In 2008, the media peddled the false narrative that then-Sen. Barack Obama was a post-partisan pragmatist. In 2012, he is being sold as a compassionate Christian who champions social justice, economic fairness and civil rights — a combination of Martin Luther King Jr. and President Franklin D. Roosevelt. He is neither. The liberal media desperately want you to believe the myth so Mr. Obama wins re- election.

Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum took a kick at those dual myths, re-igniting the debate on who Mr. Obama really is and what he believes. In recent comments to the Ohio Christian Alliance, the former Pennsylvania senator said the president believed in “some phony theology. Oh, not a theology based on the Bible, a different theology, but no less a theology.”

This triggered a media firestorm. For example, CBS host Bob Schieffer was indignant. On “Face the Nation,” he demanded to know whether Mr. Santorum was challenging Mr. Obama’s professed Christian faith. Mr. Santorum backpedaled, saying, “I accept the fact the president is a Christian.” He added: “I’m not questioning the president’s beliefs in Christianity.”

Mr. Santorum’s larger point is that Mr. Obama and his liberal allies have embraced radical environmentalism — a form of neo-paganism. The green movement — exemplified by the hoax of man-made global warming — has degenerated into a pseudo-religion. Environmentalists worship Gaia, Mother Earth, turning it into a secular goddess. Hence, they believe industrial civilization must be subordinated to a green socialist agenda. This is why Mr. Obama has dramatically strengthened the Environmental Protection Agency, favors cap-and-trade legislation, prevents most oil drilling along the Gulf Coast and in Alaska, and nixed the Keystone XL pipeline project. Mr. Santorum rightly argues that Mr. Obama’s green “theology” trumps the economic interests of Americans; the president is behaving like a quasi- religious zealot. True.

Yet Mr. Santorum should have done more than just attack Mr. Obama’s extreme environmentalism. Instead, when confronted by liberal hostility, the Republican social conservative retreated. The record is clear and obvious: The president is more a radical secular progressive than a real Christian. He has more in common with Vladimir Lenin than Jesus Christ.

Mr. Obama does not attend a regular church. For more than 20 years, he attended the church of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Mr. Obama has said that Mr. Wright had been his pastor, baptized his children and presided over his marriage. Mr. Wright, however, champions black liberation theology. It is not a recognized Christian denomination; rather, it is a political ideology masquerading as religious faith. It combines black nationalism, anti-Western imperialism and state socialism. Mr. Wright’s theology replaces Christ with Karl Marx on the cross — it is a fusion of militant racialism with watered-down Marxism. It can be distilled to one seminal idea: hatred of America. Mr. Wright believes the United States is dominated by white supremacy and is responsible for oppression and mass poverty in the Third World, especially the Muslim Middle East.

Liberals insist that, if he calls himself a Christian, Mr. Obama must be a Christian. This reflects their moral relativism: Truth is defined not by objective reality, but an individual’s subjective claims. This is false. If someone claims to be courageous, virtuous or honorable, it does not mean they are. Since the 1960s, the modern left has sought to destroy moral and intellectual standards, promoting a shallow secular humanism. At its core, Christianity believes in the divinity of Christ — that He is the son of God and was crucified in order to save humanity from its sins. Jesus embodies suffering goodness in a wicked world. Mr. Wright — like all supporters of black liberation theology — denies the divine nature of Christ. No amount of media spin or lies can change this.

Mr. Obama is a radical leftist. Like all such extremists, he has nothing but contempt for traditional Christianity and the family. During the 2008 campaign, he decried Americans who “cling to guns or religion.” He supported partial-birth abortion — infanticide. As a state senator, he voted for legislation allowing doctors to kill viable babies born during botched abortions. He has embedded federal funding of abortion in Obamacare. In other words, devout Christians — as well as Orthodox Jews and Muslims — must subsidize with their taxpayer dollars a practice they find morally abhorrent. He refuses to uphold the Defense of Marriage Act. He has enabled homosexuals to openly serve in the military — significantly advancing the “lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender” agenda. He is now mandating that health insurers for nearly all religious organizations provide their employees with free contraception and sterilization procedures — including the morning-after pill. This is a direct assault upon the Catholic Church, conscience rights and religious freedom.

Mr. Obama has declared war on our Judeo-Christian culture. He understands the economic transformation of America cannot take place without a government-imposed social revolution: Smash religion and the family — the key institutions of civil society — and the restraints upon the federal leviathan are removed. The path is laid for a soft authoritarian nanny state. The president acts as if he is hell-bent on eradicating Christianity from the public square. (Copyright © 2012 East West Services, Inc. 02/24/12)