RRRRRRUSH!

Rush Limbaugh: When Bush talked about the desire of every human being to be free, that that's part of our creation, remember how they cringed? The same media that now apparently so love and respect Christianity that they are damn well convinced that Obama is one, and they are damn well persuaded that we've gotta believe it. But Bush's Christianity? They didn't like it, and they don't like right-wing Christianity. They don't like Pat Robertson and they don't like Billy Graham and they don't like Jerry Falwell. They don't like Billy Sol Hargus or Billy James, whatever it was. They don't like NASCAR Christianity. They don't like Christianity that talks about pro-life. They hate it! The ruling class doesn't want to get anywhere near it.

Now all of a sudden it is crucial that we understand Obama's a Christian because it's important to him. But we didn't have to ask it about FDR, we didn't have to ask it about Clinton, we didn't have to ask it about George W. Bush. Nobody asked Burton, "Okay, he's got all these religious advisors. Does he listen to them? Does he listen to their message?" because he said he never listened to Reverend Wright. He can't tell you what Reverend Wright ever said when he was a member of that church for 20 years. Did you know that Reverend Wright used to be a Muslim? Did you know that? You might have known that and forgotten it, but Reverend Wright used to be a Muslim and now he's a black liberation theologist. Which is some sort of Christianity, but he used to be Muslim.

So nothing is "obvious" about Obama's Christianity, Mr. Burton, and the telltale sign is that you even have to say it. We're polling it! You see, Obama's Christianity is the opposite of obvious. "What do you mean by that, Limbaugh? What do you mean! How can you sit there and say 'Obama's Christianity is the opposite of obvious'?" Well, glad you asked. Let me 'splain it. He has a Muslim name: "Barack Hussein Obama." He had a Muslim father and an extended Muslim family in Kenya. He was partly raised and educated in Indonesia by a Muslim stepfather. He has Muslim half-sisters and brothers, one of whom continues to reside in a three-by-five-foot hut in Kenya. His mother was a self-proclaimed and unaffiliated atheist. Obama professed no religion and belonged to no church until he joined Reverend Wright's Trinity Church in Chicago.

He did this in his late twenties and his mentor there, the estimable Reverend Jeremiah Wright, was a Muslim who converted to black liberation theology, which is a highly exotic (let's be politic here) highly exotic form of Christianity in the American, even black American, context. It's pretty exotic. Obama's great literary intellectual role model was Malcolm X. One of Obama's religious advisors is a Chicago Muslim, Eboo Patel. Imam Faisal Abdul Rauf (or "Ruuf," however he pronounces the last name) the controversial Muslim leader behind the plan to build the Islamic Center and mosque a couple blocks from Ground Zero wrote the afterward to Eboo Patel's 2006 book: Building the Interfaith Youth Movement: Beyond Dialogue to Action.

So the Ground Zero mosque imam wrote the afterward to Obama's religious advisor's book. The religious advisor is a Muslim. So, Mr. Burton, Obama's Christianity is the opposite of obvious. You have to dig deep here to find it. Now, having said all that, none of what I have said means that Obama's a Muslim and none of it means that Obama's not a sincere Christian. If he's going to say that he is, fine. We will accept that he's a Christian. I still find it amazing we're polling it.

And I have to laugh. Have you seen the latest examples of the media trying to convince us that he's not a Muslim? Pictures of the beer summit! Pictures of Obama with a brewski. "See! He can't be a Muslim; he's drinking beer. You know Muslim don't approve of alcohol." They're going to great lengths. But he's not "obviously" a Christian. We have to take that on (ahem) faith, if I may use the word. We have to accept his Christianity on faith, to believe that he's telling us the truth because his Christianity is not obvious by any intellectually coherent definition of the word. (interruption) Well, no... The reason why some people are confused is Obama has spent 20 years listening to a racist, bigoted preacher who has a special place in his heart for the Nation of Islam who used to be a Muslim. It's not obvious, Mr. Burton, that your guy is a Christian...

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