On 20 Apr, 11:18, jskin...@senet.com.au (Jon Skinner) wrote:
> I saw Christopher Hitchens interviewed on the ABC (the antipodean BEEB)
> a few weeks ago, when he made the following comments about Barack Obama:
>
> CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS: "You can see what a good preacher he would've
> made. If you look at his book, the Audacity of Hope, as you I'm sure
> know the title is taken from one of Jeremiah Wright's sermons. If you
> look at the chapter called Faith and read the first ten pages of it or
> so, I think you may agree with me that Obama is probably still an
> atheist. Or at least an agnostic, that he had, he wasn't brought up with
> any religious faith. Rather to the contrary. He didn't come by it
> naturally. He went shopping for a church when he decided to go into
> politics. He thought he better pick one that was strong in the community
> and down with the brothers. And having found that then having had a
> meteoric success with political career in Chicago politics, very very
> hard to walk away, because it would look then as if he was forgetting
> the people who'd been his friends when he needed them."
>
> http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2007/s2197841.htm
>
> Has anyone read the book in question? Is Hitchens shit-stirring again?
>
> --
> Jon

Yes, you are quite right.  Hitchens is talking cr-p.  Obama says that
he is a Christian, with no get-out clauses at all.  It is quite
unequivocal.

That said, it is of course true that in the US someone standing for
office just about has to say that;  in the US there is no 'we don't do
God' defence.