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Westminster Interfaith Newsletter
Addenda – January 2009
Barack Obama's religious background
"Anything is possible in America", president elect Barack Obama declared standing before the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC, on his way to his inauguration on January 20 as the first African American president of the United States. His statement could be read in different ways, but, in the context it was spoken, I take it as a very positive expression of hope. Let's hope that this optimism also applies to matters concerning peace in the world, the recovery of the economy, support of the poor and interfaith relations.
I have followed Barack Obama's rise to power over the past 2 years. He has excited me and given me a new sense of hope and joy. I'm delighted with his success for a number of reasons, but I was particularly attracted to him because of his multicultural multifaith background and story.
Barack Obama's religious background is probably more varied than that of most prominent politicians, but it may prove to be representative of future generations of Americans who grow up in an increasingly diverse America. His white mother was brought up by non-practicing Christians; his Kenyan father was raised a Muslim and gave his son his own name: Barack Hussein Obama. Obama's Indonesian step-father was also Muslim, but of an eclectic kind. According to his autobiography, it was "a brand of Islam that could make room for the remnants of more ancient animist and Hindu faiths." However, his mother, who had the greatest influence on him, raised him in a relatively secular household where he learned about religion and religions. In his book The Audacity of Hope, Barack Obama writes:
"I was not raised in a religious household. For my mother, organized religion too often dressed up closed-mindedness in the garb of piety, cruelty and oppression in the cloak of righteousness. However, in her mind, a working knowledge of the world's great religions was a necessary part of any well-rounded education. In our household the Bible, the Koran, and the Bhagavad-Gita sat on the shelf alongside books of Greek and Norse and African mythology.
On Easter or Christmas Day my mother might drag me to church, just as she dragged me to the Buddhist temple, the Chinese New Year celebration, the Shinto shrine, and ancient Hawaiian burial sites. In sum, my mother viewed religion through the eyes of the anthropologist; it was a phenomenon to be treated with a suitable respect, but with a suitable detachment as well."
As a child in Indonesia, Obama went for a time to the state school, which in Indonesia is predominantly Muslim and where he learned about the faith and practices of Islam, then on to a Catholic school, where he got an insight into Catholicism. To what extent these experiences have influenced him in later life is not clear, but eventually he became a Christian in Chicago, where he started frequenting a predominantly black Christian community, called the Trinity United Church of Christ, where he was baptized as an adult.
On his wife's side of the family, which is mainly Christian, there are interesting Jewish connections. Michelle Obama is first cousin once removed to Rabbi Capers Funnye (pronounced fuh-NAY), spiritual leader of a mostly black synagogue on Chicago's South Side. Funnye's mother, Verdelle Robinson Funnye (born Verdelle Robinson) and Michelle Obama's paternal grandfather, Frasier Robinson Jr., were brother and sister.
Funnye is chief rabbi at the Beth Shalom B'nai Zaken Ethiopian Hebrew Congregation in southwest Chicago. He is well-known in Jewish circles for acting as a bridge between mainstream Jewry and the much smaller, and largely separate, world of black Jewish congregations, sometimes known as black Hebrews or Israelites. He has often urged the larger Jewish community to be more accepting of Jews who are not white.
Jewish political organizers, voters and donors played an essential role in Obama's rise to power both in Chicago and throughout the USA. But Barack Hussein Obama has struggled to overcome suspicions in some parts of the Jewish community, including being somewhat skeptical about his stance on Israel and persistent but unproven rumors that he is secretly a Muslim.
Barack, or variations of the name, in Arabic and Swahili, is the equivalent of the Hebrew, Baruch, which means Blessed. Let's hope and pray that his presidency is truly blessed.
