Is President Obama and atheist?
I wish I could say yes,
but he's not; he hasn't said so.
And there's a lot of ways to think about this that are really interesting.
It's funny because conservative Christians
have gone off the rail about saying how he's a Muslim, like,
"President Obama says he's a Christian,"
but they don't want him. As in they don't accept the fact that he is one of them.
Meanwhile, atheists like me would love it if he said he was an atheist,
but he won't say that either,
because he's a Christian and that's what he said.
There was an argument to be made that he says he's a Christian for political reasons.
I mean, he's African-american and that's such a big part of the African-american culture.
He was a community organizer and faith is a big part about how communities organize.
So, there's a lot of political reasons for him
to be heavily vested
in a Christian Church.
And we saw what happened when, you know,
he started going to church when he was running for office
or at least his church history
starting from when he started attending a church in Chicago came into light.
And we found out some of the things his pastor Reverend Wright said.
And, you know, he had to distance himself. And he's not the type of president
who goes to church every single week. You never see those headlines like, "Obama went to church this Sunday,"
and the following Sunday, and the Sunday after. It's kind of like he has better things to do with his time.
But, at the same time,
he's always talking about his faith in every speech.
He'll sometimes give little shoutouts to atheists, like his first inauguration.
he said, you know, "We're a nation of," like, "Christians, and Muslims, and Hindus, and Jews,
and non-believers."
And that was-- Man, what a bone to throw at us. Like, "Wow, he mentioned us in the inauguration."
Unfortunately, that's about all we get. We get little morsels here and there.
You know,
President Bush started this office of faith-based initiatives.
President Obama expanded it.
And he still talks about, you know, faith all the time as if,
you know, he has a faith-based Advisory Council
that, literally, they advise him on how to handle situations
and he talks to them periodically
for years now. All the years he's been in office
there has not been a single non-religious person on there.
And you might argue like, "Well, why would an atheist be on a faith council?
Well, there are a lot humanists, there are a lot of
chaplains who do interfaith work,
who are not religious,
who would easily fit into that sort of council.
And yet they haven't touched that with like a 10-foot pole
-- the administration there.
So, you know, as much as
I want Obama to say he's an atheist, I have no reason to think he actually is one.
His mother was actually a secular humanist. So, it's not like he's unaware of this stuff.
He was brought up in a non-religious household, really.
So, he knows what it's all about.
And I know-- This is very selfish for me to say, but you'd think a guy as smart as he is, with the
college's and universitie's pedigree that he comes from,
you would think he would have, you know, maybe lost his faith by now?
But that's just wishful thinking. I mean, he is a Christian. I'm not going to deny that at all.
I just wish he would do more to promote
separation of church and state. When he does amazing things like saying, you know, "I support gay marriage",
he does that in spite of his faith.
And he'll argue he does it because of his faith. But no, his faith is an obstacle to doing things like that.
It would be wonderful to have a president who says:
"I don't believe in God."
"I'm gonna do things based on the evidence. I'm not going to consult with God before I make a big decision out there."
That would make me feel really good,
but that has happened zero times unfortunately.
And unfortunately it also looks like that's not going to happen anytime soon. Every poll where they say:
"Who would you vote for
fom your political party?"
"Would you vote for a woman
who is in your political party? Would you vote for a black person, a Jewish person, a Hispanic person?"
Everyone says yes increasingly to all of those things.
Atheism-- If they were atheist, that's still at the bottom of the list.
A gay person will be elected before an atheist will be elected.
And that's awesome for LGBT people, but
I kind of wish we would get an elected atheist some time.
And I wish Barack Obama were that person, but he's not.
My name is Hemant Mehta. I write for FriendlyAtheist.com
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