Is President-elect Obama a Christian?

If he is baptized with water in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit by one with the intention of the Church, then he is a Christian. The sacrament is itself efficacious: this is objectively guaranteed and completely certain for the Catholic mind. No need to apply a theological litmus test, a moralistic threshold, or some ortho-practical standard. Obama is signed and sealed by Christ with an indelible character. For the sacramental imagination, spiritual realities have a brilliant lucidity, simplicity and formliness!

Does he live by Christian principles? It is not for us to judge (in the sense of condemn.) St. Ignatius of Loyola would have us place the best possible interpretation on the conduct of another. Therefore, we can gratefully appreciate that he is a fine husband and father; that he manifests the best intentions regarding peace, distributive justice, medical care for those in need, immigration, and a laundry list of issues. He seems to be a genuine searcher: sensitive, intelligent, open, inclusive, and attracted to the person of Jesus Christ.

Has he been properly catechized by a genuine itinerary of formation into the faith? Hardly! Prominent influences upon him include his anthropologist mother, the secular Saul Alinsky, and rage-filled Reverend Wright. Through no fault of his own (we assume) he has been educated into a bogus gospel.

Regarding innocent, defenseless unborn life, he stands squarely in the tradition of the Pharaoh of Exodus and Herod of the Holy Innocents. Their more localized atrocities would be magnified to a global magnitude by his Freedom of Choice Act. Policy-wise, he is a genuine Anti-Christ figure in a league with Hitler, Stalin, Mao, and Saddam.

The renowned Russian philosopher Soloviev finished his short classic on “The Anti-Christ” on Easter Sunday of 1900. Pope Benedict and other prominent churchmen have referred to this masterpiece frequently. In it, he portrays the Anti-Christ as an enlightened, kind, generous figure: a philanthropist, ascetic, ecumenist, pacifist, scripture scholar, and environmentalist. He issues in a euphoric period of positive change. He does not, however, want to humble himself before Jesus, crucified and now alive; rather, he considers that he has elevated and purified what was best about Jesus. The portrayal is remarkably and frighteningly prescient of the Obama phenomena.

Obama must be seen as an Anti-Christ figure because of his infanticidal program; he himself, of course, is not the Anti-Christ. We do not judge the status of his soul since he very well may be carrying out this quiet genocide in invulnerable (“not his fault”) ignorance of conscience. He may have good intentions like the righteous Saul at the slaughter of Stephen, the first martyr. We might think of him like a young, innocent child who has become possessed by the devil, not because of his own consent to evil, but because of a family environment that is open to the occult and the demonic. The child’s soul may be innocent of serious sin even as he becomes the host for the satanic presence. This way of thinking allows us to judge the evil, but not the person; to hate the sin but not the sinner.

So, how do we respond to our baptized, well-intended, sensitive-searching, infanticidal, Anti-Christ figure President-elect? With prayer! We have powerful reasons to pray for him:
He is our leader and we always have to pray for leaders and authority figures.
He is our brother-in-Christ (as baptized) and badly in need of sound catechesis and mentoring.
He is the tool of higher, more intelligent powers: the principalities and rulers of the age. We must pray that he not be used to implement this crusade against the unborn.

We might especially entrust Obama and his family to the intercession of St. Martin de Porres, whose feast day we celebrated yesterday. Like Obama, St. Martin:
- Was mulatto son of a freed black woman and a Spanish aristocrat;
- Was disowned by his father;
- Was a marvelous social activist, organizing orphanages and hospitals for the poor.
In addition, he performed many miracles of increasing food for the hungry; levitated and bi-located to minister to the suffering; flagellated himself three times nightly for his own sins and the conversion of pagans; had a rapport with animals; and was exhumed twenty-five years after his death and found to be intact and exhaling a sweet fragrance. Reprimanded by a brother for bringing an aged and ulcerous beggar back to his own bed, he replied: “Compassion, my dear Brother, is preferable to cleanliness. Reflect that with a little soap I can easily clean my bed covers, but even with a torrent of tears I would never wash from my soul the stain that my harshness toward the unfortunate would create.”

St. Martin de Porres: Pray for us; Pray for President-elect Obama.

I am Matt Laracy; I am running for citizenship in heaven and I approve this message!