Call to Renewal

Barack Obama’s comparing of James Dobson with Al Sharpton is all over the news today. It was two years ago but I was still curious enough to read the entire text of his “Call to Renewal” speech. It was about 13 pages long but I thought it was important to read it all so I would not be guilty of clinging to a simple sound- bite.

Obama said, “And even if we did have only Christians in our midst, if we expelled every non-Christian from the United States of America, whose Christianity would we teach in the schools? Would we go with James Dobson’s or Al Sharpton's? Which passages of Scripture should guide our public policy? Should we go with Leviticus, which suggests slavery is ok and that eating shellfish is abomination? How about Deuteronomy, which suggests stoning your child if he strays from the faith? Or should we just stick to the Sermon on the Mount - a passage that is so radical that it's doubtful that our own Defense Department would survive its application? So before we get carried away, let's read our bibles. Folks haven't been reading their bibles.”

I’m not quite sure how James Dobson got into the mix where teaching Christianity is concerned, but I could let that silly comparison go. What was even more ridiculous was Obama's quoting of laws from the Old Testament.

So my question is, who exactly is your Jesus Barack Obama? And what exactly did he die for?

Romans 7:6 says, “But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter”.

Galatians 2:16 says, “nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified.”

Barack Obama, it appears that it is you who hasn't been reading the Bible.