Obama is Not a Muslim ... BUT....

Much has been made of the recent caricature of Barack Hussein Obama and his wife on the cover of this month's New Yorker Magazine.  It is intended to poke fun at the 8-12% of people who answered when polled that they believe Obama is a Muslim, not a Christian.  I am not concerned that he is Muslim.  

 I am worried about his unique brand of Christianity ... 

... and how it influences his thought process.

What Kind of Christian?

For 20 years, Obama and his wife sat under a teaching pastor who subscribes to a form of Christian theology called "Black Prophetic Theology (BPT)."  According to his teaching pastor, Dr. Jeremiah Wright, this theology "uses a different hermeneutic" from traditional western Christianity.  (Hermeneutics is the theory and study of Biblical interpretation.)  From everything I have heard and studied, Wright is absolutely correct!  But it isn't just a different method of understanding the Bible.  It is a radically different theology and method of interpretation.  BPT says that the theological method originated prior to the"problem of western ideology."  It is critical to understand that western civilization as we understand it and as it influenced all of American thought is, for Obama's theology, "a problem." 

Exactly What Is Black Prophetic Theology (BPT)?

At first glance, it looks a lot like the "Liberation Theology Movement" found in the liberal vein of the Catholic Church in Latin America during the 1960s and early 1970s.  And while BPT's activity in community, social outreach and care is commendable, its perversion of historic Christian theology is so far out of the mainstream of Christian thought that all its good works are tainted.  

BPT views all Biblical texts and interpretation through the lens of the situation / emotions of "the oppressed." 

And here it the important thing to understand.  BPT adherents say that their interpretation is "bottom up" while historic western / American hermeneutics is "top down".  To them,  top down means "white."  Unfortunately, this paradigm is drastically misinformed.  I agree that their view is "bottom up".  They have an optical vantage point that distorts all of Scripture as they read it.  But the historic Western hermeneutic (specifically driven by the Protestant Reformation) is not top down, it is from the inside of the Bible out to other parts of the Bible.  It simply says: let Scripture interpret scripture.  It says to use clear texts to help understand unclear texts. It says to view the Bible as a whole, interconnected story.  There is to be no emotional, external lens or vantage point skewing our view.

What Do We Get From This Distorted Theology?

Obama's BPT believes that the Christianity of America is "the Christianity of the slave holder."  This theology calls for "radical change...a changed social order... changed laws."  Hmmm, I wonder where Barack gets his passion for "change."  His teaching pastor and denomination for 20 years believes that this is at "the heart of Trinity United Church of Christ."  It carries with it a distorted view of America, the Middle East, economic policy, American History,  and World history.  As all sincere faith does, it permeates all of one's thought and all of one's life.

People steeped in the BPT tradition are comfortable using a special lens, an emotional lens, a lens different than most Americans, to order their logic and their thinking.  (See the FYI below for a good example of how it distorts one's thinking.)

I know Obama isn't a Muslim.

But I also know this: 

His form of Christianity distorts and misinforms how he thinks.

What kind of... change... does he really want?

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Notes:

A Book to Consider Reading

The Decline of African American Theology by Thabiti Anyabwile

This book traces the journey of the black church from "historic Biblical faith to cultural captivity."  It is published by IVP.  The forward is written by Mark Noll.  Noll is the author of The Civil War as a Theological Crisis.... also a good book.

FYI:  Most quotes from Pastor Wright are from his speech before the Washington Press Club.  You can easily view it on You Tube.  And watch the Q&A too.  In the Q&A,  he stands by his belief that the US government may have created HIV/AIDS specifically to kill blacks.