Campaign Time: Obama Resumes Going to Church

President Obama will occasionally visit a Christian Church

Washington DC, Jan 15, 2012. If you needed some proof that the 2012 Presidential campaign is in full swing, then you finally have it.

President Barack Hussein Obama, D-Kenya, and his family went to church this morning for the third time in a month.

Whenever there is an election, President Obama works hard to demonstrate that he is a Christian, and not a Muslim, as many people suspect. In fact, it is the only time he ever attends church.

The President and his family were frequent church goers when they lived in Chicago and attended a liberation theology church headed by close family friend Rev. Jerimiah Wright. But that "church" was more of an anti-American cult, that stressed hatred for America rather than any love of Christ.

Wright earned a Master’s degree from the University of Chicago Divinity School with a focus on Islam.

During the 2008 presidential election campaign, Barack Obama came under increasing criticism for attending Wright's "God Damn America" Church for over 20 years. At first, Obama denied that the church was blatantly anti-American, but later claimed "he wasn't paying attention during the sermons and didn't realize Wright was preaching hatred of our nation."

The President and "Uncle" Jeremiah

Eventually, Barack Obama resigned from the church, which improved his chances of being elected considerably.

Obama has rarely gone to church since becoming president. But last month he and his family attended services at St. John’s Church. They attended Christmas services at a Marine Base in Hawaii and today were at Zion Baptist Church in DC.

After the President resigned from Rev. Wright's Black Liberation Church, he said he would find another church to attend in Washington DC. After almost four years he hasn't found one yet, although he does randomly attend Christian church services during election campaigns.

President Obama is our first and only President who can quote from "The Holy Qu'ron" from memory, and can do it in fluent Arabic.

This is probably because he was raised as a Muslim, had a Muslim father and stepfather, and he attended a Madrassas School in Indonesia as a young child, where the Islamic religion was taught.  Much later in life, Barack Obama began attending Christian churches largely for political reasons.

While it’s possible the recent trips to church a part of some kind of renewed personal religious commitment, they are also consistent with Obama’s increased use of religious imagery as part of his public profile.

The First Family recently attended Church on Christmas

During two recent annual events – the televised Christmas in Washington gala and the lighting of the National Christmas Tree, Obama invoked specifically Christian themes he had shunned in the past.

The Christian narrative is appealing to a key demographic that fled Democrats en masse during the 2010 midterm election – white working class voters.

Obama will need to convince people in critical swing states like Indiana, Ohio, North Carolina, and other states that he is indeed a Christian.