Muslim religious school) run by Wahabbists, and in any case it's unlikely his mother would have chosen to expose him to such an extreme form of Islam given her stated abhorrence of religious closed-mindedness and her stated goal of giving him a well-rounded education, including in matters of faith.

Update: CNN has tracked down the school in question, the Basuki School in Jakarta, which a deputy headmaster described as a "public school" with no particular religious agenda. "In our daily lives, we try to respect religion, but we don't give preferential treatment," he told CNN. A classmate of Obama's described the school as "general," with students of many religious backgrounds attending. Obama entered the school at the age of 8 and attended for two years.

Is it true that "Obama takes great care to conceal the fact that he is a Muslim while admitting that he was once a Muslim?"

Once a Muslim? When? Unless I missed it while skimming Obama's two books and sundry interviews, the senator has never mentioned being a Muslim at any point in his life. Yes, he lived in a Muslim country during part of his childhood and briefly attended a Muslim school there, but he certainly wasn't raised a Muslim and has never been, so far as I can determine, a practitioner of that faith.

That anyone, let alone a sitting U.S. senator with designs on the highest office in the land, would conceal being a Muslim for twenty-odd years while going through the outward motions of practicing Christianity (or vice-versa, for that matter) is a truly bizarre accusation. I'd be tempted to dismiss it as paranoid lunacy if it weren't so obviously a crass, politically-motivated smear.

Sources and further reading:

The God Factor: Cathleen Falsani Interview with Barack Obama
Chicago Sun Times, 5 April 2004

CNN Debunks False Report About Obama
CNN, 23 January 2007

Dreams from My Father
By Barack Obama (Three Rivers Press, 2004)

The Audacity of Hope
By Barack Obama

Golden Rule

What's your position on gay people?

GOD BLESS YOU Gardner Calvin Taylor
Senior pastor emeritus of the Concord Baptist Church of Christ in Brooklyn, N.Y
The Reverend Gardner Calvin Taylor is senior pastor emeritus of the Concord Baptist Church of Christ in Brooklyn, N.Y. The “On Faith” panelist led the congregation from 1948 to 1990, as church membership grew by 9,000 and through a 1952 fire that necessitated a $1.7 million rebuilding effort. His role as pastor included oversight of the Concord Baptist Church Elementary School, Concord Nursing Home, Concord Clothing exchange, Concord Federal Credit Union, Concord Seniors Residence and Concord Baptist Christfund. Beyond Brooklyn, Taylor has taken the pulpit from London’s Westminster Hall to China to Copenhagen to Zambia. His publications include How Shall They Preach, The Scarlet Thread, Chariots Aflame and Wisdom. Among his awards and honorary degrees are doctorates from Oberlin College, Leland College, Wake Forest University and Howard University; a Star of Africa, conferred by Liberian President William Tubman; and the rank of Knight Commander, Order of African Redemption, conferred by President William Tolbert of Liberia. President Clinton awarded Taylor the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2000. Born in Baton Rouge, La., he now resides in North Carolina. YOU KNEW IT ALL ALONG AND YOU TOOK SO LITTLE OF MY TIME TO EXPRESS IT....YOU ARE TRULY BLESSED. YOU ARE TRULY A CHILD OF GOD.

You white demons disgust me. I am going to ask God for the authority to Judge the quick and the dead right here...pray he does not grant it to me, for I am far less forgiving that the guillable than Jesus was. Yes, remember him? He who you NAILED TO THE FRIGGIN CROSS BECAUSE HE DARED LOVE ONE OF YOUR OWN Oh you disgusting naked albino apes!!! My heart pounds with GOD HELP ME!

Again, you white people take something beautiful and you turn it into disgusting poison with your hate and your lies and your deceipt. It is good that God holds my heart, else you would have broken again this night. I would tell you all to go straight to hell but it would seem you have already raised it to the United States have you not? Yes, I think you have. President Chavez spoke the truth, and you could not stand to hear it.

If he went to great lengths to conceal who and what he is, would he not change his name as many whites have done to conceal their heritage? Oh, that is right, he is not white and that would not work for him would it? Sorry.. never mind.

Dear Reverend, I now understand why religion in politics is such a high priority item for white people here. It certainly has been making huge inroads into politics ever since Reagan. It was never a problem then. Now along comes Senator Obama who can speak sincerely about religion and *now* it is a problem. Please consider the following e-mail that I intercepted:

Probable U. S. presidential candidate, Barack Hussein Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, to Barack Hussein Obama, Sr., a black Muslim from Nyangoma-Kogel, Kenya and Ann Dunham, a white atheist from Wichita, Kansas. Obama's parents met at the University of Hawaii.

When Obama was two years old, his parents divorced. His father returned to Kenya. His mother then married Lolo Soetoro, a radical Muslim from Indonesia. When Obama was 6 years old, the family relocated to Indonesia. Obama attended a Muslim school in Jakarta. He also spent two years in a Catholic school.

Obama takes great care to conceal the fact that he is a Muslim. He is quick to point out that, "He was once a Muslim, but that he also attended Catholic school."

Obama's political handlers are attempting to make it appear that Obama's introduction to Islam came via his father, and that this influence was temporary at best. In reality, the senior Obama returned to Kenya soon after the divorce, and never again had any direct influence over his son's education. Lolo Soetoro, the second husband of Obama's mother, Ann Dunham, introduced his stepson to Islam. Obama was enrolled in a Wahabi school in Jakarta. Wahabism is the radical teaching that is followed by the Muslim terrorists who are now waging Jihad against the western world.

Since it is politically expedient to be a Christian when seeking major public office in the United States, Barack Hussein Obama has joined the United Church of Christ in an attempt to downplay his Muslim background.

Let us all remain alert concerning Obama's expected presidential candidacy.

YOU SEE WHAT I MEAN? THESE WHITE FOLKS STILL WANT TO USE RELIGION TO KEEP DOWN BLACKS!!! IT REALLY TICKS ME OFF REVEREND. TELL ME FATHER, WHO DO I SEE ABOUT THAT??? I HAVE TO TALK TO GOD.
GOD BLESS YOU....

I would agree with the Rev.'s statement and assert this paraphrased counterposing statement:

I believe that anyone has a right to express his or her personal anti-religious views at anytime, most appropriately when the expression is in opposition to a religious opinion concerning public policy.

In addition, I believe that “personal religious views” expressed publicly enter the free market of ideas (under the constitution) and are therefore subject to rational discourse. It is not sufficient to simply assert any "belief", the believer must prove that assertion, or admit it is irrational and has no place in the public sector.

Thank you.

I wish I could speak to the President and tell him I have supported him since the beginning and have doubted him in the middle because of our troops sacrifice but then I remember what Jesus did for all of us...sacrificed Himself for all humanity...we all know that but forget the cost...now we have much sacrifice and everyone is saying enough...but it is not done...this is being controlled by God not George W, Bush...he is the disciple of our Lord...doing his part...unyeilding....we must see this through no matter if it was right or not to begin with...that is life...we make choices and sometimes they are not the right choices...but God is there in the mist of all decisions and happenings...He will now see us through this because He willed it to be so...He is just waiting for the faithful...maybe He is trying to unite us and believe...let us all unite and believe...because we are just a ball in space and dependent on our true God whether we believe THAT or not...it is true...please let us unite and show the world that we are believers....God waits for us...

Reverend Gardner Calvin Taylor fewer true WORDS have I often heard...if ever. God Bless you and yours Reverend Taylor. May you receive 7-fold the Blessings you dispense to God's Children.
amen.

Sincerity in action.

John McCain in 2000 called Jerry Falwell "an agent of intolerance". Asked a little later in that campaign (3/1/00) if he still stood by his description of Falwell, he said, "I must not and will not retract anything that I said in that speech at Virginia Beach. It was carefully crafted, it was carefully thought out." Just a few days later he lashed out at George W. Bush because he had "swung far to the right and sought out the base support of Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell", noting that "Those aren’t the ideas that I think are good for the Republican Party."

McCain probably had it right, because Jerry Falwell the next year characterized the 9-11 terrorist attack as divine punishment for American immorality, saying that "God continues to lift the curtain and allow the enemies of America to give us probably what we deserve... I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the A.C.L.U., People for the American Way -- all of them who have tried to secularize America -- I point the finger in their face and say, 'You helped this happen'."

Now we fast-forward to 2007, a different presidential campaign, and we find the same John McCain now saying that Falwell is not an agent of intolerance, giving the graduation address at Liberty University, and toeing the line on all of Falwell and Pat Robertson's favorite issues -- in several cases (tax cuts, gay marriage, etc.) taking positions 180 degrees from those he announced as recently as 2004.

Like I said, sincerity in action.

A sufficient statement by my candidates would be: "I follow the Eight Commandments" i.e. the non-God commandments plus "I love my neighbor as myself".

As George Burns said, "The key to acting is sincerity. If you can fake that, you've got it made."

I like this article. Brings to mind a certain senator who proclaimed Jewish heritage in order to help get votes to become senator of New York. Any guesses?

Sincerity is key, indeed. I sincerely believe that there is no god but, if there were, she surely has a sense of humor. How else to explain who she allows to self-proclaim as announcers and explainers of her works?

I mean, really...

Amen. May the stench of pandering be replaced by the fresh air of honesty.

MAYBE REVEREND TAYLOR SHOULD START HIS OW EXPLORATORY COMMITTEE- I WOULD VOTE FOR HIM FOR SURE