President Barack Obama's religion is said to be Christianity, but what does Christianity and religion mean to Barack Obama, and how does Barack Obama's religion impact the president's policies? We address these and other questions regarding the president's religion by probing Barack Obama's own revealing words about his religion, and start by retracing Barack Obama's journey through three religions. The first religion in Barack Obama's life was Islam, the religion of his father, who named him Barack Hussein Obama before divorcing his mother when his son was six years old. President Obama's mother then remarried an Indonesian Muslim whose beliefs appear to have had an inclusive flair. In his autobiography, President Obama described his stepfather's beliefs as "a brand of Islam that could make room for the remnants of more ancient animist and Hindu faiths." The young Barack Obama moved with his mother to his stepfather's Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim nation, where the future president spent three years at a Roman Catholic school and one year at a public Muslim school. As an adult, Barack Obama began to attend church in Chicago. For 20 years from 1989 until the presidential campaign of 2008, he was a member of the Trinity United Church of Christ, which introduced itself online as, "a congregation with a non-negotiable COMMITMENT TO AFRICA... and remain 'true to our native land,' the mother continent." Despite the past and present pain and sufferings, the commitment of a Christian church, let alone (cont'd...)
1. Are you a Christian? President Barack Obama: (response is pending) 2. When and how did you become a Christian? President Barack Obama: (response is pending) 3. How has becoming Christian changed you? President Barack Obama: (response is pending) 4. How would you define and describe your relationship with Jesus today? President Barack Obama: (response is pending) 5. In the past 12 months, how many hours have you read the Bible per week? President Barack Obama: (response is pending) 6. Which gift has the Holy Spirit given you, and what fruits has it borne? President Barack Obama: (response is pending) 7. What has been your greatest failure as a Christian? President Barack Obama: (response is pending) 8. What is the greatest challenge you face today as a Christian? President Barack Obama: (response is pending) 9. If you had to choose between God and country, which would you choose? President Barack Obama: (response is pending) 10. Whom do you think Jesus wants as our next President, and why? President Barack Obama: (response is pending)
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