In 2004, accounting problems at Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae resulted in congressional hearings.  While the Republicans directly addressed the looming threat from the corruption at the two companies, Democrats defended their pet programs and attacked the Federal Regulator for pointing out the discrepancies.  Four years later, their defense resulted in the largest financial crisis since the Great Depression.  While Barack Obama was not present for these hearings, his party’s ideology, as well as lucrative contributions from the two companies to his personal campaigns prevented the aversion of disaster when it could have been accomplished.

While this does not directly speak to Senator Obama’s religious beliefs, it does perhaps stem from his general position that Christianity does not mean the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, for the redemption of human kind, but rather the metaphoric salvation of the poor and oppressed through whatever means possible, even stealing from the rich, or the destruction of the financial structure of the country.

Dr. James Cone is the founder of Black Liberation Theology.  Reverend Jeremiah Write has stated that no one can discuss the so called “black value system,” or by inference his teaching, unless they first understand Cone’s writing.  Barack Obama sat voluntarily under the teachings of Wright, and therefore by proxy, Cone, for twenty years.  Therefore, to understand what Senator Obama believes, we must first understand the beliefs of James Cone.

Welcome to 1000 Sundays, a site devoted to the examination of what the Democratic Candidate for President of the United States of America believes.  At 1000 Sundays, we believe that all men are free to believe as they will.  However, we also believe that a citizen has the right to examine those beliefs so that they might be honestly and accurately informed about the motivations of the person seeking their vote.  Barack Obama has made many public statements about his faith that can be freely seen by voters, but like any politician, it is possible that there is more to Senator Obama’s beliefs than can be easily determined by his carefully guarded public declarations.  On this page, we will attempt to peer more deeply into the question of Mr. Obama’s beliefs, and we will begin that exploration by looking into the church and teacher that the senator personally states “introduced” him to his Christian faith.  Mr. Obama sought this man’s teaching for twenty years.  That’s 1000 Sundays.  This is 1000Sundays.com.

The embedded video posted here is an edited down except found on YouTube.com.  While edited for time, it does not take unfair license or mislead in anyway.  In fact, it may actually soften his actual remarks.  The following text is the EXACT, unedited statement by Cone in which he undermines the common basis of Christianity, the divinity of Christ, and salvation through faith (the emphasis in the text was added by this editor).

Many orthodox and evangelical Christians believe, that Jesus died on the cross, to redeem human kind from sin.  They say Jesus took our place, and suffered on the cross for us so that we would not burn in hell forever.  He was our substitute, they say, the son of God, who according to Mark’s gospel gave his life as a ransom for many.  We are now, Paul said, justified by God’s grace as a gift through the redemption that is Christ Jesus, whom God put forth as a sacrifice of atonement by his blood, effective through faith.  Without Jesus death on the cross, many Christians believe that we would not be acceptable before God.  The cross, therefore, is the great symbol of salvation for Christians.  Unfortunately, during the course of two thousand years of Christian history, this orthodox understanding of the cross has become a fixed doctrine, that many believe must be accepted as the definition of what it means to be a Christian.  

Those seeking to do dilegence on this topic for themselves are encouraged to view Dr. Cone’s entire, unedited remarks at Harvard’s official site.

http://www.hds.harvard.edu/news/events_online/ingersoll_2006.html

In this interview Dr. James Cone, the founder of Black Liberation Theology which Obama’s pastor says is fundamental to an understanding of his teachings and the “Black Value System,” asserts that his form of Christianity is a marriage of the ideas of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X, a muslim.  

Later in the segment, Dr. Cone claims that in order for a white person to become a true Christian, they must, as a race, give up everything they have ever taken from Black People.

Admittedly, Sean Hannity is a partisan, but the information contained in this segment is worth further exploration.  In it, Hannity reports on the origins of Liberation Theology, reveals more excerpts from Dr. Cone’s radical writings, and explores Rev. Wright’s Marxist political connections in South America.

In this clip, Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan discusses Obama, calling him both a herald of the Messiah, and later implying that he is in fact the Messiah. 

The connection between Barack Obama’s pastor and Louis Farrakhan is well documented.    Wright has celebrated Farrakhan as “one of the most important voices in the 20th and 21st century…,” and in 1984, the two travelled to Libya together to meet with infamous America-hating dictator Moammar Qaddafi.  Both Wright and Farrakhan subscribe to the theological belief that the Bible is representative of the plight of Black America, who like Israel in the Bible, is an oppressed and enslaved people who are soon to be delivered by God into the promised land.  They both teach that all of the enemies of  Israel in the Bible are representative of White America, who are at the same time, both Egypt the oppressor, the giants in the land God has promised them, and the Romans oppressing them and trying to kill their savior.  Therefore, they do not look to the Messiah to redeem human kind from sin, as Cone makes clear in his remarks at Harvard, they see him as freeing Black Americans from their white oppressors.  In simpler terms, they both teach a form of Black Liberation Theology, what Dr. Cone himself identifies as the joining together of Islamic ideas with Christian ones for the formation of a uniquely black religion of liberation.  The truth is that Nation of Islam is no more traditional Islam than Wright’s Christianity is traditional Christianity.  Same words, drastically different meanings.

As always, all readers are encouraged to research these connections and statements for themselves.

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In this clip, Libyan dictator Moammar Qaddafi declares to his people that Barack Obama is a Muslim, stating:

“Now America is approaching their Presidential election, one is a black candidate who is originally from Kenya, African, and Muslim and studied in the Islamic school in Indonesia.” “His name is OBAMA!” “All the people in the Arab world, Islamic world and Africans have applauded him and are expecting good results”. 

To be sure, Barack Obama is not a Muslim.  He is a Christian who for 20 years, 1000 Sundays, has been under the teaching of Rev. Jeremiah Wright.  Yet the question that this clip raises is, “Why does a Muslim dictator believe Obama is a Muslim?”

The reasons are clear.  Barack Hussein Obama is a Muslim name.  Senator Obama is the son of a Muslim father.  His mother married two Muslim men.  He has Muslim brothers.  He was raised, for a time, in a Muslim country where he studied Islam in school and prayed in Muslim Mosques.  He has stated that the Muslim call to morning prayer is the “most beautiful sound in the world.” In his book, he claims to have had a transformative encounter with the teachings of Muslim leader Malcolm X.  The current leader of the Nation of Islam has called him the Messiah, and Obama has long associated with outspoken anti-Semites.  Put simply, Obama, while not Muslim, has a closer relation to that religion than any person ever to seek the office of the presidency.  

And yet, Barack Obama is certainly not a Muslim.  He is a Christian, at least as long as Christianity can be redefined, as it has been by the founder of his personal theology, Dr. James Cone, as a mixture of traditional Christianity and Islam.  No wonder Qaddafi is confused.  So is Mr. Obama.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/09092008/news/nationalnews/o_pastor_in_sex_scandal_128142.htm

According to the New York Post, Rev. Wright had an affair with a married woman who worked at a church in Dallas officiated by one of his students.  While this information is not relevant to a discussion of Senator Obama’s beliefs, it is none-the-less a news story about one of the key figures in our exploration, and therefore worthy of reporting.

Here, Barack Obama gives the keynote address at the “Call to Renewal” in Washington D.C.  In it, Senator Obama states that America is not a Christian nation.  

Lest posting a simple quote with no context seems unfair, here is the official BarackObama.com version of the segment.  In it, Obama derides James Dobson, rejects Old Testament Passages with no context at all, and frames the Sermon on the Mount as a political passage that precludes national defense.