President Obama—One God or Many gods?

On Sunday night as I was watching TV, my husband (who was on his computer) said, “Did you hear? Osama bin Laden is dead.” I quickly turned over to the news station to get the latest information. While I am glad that this man who has caused so much death and destruction will not be able to do so anymore, I am saddened that to our knowledge he did not come to know Christ as his Savior and will now spend eternity in hell.

My husband, who is more of a night owl than I am, decided to stay up and watch the President’s speech on the situation. The next morning he told me about two particularly interesting parts of the speech. The President stated the following:

On September 11, 2001, in our time of grief, the American people came together. We offered our neighbors a hand, and we offered the wounded our blood. We reaffirmed our ties to each other, and our love of community and country. On that day, no matter where we came from, what god we prayed to, or what race or ethnicity we were, we were united as one American family.

And at the end of speech he said this:

Let us remember that we can do these things not just because of wealth or power, but because of who we are: one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you. May God bless you. And may God bless the United States of America.

My husband immediately noticed the dichotomy. He wondered which “god” the President was referring to at the end of his speech. While he assumed the one true God of the Bible, it is hard to know for sure since the President acknowledged a multiplicity of gods earlier in his speech. Of course, this is expected from a President who has also made statements such as this:

Whatever we once were, we are no longer just a Christian nation; we are also a Jewish nation, a Muslim nation, a Buddhist nation, a Hindu nation, and a nation of nonbelievers.[1]

What really shocked my husband, though, were the comments he received on his Facebook account from a Christian friend when he posted about this glaring paradox in the President’s speech. He decided to remove his own initial post but then posted this on Monday:

Last night I complained because President Obama referred to whatever god you worshipped. I said I worshipped the one true God. The God that created the world. The God that sent his Son to die on the cross for our sins. I was told by a "christian" friend that I shouldn't be doing that at that time. I removed the comment. Having had time to reflect on that I apologize for removing that. It is never the wrong time to proclaim our Father in Heaven as the one true God.

Not gonna be wishy washy this is what I stand for.

Exactly! It’s time for more Christians to take an uncompromising stand on God’s Word and the truth He has revealed to us through it. His Christian friend posted this in reply:

. . . If you don't agree with our president, fine. But why, when he just asked us all to come together, would you attack him for his religious beliefs?? That is not going to bring people to God. It will push them away.

So what is this person suggesting will bring people to God? I’m assuming from this quote (and from more this person wrote) that we should not disagree with people when it comes to their religious beliefs. That we should not point out error. That we should be tolerant and “love” people into the kingdom of God. But is that biblical? Peter states the following in 1 Peter 3:15–16:

But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear; having a good conscience, that when they defame you as evildoers, those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be ashamed.

We need to give a defense, we need to give answers for the hope that we have. Yes, we need to love people, but it needs to be so much more than that. We need to be equipped to answer their questions and not be afraid to point out errors in their own religious belief systems. It’s sad for us to see so many of our Christian friends who are either Already Gone or Already Compromised. I praise God for giving me a godly husband who is not afraid to expose error and stand up for the truth and is helping me raise our daughter to not be ashamed:

For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. (Romans 1:16)

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[1] Barack Obama, The Audacity of Hope (New York: Crown Publishers, 2006), p. 218.