Cut the Jewish Roots, Kill the Christian Tree!

 Cut the Jewish Roots, Kill the Christian Tree! by Olivier Melnick.

I am reposting this blog from Olivier Melnick from his blog New Antisemitism.  I believe his blog is especially appropriate in light of the fact that a Hamas-affiliated organization held a UN endorsed "informal parallel meeting" promoting the destruction of the Jewish state.

According to the Jerusalem Post the event was advertised on the UN website and listed on an official UN document headlined “Human Rights Council, twentieth session, 18 June – 06 July 2012."

One of the speakers at this event was Sameh Habeed, head of the media department at the "Palestinian Return Center." In the course of the speech, Habeed said at a UN-provided microphone, at a UN-advertised event associated with the UN’s top human rights body:

“In 1947, 1948 and 1949 the Palestinian refugees were ethnically cleansed by the Israeli gangs.... Some Arab armies came to Palestine to fight the Zionist project, which came from all over Europe to take over Palestine and to make it as a national home for the Jews, although it was always the national home for the Palestinians for thousands and thousands of years.

Notice the words concerning the land of Israel, "although it was always the national home of the Palestinians for thousands and thousands of years." For my readers who are familiar with biblical history and post-biblical history, it is clear this is an outright lie meant to kick off a campaign of propaganda concerning Israel.  In light of this UN endorsed meeting, I thought Olivier's blog was appropriate.

Cut the Jewish Roots, Kill the Christian Tree!

Things Christians Aren't Supposed to Say

Group think in any arena is unhealthy especially in the religious realm. When group think controls a person, they're hesitant to say what's on their minds for fear of being condemned or given a simplistic answer they already thought of themselves.


In evangelical Christianity there are certain "buzz answers" that are given when a believer is facing a specific struggle. If a person is facing a financial problem, one may hear, "God will provide," or "Perhaps you haven't prayed enough," or "God may be trying to get your attention by letting you suffer financially." Meanwhile the bills are piling up and the person is wondering where to turn. At the same time, I do not think the Church is meant to practice bailout for every Christian who has financial problems. Usually, the source of financial problems goes deeper than insufficient funds in a bank.

So a lot of questions are left unanswered in the minds of many Chrisrians. Many thoughts of the heart go unspoken. Much pain is unattended for fear of being given a pat response that piles guilt on the one undergoing the trial.

The reason for these poor responses lies in the fact followers of Christ are afraid to say, "I don't know," or "I'm not sure what God is doing in your life. Maybe it has nothing to do with God at all. You just made some bad decisions," or "Did you expect life as a Christian to be any different than what you experienced as a non-believer? Who sold you that bill of goods?"

Here's is my list of things that I'm convinced Christians won't admit or utter because they're afraid of a legalistic or simplistic response by their Christian friends:

•I refuse to forgive that person who caused me such pain and ruined my life.

•My children are totally out of control even though I raised them as Christians.

•I have sinned and am an imperfect human being despite Christ in my life

•I hate going to church; my soul is left dry and empty even though I attend faithfully.

•My pastor is a nice guy but he really doesn't preach out of the Bible.

•I have several chronic illnesses and all I get from other Christians is condemnation and names of charismatic healers I should go to.

•My marriage is horrible and I refuse to work on it anymore despite what God and Christians think.

•Christians in public leadership or on TV are an embarrassment. They practice sappy showmanship and their behavior in the pulpit or on stage is anachronistic and condescending.

•I feel so uncomfortable around overly emotional Christians who are always saying "Praise the Lord" and sound so robotic. Do these people have a life or has religion become their new form of entertainment?

•Why does the church jump on sexual sins by leaders and congregants, but ignore all the other heinous sins we commit like gossip, lying, backstabbing, gluttony, pride and unkindness?

•Is anyone really justified to be mad at God because of the way their life turned out?

•I am always have financial problems regardless of how much I give to church or pray for blessing.

•Does prayer really work? Events are going to happen anyway whether you pray or not.

•What in the world does it mean when people say, "You haven't prayed hard enough"?

•I'm sick and tired of Christians who condemn our country for using force to stop terrorists. Why are Christians such pansies when it comes to violence? Haven't they read the Bible?

•Why are there so many single Christian men and women? What has Christianity taught these eligible people that has kept them unmarried when they want to find a mate so badly?

•I think Christian men are being sold a bill of goods by a lot of Christian authors who write books on masculinity. Just ask Christian women what they're looking for in a Christian guy.

My list can be a lot longer. But you get the picture. If you care to comment on this post, send more of those hard-to-speak words you'd rather not say in a Bible study or a church setting. It's my conviction that the words we refuse to utter are truly what the average Christian has on his or her mind. Instead, we choose to live in a phony spiritual world in which we say all the right things just so we can sound "Christian." That's too bad.

Things Christians Aren't Supposed to Say

What Does It Really Mean To Make Peace?

The New York Times reported last year a group of Christians leaders met with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran. Their goal was to have a warm, friendly exchange to demonstrate the only way to prevent war is through dialogue.


In their meeting held across the street from the UN Building in NY, the Iranian president spoke about the commonality of the messages of Judaism, Islam and Christianity. In light of his desire to destroy Israel, I find his religious commonality approach to be ridiculous.

The panel from the Christian perspective included a Quaker, a Catholic, an Anglican, a Baptist and a representative of the interfaith World Council of Churches.

The gathering was organized by the Quakers and Mennonites, especially in light of their commitment to dialogue and pacifism as a way to resolve conflict.

No Jewish leader was willing to attend the meeting.

The constituents tried to prod the Iranian president about his position on the denial of the Holocaust, human rights abuses, Israel and Iran's nuclear weapon build up. Ahmadinejad conceded nothing and often deflected questions by putting the focus on Israel and US policies.

A year later the president of Iran still makes his daily threats against Israel and spews his hatred for America. The only thing the Iranian president took from the meeting was the respect shown to him by the Christian clerics - a respect he does not deserve.

Is negotiation with a despotic ruler the way to achieve peace or merely a display of naivete when it comes to the evil lurking within a religious/political ruler?

I think when two people disagree on an issue, there is always room for negotiation and discussion to reach a resolve. Husbands and wives do it all the time and so do friends.

However, on a worldwide scale, when an individual is so committed to his stance of hatred against a country or a people, the evil in his heart overpowers any attempt to make peace.

For example, in 2000 at the Camp David Summit, President Bill Clinton, Ehud Barak and Yasser Arafat met to discuss the Israeli/Palestinian issue. In a total surprise act of peacemaking, Barak offered Arafat and his people more land that was ever offered by Israel in exchange for peace and the cessation of Palestinian terrorism against innocent Israeli citizens. Arafat did not take the deal. Clinton was shocked and so were Arafat's aides. Why?

Arafat's hatred for Israel and desire to destroy the Jewish state was stronger than his desire for peace.

Can you carry on diplomatic discussions with a person resolved to see your demise?

Our country is naive to think the next president of the US will be able to solve the war on terrorism using words as weapons or as a healing balm. I'd rather have a Commander -in-Chief in the White House - John McCain - who understands firsthand the evil of war and knows the deep hostility of those who perpetrate the slaughter of innocent lives.

For your information, the day after the Camp David Summit in 2000, Palestinian terrorist sent several suicide bombers across the border into Israel.

I cannot cast my vote for a man -Barak Obama - who has no war experience, does not understand the darkness of the heart of a terrorist and would use diplomacy as a substitute for direct confrontation and military threat to show that the US will not tolerate terrorism.

My fear is that while a man like Barak Obama speaks peacefully to individuals like Ahmadinejad, behind the scenes he and his henchmen are plotting to obliterate Israel and do irreparable harm to the US using nuclear weapons. It is my opinion that a vote for Obama is a vote for naivete and ignorance of the real danger that lurks among terrorist groups and nations.

What do you think?

Check out some new blogs I posted on my page on the John Tesh Network.

What Does It Really Mean To Make Peace?

Dry Bibles, Wet Bibles or No Bibles

I'm a confessed church-hopper.  It's been that way for almost a year.  I keep asking myself, "Why?"  In one or two smaller churches I've met some wonderful, loving people and in other congregations, I met no one because they have an "invisible visitor" policy.  I've attended warm, inviting large sanctuaries and cold, indifferent smaller places of worship.  I've walked into churches that held business meetings on Sunday morning instead of conducting business with God. I've walked into congregations hurting in my heart to hear from God and walked out with a church budget spread sheet that I tossed in the nearest trash can. 

Actually, all of these obstacles can be overcome either through my own friendliness, or willingness to get involved in small groups to meet people on a more personal level, or just by having a church make a commitment to reserve Sunday morning for the teaching of the Word of God. It's all fixable. 

However, three problems keep cropping up in churches that I can't do a thing about.  This past Sunday I attended a large, modern church and after 20 minutes of listening to the sermon I had to leave. I've never done that in my life as a believer.  This church displayed one of the three problems I am about to discuss.   

Here they are in case you're curious,

First, some pastors preach out of a dry Bible.  These men stick to the word and like glue they adhered to the text so much they are unable to say anything practical or useful from the Word.  In my own experience teaching the Scriptures, I'd pray for the Lord to make the Word come alive to touch hearts of people in the congregation. I'd plead with the Lord to bring tears, laughter, joy and relief to the people hearing the Word.  

Yet some pastors have turned their teaching into an extended Bible commentary.  Great information.  Intellectually stimulating comments.  But dry and lifeless.  The pastor probably never leaves his study and interacts with real people with failing marriages, chronic illnesses and troubled teens.  These pastors cannot bring the Bible into the 21st century.  Perhaps a year away from the pulpit and working in a supermarket or a hospital might make them "real people" and not so plastic and rigid.  What a waste! I could've stayed home and read a good book.

Second, the wet Bible is used by the pastor who will get up before the congregation and say, "As I was preparing this message last night . . . "  Those words tell me this man is not prepared.  He has not studied or poured over the word during the week.  His presentation is superficial and predictable.  I heard a pastor this week give a watered down message. He would read a passage of the text and then say, "Isn't this crazy . . . that God would dwell with His people?"  I thought to myself, "Crazy?"  What a strange way to describe God's presence. This pastor used this term about 6 or 7 times.  I had to leave. He said very little about the text.  I would have found more respect for the Koran in a mosque than I found in this church for the Holy Bible. I felt ashamed to be a Christian where such little respect was shown for the Word of God. He might as well been preaching out of a Marvel comic. 

The watered down sermons are the ones where you hear tips and principles and 7 how to's on finding peace or fixing your family or re-roofing your house.  Most mega churches are based on this kind of preaching where the pastor thinks he's "one of us" because he wears sandals in the pulpit and a Hawaiian shirt and no tie. The pastor is not one of us; the pastor is held to a higher standard. He livs in a fish bowl where people watch his every move.  If he says the word "shit," that'll be the topic of the week in the small groups,  If his kids screw up in school, the uproar is much greater than if Joe Blow in the back row has 4 teens who are all smoking dope.  In the same way,  in trying to be "one of us," the pastor does not study the word "like one of us."  Who is he trying to kid?  

Finally, there's the no-Bible pastor. No Bible!   He's not even looked at his Bible. His message is about nothing. Ideas. Concepts. A book he's read. His identity as a Jewish person or a black person.  Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Obama's pastor, is a no Bible pastor.  He's got fire, but it's not the fire of the Holy Spirit.  It's the fire of his politics or hatred of whites.  It's not the fire of the Holy Word.  If the word of God is not taught in the pulpit, it's time to go home and watch Sunday afternoon football and pop open a few beers.  The pastor is wasting your time.  If he's afraid to teach the Scriptures because people might leave because they're seeking a purpose-driven way to wash their car or have the greenest lawn on the block, then he needs to seek a new profession.   If the pastor is just catering to all the people who want their own "personal Jesus," he does a disservice to the bigger picture of the God we worship as our King not my personal divine servant.  I wonder if some Christians are confusing Jesus with Tinkerbell or Jiminy Cricket? 

Some pastors even hold the Bible when they speak but the words they speak do not come from the Bible. They tell stories and anecdotes and get people laughing.  They're entertainers.  They want to build their church on being a funny pastor or erect a mega-congregation on telling people how to get rich or healed or be successful.   They are no-Bible pastors. They give their people the "Show of  Shows" as they prance back and forth across the stage like a Vegas night club act. if they're gong to go that far, then bring out the Vegas dancing girls along with the Viva Las Vegas pastor. 

So which pastor is the one you ought to be looking for?  It's simple. You'll know the moment he opens his mouth.  He's the man who has humbled himself before the Word of God, prayed over it and meditated on the text and read the commentaries, studied the original languages and prayed over and over, "Lord, what do you want to say to your people through this passage of holy text?"  But if every week you're hearing a man of God teaching the same thing over and over - the same prophetic message, the same cry for more giving, the same focus on the importance of Israel, the same favorite passages, the same promises that God will heal all diseases, the same focus on faith . . . . this man has not been in the Word of God.  He preaches out of his own mind . . . an un-submitted mind to the Spirit of God.  He's got his mind all made up what he's going to say and he's going to bend the Scriptures like Gumby to make God's word adapt to his pre-conceived ideas.   

So what if every church is not a mega church?  Big deal!  But every church deserves a pastor faithful to God's word whether that church grows to 17,000 or stays at 170 in its membership.  The goal for the pastor is not to be purpose-driven but to be driven by the Spirit of God through the words God has inspired and placed in the pages of a book that begins in Genesis and ends in Revelation. 

Football games this Sunday or Church . . what will it be?  If your pastor can't take you line by line through the Scriptures, then those seats on the 40 yard line might be the better choice.  

You can always find a good self-improvement book at Barnes and Noble; but when the word of God is taught no book in Barnes and Noble or you can find on Amazon.com can compare to the empowerment of self-improvement God can accomplish in your life through His word. 

Dry Bibles, Wet Bibles or No Bibles

The Have's & the Have Not's of Christianity

Spiritual class system in Christianity? What?  Didn't know such an animal existed did you? Well, when you've got men who claim to be prophets and neo-apostles and who have reached a higher spiritual plane, then we have a spiritual class system within the Body of Messiah.

We have the have's (those who have reached a higher spiritual place) and the have not's (who have yet reached the higher spiritual dimension).  One group has discovered the secret, the formula or a special prayer that has ushered them into a greater spiritual dimension than the average Christian.  

Yet, in these meetings where those with greater spiritual unction are presiding, chaos reigns.  People  are falling on the ground, speaking out of turn, uttering tongues that are not interpreted or writhing in convulsions on the floor "touched by the Spirit of the Living God." 

However, throughout I Corinthians 14 where spiritual gifts and manifestations are discussed, Paul exhorts these gifted individuals to operate in order in their meetings.  if Paul walked into some of these so-called Holy Spirit services today, he would be dazed and confused, and would admonish the participants for their inconsistent behavior.  

Rather than orderly or reverent, these meetings are led by people filled not with the Holy Spirit but themselves. It is so obvious when a viewer observes these services that these men are inflated with their own egos, telling the audience how special they are.  They draw attention to themselves and not Christ by informing the audience that they have a special anointing, a gift, a revelation and have reached another level of spirituality.  These teachers appeal to Christians who are seeking something special from God; they are not there to worship the Lord.  They want to bring God down into their meeting so He can give to them what they want . . . a healing, a miracle, an anointing, or some special manifestation of the Spirit.  Christ is not the center but their own desires become the center.  This whole movement of neo-apostles and prophets is nothing more than a spiritual me-centered movement. 

I often wonder about the anointing these so called prophets claim to have.  They travel from city holding their meetings, dumping their false teachings on unsuspecting sheep, claiming to speak for the Lord promising healing and prosperity.  Then they leave town to travel to the next city to start their ministry all over again.  No one asks them questions about what occurred in the previous town, especially any prophecies that were made or claims of healing that were pronounced.  How do we know these supernatural signs really took place? Who's checking up on these people?  Where is the spiritual accountability? 

It's rather rare that the one person who wanted the "power" of God and was willing to pay for it to do signs and wonders  was Simeon, a man Paul rebuked for seeking signs and wonders. 

With this class system these false prophets have set up, it makes you wonder about the people who are under their guidance and teaching.  Are these people coming to know the Lord under these neo-apostles truly coming into a saving relationship with the Lord?  Are they being told false information about the gospel and promised things God will do for them but without any biblical authority?  

I am concerned for young believers who come into contact with any shades of the Kansas City/Toronto blessing movement. In essence, these unsuspecting sheep will eventually face a spiritual crisis once the reality of life hits them. They will find out out God does not heal every disease nor does He answer every prayer the way we assumed He would.  Even worst is the fact these new believers under the tutoring of these neo-apostles will be led into doctrines of demons and become part of the great falling away at the end of the age.  

Perhaps these false teachers are manifesting supernatural experiences among their followers . . . My question is this:  who is the source of these supernatural experiences . . . is it God or is it Satan?  I am not a betting man but if I were to play a game of roulette, my money would be on the red! 

The Have's & the Have Not's of Christianity

Stepping on a Girl's Hand

I was 22 years old. I had been back from Vietnam for a little over a year . . . living in Los Angeles, searching for God among the hallucinogenic aromas of Sunset Strip. I had tried it all . . . scientology . . . . satanology . . . zen Buddhism . . . Alan Watts . . . and anything that promised me to get in touch with the Wholly Other.

I was exhausted and run down with all these "cereal box religious experiences". It sounded like this: I am God . . .you are God . . .we are all God . . .every thing on the planet is God. I couldn't tell if I should raise my hands in worship to the heavens or look down at the sidewalk to make sure I didn't step on God in whatever form He appeared in.


I was told by some religious groups that to get holy, I had to give up just about everything. For example, Buddhism teaches all suffering is the result of our cravings and desires. So If I could stop desiring, I would stop my personal suffering.


Suddenly, i realized I wanted to suffer. I liked to suffer. To become nothing, selfless, and float into nirvana didn't touch any buttons down inside me. I didn't want to walk around in a saffron robe acting like I had no sex drive nor the tools God gave me to go to go along with it. A sexless holy man was too much like watching silent films with no picture.

I enjoyed life and religious thinking made me feel that I should not enjoy life. I should only enjoy God and people who love God and individuals who wanted to please God. I was made to feel I needed to join the "stop sinning" club. I was told to stop smoking dope, stop dropping LSD, having pre-marital engagements with women and the list went on and on. Instead, I was to read the Bible, pray, attend church and prayer meetings and then presto . . . I would find happiness.

To be honest, taking drugs sounded more exciting. Sitting in a church pew as opposed to swaying to the music of the Doors at the Whiskey didn't move me at all. I was not a church-going guy!

After all, I didn't think I was that bad of a person. It was the summer of 1969 - the Manson murders - when all this was taking place and I was nowhere near the likes of Tex Watson or Charlie Manson. I wasn't murdering, or stealing or committing adultery. I was a clean cut, long-haired, wild guy who thought he wasn't as far away from God as everyone told me I was.

Christians were starting to drive me crazy. According to them, I needed to accept Jesus and then I could be holy. But I kept arguing back that I wasn't do bad. So . . . I had a drug habit. Big deal!

I went to Vietnam . . . didn't that count for erasing some of my bad karma? I figured 2 years in the Army was not a bad trade off for getting stoned for 6-7 years of my life. I even visited Buddhist shrines in Japan and Shinto ones as well. I helped South Vietnamese people find jobs on the Army base where I worked, drove our 2 1/2 ton Army truck to orphanages and gave out food.

I even got Bar Mitzvahed at age 13. I might be closer to God than people would agree with. Why in the world did I have to "Make Room for Jesus"? Besides, I'm Jewish and I had no spare rooms in my life for another deity (as I assumed He was).



One hot summer August afternoon I went into the Mojave desert with a few friends. A guy, his wife and my date. We had taken a lot of LSD . . . probably enough to send a horse on a three month drug trip. I was dumb and stupid and took a gamble on my life.

We stopped the car out in the desert heat. I wanted to climb to the top of a ledge I fixated on. Somehow getting to the top of the summit made me feel I would be connecting with God. Yes, it was a contradiction. If I was so good and holy, what did I need God for?

As we climbed the Mojave rocks, we headed straight for the top of this elevation. I did not have hiking books or any of the rock climbing gear. We were too stoned to even think of that.

I placed my foot down on a rocky ledge to get to the next level. But when i put my foot down, I smashed the fingers of my date's hand who had used the same ledge with her hand to get a grip on the rock wall. She yelled out in excruciating pain.

I quickly lifted my foot and kept going. I didn't say I was sorry. I was on my way to the top of the mountain; I was on a spiritual high. I was holy and full of divine light. I could not stop for such mundane obstacles like pain.

When I reached the summit, I expected to see the hand of God, instead I saw the hand of my date. She was nursing the hand I stepped on. But in my drugged state I had transcended the fleshly level; I was pure spirit or pure bull shit.

What turned my life around that day? My date' hand. I think her name was Denise. I stepped on this poor girl's hand and I didn't care. The flesh was evil in my mind and pain was not real not real. All that Eastern crap. But I realized I was pure crap as well. What a selfish, insensitive person I was. All I cared about was this God of my own making but I didn't care about this girl's throbbing hand.


In that moment I saw a dark heart . . .a heart that did not care about anyone but himself. I loathed my selfish heart. Yet I still have that heart. It's not as dark. Jesus has scrubbed it down in the past 37 years. And I don't step on girl's hands anymore. I would rather hold them. And I hate breaking or wounding anyone's heart. I can barely live with myself when my darkness is exposed.

On that day the twisted, wretched selfish chamber of my heart was revealed to me. I hated what i saw. Into that empty, selfish heart I realized I did have room for Jesus. I had room for Someone with a heart greater than myself who didn't step on people's hands.

Yet everyday I still step on someone's hand metaphorically. I am still selfish. I am insensitive.

I cry when I step on people's hands. But Jesus wipes my tears and reminds me who I am without Him. He reminds me that I will never love people like He does. But I have every opportunity to ask Him to keep me from stepping on hands and to learn how to nurse the hands I damaged back to health.

Denise, wherever you are . . . . I'm sorry I stepped on your hand. But know this . . . your throbbing hand allowed the pain in my heart to throb so much that i cried out to Jesus to save me from own selfishness.

Stepping on a Girl's Hand

Is Barak Obama A Christian?

On several occasions, when Barak Obama has been charged with being a Muslim, the Senator from Illinois will respond by affirming his commitment to Christianity. From a Sun Times article, April 5, 2004, Obama said, "I am a Christian . . . I have a deep faith. I'm rooted in the Christian tradition."

Most evangelicals may accept Obama's confession as legit with a raised eyebrow. Why? As an evangelical Christian myself, I would never say "I am rooted in the Christian tradition." My faith in Jesus is not something that has grown out of my past roots. Rather, as an adult I made a definite decision to follow Christ.

Whether or not Obama can pass the mustard with most evangelicals comes into further question when the presidential candidate suggests, "I believe that there are many paths to the same place, and that is a belief that there is a higher power, a belief that we are connected as a people." It sounds like Obama, with one big superhug, is endorsing the religion of Christians, Jews, Muslims, animists and . . . just about everyone else. To Obama everyone worships the same God; What difference does it make anyway which faith you belong to? Christian? Not!

Just what is the Christian tradition Barak Obama is rooted in? From the Chicago Sun Times article we learn:

Obama's theological point of view was shaped by his uniquely multicultural upbringing. He was born in 1961 in Hawaii to a white mother who came from Protestant Midwestern stock and a black African father who hailed from the Luo tribe of Kenya.

Obama describes his father, after whom he is named, as "agnostic." His paternal grandfather was a Muslim. His mother, he says, was a Christian.

In his book Dreams From My Father, A Story of Race and Inheritance Obama describes his mother as a secular humanist. She maintained a faith that rational people could shape their own destiny.

When he was 6 years old Obama's parents divorced and he moved to Indonesia with his mother and her new husband-a non-practicing Muslim.

Obama remembers that his mother would read books to him about world religions. During the day he would learn the Catholic catechisms and at night he'd hear the Muslim call for prayer and his mother's embrace of all faiths.

The senator has had an eclectic spirituality to say the least: Catholicism, secularism, universalism and Islam. He owns up to having an irregular practice of reading the Bible. However, the presidential hopeful does find the time to pray. He describes his prayer life:

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

Concerning the universalism of the democratic contender, he acknowledges the call to share one's faith in Christ is part of the New Testament tradition. In some sectors of Christianity, according to Obama, if you don't embrace Jesus Christ as personal Savior, you're going to hell. Obama hugs the fence on this essential spiritual matter: "I don't presume to have knowledge of what happens after I die."

No one who names the name of Jesus Christ and understands who He is as the only true Redeemer, would dare suggest that people can come to a saving knowledge of God apart from Jesus Christ.

Barak's mother, an anthropologist who collected religious texts, felt that her son needed a crash course in comparative religion and what she tutored is an eclectic Christian.

Okay, so is Barak Obama a Muslim? I don't think so. However, I'm not
naive enough to think his exposure to Islam in a Muslim country like Indonesia has not left an Islamic influence on the man who may someday preside over this country in the nation's Oval Office.

In an interview with Maya Soetoro-Ng, Barak's younger half sister, she recalls, "My whole family was Muslim, and most of the people I knew were Muslim." Regardless, while growing up in Indonesia Obama attended a Catholic school and then a Muslim public school where religious education was demanded. What would they teach in a Muslim school? Perhaps Judaism or evangelical Christianity? I don't think so.

Upon his return to Hawaii at the age of 10, Barak attended a preparatory school with a Christian affiliation.

What can we conclude about Barak's formal religious training? Catholicism and Islam. Obama was never too far from either the universalistic roots of his mother, Catholicism or the Islamic faith of his stepfather.

His exposure to Protestantism? His white grandparents, who helped raise him, we non-practicing Methodists and Baptists.

Sarah Hussein Obama, the senator's stepgrandmother but whom Barak calls his grandmother, still rises at 5 a.m. to say her prayers to Allah. In a recent interview in Kenya, Ms. Obama said, "I am a strong believer of the Islamic faith."

Barak Obama is a man who was raised to be tolerant of other faiths . . . even accepting of other's faith as sufficient for salvation.

Yet Obama was always reluctant to join a faith until the late 1980s when he met his present pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright, minister of Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ, a man who told Sean Hannity that Christianity is a white man's religion.

Is Obama a Christian? He lacks the commitment to Christ as the only Savior of mankind-Jew or Gentile, white or black. He may be rooted in the Christian tradition, but his roots have spread out to embrace more faiths than just one.

Is Barak Obama A Christian?