In 2012, I asked readers of my now defunct Patheos column if they would vote for a man who:
…gives praise and honor to God before a public audience?
…wants to seek God’s face with other believers?
…admits that prayer humbles him?
…extolls the benefit of turning to our Creator and listening to Him?
…is motivated by faith and values in the midst of troubled times?
…wakes up every morning and prays, reads the Bible, and has “devotions?”
…is being spiritual mentored and discipled by evangelical pastors?
…claims that his Christian faith motivates him as a leader?
…tries to practice God’s command to love our neighbors as ourselves?
…believes in Jesus’s words: “for unto much is given, much shall be required”?
…tries to follow the biblical call to care for the “least of these.”
…quotes C.S. Lewis in speeches?
…believes that Christians should be “doers of the word and not merely hearers?”
…wants to work toward building the kingdom of God on earth?
…is a loving husband and supportive father?
…prayed with Billy Graham?
…believes the Holy Spirit intervenes in his life, prompting him toward action?
I continued:
If you answered yes to a majority of these questions, you might consider voting for Barack Obama in November. Check out his recent remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast. It’s all in there.
Obama may be the most explicitly Christian president in American history. If we analyze his language in the same way that historians examine the religious language of the Founding Fathers or even George W. Bush, we will find that Obama’s piety, use of the Bible, and references to Christian faith and theology put most other American presidents to shame on this front. I think there may be good reasons why some people will not vote for Obama in November, but his commitment to Christianity is not one of them.
Read the entire column here.
Joe Biden may give Obama a run for his money.
Here is Jack Jenkins at Religion News Service:
President-elect Joe Biden marked his Electoral College win with a religious flair, citing Scripture and the Prayer of St. Francis during his victory speech.
Members of the Electoral College voted in all 50 states and the District of Columbia on Monday (Dec. 15), formalizing Biden’s 306-232 win over incumbent Donald Trump.Â
The president-elect marked the moment with a speech in Delaware, where he declared “the rule of law, our Constitution and the will of the people prevailed” over multiple efforts by Trump and his allies to challenge the results of the election.Â
Biden’s rhetoric took a turn for the spiritual near the close of his speech, when he made reference to the biblical passage of Matthew 16:18.
“As we start the hard work to be done, may this moment give us the strength to rebuild this house of ours upon a rock that can never be washed away,” he said.
Biden, a Catholic, then invoked the Prayer of St. Francis by name, saying, “for where there is discord, union; where there is doubt, faith, where there is darkness, light.”
Read the rest here.
This year Biden also quoted Ecclesiastes 3, Psalm 28, referenced a song based on Isaiah 40, and said that human beings are created in the “image of God.” Not a bad start.
John Gehring of Faith in Public Life thinks there is more to come:
