Religious Education Update: 11/9/08
Is Obama a UU?
The answer to this question is yes and no. As we know, in the midst of the campaign, he resigned his membership from Chicago’s Trinity United Church of Christ. Obama describes himself as Christian.
But what does he believe? In an interview with Cathleen Falsani of the Chicago Sun-Times, Obama talks about the religious training of his childhood. "My mother was a deeply spiritual person and would spend a lot of time talking about values and give me books about the world's religions and talk to me about them. Her view always was that underlying these religions was a common set of beliefs about how you treat other people and how you aspire to act, not just for yourself, but also for the greater good."
Later in the interview, he discusses his views on salvation. "The difficult thing about any religion, including Christianity, is that at some level there is a call to evangelize and proselytize. There's the belief, certainly in some quarters, that if people haven't embraced Jesus Christ as their personal savior, they're going to hell." Obama doesn't believe he, or anyone else, will go to hell. But he's not sure if he'll be going to heaven, either. "I don't presume to have knowledge of what happens after I die," he says. "When I tuck in my daughters at night, and I feel like I've been a good father to them, and I see in them that I am transferring values that I got from my mother and that they're kind people and that they're honest people, and they're curious people, that's a little piece of heaven."
While most UU’s that I know would not describe themselves as having a relationship with Jesus, as Obama does, most UU’s would find Obama’s views towards other faith traditions and salvation as quite compatible with their own. In my mind, Obama often sounds like a Unitarian Universalist. He is respectful of all people and their diverse faith traditions. He is deeply committed towards working towards a peaceful and just world, and towards preserving this planet for his children and for mine. In knowing that he will be our President, I am filled with hope for a brighter future.
Marlene Abel
Director of Religious Education
The answer to this question is yes and no. As we know, in the midst of the campaign, he resigned his membership from Chicago’s Trinity United Church of Christ. Obama describes himself as Christian.
But what does he believe? In an interview with Cathleen Falsani of the Chicago Sun-Times, Obama talks about the religious training of his childhood. "My mother was a deeply spiritual person and would spend a lot of time talking about values and give me books about the world's religions and talk to me about them. Her view always was that underlying these religions was a common set of beliefs about how you treat other people and how you aspire to act, not just for yourself, but also for the greater good."
Later in the interview, he discusses his views on salvation. "The difficult thing about any religion, including Christianity, is that at some level there is a call to evangelize and proselytize. There's the belief, certainly in some quarters, that if people haven't embraced Jesus Christ as their personal savior, they're going to hell." Obama doesn't believe he, or anyone else, will go to hell. But he's not sure if he'll be going to heaven, either. "I don't presume to have knowledge of what happens after I die," he says. "When I tuck in my daughters at night, and I feel like I've been a good father to them, and I see in them that I am transferring values that I got from my mother and that they're kind people and that they're honest people, and they're curious people, that's a little piece of heaven."
While most UU’s that I know would not describe themselves as having a relationship with Jesus, as Obama does, most UU’s would find Obama’s views towards other faith traditions and salvation as quite compatible with their own. In my mind, Obama often sounds like a Unitarian Universalist. He is respectful of all people and their diverse faith traditions. He is deeply committed towards working towards a peaceful and just world, and towards preserving this planet for his children and for mine. In knowing that he will be our President, I am filled with hope for a brighter future.
Marlene Abel
Director of Religious Education
posted by Unitarian Universalists of Petaluma @ 9:37 PM
4 Comments:
At Thursday, 06 November, 2008,
Kari said…
His grandparents attended a Unitarian church (pre-merger) in the Seattle area while his mother was in High School. Who knows what stuck!?
At Friday, 07 November, 2008,
The Eclectic Cleric said…
Karl -- what is your source for this information?
Tim Jensen (formerly of Seattle; now in Portland ME)
At Friday, 07 November, 2008,
Kari said…
http://web.archive.org/web/20071124054850/http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/chi-0703270151mar27,0,589824,full.story
And although I've not read his books, I understand Obama refers to the connection in one of the books.
It's something that it seems is common knowledge to my colleagues out here, although until I read the wikipedia article (it's also referred to in the wikipedia article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madelyn_and_Stanley_Dunham#cite_note-Tribune1-9) and clicked through to the Chicago Tribune article, I had no idea. To be clear, they were not members, but did, apparently, attend.
At Saturday, 08 November, 2008,
ddodd said…
Here's the paragraph from that article:
The Dunhams did not join the uproar. Madelyn and Stanley shed their Methodist and Baptist upbringing and began attending Sunday services at the East Shore Unitarian Church in nearby Bellevue.
"In the 1950s, this was sometimes known as 'the little Red church on the hill,' " said Peter Luton, the church's senior minister, referring to the effects of McCarthyism. Skepticism, the kind that Stanley embraced and passed on to his daughter, was welcomed here.
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