Obama is still a Christian

There's a group of extremists who are convinced that President Barack Obama is lying when he claims to be a Christian and is instead secretly a member of highly-despised group.

They're called far-left atheists.

The idea is simplistic. President Obama is supposedly a secret atheist, but lied about it to get re-elected. During his first term he expanded faith-based initiatives and made numerous references to his faith, but now that the election is over and term limits prevent him from running again, he can finally be himself. There's even calls for him to leave the Bible home when he is sworn into office next year.

This wild conclusion comes from some people who should really know better like Richard Dawkins, and the evidence they suggest is embarrassingly weak, such as that he doesn't attend church regularly in Washington D.C. He said it's because his presence is disruptive to the service.

The conclusion clearly outpaces the evidence. I think this idea comes from some kind of emotional need fulfillment from the secular far left. Candidate Obama did a great job of presenting himself as a blank canvas people could project their own ideals upon, and a lot of atheists have fallen into a sort of trap where they think he is just like them. It's true in other realms so why not this one?

Other atheists have spoken out against this and made some strong counter-arguments, such as how he called himself religious before he entered politics, the long list of anti-secular comments and policy decisions he's made and the problems presented by embracing someone because you think they are lying about being religious.

Even if the president is a secret atheist, his actions as president have been directly in line with that of a serious Christian who believes faith has a crucial role in the government, so functionally the entire point is moot. President Obama does not, and will not, behave like a secular president.