He’s Not

24 December 2007



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Obama Denies Muslim Rumor

The general stupidity of the America electorate was on display over the week-end in Iowa when Becky Michael, 58, of Pleasantville, Iowa, asked Senator Obama (D –IL) at a coffee house stop Saturday to explain his "Muslim background.” After the exchange, in which the senator assured the idiot that he was a Christian, she told New York’s Daily News, "It's not so important that he is a Christian, although I'm very thankful he is. But it's very important that he's not a Muslim.” Frankly, this journal is more interested in policy, what an elected official will do, than why he or she does it.

Senator Obama said in answering a question that is beneath every American, “My father was from Kenya, and a lot of people in his village were Muslim. He didn't practice Islam. Truth is he wasn't very religious. He met my mother. My mother was a Christian from Kansas. I've always been a Christian.... The only connection I've had to Islam is that my grandfather on my father's side came from that country. But I've never practiced Islam.” He also admitted that he had been a member of the Trinity United Church of Christ for the past 15 years.

The fact of the matter is there are a great many things about which religion doesn’t inform. Is there a Christian view of whether or not to raise the sales tax in Gillette, Wyoming? What would Jesus do is not a very good guide to whether or not to put a stop light at the corner of Elm and Main. Mohammed, Ram, Zeus and Buddha probably don’t have any insight into the next bond initiative for a new stadium in Anytown, USA. But the local developer and his brother-in-law on the city council most certainly do.

Senator Obama did have a more diverse upbringing than most Americans. Having spent part of his youth in Muslim Indonesia, he just might see those people for what they are – people. Eid al Adha is a bigger deal in their calendar than Christmas or Easter, but so what? One is reminded of Shylock’s speech, “if you tickle us, do we not laugh?”

The senator could be a better man on policy. He could put a hold on all future funding of the war in Iraq-Nam. He could demand a single-payer national healthcare plan. He could insist on free education through the PhD level for any American willing to put in the work. He could insist on an end to buying weapons his country doesn’t need. At the same time, whether he worships Allah, Jehovah, Jupiter Optimus Maximus, Joe Strummer or Joe Pesce is irrelevant. What a man does in office trumps why he does it.

© Copyright 2007 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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