August 19, 2010: Conservative Evangelist: Obama’s ‘Problem’ Is that He was Born a Muslim

Conservative Christian evangelist Franklin Graham says that the “problem” with President Obama is that he was born a Muslim. Graham acknowledges that Obama has long since converted to Christianity. CNN interviewer John King asks Graham if he has doubts about Obama’s Christian faith. Graham replies that much of the “birther” controversy about Obama’s heritage (see October 1, 2007, December 19, 2007, Before October 27, 2008, January 11, 2008, Around March 19, 2008, April 18, 2008, and April 29, 2009) comes from Obama’s supposed birth into the Muslim faith. Graham says that Obama was born a Muslim because his father was a Muslim. “I think the president’s problem is that he was born a Muslim, his father was a Muslim,” he says. “The seed of Islam is passed through the father like the seed of Judaism is passed through the mother. He was born a Muslim, his father gave him an Islamic name.” Obama’s father named him after himself; Obama has written that while his father was raised Muslim, he was a practicing atheist. “The confusion is, is because his father was a Muslim, he was born a Muslim. The Islamic world sees the president as one of theirs. That’s why [Libyan leader Mu’ammar al-Qadhafi] calls him ‘my son.’ They see him as a Muslim. But of course the president says he is a Christian, and we just have to accept it as that.… Now it’s obvious that the president has renounced the prophet Mohammed and he has renounced Islam and he has accepted Jesus Christ. That is what he says he has done, I cannot say that he hasn’t. So I just have to believe that the president is what he has said.… [Y]ou can be born a Muslim, you can be born a Jew, but you can’t be born a Christian. The only way you can become a Christian is by confessing your sins to God, asking his forgiveness, and by receiving Jesus Christ by faith into your heart, that Christ died for your sins, shed his blood on Calvary’s Cross, and that God raised him to life. If you’re willing to accept that and believe that, and let Jesus Christ be the lord of your life, God will forgive your sins, he will heal your heart, and that’s the only way you can become a Christian. And so if the president has done that, then I would say he’s a Christian, if that’s what he has done.” Graham has issued denunciations and criticisms of Islam before, many of which have drawn sharp responses. Obama has prayed with Graham and his father, the noted evangelist Billy Graham, at the Grahams’ mountain home in North Carolina. [CNN, 8/19/2010; TPM LiveWire, 8/20/2010]