Also the title of the article is, “The Audacity of What?” “The Unbeliever” was the cover line.

It is best to stay with the critique of their justification for “preventative war.”

If you take the position that one cannot be both a good Christian and pro-life, then how do you address the profound hypocrisy of Christian conservatives who opposes abortion on the one hand while supporting preventative war on the other?

I understand the position that one cannot be a good Christian and pro-choice–though I disagree with it.

But I find it disgustingly hypocritical for someone to passionately argue for the protection of fetal life and connect that to one’s religious bona fides and then in the next breathe advocate for the slaughter of innocent men, women, and children in the name of national interest. This is particularly poignant with neo-conservative Catholics (oxymoronic term if there ever was one).

… his kind of Christianity is not going to mesh with mine.

Nor does Ron Paul’s ex-Lutheran, ex-Episcopal, casual Baptist churchgoing with mine.

But in both his and Obama’s cases it doesn’t matter. The American system is supposed to be not secularist but secular, that is, impartial.

I’d vote for a partnered gay atheist who sticks with the Constitution and stays out of foreign wars.

A conservative blog for peace

That’s really very good.

And, as the quote in the above response implies, isn’t the question really whether or not Obama is an Atheist?

Does he understand as you do (and musn’t all Christians believe this?) that God became man to save us?

It seems quite possible that Obama has conflated his “return” to the black community with a Christian conversion…

That said, you’re absolutely right on the more general issue of Obama’s supposed agnosticism. Rod Dreher wrote something a while back – here it is – that made a similar accusation, using that same bedtime story anecdote as a springboard. He wrote:

… Obama’s agnosticism about whether or not humankind was created, or the existence of an afterlife, signals that he is very far from normative Christianity. Does he really believe in Christian teaching, or does he truly believe in the transformative power of community? Did he come to Jesus when he was baptized, or was his baptism only a symbol for his “return” to the black community?

I found, and indeed still find, this deeply offensive. What Obama was expressing – “I wasn’t sure whether …” – is far from agnosticism: not only is it possible to come to Christianity by way of something less than a “blinding flash”, it’s also possible to be a faithful Christian whose belief in such things as the resurrection of the dead is marked by severe doubts. (If not, I suppose I ought to start counting myself among the faithless.) That Obama has been willing to be honest about those doubts is, it seems to me, the best evidence of his Christianity that we could ask for.