A recent letter to the editor asked whether Barack Obama was not Christian because he did not change his name to a “Christian name” and because he stayed in a particular church for 20 years.

These claims are outrageous and shameful.

Shame on anyone who believes a name, such as Hussein, is somehow Christian or unChristian. This shows a complete lack of understanding of some of the basics of the Christian faith. Colossians 3:11 says: “Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.” Who are you to exclude someone from the Christian faith because of his name?

Shame on anyone that thinks sitting in one church or another can somehow qualify or disqualify someone from Christianity. This shows a complete lack of understanding of both the complexity of Christianity and the failings of humans. In John 1:8 Christians are told: “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” The Apostle Paul goes beyond this and gives us a look at his struggle with sin when he states in Romans 7 that he doesn’t do the good that he wants to do but he does the sin that he doesn’t want to do.

Shame on all of us for allowing politics to intrude on Christianity to the point we trivialize with sound-bites and well-rehearsed lines complex matters of faith, love and community.

John Berry, Lewiston