Though his faith is largely absent from the public eye, religion is believed to be playing a major role in US President Barack Obama’s life.
“[He is] a prayerful guy,” one senior official told. Although Obama has rarely showed up at church events and has not yet chosen a church in Washington, aides insist religion plays a significant role in his life.
They say he often prays in private.
Every morning, Obama receives daily devotionals, short religious services, through his BlackBerry.
One official said the messages come from Joshua Dubois, the director of the Office of Faith-Based and Neighbourhood Partnerships.
They sometimes include a passage of Scripture or a psalm or focus on a book that Dubois expects Obama would enjoy.
The devotionals have been taken from the work of Protestant theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, who has championed the “just war” theory.
Other devotionals come from the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer, which Obama was given as a gift at last year’s prayer breakfast.
At weekends, Obama brings a Navy chaplain to minister to his family and holds a form of Sunday school at Camp David to his two daughters.
Obama, the son of a Muslim-turned-atheist Kenyan father and a white American mother that did not practice religion, describes himself as a proud follower of the Trinity United Church of Christ.
Important
Aides say that religion has helped Obama in taking decisions during hard times of his first year in office.
“Part of that even temperament comes from his faith which is an important component,” said senior adviser Valerie Jarrett.
Asked why the public did not hear much about Obama’s faith during his first year in office, she said the president “had a lot on his plate.”
Obama has cited Niebuhr’s theory in his thinking about the Afghan war strategy and in his Nobel peace Prize acceptance speech.
Last month, he told a congregation at the Vermont Avenue Baptist Church on the anniversary of Martin Luther King that faith keeps him calm in pressing times.
“There are times when I am not so calm. There are times when progress seems too slow. There are times when the words spoken about me hurt. There are times when the barbs sting.
“There are times when it feels like all these efforts are for not, that change is so painfully slow in coming and I have to confront my own doubt.
“During those times it is faith that keeps me calm.”
-Agencies