President Obama’s interfaith spirituality in his first 100 days

April 29, 4:27 AMMiami Interfaith Spirituality ExaminerDr. Deb Brown

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Obamas leaving church (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Interfaith spirituality respects all people’s individual paths to the Divine, however they perceive Him, Her, Them, or It to be, and I believe President Obama has shown a high level of respect for all spiritual Teachings before he was elected and during his first 100 days in office. Below are some examples of the relationships he has cultivated with different people from different Teachings:

Buddhist: Obama had already won over many American Buddhists before he took office, with “Buddhists for Obama”  campaign buttons and bumper stickers springing up around the country. His sister is a Buddhist and there were even rumors that in his pocket he had a Buddhist white silk scarf (“kata”) from the Dalai Lama when he was sworn into office.

Christian: Obama is a Christian. He and has his family have been seeking a church home in Washington, DC, and they attended church together on Easter Sunday before hosting an egg hunt at the White House. Professor David Gushee noted that younger evangelicals remain behind him after 100 days, just as they were before the election. "They genuinely believe that his stands on issues like climate and tax policy and international relations were morally better, better reflective Christian values.”

Hindu: In his inauguration speech, Obama specifically included Hindus when describing the different peoples of faith in America, which delighted the Hindu American Foundation. Anju Bhargava, a female ordained pujari (priest) was appointed to his 25-member advisory council of the Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. One of the goals of the office is to partner with the National Security Council to encourage interfaith discussions among world leaders and academics. 

Indigenous: Before Obama's election, one 74-year-old Native American said, “For the first time, I feel that a candidate really cares about improving the life of American Indians. There’s no other candidate that has sat down face-to-face with American Indians and genuinely cared about them.” Obama was given the Native American name "Barack Black Eagle" by the Crow Nation and was adopted into their tribe.

Jewish: The first President to celebrate the Passover Seder in the White House, Obama has been receiving general praise from the Jewish community. Marc Stanley wrote in an op-ed, “During his first 100 days in office, the U.S. Jewish community has already taken great pleasure with the performance of President Barack Obama. He has begun to develop a deep and substantive relationship with the Jewish community by, among other things, hosting the first presidential Seder, creating strong outreach with our community, and working on key domestic and international issues of interest to American Jews. Impressively, in less than three and a half months, the Obama administration has already made marked progress with progressive policies that are important to our community: the economy, Israel, the Middle East, reproductive rights, renewable energy, and stem cell research.”

Muslim: Obama traveled to the Muslim nation Turkey, where he noted his appreciation for the contributions of Muslim Americans to the US and to his own family. He also reached out directly to Muslims everywhere by saying, "Let me say this as clearly as I can: the United States is not and will never be at war with Islam. In fact, our partnership with the Muslim world is critical in rolling back a fringe ideology that people of all faiths reject."

New Age: There is much speculation about the degree to which Obama might or might not support Oprah’s New Age work, but Obama’s campaign website clearly included a blog by Course In Miracles Students for Obama. 

Pagan: Obama’s campaign website included the Pagans for Obama group, which attended 1,580 events on his behalf, and bumper stickers such as “Neo-Pagans for Obama” were widely available. Furthermore, Witches enthusiastically performed a ritual to cleanse Washington, DC, before he took over the country’s leadership.

Taoist: Obama’s campaign website included the Taoists for Obama group, and a number of people have written about “The Tao of Obama.” One writer stated that Obama is the leader who best embodies this statement from the Tao Te Ching: “A sage's mind is never his own; he makes the hundred-fold people's mind his mind."

The son of an agnostic mother, Obama has also consistently shown respect for agnostics, atheists, secularists, and nonbelievers. He has noted several times, including in his inauguration speech, that America is a nation of nonbelievers as well as people of faith. In one speech, he noted, "One of the great strengths of the United States is...we do not consider ourselves a Christian nation or a Jewish nation or a Muslim nation; we consider ourselves a nation of citizens who are bound by ideals and a set of values." His inclusion of nonbelievers sometimes causes people of faith to bristle, but I believe his statements simply support the fact that the fastest growing religious group in America are people unaffiliated with any major religion.

I don’t think it would be possible for Obama to show the same level of outright support for every single spiritual Teaching that exists, because there are as many subtle variations of belief and nonbelief as there are people on the planet. I don’t think it will be possible for him, or anyone, to please everyone. But I think he has done an excellent job of broadly reaching out to the spiritually diverse population of the United States of America.