The Gospel According to Barack: Where Did Barack Obama Get His Ideas About Christianity?

On May 9, 2012 President Obama announced in an interview with ABC News that his views on same-sex marriage had evolved and that he now supports the idea. Many Christians found the President’s pronouncement to be disappointing but certainly not surprising, but what was most alarming was that he cited his Christian faith to justify his position. President Obama, a professing Christian, seems bizarrely confused on a wide range of moral and religious issues. Furthermore, as Catholic bishops have charged, his administration poses the greatest threat to religious liberty in American history. This publication is a study of where Barack Obama got his ideas about the Christian faith. As such, this is a theological assessment, not a personal or a political critique. Tracing the roots of Obama’s theology is significant because, as he has stated, it is his understanding of the Gospel that informs and influences not only his social and political ideology but his views on some of the most controversial moral and ethical issues of our day. The thesis of this study is that Obama’s understanding of Christianity has been influenced primarily by two factors: (1) Mainline Protestant theological liberalism as mediated through the United Church of Christ; and (2) Black Liberation Theology as advocated by his long-time pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Both of these influences are serious distortions of traditional orthodox biblical Christianity, and as such it calls into question whether or not Obama understands the nature of true Christianity.