There is lots of debate these days, especially in political circles, about who is "Christian" and whose side God is on. Candidates these days seem to get more spiritual the closer it gets to election day. I guess that's okay...praying every couple of years is better than not praying at all.
People like Rand Paul, who is running for Senate in staunchly "Christian" Kentucky, have had to repeatedly prove and assert that they are the real deal and not just using the Christian name as political one-upmanship. (Here's an interesting story from Politico.com about the Republican candidate's difficulty with his Democratic rival-- who says Paul is "out of sync" with Kentucky's family [i.e., Christian] values.)
All of this uproar got me thinking about what it takes for a politician to qualify as a "Christian," when I came across an account in the New York Times of one fairly prominent public figure on the campaign trail who offered the following assessment of his own religious faith:
“I’m a Christian by choice. My family, frankly, they weren’t folks who went to church every week. My mother was one of the most spiritual people I knew but she didn’t raise me in the church, so I came to my Christian faith later in life and it was because the precepts of Jesus Christ spoke to me in terms of the kind of life that I would want to lead.
"Being my brothers and sisters’ keeper, treating others as they would treat me, and I think also understanding that Jesus Christ dying for my sins spoke to the humility we all have to have as human beings, that we’re sinful and we’re flawed and we make mistakes and we achieve salvation through the grace of God.”
Not too bad; I listen to lots of people tell me what they think it takes to be a Christian, and I would rate that description in the top third-- at least-- of any I have ever heard. And, as far as politicians go, I'd have to say this one got it down pretty well. Seems fairly sincere to me.
What do you think? Does this guy have what it takes? Will he pass muster "when the roll is called up yonder?" Is he good enough for the Christian Coalition?
(Ummm...about that; I went to the Christian Coalition website to see what they had to say about being or becoming a Christian. They don't really say anything about it, though they did give me multiple options to donate to the cause or download a voter guide.)
Oh, well...I suppose it will all come out in the wash. And who, you may ask, is the mysterious politician whose Christian faith is outlined above?
Barack Hussein Obama. Go figure.
No comments:
Post a Comment