The mere fact that everybody and their brother is trying to figure out what, exactly, Obama believes, is a startling commentary on how easily manipulated we have become as a people.

How is it even possible that a man can meteorically rise to the top of the American federal government without anyone actually knowing who he is and what he believes?  The cult of personality is strong.  And while the mainstream media is no longer a monopoly, they obviously still wield great influence over our people.

Anti-colonialist, socialist, intellectual Marxist, atheist, Muslim...everyone has an opinion.  I have my own, but found this most recent contribution to the discussion by Human Events writer Benjamin Wiker to be persuasive:

The important thing about this testimonial (if true), is that I'd finally be able to peg Obama's real motivations. He'd be a rather typical example, straight from the 19th Century, of a Christian liberal who stopped believing in the essential dogmas of Christianity but still clung to a heavily modified form of its social doctrines.

In this new liberal faith, Jesus was demoted to being a great moral exemplar, a kind of revolutionary put to death for preaching a radical social doctrine Roman and Jewish leaders found too politically unsettling. The liberalized form of Christianity had, and still has, its own evangelical goal that defined its decidedly political bent: heaven must be brought to Earth, and governments must take on the task of wiping every tear away.

If that is what Obama really is?not a Muslim, but severely liberalized Christian?then there's at least a little hope. There is no doubt that Obama is a liberal, but liberalism is, in great part, the passionate embrace of Christianity, except without the embarrassing God part.

To be more exact, it's a secularized form of Christianity, taking all the evangelical zeal originally directed to the kingdom of God, and pointing it toward constructing a this-worldly secular utopia.

Wiker found this possibility somewhat comforting, as he noted:

But if Christianity still has some faint hold on his heart, Obama might yet see that government cannot take the place of God, that sins are very real and spread evenly among the population, both rich and poor, and that creating a kingdom of heaven is best left in divine (rather than bureaucratic) hands.

But Wiker isn't buying this profession of faith.  And I'm not either.  There's too much else that surrounds this man Obama contradicting such a claim.  It's what Scripture means when it says by their fruits they will be known.

Obama's fruit has bloomed and is blooming...and it isn't fruit that comes from Biblical Christianity.  Which means, Obama's recent venture into the realm of faith discussion may be much more related to his Machiavellian manipulation of the masses than a window into his heart.

As Wiker notes,

I am not suggesting that Obama is a ruthless Machiavellian, slitting throats behind the scene. But whatever he intends, his sudden use of the language of evangelical Christianity (very sudden, i.e., as in "never happened before") cannot help but seem to be a poorly orchestrated attempt to salvage whatever he can of the Left's hold on the political helm by appearing to be a Christian.

 

If Wiker's right, it takes the dangerousness of the Obama administration and magnifies it tenfold.