Is Obama’s Religion Really Relevant?

The discussion of Barack Obama’s religion surfaces from time to time. Unfortunately, most commentators focus on the concrete, not the profound.

For one, the fact that Obama or anyone else says he is of a certain religion does not define that person’s religious beliefs. He says he is Christian. Does that mean he holds traditional Christian beliefs? No. His statement that he is a Christian is not the end of the debate.
What really matters is what is in a person’s heart, which is harder to define. It is what his sympathies are at the very least that is more important. Though we cannot get the answers from him directly, we can infer them from various aspects of his life.

First, both his father and his step-father were Muslim. He did not know his father, but his father is a primary identification figure for him, as with all of us, whether we like it or not.
When it comes to his step-father, is it beyond comprehension that he would have made statements supportive of the Muslim religion and Muslim issues? Even if he never said a critical word about America, he certainly would be expected to have made pro-Muslim statements and held pro-Muslim values.

Next, Obama spent some of his formative years in a Muslim country. Is it too much to imagine there would be pro-Muslim values expressed there? What about his friends? What about the newspapers? Does any sophisticated thinker really think he did not hear value after value that was pro-Muslim? Anyone growing up in America would hear pro-Christian values over and over, wouldn’t he? So why wouldn’t young Obama have heard, over and over, Muslim values?

Now let’s look at his words. Yes, the famous Freudian slip on ABC News. You can hear them in the YouTube video below. Basically, when he meant to say, “My Christian faith,” he said instead, “My Muslim faith.” The moderator corrects the slip, as people do. Obama then follows, also by correcting it.

Now let’s look at the psychological defense of denial. Denial is a term tossed around all through our society. Here’s what it really means: Denial is when a person denies the implications of something, not the fact of it. The alcoholic, for example, does not deny he drinks. What he denies is the implications of his drinking. This includes caustic words to his family, embarrassing them in social situations, driving problems, etc.

This is just what happens when people deny the truth in a Freudian slip. Well, reporters might use denial. Supporters might also use denial. However, let’s take the case of the man who slips and calls his girlfriend or wife by the wrong name. Do you think she denies the implications of the slip? Really? Really?

More, let’s look at some of Obama’s behavior. He bowed to a Muslim king. Is this a Christian value? Is it a secular value? No to both. It is a Muslim value.

Yet another behavioral example of Obama’s occurred with Israel. What led to the Israelis feeling so betrayed by him is that he changed the understandings about settlements and development. He included areas that had been excluded beforehand. That is, the Israelis developed land in areas that were acceptable to former U.S. administrations. When Obama changed the boundary lines, of course the development would appear excessive.

Electing a Muslim-leaning president right after Muslims attacked us and Muslim leaders were either supportive or silent on the issue is quite self destructive, to say the least. It can be seen as pathological by many. It is a clear example of what is called reaction formation. I’ll define that psychological defense  later. Basically, however, many, many American were anxious about something and coped with that anxiety by taking the opposite stance. Instead of saying they were suspicious of someone with Muslim origins, they embraced him.

In any case, now let’s ask the question: Is Obama’s Religion Really Relevant?