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Related: About this forumWhy Republicans Don't Think Obama is Christian
http://religiondispatches.org/why-republicans-dont-think-obama-is-christian/BY SARAH POSNER FEBRUARY 25, 2015
Alex Theodoridis, a political scientist at the University of California, Merced, conducted a survey last fall of Americans understanding of President Obamas religious beliefs. Remarkably, he found that in response to the question, Which of these do you think most likely describes what Obama believes deep down? Muslim, Christian, atheist, spiritual, or I dont know, 54 percent of Republicans said Obama is Muslim. Only nine percent said he is Christian.
Writing at the Washington Posts Monkey Cage blog, Theodoridis elaborated:
The percentage selecting Muslim is notably higher than in other polls conducted on this topic. This difference likely depends on how the question is phrased.
Previous survey questions about Obamas religion tend to sound like a pop quiz such as do you happen to know the religious faith of Barack Obama? But by asking what Obama believes deep down? I was intentionally granting respondents license to stray from the pesidents self-reported Christian faith. This reveals a prevalent willingness to distrust this pesident or categorize him as the other in terms of religion.
Of course, respondents could also be cheerleading using a survey question to express their general dislike of Obama rather than a genuine view about his religious faith.
But, if these results were largely driven by anti-Obama cheerleading, we should expect more respondents, especially Republicans, to choose the very unpopular category of atheist. Relatively few do so.
Previous survey questions about Obamas religion tend to sound like a pop quiz such as do you happen to know the religious faith of Barack Obama? But by asking what Obama believes deep down? I was intentionally granting respondents license to stray from the pesidents self-reported Christian faith. This reveals a prevalent willingness to distrust this pesident or categorize him as the other in terms of religion.
Of course, respondents could also be cheerleading using a survey question to express their general dislike of Obama rather than a genuine view about his religious faith.
But, if these results were largely driven by anti-Obama cheerleading, we should expect more respondents, especially Republicans, to choose the very unpopular category of atheist. Relatively few do so.
Previous ruminations on the Obama-is-a-secret-Muslim theme have suggested various sources for it: ignorance, Fox News, racism, too much World Net Daily in your diet.
Theodoridis post was inspired by Wisconsin Governor Scott Walkers remarks that he didnt know whether Obama is a Christian. But do other elected Republicans suggest that Obama is not only not a Christian, but a Muslim? I ran a search in the Congressional Record for recent floor speeches in which the word Islam or Islamic and the President appear. This is snapshot, of course, and the number of constituents who actually listen to these speeches is infinitesimal. But if elected Republicans arent afraid to question Obamas religious commitments for the permanent record, think of what they might say to constituents in smaller settings, or the well that they are drawing from when they make remarks in Congressional sessions for which they receive no pushback, and in fact receive encouragement.
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Why Republicans Don't Think Obama is Christian (Original Post)
cbayer
Feb 2015
OP
3catwoman3
(24,026 posts)1. The first 4 words of this 7 word title...
...could be a thread of their own - Why Republicans Don't Think.
cbayer
(146,218 posts)2. Lol! Good one.
C_U_L8R
(45,014 posts)3. Republicans wouldn't know Christianity
if it showed up on their doorstep
begging for food.
cbayer
(146,218 posts)4. What many of them know is a narrowly defined version of christianity.
One problem we run into is that even among liberals/progressive, their definition is also often accepted as the definition.
okasha
(11,573 posts)6. It's been there for years.
They just haven't noticed it.
trotsky
(49,533 posts)5. The reasoning is the same as that used by some liberals to claim Muslim extremists aren't Muslim.
When people see someone that claims to profess a certain faith, but their beliefs and practices don't match what they THINK the beliefs and practices should be, the first reaction is to deny they can legitimately use the label.
A fallacy so common it has a name - No True Scotsman.