Obama's Religiosity

The other night I tuned into the end of a discussion on CSPAN hosted by a Catholic Priest. I have seen him on TV before and think he hosts a Catholic program. His guests were a young Rabbi, Alec Baldwin’s Born-Again Christian brothers and a journalist covering religion. At the point I tuned in they were discussing whether our President was a Christian. (Being a Muslim, I would love to have heard him say that he is indeed a Christian but if he were a Muslim or a Mormon or a Jew, how would he be a lesser president. Unfortunately, though brave, that would have fed the extreme right and alienated a large segment of our country and destroyed any chances for reelection, but I digress.)
There were two points that resonated with me. The first raised by the journalist was that President Obama, while a candidate, said in an interview that though he chose a Christian path, he believes that there are many paths to god. Believing that the only path to heaven is through Jesus Christ, the Christian Fundamentalists take this as a un-Christian position. I believe that this is a debate the fundamentalists pushing for a Christian Theocracy in America are having with the segment of our population trying to maintain a secular country. This has led to much of the vitriolic sentiment toward him from the right. Though I agree with his position, I can understand the logic if one is the keeper of the absolute truth and believes that the only true path is through Christ. Hmmm; that sounds familiar, a bit like the position of Muslim fundamentalists, believing that their path is the only true one and wanting to create Islamic Theocracies.
The other point, a totally irrational one, was made by Mr. Baldwin. He believes that because the President, as his first act, signed some kind of legislation, which somehow supported abortion somewhere outside the country. Thus with abortion being prohibited in the Bible, he said, the President cannot claim to be a Christian. The Priest asked where in the Bible does it speak about abortion, in response to which Baldwin cited the prohibition against taking innocent lives. I am surprised no one challenged him. Maybe it was because the show was coming to an end. If one extends his argument then none of the pro-choice people can claim to be Christians. What about President Bush and other Presidents who have sent us into wars where masses of innocents are killed? Are they not Christians? What about the soldier who, when noticing sniper fire from a large tenement building in Iraq, bombards the entire building with large artillery rounds surly destroying many innocents including children? Is that not taking innocent life? Is he not a Christian? What kind of an example would God have been setting for us when he caused the death of every first born in Egypt during the period of Exodus. Were these children and for that matter their parents, not innocent and not responsible for the deeds of the Pharos who, after all, they didn’t even elect?