Presidential Prayers

Obama Keeps Faith Private

Christianity "is important to him not for communications reasons."

Though polls show an increasing number of people think President Obama is a Muslim, that hasn't spurred him to compensate with public declarations of his Christian faith. Consider, for example, the conference call he conducted earlier this month with three Christian pastors on board Air Force One while he was en route to celebrate his birthday—not publicized by the White House or mentioned by the president. "That was simply something that he wanted to do at his initiative because it was important to him," said Joel Hunter, an evangelical pastor and close spiritual adviser who was on the call. Walker says Obama's unwillingness to speak about his faith in public definitely plays into public perception that he's a Muslim. Hunter also advised former President George W. Bush, who seemingly couldn't stop talking about religion. "The president's spiritual life, his Christian walk, is something that is important to him not for communications reasons or political reasons," said Joshua DuBois, the president's chief faith adviser in the White House. "We're not going to shift course in any way on the basis of a short-term event."