This Week: With a recent poll indicating that people are still unsure of our president’s religious affiliation, Barack Obama’s faith is yet again front and center. Two years ago, before Obama was president, Bill Reichart wrote about the idiosyncrasies of Obama’s religious background and beliefs.

We are coming to the end of the Democratic National Convention and Denver, and no matter what you might think and believe politically, the fact is that we have witnessed a historic event.  For the first time in the history of our country, a major political party has nominated an African-American as their party’s candidate.

Even though Barack Obama has received overwhelming acclamation and support, many people are still wondering, “who is this man?”  And one of the key issues being asked about is Barack’s faith.  Stephen Mansfield in his newly released book, The Faith of Barack Obama, attempts to address that question.  Mansfield has written an honest and balanced account of Barack’s faith addressing the many questions and concerns people have about Barack’s life and faith.

Knowing a candidate’s faith is essential.  According to Mansfield, the book is written in the belief “that if a man’s faith is sincere, it is the most important thing about him, and that it is impossible to understand who he is and how he will lead without first understanding the religious vision that informs his life.”

Barack’s story of faith isn’t typical of the American experience. For instance, if Barack ascends to the presidency he will be the first American president to do so having not been raised in a Christian home.  Instead, he spent his early years under the influence of an atheist mother, a step-father’s folk Islam, praying at the feet of a Catholic Jesus, and influenced with a humanist’s understanding of the world that sees religion merely as a man-made thing.

In Barack’s adult life, his spiritual journey toward Christianity also defies pattern and refuses to fit in a clean theological box, although his coming to faith typifies the pattern and process that many Americans have journeyed. He came to faith not so much to join a religious tradition, but rather to find belonging among a people. In Barack’s memoir, Audacity of Hope, he describes his religious conversion as such: “it came about as a choice and not an epiphany; the questions I had did not magically disappear.  But kneeling beneath that cross on the South Side of Chicago, I felt God’s spirit beckoning me.  I submitted myself to His will and dedicated myself to discovering His truth.”

Barack’s beliefs are tailored to and reflect the diverse religious experience of America.  For Barack, “Christianity is but one religious tree rooted in the common ethical soil of all human experience.”

Within the book, Mansfield effectively addresses the lingering questions of Barack’s brush with Islam and whether or not he is a secret Muslim.  Mansfield’s answer is a unequivocal NO.  Also Mansfield dissects and seeks to understand the religious soil of Trinity United Church of Christ and Jeremiah Wright, the environment where Barack’s faith first took root.  Mansfield discovered from first hand experience that Trinity’s a mixture of both good and bad.  According to Mansfield, his experience transcended more than just the couple of Jeremiah Wright bombastic video clips on YouTube that have come to define the religious culture at Trinity.

Barack not only forged and developed his faith during his adult years, but he also allowed his faith to intersect with his political life.  What became distinct of Barack Obama was that he unapologetically brought his faith into the public square and within Democratic politics.  Mansfield writes about Obama’s speech to Jim Wallis’s progressive Sojourners organization, “With the speech’s tone of moderation, its welcome of faith into the public square, and yet its insistence that people of faith conduct themselves in public debate according to democratic values, it became what Obama had intended: a call to reform, a redefinition of religion’s role in American political life. Soon, his words were debated on cable news programs, heard by tens of thousands on YouTube, and argued fiercely on Web sites from every political perspective.”

Mansfield’s book takes a fair and balanced tone to the discussion of Barack’s faith.  Mansfield is honest with some of the lingering questions and concerns that still swirl around Barack, especially concerning Barack’s view of abortion and his voting record on partial birth abortion.

As you take the time examine both candidates this election year, I would encourage you to pick of a copy of The Faith of Barack Obama, and take the time to get to know a facet of a man that you may have not have already known.

A lot of controversy surrounded this book even before it was released. Many billed this book as a parenting book and didn’t understand why a Christian imprint, Thomas Nelson, would want to publish it. But this book isn’t what you may think. It isn’t a book wherein Lynne Spears either defends or dishes dirt on her daughters. If you are looking for a tabloid, tell-all book then you will be disappointed.

Through the Storm is a book by a daughter, sister, wife and mother who simply tells her own story. As Lynne states in her introduction:

“It’s really the story of one simple, Southern woman whose family got caught in a tornado called fame and who is still trying to sort through the debris scattered all over her life in the aftermath. It’s who I am, warts and all, with some true confessions that took a long time to get up the nerve to discuss.” (pg. ix)

Lynne discusses her childhood and speaks with great detail about her relationship with her now ex-husband Jamie.

According to Lynne, there was no master plan to get Britney into Hollywood and the music industry. Just like Lynne, we often make small decisions that lead to another and combined with some unexpected opportunities and events we find ourselves at a place we could have never expected or imagined. That is the story for the Spears family.  Lynn mentions how destructive instant fame was for them and their family:

“Not everyone who becomes famous does so in a split second.  Britney’s fame came around the corner, zooming at us at two hundred miles per hour.  Ben Affleck is right.  He said sudden fame is like being in a car wreck.  It comes at you fast, and you spin out of control.” (pg. 104)

They were thrust into fame, and were ill prepared to handle it. This fact coupled with the strained and fractured marriage between Jamie and Lynne meant their family didn’t have the emotional and spiritual buoyancy to handle all the pressures and influences that fame brought.  Also, Lynne realized how quickly she lost control in the lives of her children:

“When I saw the cover [The Rolling Stone], my heart sank, and my face burned with embarrassment and anger.  Oh my gosh.  How did this slip through the cracks?  How did this happen?  Already, lines were being crossed.  Yet I foolishly thought I was still in control, when in reality my authority was slipping with every day and every dollar being spent – and made- on my daughters’ career.” (pg. 110)

Through the Storm is a candid account of a wife and mother’s many regrets. Through it all, Lynne Spears is tenacious to persevere throughout it all and fight for her family. It is also a story of how her faith has kept her strong and how quickly and tragically she observed some of her own children walking away from their faith.

Through the Storm takes all the sensationalism of Britney and Jamie Lynn and boils it down to an undeniable fact – our shared humanity. Jamie, Britney and Jamie Lynn are part of a family that has made a lot of mistakes, faced a lot of scrutiny and pressures. They need our prayers, not our disdain.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation sued Friday in U.S. district court, arguing that the president’s mandated proclamations calling on Americans to pray violates a constitutional ban on government officials endorsing religion.

The day of prayer, held each year on the first Thursday of May, creates a “hostile environment for nonbelievers, who are made to feel as if they are political outsiders,” the lawsuit said. (Read full article HERE)

Sometimes I go to Blockbuster and am pleasantly surprised by a movie I know nothing about.  The other day I had that experience as I rented and watched the movie Snow Angels.  Snow Angels is a movie based on the book by Stewart O’Nan. The movie features Sam Rockwell, Kate Beckinsale, and Michael Angarano. Rockwell and Beckinsale portray a recently separated couple, Glen and Annie, who were high school sweethearts. While, Angarano plays a teenager, Arthur, who used to be baby-sat by Annie.

Snow Angels provides a look at relationships in all of their stages. The movie explores the love of a young couple discovering the splendor of ‘first love,’ while exploring the other spectrum of a bitter couple trying to remember why they loved each other.

Snow Angels isn’t a feel good story. It is a sobering story of tragedy, lost innocence, fractured relationships and unrealized hopes.  But one aspect of this movie that is extremely fascinating is the character, Glenn, played by Sam Rockwell.

Glenn is a born-again believer who is trying to pick up the pieces of his life in order to reconcile the relationship with Annie and his daughter. He often quotes or paraphrases scripture, he prays with his daughter and at times has spiritual discussions with his boss who also is a believer.

But Glenn’s faith isn’t portrayed one-dimensionally and free from struggle and failure.  Glenn gets mad and curses, fights, falls back into old addictive behaviors and ultimately comes to a place where he has lost all hope.

Perhaps some people who see Glenn’s character are going to have a problem believing that he is a Christian.  At times his behavior can seem erratic and contradictory.  Glenn is flawed.   His faith is young, immature and messy.  But must a Christian character live a perfectly moral life in order to be seen as a Christan by the audience?

On his blog, L. B. Graham (a Christian fiction writer) comments on the importance of incorporating flawed heroes within Christian fiction:

I’m constantly surprised at how often fictional stories are judged to be Christian or not, based more or less on how well the characters behave themselves. Of course it is true that morality matters – God has taken great care to expound in some detail the moral laws which flow from and are an extension of His own character. It is also true, though, that the Bible itself is full of flawed men and women whom God used almost despite of rather than because of their moral triumphs. However, when Christian writers incorporate flawed heroes into their stories, men and women with moral failings of any significance, they are often left open to charges of having given dubious testimony to their Lord.

I am more inclined to empathize and identify with a character like Glenn then a morally perfect and sanitized “Christian” character.

Even with all of his flaws and failures, I appreciated watching Glenn throughout the movie.  When watching Glenn’s character I was reminded of Robert Duvall’s Sonny in The Apostle.  Sonny, like Glen, was a paradox of genuine faith and unbridled anger and jealousy.

The Christian faith isn’t simple, clean and neat. Doesn’t the Bible portray just the same complexity of faith in the men and women we read about throughout all the Scriptures?  Take David for example.  David was a man after God’s own heart.  And yet this man of faith became entangled in adultery and murder.

Hear me clearly, I am not suggesting that characters in film and literture like Glenn are models for our faith.  Glenn’s character is descriptive (reminding me of my own struggles and the complexity of my faith) rather than being prescriptive (showing me how to live).

Christians in film or literature don’t need to be portrayed like angels in order to validate the authenticity of their faith.  At times they may appear to us like “fallen” angels.

“And suddenly,” he writes in his compelling new book, Crossbearer: A Memoir of Faith (St. Martin’s Press; 2008), “my heart stilled. My nerve endings stopped torturing me. I stopped trembling and twitching. … Something happened to me on that hellish muggy day … I was saved.” (full story HERE)

“We Catholics are called to look at politics as we are called to look at everything – through the lens of our faith,” wrote the bishops on Wednesday.  “We should be guided in evaluating the important issues facing our state and nation by the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the teachings of His Church.”

Some Christians may wonder how a fellow believer can give any support to the film industry, notorious as it is for anti-Christian bias and moral relativism. I would note that there is also a view on the opposite extreme: some Christian critics of culture insist that all Christians have a responsibility to become culturally aware, to become knowledgeable about cultural trends in art, music, literature, film, drama and so on.

What do you think?

So, what is Hulu? Hulu.com is the brainchild of Fox and NBC and was created to be a “YouTube Killer”. The thought behind this concept was that instead of having YouTube rip off and post all of the networks’ shows, they could post them themselves and make a business model out of it. The great thing about having Fox and NBC behind this endeavor is that you not only have their stable of shows (and links to other networks shows hosted elsewhere) but a deep and rich movie vault (Fox Studios and NBC’s Universal) to draw from as well. All I have to do is log into Hulu and browse through the hundreds of viewing choices.

Hulu has successfully wed television with social media.  I can subscribe to the show RSS feed or add the show to my queue the next time a new episode is available.  I can emded the video in my website or blog.  I can share what I am watching with my friends on Facebook.  But beside the cool functionality of Hulu, watching movies and television when I can and decide to do so has made a significant difference in my life.

There are of course some drawbacks with Hulu, such as how my television and movie watching can become a privatized affair (it is hard to gather the family around the computer screen to watch a show), and I need to be careful that I see Hulu only has a nice convenience and don’t allow watching television to become an idol in my life.

But so far for me the benefits have outweighed these potential pitfalls.

Check out Hulu.com, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

How should the church and the CCM community respond to Boltz?  Should this revelation make any difference for the church in being able to enjoy his body of Christian music?