Sally Quinn
Washington Post reporter

Sally Quinn

Washington Post journalist and author of several books, Quinn is founder and (with Jon Meacham) co-moderator of On Faith.

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Graham raises questions about conversion with assertion that Obama is a Muslim

The Rev. Franklin Graham, said last week that President Obama's problem was that he "was born a Muslim." According to Graham, "The seed is passed through the father. He was born a Muslim. His father was a Muslim; the seed of Muslim is passed through the father like the seed of Judaism is passed through the mother. He was born a Muslim. His father gave him an Islamic name."

President Obama is a Christian. But what if he had been a Muslim and converted to Christianity? Would he not be a "true" Christian, that is, those born of Christian parents? Is Graham saying that conversion is not possible? What does this say about the millions of Christian missionaries around the world trying to convert people into accepting Jesus Christ as their personal savior? Is Graham saying that that is a pointless exercise? Is he saying that if Jews or Muslims carry the seeds of their mothers or fathers, they can never be accepted as Christians? Should "true" Christians renounce those who have converted from another faith because that person carries a different seed?

Do you believe that even if someone has a change of mind about religion, that that person cannot ever overcome their biology?

By Sally Quinn  |  August 27, 2010; 9:13 AM ET  | Category:  Islam , Judaism Save & Share:  Send E-mail   Facebook   Twitter   Digg   Yahoo Buzz   Del.icio.us   StumbleUpon   Technorati  
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Franklin is an Evil Hatemonger, he follows Lucifer, not Jesus Christ.

Posted by: thomasmc1957 | August 30, 2010 11:46 AM
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To know if a man is a christian or not all you have to do is look at his life and what he stands for. Anyone who backs abortion (murder) is not a christian. PERIOD.

Posted by: live2love4Jesus | August 30, 2010 6:33 AM
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Who on earth cares what this cretin thinks? His rantings do not even merit a response. You are reinforcing his message by even reprinting it.

Posted by: Afraid4USA | August 29, 2010 9:44 AM
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On Thursday, Glenn Beck quoted Barack Obama's account of his conversion experience. Obama wrote: "Kneeling beneath the cross of 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."

Glenn Beck then went on to claim that submitting to God's will is not Christian. He said "Submission to his will. That's Islam." Beck implies that Christians do not submit to God's will. Is he out of his mind, or simply unaware that submission to God's will was spoken by Jesus in the Garden, preached by Paul, and part of hundreds of Christian hymns and millions of Christian prayers? What kind of Christian is Beck?

Posted by: RachelinCalifornia | August 28, 2010 8:10 PM
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http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2010/08/19/graham-obama-born-a-muslim-now-a-christian/?iref=allsearch

Please see the interview in its entirety because then you will realize that Franklin did not at all say that Obama is a Muslim or that Muslims can't become Christians. In fact he said the opposite.

When he said "the problem was that he was born a Muslim" Franklin was saying that the reason why this controversy about Obama's religion (the problem) has been stirred up is because his father was a Muslim and in that tradition the son inherits the father's religion. If you watch the video, you will probably realize that you should have done a fact check before you posted this article.

Posted by: juliewong12345 | August 28, 2010 1:16 AM
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Obama-birthers and -Islamists make it rather embarassing to those of us who oppose his political positions, like massive bank bailouts, uncontrolled immigration and debt-funded health care.

Posted by: WmarkW | August 27, 2010 6:42 PM
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Obama may call himself a Christian. Maybe some of you saw something I did not. I have never heard him call himself one. I can tell you one thing, he is has not exhibited Christian values. He has preached transparency but offered none hiding bills, hiding behind closed doors, giving fraudulent numbers on bills, bribing for votes, double talking, offering a no jobs stimulus telling us they would provide jobs, pushing a health care takeover that will cost more not less, spending us into infinity, loading our debt onto our grandchildren and beyond, driving the dollar to the floor, destroying capitalism, ignoring illegal immigration which is kin to slavery, making the gulf crisis worse by stopping drilling putting more families out of work, and endangering our very lives allowing Iran to go nuclear and allowing felons and terrorists to run in an unmanned border.
He may call himself Christian but he does not act like one. And if your actions do not match your rhetoric, people tune you out and turn you off.

Posted by: greatgran1 | August 27, 2010 5:49 PM
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If he converted to Christianity from Islam, why do the Muslims like him so much? Shouldn't they chop off his head??

Posted by: Curtis8 | August 27, 2010 5:15 PM
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If a Christian converts to Islam, that's one thing, he has submitted like Allah commanded him too,but when the reverse happens the Quran decrees death for him as an apostate and traitor to Allah. Yes, Islam claims the son of a Muslim as one of its own from birth, they aren't given a chance to grow up and decide on their own, hence if Obama really renounced Islam for Christianity, why isn't there a fatwa out on him? Answer: Muslims around the world know he's one of them and is pulling the wool over the eyes of ignorant Yankee infidels. If Obama is a Christian, why did he snub Franklin Graham for a prayer breakfast to which Muslims were welcome? Why did he hold an iftar dinner where he gave a speech portraying Islam as the perfect religion, while simultaneously claiming to be too dumb to embrace it? Because he's too smart to admit that he's a secret Muslim, and is working straight out of the White House to advance the cause of Allah in the citadel of infidel democracy? I hope not, but if it later turns out to be true don't say I didn't warn ya. Maybe he's just a wishy-washy agnostic with a foot in both camps, if so, he's a fool playing with fire. The Historyscoper's free Obamascope is still the best place to scope Obama's Muslim rabbit hole to see how deep it goes, with hyperlinks to check every fact: http://tinyurl.com/obamascope

Posted by: tlwinslow | August 27, 2010 3:38 PM
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Who cares what Islamic law says about Obama? Under US law he's a native-born US citizen and has the right to practice whatever religion he chooses--or none.

Posted by: hstahlke2 | August 27, 2010 2:46 PM
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Correct, Barack Hussein Obama was born a Muslim because his Indonesian father was a Muslim. In Islam and Muslim religions, you are what your father is. Judaism is passed on through the mother. Christian religions require baptism or sacraments.

Thus the real question is, did Obama ever formally convert to another faith? And does the Muslim religion recognize that conversion?

Posted by: SamRon1 | August 27, 2010 12:07 PM
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I guess the fact remains and enduring that Rev. Graham, me, and Barrack O'Bama all have the seed of sin of our father, Adam according to the Bible.

Posted by: mantravadi | August 27, 2010 11:11 AM
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By Mr. Grahams Definition, there is no such thing as a Christian. Christianity evolved when some jews and pagans converted. So people are either jewish or pagan. Thus as stated by an earlier commentator, anyone who believes religious affiliation is genetic is a congenital moron

Posted by: omkolluri | August 27, 2010 10:53 AM
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Anyone who thinks Islam is genetic is obviously a biological moron.

Posted by: WmarkW | August 27, 2010 9:56 AM
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