“I’ve been following politics since I was about 5. I’ve never seen anything like this. This is bigger than Kennedy. [Obama] comes along, and he seems to have the answers. This is the New Testament. This is surprising.”

            Chris Matthews, MSNBC, 2-5-08

            Obama Is NOT My Messiah

                                                                                 (popular conservative bumper sticker)

             The public projections onto Obama have focused with special intensity on his religious background, which by any measure is complex and unorthodox.  He is by far the most religiously unusual President in US history.

             Obama was primarily raised by his mother, an anthropologist and unchurched spiritual seeker, and her parents, who were nominally Protestant Christians but never attended church.  Exposed early in life to Islam while living in Indonesia, several of his paternal relatives were Muslim converts.  Obama had no explicit religious faith in his adolescence, but he does describe a spiritual change in his late teens when he quits drugs and begins a new regime of physical health and mental focus, which included fasting every Sunday. 

When he began his community organizing work in Chicago he quickly realized the power of the city’s black churches.  Soon thereafter he became a Christian himself and joined one of those churches—Trinity, a member of the relatively liberal (and historically white) United Church of Christ denomination.  In his writings Obama says his religious doubts did not disappear after his conversion to Christianity, and he continues to see his life as an unfolding process of spiritual development.   

            For some people this background puts Obama so far out of the American religious mainstream that he can never be trusted. 

             For others, Obama’s lifelong spiritual journey mirrors important aspects of their own journeys of faith, doubt, and self-discovery in service to others.    

             The passions Obama has aroused in millions of people in the US and around the world reflect real spiritual energy, the kind associated with gurus, prophets, and shamans throughout history.  Obama rallies and speeches often have the qualities of a religious revival meeting, with him playing the role of the inspired preacher with divine oratorical gifts.  Several of the dreams on this website refer to the exhilarating experience of attending an Obama rally, sometimes with a skeptical eye—is Obama strong enough to channel the overwhelming spiritual yearnings he evokes in people?  Is he a heaven-sent savior or a false prophet?

             Fox news mocks him as “Obamessiah,” while his GenX supporters refer to him, with only partial irony, as “The One.” 

             Obama’s mixed religious background contributed to the “perfect storm” of his election.  In the 2006 and 2008 national elections the “religion gap” that used to favor the Republicans over the Democrats has been shrinking, while a “non-religious gap” has been widening, to the benefit of Democrats, as increasing numbers of Americans describe themselves as atheists, agnostics, or “unaffiliated” to any church tradition.  Obama has benefited from both of these trends, appealing strongly to black and liberal white Christians while also attracting the rising population of non-church goers and secular humanists. 

             Once again, a perceived weakness of Obama’s (his religious exoticism) becomes a source of his political strength and success.

            Many of the rockiest moments in Obama’s political journey have revolved around religion.  These include:

             The Reverend Wright controversy

            The SF comments about “bitter” Americans who “cling to religion”

            The invitation of the Rev. Rick Warren to the Inauguration

            The minimal presidential acknowledgment of National Prayer Day (5-7-09)

             In each case Obama faced sharp criticism over his beliefs about religion.  Yet in each case he has responded by sharing a perspective on personal spirituality and the public role of religion that actually resonates very strongly with the core principles of America’s “civic religion” (as described in Robert Bellah’s classic sociological work). 

        Obama is not a mystic, but he evokes the mystical in his followers.  Many of their dreams have remarkably positive content, with the characteristic patterns researchers have found to be associated with mystical dreams, including supernatural characters, friendly social interactions, happy emotions, good fortunes, and magical events. 

             In several dreams he gives people guidance in ways that resonate with a deeper mythic sense of life as a journey.  Obama appears to offer advice, guidance, and comfort.  His suggestions are not always taken, but he nevertheless leaves a lasting impression. 

            In waking and in dreaming Obama appeals to people as a spiritual seeker like themselves, someone who is uncomfortable with any one creed and feels religion means more than any church can encompass.  Obama has doubts and uncertainties, but also inspiring visions of a better life for all. At this level he emerges as the newest voice of a deeply-rooted American Transcendentalism, where an active moral conscience and a mystical yearning join creative forces.