You think you know the President, but do you know me?
The recent Pew Poll on President Obama’s perceived religious leanings has been all over the news. For better or worse, but I couldn’t help finding myself challenged by the findings. Politics, and the issues we entrust to our politicians are often far more complex than most of us can really comprehend. Not that we can’t understand them, but we’re often only presented with a portion of the facts. If it doesn’t fit in a sound-bite, then we probably haven’t heard it. And what’s worse, we probably won’t take the time to actually find out the whole story.
I’m not going to reveal anything new about the President, but I realized that his religion has opened the window to a bigger issue than what would ever be addressed by the media. After pondering this for a little more than a week, I realized that I what I was really doing was challenging myself.
Here’s what I mean. You know that I’m a husband. It’s the first thing I say about myself after my job. You may not know that my title as “husband, father, son, brother” matters more to me than my job, but you should. You know I’m a pastor. You may know that I went to school to be a musician. You may know that I spend much of my time working on computers, developing and managing websites, creating multimedia experiences, editing video, mastering audio and more. Hopefully you know that I like to think deeply about everything, trying to see both sides of the issue. In all of that, in my bio – I have a few versions that emphasize different aspects of my career depending on the situation - nowhere do I mention that I’m a Christian.
President Obama’s situation frustrated me. Not because he may or may not be Christian and not because he may or may not be Muslim, but because I’m the former, and not sure that I’ve done any better in living a life that makes that obvious. I believe that if you’re a Christian, or if you’re a Muslim, it’s implicit in the belief system that your faith should be obvious to others. One of the Five Pillars of the Muslim Faith is the Zakāt. It’s an important facet of the faith. It’s the personal responsibility of every Muslim and an obligatory act of worship. Every act of worship should have a final point, a purpose. The purpose of the Zakāt is to ease hardship of those in need, to seek to eliminate inequality by giving to others (Qur’an 9:60). Christians, does that sound familiar? We are called to make our faith visible by the very same actions. We have the opportunity to minister to others by the very same actions.
My point is this: If my faith matters to me, then my life should reflect it. There should be no doubt. Both Christianity and Islam offer some very tangible ways to reflect their beliefs. While different, they should be obvious.
Personally, I don’t care about the President’s religious beliefs as it relates to governance. I do care that he has faith in something other than himself, and believes in it enough to live like it matters. I think that’s why the populace is confused. Where is it obvious in his life that he’s either? The “attending church” argument presented by the media doesn’t hold water for me, because it’s as much how you live as it is what building you walk into on a sacred day of worship. So, here’s the crux of the matter: It doesn’t matter what anyone else believes, only that I believe it enough to live my life in such a way that it leaves you no doubt about it. Christians are often accused of talking a good talk, but not living up to it. I don’t believe that’s true, most of the time. Unfortunately, for me, it’s true far more often than it should be.
One final note, if you’re Muslim, please forgive me if I misused, or misunderstood, the Qur’an. One of my goals is to live my life well enough that you would like to know more about my journey, please understand that I’m doing my best to better understand your path – but even that process is a journey all its own.
