Faith Factor Factbox

Is Barack Obama a Muslim?

Here's hoping that the boastfully ignorant folks who need that site will be able to find someone to read it to them.

The success of the ridiculous "secret Muslim" whisper campaign sends me into a Menckenesque despair regarding the prospects of democracy triumphing over shrieking stupidity. Seriously, how dumb does one have to be to believe that Obama is a Muslim just because of his middle name? That makes about as much sense as accusing Sen. McCain of secretly being a Christian just because his first name is "John."

That's a bad example, because McCain actually is secretly Christian, which is to say he was raised Episcopalian. Like many of his fellow Episcopalians -- remember George H.W. Bush? -- he is thus deeply uncomfortable talking about religion. When asked about his faith, McCain looks mortified, as though he was being asked to provide the details of his sex life or to explain his flip-flopping on torture or the lobbyists for dictators on his campaign staff or how a voluntary cap-and-trade plan is supposed to accomplish anything at all to reduce climate change. (Not that he ever is asked about any of those things.)

According to this Reuters "Faith Factor Factbox" (ugh) the McCains have for the last 15 years "attended a church in Phoenix affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention." I find that hard to picture. I can't see him teaching Sunday school like Jimmy Carter does, or singing in the choir like Bill Clinton. And the idea of Cindy McCain in a Southern Baptist church just makes me think of that scene where Embeth Davidtz squirms through the potluck supper in Junebug. (That scene ends with one of the loveliest and mostly fondly observed portraits of an SBC church family you'll ever see in a theater.)

Anyway, I suppose the McCains must really like that church, since Phoenix is more than 100 miles from their home in Sedona.

That Reuters "Factbox" also refers to John McCain's "unequivocal condemnation of torture." This word, unequivocal, I do not think it means what they think it means. The man helped introduce legislation to ban the use of torture, and then voted against it. That's pretty un-unequivocal.

Comments

[Dahne]

If you think "Faith Factor Factbox" is bad....Have you seen Time magazine's, I swear I'm not making this up, God-o-Meter?

[DonBoy]

We're talking about people who are so "low-information" that, rather than believe that Obama is a secret Muslim, plenty of them just plain think he's an overt Muslim. They proably don't do much Googling, either.

[Tonio]

Seriously, how dumb does one have to be to believe that Obama is a Muslim just because of his middle name?

Fred, you must have been watching Jon Stewart's Daily Show on Friday night.

[Nenya]

Google has given you John McCain campaign ads in your sidebar. *blinks*

"Hussein" is about on the level of "Adolf" as a name with uncomfortable associations (and one that I'd personally NOT give my kid)--but was that true 47 years ago in this country? I doubt it.

[Nenya]

Faith Factor Factbox

Moar alliteration, we has it.

[Keith]

Hussein as a name with connotations goes back decades, as did our friendly relations with King Hussein of Jordan.

There's a great article in Salon from February about why Obama and dozens of other semitic named public servants should be proud of their names.

Great stuff and not just for word/name geeks like me.

[Adolph_Hussein_Clinton]

So you're saying I should change my name before running for office?

[Avedon]

That makes about as much sense as accusing Sen. McCain of secretly being a Christian just because his first name is "John."

I thought he was a secret Jew because his middle name is Sydney.

[patter]

I can't see him teaching Sunday school like Jimmy Carter

I dunno, Fred. With his combination of colorful vocabulary and rapier wit, how could he miss?

"It's not social issues I care about."
"F**k you! I know more about this than anyone else in the room."
"I had something picked out for you, too - a little IED (improvised explosive device) to put on your desk."
"No, I'm calling you a f*cking jerk."
"I wouldn't call you an a**hole unless you really were an a**hole.”
"I said, 'The nice thing about Alzheimer's is you get to hide your own Easter eggs.'"
"At least I don't plaster on the makeup like a trollop, you c*nt."
"Do you know why Chelsea Clinton is so ugly? Because Janet Reno is her father."

[Patrick Phelan]

Recent negative connotations can't have harmed the name's history too much, as I come bearing the most iron-clad sort of fact there is... an anecdote. One of the other students in a TAFE class of mine, who's about 19 - I'm 24, the classes make me feel ancient - is named Hussein. The other boys tend to call him Hussy, but, well, they're late-teenaged Australian boys with a cricketer to be thinking about.

Hell of a coder. Debugs programs just by looking at them.

I'm not sure I can even say Faith Factor Factbox. Faith Factor Factfac... Fact Faither Fact... Fear Factor? Same information ratio, only now the candidates have to eat cockroaches.

As for the God-o-Meter, I preferred the God Machine when Stephen Colbert used it.

[Raj]

Fact: Throughout my childhood in Singapore, all the schools I attended were Catholic schools.

Fact: I have never been Catholic.

'nuff sed.

Well, I'll add FWIW that since I'm originally from India, in the eyes of some, I look like "one of them" (and ignoramuses who don't know the difference between Indians and Arabs usually don't care even when it's pointed out).

[Raj]

Avedon: I thought he was a secret Jew because his middle name is Sydney.

I thought that made him a secret Aussie!

"Aw, bleedin' 'ell, Cindy! I've gone 'n given me bleedin' self away again!"

[Avedon]

I considered making him a secret Australian, but then I remembered that the only Sidneys I've ever met were Jews, so....

I mean, it's about religion, right?

[hapax]

Like many of his fellow Episcopalians ... he is thus deeply uncomfortable talking about religion.

Hee. Too true, too true, although I do my personal best to bust the stereotype.

Of course, I wasn't raised Episcopalian. I was raised in the UCC ("Come for the coffee! Stay for the, uh, coffee! Stick around for five years and you'll get your very own personalized nametag!")

[Dash]

hapax: Of course, I wasn't raised Episcopalian. I was raised in the UCC ("Come for the coffee! Stay for the, uh, coffee! Stick around for five years and you'll get your very own personalized nametag!")

Dang, you're good! (And another keyboard bites the, er, potable liquid (nasally enhanced).)

[lonespark]

Oh, hapax, I was raised UCC, too. Come for the international potlucks! Stay for my brother's band, the Barenaked Church Ladies! We had great sermons and great service, and good music, but as I recall several pastors left in disgrace. And one crazy woman yelled at my boyfriend for trying to host a Magic:The Gathering tournament in the basement for his Eagle Scout project. My mom is like Super Church Lady these days, chairing Refugee Immigration Ministry things and doing choir and such. But hey, her dad was a pastor.

My childhood church home has been ONA for several years, and that makes me very happy.

[Benedict Arnold Quisling Rosenberg]

Adolf Hussien Clinton, you think YOU have it bad?

[lonespark]

Only the erudite idiots scorn you, Ben!

[lonespark]

Only the erudite idiots scorn you, Ben!

[hf]

don't do much Googling, either.

Hence the website for people who type in URLs by hand, like our ancestors did.

[John]

Personally, I blame John McCain for most of the evil in the world, because he is the Son of Cain, is he not?

(Yes, I know McCain is a contraction...but the same idiots who assume the middle name Hussein means Muslim won't realize this.)

[smgt]

Hey, there are many Episcopalians who are perfectly proud of their faith and their church. Don't lump us all in with McFlipflopper and Father of the Idiot.

[Turcano]

Hey, he did qualify it with "many." That's hardly in dispute.

[Yoder]

It is kind of funny/sad that one minute Obama has to explain that he is not Muslim and the next he has to reject the very public views of his pastor. You'd think those two particular issues would cancel each other out.

[Turcano]

Well, the people who hold those opinions tend to already have problems with compartmentalized thinking.

[JPL]

I get everything but the "Rosenberg". Is that just "lawl anti-semitism"?

[Infotrope]

JPL, the "Rosenberg" is for Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, Americans who were executed in 1953 for espionage.

[Kit Whitfield]

I think we should avoid the phrase 'flip-flopping', even when talking about our opponents. Changing your mind is the right thing to do if you were wrong to begin with or if new information comes to light, and the neocons use the phrase to make it seem as if responsiveness is a vice. We shouldn't partake of that. The point should surely be whether your current position on an issue is right.

What's wrong about McCain's position on torture isn't that he flip-flopped, it's that he supports torture. That's wrong whatever side you started on.

[Praline]

Kit Whitfield is me, by the way - the boxes went wrong...

[KnightHawk]

I have to say, this whole "secret Muslim" thing bothers me. Did I miss the part where it said you gotta be a Christian to be president?

Love. Peace. Metallica.

[Elmo]

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
Hooray for Fezzik!

[Menippee]

I think the comment about Episcopalians has more to do with the denomination's general reputation for reticence in matters of faith (and general reserve overall), particularly for people of McCain's generation. It's not about lack of pride, I think, as it is about cultural and personal attitudes. And generational ones; I know lots of Episcopalians who are out, loud and proud, particularly the under-50s. (Didn't modern Episcopalians pretty much invent the U2-Charist?)

[Tonio]

JPL, the "Rosenberg" is for Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, Americans who were executed in 1953 for espionage.

I strongly advise against using their name as a generic synonym for traitor. My understanding is that while the evidence showed they were guilty, their conviction and execution had little to do with evidence and much to do with anti-Semitism.

[MikhailBorg]

I have to say, this whole "secret Muslim" thing bothers me. Did I miss the part where it said you gotta be a Christian to be president?

It's in the "unofficial Constitution", same place where it says you have to end the oath of office with "so help me God".

[Benedict Arnold Quisling Rosenberg]

MikhailBorg, it's right next to the part where it says you must use a Bible, and that you must swear at all...

(I affirmed my oath of service 5 times. I have it memorized.
"I, Hawker Hurricane, do solomnly affirm that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies both foriegn and domestic, that I will bear true faith and alligence to the same, that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and those he appoints over me in accordance with Naval Regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice.")

[Hawker Hurricane]

And it seems I've outed myself.

[Dash]

Keith, thank you for linking to that Salon article. Very helpful.

While I'm usually in favor of trying to use gentle persuasion to move people ever so slightly, a bit at a time, towards a more intellectually defensible position, I'm afraid that with the "Obama is a secret Muslim" canard, I'm just going to have to look them in the eye and say, "I'm sorry, but that's just plain stupid. Please tell me you're not just plain stupid!" Sometimes overt shaming is the way to go. (Looks around to see if any of the anthropologists are nodding in support.)

John Sidney McCain. Funny, but "Sidney" (or "Sydney") is now pretty much a female name--at least, everyone I know with that name is female.
.
um,
.
OMG, he's secretly a GIRL!!!!!

Evidence: (1) anybody ever seen him with a beard or mustache? (2) when he was younger, he was right purty in a sort of surprisingly delicate way (look at those Joan Crawford eyebrows!); (3) in his flight suit, he doesn't show the "package" the current CinC showed during the "Mission Accomplished" strut. (I am told that may have more to do with competence in managing the straps of the flight suit--if you know what you're doing, you unbuckle or otherwise adjust the straps before you get out of the plane and try to walk anywhere, which is why you don't see actual pilots looking like George W. Flightsuit as they cross the tarmac. Yeah, OK, whatever, but personally, I prefer to add "lack of visible package" to my list of irrefutable evidences that JSM is looking to become our first female president.) (Not that there's anything wrong with that.)

[practicallyevil]

Fact: Throughout my childhood in Singapore, all the schools I attended were Catholic schools.

Fact: I have never been Catholic.

Seriously, I thought with any private religious school it was understood that the service they were providing was the education, and not the religion. Why does going to a Catholic private school make you frugal, but a Muslim private school make you a sleeper agent?

[Izzy]

It's my experience that a lot of the Protestant denominations, aside from Baptists, are reticent about discussing religion, particularly so in the northeast US. My dad's family, for example, are Presbyterian, but that doesn't mean much: one believes in God, yes, in the same sense that one has a martini before dinner, but getting too enthusiastic about either one makes you that one uncle everyone avoids at family reunions.

[Jonathan Edelstein]

My understanding is that while the evidence showed [the Rosenbergs] were guilty, their conviction and execution had little to do with evidence and much to do with anti-Semitism.

It had much less to do with anti-Semitism than with Cold War politics - among other things, both the lead prosecutor and the sentencing judge were Jewish. The anti-semitism came into play mostly after the clemency campaign got started, and I haven't seen any persuasive evidence that it affected the decision-making process.

For what it's worth, I once met their prison chaplain, and his opinion was that Julius was guilty but that Ethel was at most acquiescent. He had very strong opinions about women and the death penalty, though, and I wouldn't count out his assessment being colored by those beliefs.

[Pol Pot Mao Stalin Idi Nguema]

the "Rosenberg" is for Julius and Ethel Rosenberg

And here I thought you meant Alfred.

[not_scottbot]

A reworked quote, in active testing as we speak -

'"... found how Sen. Obama's support among working, hard-working Americans, Christian Americans, is weakening again, and how Christians in both states who had not completed college were supporting me."

"There's a pattern emerging here."

The only question being, is it a Democratic or a Republican consultant testing this?. Or is it being tested by one of those toe nibbling consultants who don't care about partisan politics, per se, they simply care about what their paycheck can provide - for example, the means to afford the nice hotel room in which to nibble toes. Because every specialty has its price, and winning the office of president is only possible if you can retain the vote of those unaware of much beyond their own prejudices.

Luckily, America has avoided this problem by awarding itself the best government money can buy. Under God, of course. I like Ike, especially for adding 'God' to so many public events, where in the previous century, the Republic had remained firmly committed to its founders' principles, including a distinct awareness that religion is a matter of conscience - when it becomes a matter of politics, the results are ugly, at best.

[jamoche]

Seriously, I thought with any private religious school it was understood that the service they were providing was the education, and not the religion.

Depends on the school and the religion. And on the perspective of the person slinging accusations, because while that is generally true of Catholic schools, I knew people in Texas who were convinced otherwise. But then, they were the kind of fundamentalist Christians who didn't think Catholics were Christian at all, and sometimes even believed they were going to Hell.

But remember that college whose course catalog we were discussing a few posts back? Somehow I think academics are a very low priority, and there are religious elementary schools just like it.

[Judas Ramses II]

OMG, he's secretly a GIRL!!!!!

Has he come out strongly denouncing the notion that he is female? Until he defends himself against these accusations it must be assumed that there is truth to these statements.

[Madman Toshiba]

I am of course not saying that Sidney McCain is a Female American. But I cannot rule out the possibility. These things are, after all, unprovable by their very nature.

[Chris]

Hello! My name is Inigo Montoya! I am a secret Spaniard!

[hapax]

Have you noticed that flag lapel pin Sidney always wears? Would a real man be so attached to a piece of jewelry?

[Dash]

If he's a secret Spaniard, shouldn't he be using the name Inigbert Montoyson?

[Dash]

And of course, both of J. Sidney McCain's "life partners" have been women: Carol and Cindy. Maybe the only thing "straight" about the Straight Talk Express was the talk.

[Chris]

@Dash: I see your point and double it - I have it on firm evidence that J. Sidney McCain's *mother* was a woman!