As campaign issue, heaven can wait
What do you look for in a presidential candidate? A plan for comprehensive health care reform? Clear ideas about energy independence? Maybe personality and character matter most.
What about their thumbs up/thumbs down on who gets into heaven?
Strange as it may sound, this potential qualification has entered the 2008 race, most recently via James Dobson's poke at Senator Obama last week. CBN’s David Brody points to heaven talk as an example that Dobson really
does speak for conservative evangelicals:
For example, Obama has talked before about how he's not sure what happens after he dies, and that good people, even if they don't believe in Jesus, will make their way to Heaven. Yet conservative Evangelicals say that when you believe in Jesus, you go to heaven and that there are not different paths to get there. They believe Obama is confusing Christianity for people truly searching for the truth. And THAT is really the major beef they have with him. They believe the distortion (in their view) is dangerous.
Joseph Farah brings up the same issue in a recent WorldNetDaily column, using Obama's views on heaven as part of his basis that "he doesn't have a clue as to what it means to be a Christian."
And no lesser an inquisitor than Cal Thomas recently penned a column titled "Barack Obama Is Not A Christian," based on Obama's statements of uncertainty about salvation/damnation for nonChristians.
Yet, a look back at the words of a former presidential candidate (and Religious Right beacon of hope) named George W. Bush shows that Obama's not the only nominee who’s ever differed from conservative Evangelical views on the afterlife.
In a 2004 interview with Charlie Gibson (around the 1:36 mark), President Bush said he believes Muslims go to heaven:
When asked if "all major religions are equally true" in a 2000 Beliefnet interview, Bush replied:
I think that we're all God's children, and far be it from me, as a lowly sinner, trying to decide who gets to go to heaven and who doesn't, for example. I mean at one time, in 1994, I said, "My faith says you must accept Christ to go to heaven." And there was a significant backlash because, as typical in politics, the full story wasn't told. And there was a typical backlash amongst, you know, some Jewish people in Texas that basically felt I had said that they can't go to heaven. I worked hard to make it clear to people, far be it from me to tell you I get to decide who goes. I'm working on myself. I'm focused on me.
On December 4, 1998, the Austin American Statesman (article found via Nexis search) reported that Bush said he does not believe heaven is only open to Christians:
Asked if he believes heaven is open only to Christians, Bush said, "No, I don't believe that. I believe God decides who goes to heaven, not George W. Bush."
On several occasions -- as a governor, a candidate, and a president -- Bush clearly created some distance between himself and traditional evangelical views on salvation, even going so far as directly contradicting them on national television. Still, he managed to garner 78 percent of the evangelical vote in 2004.
Beyond that, the recent Pew report shows that 70 percent of Americans say many religions lead to eternal life.
Is a candidate's view of the afterlife a major issue among religious voters, or even just conservative evangelicals? Recent history and polling data suggest not.
Comments
On Franklin Graham's one-on-one questioning of Obama -
The question presented was whether Jesus Christ is THE way or merely A way to salvation. Mr. Obama reportedly said “Jesus is the only way for me. I'm not in a position to judge other people." The clear implication of Mr. Obama’s answer is that Jesus may not be, or is not necessarily, the only way for the entire human race.
That which Mr. Obama’s answer implies is fully confirmed as reported by CATHLEEN FALSANI , Sun-Times Columnist (April 5, 2004) who in an hour long interview with Mr. Obama reports that Mr. Obama stated the following:
"I'm rooted in the Christian tradition. I believe that there are many paths to the same place, and that is a belief that there is a higher power, a belief that we are connected as a people.”
[http://www.suntimes.com/news/falsani/726619,obamafalsani040504.article]
OK there you go – Jesus Christ is not the only way. That’s what the man believes. But ostensibly Mr. Obama believes the Bible is truth. If so, the Bible says at John 14:6 that Jesus Christ said:
“I am the way, the truth and the life. No man can come unto the Father but through me.”
John 14:6
Likewise, Acts 4:12 says:
"And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved." Acts 4:12
So, Mr. Obama says there are “many paths to the same place”. Mr. Obama makes Jesus Christ a liar because Jesus Christ said: “I am the way, the truth and the life. No man can come unto the Father but through me.”
Mr. Obama refuses to acknowledge as true Jesus Christ’s claim that He is the only way to God and salvation for ~ not just Mr. Obama ~ but the entire human race. Pluralism repudiates truth as an absolute for all and embraces the notion that what is true for you need not be truth for someone else. Tolerance used to mean (and by my book still does) that one “puts up with” folks that don’t have it right. . . but now means (to many) that I must accept opposing views as equally valid as mine.
The keystone to Christianity and to the Christian faith is that Jesus Christ is the only way to God & Salvation for the ENTIRE human race. Everybody else is wrong and in need of Jesus Christ. Mr. Obama does not hold to this and is therefore not a Christian, as his belief falls outside the pale of Biblical orthodoxy i.e., his belief is heretical.
Given the fact that mutuality exclusive tenets of world religions cannot both be true and given the fact that the Bible states Jesus Christ is the Only Savior of the world it seems all Protestants, Baptists and Catholics must, unless the be rank hypocrites, repudiate Mr. Obama’s pluralistic view about how people are saved and how they get to God.
I will admit that, to be consistent, President Bush is off base also and shares the same company as Mr. Obama. ABC's Charles Gibson interviewed President George W. Bush. Mr. Gibson asked the below questions and President Bush responded as indicated:
Q. "Do we all worship the same God, Christian and Muslim?"
A. "I think we do. We have different routes of getting to the Almighty."
Q. "Do Christians and non-Christians and Muslims go to heaven in your mind?"
A. "Yes they do. We have different routes of getting there."
I will note that President Bush did concede in the same interview that some believe in a false god: Q. Does bin Laden? Does Abu Musab al-Zarqawi pray to the same God that you and I do? A. I think they pray to a false god otherwise they wouldn't be killing innocent lives like they have been.
But President Bush’s confusion does not redeem Mr. Obama from the false statement that he is a Christian. In any event, if indeed President Bush and Mr. Obama both refuse to admit there is only one way for salvation for the entire human race than they are Universalists and don’t believe in the Biblical keystone of the Christian faith: that Jesus Christ is the only way to God & Salvation for the ENTIRE human race.
Posted by: Bibleman2 | July 1, 2008 06:00 PM