Obama's Faith: Fascinating Interview Unearthed

Cathleen Falsani of the Chicago Sun-Times interviewed Barack Obama in 2004 on his faith and spirituality. She's now published the entire interview. Here are some highlights.

On prayer:

FALSANI: Do you pray often?

OBAMA:
Uh, yeah, I guess I do.

Its' not formal, me getting on my knees. I think I have an ongoing conversation with God. I think throughout the day, I'm constantly asking myself questions about what I'm doing, why am I doing it.

One of the interesting things about being in public life is there are constantly these pressures being placed on you from different sides. To be effective, you have to be able to listen to a variety of points of view, synthesize viewpoints. You also have to know when to be just a strong advocate, and push back against certain people or views that you think aren't right or don't serve your constituents.

And so, the biggest challenge, I think, is always maintaining your moral compass. Those are the conversations I'm having internally. I'm measuring my actions against that inner voice that for me at least is audible, is active, it tells me where I think I'm on track and where I think I'm off track. ...

Looking for, ... It's interesting, the most powerful political moments for me come when I feel like my actions are aligned with a certain truth. I can feel it. When I'm talking to a group and I'm saying something truthful, I can feel a power that comes out of those statements that is different than when I'm just being glib or clever.

FALSANI:
What's that power? Is it the holy spirit? God?

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OBAMA:
Well, I think it's the power of the recognition of God, or the recognition of a larger truth that is being shared between me and an audience.

On spiritual leaders:

FALSANI: Do you have people in your life that you look to for guidance?

OBAMA:
Well, my pastor [Jeremiah Wright] is certainly someone who I have an enormous amount of respect for.

I have a number of friends who are ministers. Reverend Meeks is a close friend and colleague of mine in the state Senate. Father Michael Pfleger is a dear friend, and somebody I interact with closely.

FALSANI:
Those two will keep you on your toes.

OBAMA:
And theyr'e good friends. Because both of them are in the public eye, there are ways we can all reflect on what's happening to each of us in ways that are useful.

I think they can help me, they can appreciate certain specific challenges that I go through as a public figure.

On his church:

FALSANI: Do you get questions about your faith?

OBAMA:
Obviously as an African American politician rooted in the African American community, I spend a lot of time in the black church. I have no qualms in those settings in participating fully in those services and celebrating my God in that wonderful community that is the black church.

(he pauses)
But I also try to be . . . Rarely in those settings do people come up to me and say, what are your beliefs. They are going to presume, and rightly so. Although they may presume a set of doctrines that I subscribe to that I don't necessarily subscribe to.

But I don't think that's unique to me. I think that each of us when we walk into our church or mosque or synagogue are interpreting that experience in different ways, are reading scriptures in different ways and are arriving at our own understanding at different ways and in different phases. ...

Nothing is more powerful than the black church experience. A good choir and a good sermon in the black church, it's pretty hard not to be move and be transported.

On spiritual inspiration:

OBAMA: As I said before, in my own sort of mental library, the Civil Rights movement has a powerful hold on me. It's a point in time where I think heaven and earth meet. Because it's a moment in which a collective faith transforms everything. So when I read Gandhi or I read King or I read certain passages of Abraham Lincoln and I think about those times where people's values are tested, I think those inspire me.

I can be transported by watching a good performance of Hamlet, or reading Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon, or listening to Miles Davis.

On heaven:

OBAMA: What I believe in is that if I live my life as well as I can, that I will be rewarded. I don't presume to have knowledge of what happens after I die. But I feel very strongly that whether the reward is in the here and now or in the hereafter, the aligning myself to my faith and my values is a good thing.

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.

Read the whole thing.

Comments

[ThanksMatt]

HELLO HUFFINGTON POST,

can you please check out the user "mindyforpalin" who posts always his email address and seems to post malicious links? I think something is wrong here!

[shelobo]

I wonder what Dr.Dobson thinks when he reads this ,but Dobson ,like Jim Jones lives in his own distorted 'Christian' world,and would disagree with God himself unless God believed as Dobson does..the Bible 'Twisters' and Hannity should have a heyday with this interview ,as Wrights name is in it.....

[margardner]

I believe we're going to learn so many valuable things from our President. He is positive, iintelligent, insightful, and thoughtful. What a wonderful role model for my god-children. I have 5 teenage god-children and they at their young age are already inspired by Barack. I too, as someone wrote below am so proud of my vote for Obama. :)

[krd 123]

Checks and balances...checks and balances. What more can we ask for. Someone who is always getting both sides, weighing them and how it will affect him and his constituents...who are now ALL of us in the US. I may not be 100% happy with all his decisions over the next four years, but I can rest assure that he weighed both sides before making the decision. A man with a brain and a good heart. A + in this powerful position!

[Ajegunle]

Show me a person who cares about the poor and the down-trodden, who believes in tolerance and love....

And I will show you a TRUE FOLLOWER OF CHRIST (A CHRIST-IAN).

[comacoma]

Heck.. that would be me.. except I'm a Secular Humanist and I don't follow your Christ or your "god".

http://www.secularhumanism.org/index.php?page=affirmations&section=main

[Ajegunle]

Show me a person who cares about the poor and the down-trodden, who believes in tolerance and love....

And I will show you a TRUE FOLLOWER OF CHRIST (A CHRIT-IAN).

[Nyangombua]

This was such and inspirational piece to me. May God grant him strength and knowlege to continue to inspire the world with his message. You can listen to Barack and see his heart. I felt like i was listening to a spiritual leader.

[Ajegunle]

"OBAMA:

I am a big believer in the separation of church and state. I am a big believer in our constitutional structure. I mean, I'm a law professor at the University of Chicago teaching constitutional law. I am a great admirer of our founding charter, and its resolve to prevent theocracies from forming, and its resolve to prevent disruptive strains of fundamentalism from taking root ion this country.

That if there's a child on the South Side of Chicago that can't read, that makes a difference in my life even if it's not my own child. If there's a senior citizen in downstate Illinois that's struggling to pay for their medicine and having to chose between medicine and the rent, that makes my life poorer even if it's not my grandparent. And if there's an Arab American family that's being rounded up by John Ashcroft without the benefit of due process, that threatens my civil liberties.

I can give religious expression to that. I am my brother's keeper, I am my sister's keeper, we are all children of God. Or I can express it in secular terms. But the basic premise remains the same. I think sometimes Democrats have made the mistake of shying away from a conversation about values for fear that they sacrifice the important value of tolerance. And I don't think those two things are mutually exclusive."

[duchessdorleans]

"while there is a lower class, I am in it, and while there is a criminal element I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free"

--Eugene Debs

[roshni]

This is the most reflective and mature interview on religion! No wonder we love this man. It's not fake bible thumping, but a real spirituality and desire to conenct.

[adampap]

i wish he could really speak candidly about how he feels about religion. he is clearly too intelligent to actually believe that god exists and his speech on religion in 2006 shows a deep understanding of the harm that religion has done to our politics. he seems to me to be a closet atheist. i wish he could come out for the good of humanity, but alas it is political suicide in our idiotic nation.

[Minako]

Intelligence and faith are not mutually exclusive. You can be brilliant and religious, just as you ca be an ignorant atheist.

Religious beliefs are not about intelligence at all, they're about faith, which is something that anyone can have, regardless of their SAT scores.

[adampap]

sure i understand that, but actually statistics show that faith and intelligence are inversely proportionate. 93 percent of the national academy of science reject the idea of god, and the least educated parts of our country are unwaveringly religious. how does one become a sophisticated believer anyway? by taking scripture less and less seriously. so why not just admit that the bible is nothing more than the first attempt at science by first century men who thought the world was flat.

[sonshine]

I don't get how that is true. The moment you apply logic and historical knowledge to the Adam and Eve story things begin to unwind. The earth created in 7 days, God needing "rest" and the brutal side of God getting something out of punishing it's own creation, it makes no sense. I believe that the Universe has a power that is all of our souls; a pulse; karma but not a big being who has some kind of overwhelming power because if that were so, there wouldn't be a war in The Congo. The attrocities in Darfur would never have started and certainly wouldn't be going on years later and we wouldn't have had slavery and the holocaust. What good is a creator if she cannot control her creation? It is not logical.

[conned]

Intelligence is the capacity to comprehend complexities and knowledge, but wisdom is realizing how little you actually know, adampap. I think that's a pretty unwise statement. God and religion are necessarily one in the same either.

[reliant1]

Some of the greatest scientists, intellectuals and artists thru out time had/have a belief in God.

Religion and politcs are often one - to the betterment or destruction of it's faithful.

Religion and daily life often intersect just as daily life and politics do.

[Matt7]

Uhhh I think he's "out." He's a Christian -- he's out and he's proud. Get used to it.

I don't know where the erroneous mantra began, that you must profess a faith in order to be POTUS. Actually, it seems to me that the opposite is true. The moment you profess that you DO have faith in God, everyone and their grandmother (on the more progressive blogs, anyway) wants to dissect it; starts ranting about the separation of church and state; and cast aspersions on your mental stability if you believe in an "imaginary, invisible figure" like God.

All Christians don't embarrass the faith by using it for political gain or manipulation. It is a deeply person preference and way of looking at life (that is protected BY the constitution, btw).

The fact that Obama is a proud, PRACTICING, Christian is actually one of the things that I love most about him. It tells me something about the way that he views the world, and his and others' place in it.

I think his perspective is best summed up in his own words. See the posting from Ajegunle, above.

[adampap]

gallup polls have shown that only 47% of people would consider voting for an atheist for office. that's lower any other group including muslims and gays. polls also show that atheists are the least trusted minority.

[StillIRise]

I got the impression that he IS speaking candidly about how he feels. He may not be saying what YOU want to hear him say, but that does not negate his candor. He's also speaking candidly about his faith, not necessarily about his religion, and in my opinion, one can have a deep faith (as Obama does) without necessarily being deeply religious or engaging in the rituals and strict teachings of the religious/church community. His understanding and spiritual relationship with a higher being (call it what you will) is evident, not only in what he says but in who he is. To suggest that he is a "closet atheist" simply because he expresses his faith in a way that transcends the traditional tenets of religiosity is absurd. It's not that simplistic.

He is a deeply spiritual person, and though he respects the institution of religion and is inspired by the religious experience of the black church, he is not stuck in the rigid entrapments of religiosity that has historically divided our society and that ultimately fractures our souls as well. His foundation is his faith - which fortifies his relationship with his god, with himself and with all humanity. He's an extraordinary human being.

[mommadona]

Good.

He's a thoughtful, spiritual person.

NOW, CAN WE MOVE ON, PLEASE?

(There is NO RELIGIOUS TEST for POTUS)...

[Larkinvos]

Clearly, there IS a religious test for the Presidency, an informal one.

To prove it, what would have happened to Obama's candidacy, if he answered all religious
questions thusly: "My religion is my own business. I will answer no questions concerning
religion. The Constitution protects the rights of ALL of us to worship as we please, and how or
whether I worship, is no one's business."

Suffice it to say, we would not be awaiting his inauguration on Jan. 20.

[sonshine]

Amen!

[obamasandiego]

I'm sorry, but when I read the part when he was talking about Hamlet, King Solomon, or Miles Davies, I kept thinking---- Man, Sarah Palin probably wouldn't distinguish who was real and who's fiction. lol

[Ksisay]

That wasn't King of Solomon our President Elect referred to, but "Song of Solomon," the novel by Toni Morrison. It's still my favorite work of fiction, these many years after its publication. It's a powerful, lyrical work and probably good reading for those who claim to be mystified about where Black people are "coming from" ...

[DoPaisa]

To me, his faith has no relevance as the President of our country. However, it makes me have confidence in this great man that he does listen to his inner voice. I'm glad he doesn't mention 'God'. That would put me off COMPLETELY.

[Ocean girl]

Agreed. Well said. He speaks about his personal experience in universal way. As a Buddhist I appreciate that too.

[HWNA]

Well, we all know what the Republicans and right-wingers on talk radio are going to take from this interview:

"OMG JEREMIAH WRIGHT MICHAEL PFLEGER BLACK CHURCH BLACK CHURCH BLACK CHURCH!!!!!"

[4wehttam]

LMAO!!! That's ok, they are no longer relevant. He's ALREADY won....actually WE won. YES WE DID!!

[philosopherkingtomas]

Love our Obama! a real Christian not a fake hateful one like Palin.
"If a man shuts his ears to the cry of the poor, he too will cry out and not be answered."
-Proverbs 21:13