More Americans Lose Faith that Obama is Christian

Despite White House assurances and Barack Obama's personal insistence that he is a practicing Christian, according to a recent poll more Americans are growing skeptical that the U.S. president actually practices the faith he claims.

Shop Timeless Catholic Gifts

WASHINGTON, DC (LifeSiteNews.com) - Despite White House assurances and Barack Obama's personal insistence that he is a practicing Christian, according to a recent poll more Americans are growing skeptical that the U.S. president actually practices the faith he claims. A survey by the Pew Research Center found that nearly one in five Americans (18 percent) believe Obama to be a Muslim, and only one in three (34 percent) believe the president's claim that he is a Christian - a number that peaked at just over half in October 2008. Forty-three percent were unsure. Even among Democrats, the number believing Obama to be a Christian has dropped 9 points since last year. The Pew poll was conducted even before President Obama gave his controversial endorsement to a proposed Islamic community center and mosque that religious leaders intend to build near Ground Zero, the site of Islamic terrorist attacks that destroyed New York's World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Obama announced his support during a White House dinner celebrating the start of the Islamic Ramadan fast. Another poll by TIME magazine found that 47 percent believe Obama is a Christian, and almost one in four (24 percent) believe he is Muslim. Twenty-four percent declined to respond or were unsure, and 5% said he was neither Christian nor Muslim. Barack Obama, whose father and stepfather were both Muslim, attended Muslim and Christian schools in Indonesia before his claimed conversion to Christianity as an adult. White House Faith adviser Joshua DuBois told the Washington Post that Obama is "diligent and personally committed to his own Christian faith," and blamed "misinformation campaigns" for spreading the contrary notion. "There's certainly folks who are intent on spreading falsehoods about the president and his values and beliefs," he said, claiming that Obama's faith plays an "important part" in his day-to-day life. While the Post's coverage took it as given that Americans are "wrongly" skeptical of the president's faith - and prompted by "Internet-spread rumors and falsehoods" - there has been little other than Obama's personal assurances and speech rhetoric to back up his claim of adhering to the faith. As Tim Graham of NewsBusters.org notes, "The number of Sunday church services Obama has attended since the Inauguration doesn't get beyond counting on one hand."  The Obamas have even failed to observe Christmas by attending church since the 2008 election. Obama's campaign image as a devout Christian helped sway key Christian leaders to support the candidate, lending credence that the president would practice the conservative values he seemed to preach. Yet the president's policies have proven to be quite the opposite, as Obama has consistently pushed an extreme pro-abortion and anti-family legislative agenda. The federal health care legislation, for which the White House collaborated closely with Planned Parenthood to secure expanded taxpayer funding of abortion, ranks among the top pro-abortion accomplishments of the Obama administration. Obama has also pushed for greater taxpayer funding of abortion overseas through several venues, and is a strong proponent of embryonic stem-cell research. In addition, a constant theme for the administration has been pandering to the homosexualist lobby, disavowing the Federal Defense of Marriage Act, the ban on open homosexuals in the military, and bans on homosexual adoption, while pushing for homosexual employment non-discrimination laws as well as homosexual "hate crimes" legislation. While failing to celebrate publicly the National Day of Prayer at the White House, Obama has regularly feted homosexual leaders for "gay rights" landmarks, such as Gay and Lesbian Pride Month and the Stonewall Riots. Despite his erstwhile billing as a moderate on the political spectrum, President Obama bragged to reporters Monday night that his administration has pushed through "the most progressive legislative agenda ... not just in one generation, maybe two, maybe three." While the TIME poll found a nearly even split between Americans rating Obama's job performance, Rasmussen Reports' Daily Presidential Tracking Poll has found nearly twice as much strong disapproval of the president as strong approval among U.S. voters over several months. Currently, according to Rasmussen, 26 percent of voters strongly approve of Obama's performance as president, while 44 percent disapprove.

---

LifeSiteNews.com is a non-profit Internet service dedicated to issues of culture, life, and family. It was launched in September 1997. LifeSiteNews Daily News reports and information pages are used by numerous organizations and publications, educators, professionals and political, religious and life and family organization leaders and grassroots people across North America and internationally.