Obama speaks about his faith, denounces hatred in religion

In a candid and personal speech on Thursday, President Obama spoke passionately about his own faith and declared that hate is not a religious value.

Speaking to politicians, religious figures and foreign leaders at the annual National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, Obama spoke broadly about the many different faiths in the country. "There is no doubt that the very nature of faith means that some of our beliefs will never be the same," the president said. "We read from different texts. We follow different edicts. We subscribe to different accounts of how we came to be here and where we're going next - and some subscribe to no faith at all," he said.

"But no matter what we choose to believe, let us remember that there is no religion whose central tenet is hate," Obama told the crowd that included several foreign leaders, including former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, a key U.S. ally in President Bush's "war on terror."

While some have characterized the U.S.-led terror effort as an attack on Islam, Obama stayed clear from that language on Thursday and instead spoke inclusively about the common principles of the various religious groups represented. "There is no God who condones taking the life of an innocent human being," he said. "This much we know."

The president used the event to announce the expansion of President Bush's White House Office of Faith-Based Initiatives, which will now be called the White House Office of Faith-Based Neighborhood Partnerships.

"The goal of this office will not be to favor one religious group over another - or even religious groups over secular groups. It will simply be to work on behalf of those organizations that want to work on behalf of our communities, and to do so without blurring the line that our founders wisely drew between church and state," he said.

President Bush drew criticism from some observers who believed his faith-based initiatives effort was an attempt to benefit Christian evangelical groups, but Obama made it clear that this was not his purpose. He said the office would help secular and religious groups.

"Instead of driving us apart," Obama said, "our varied beliefs can bring us together to feed the hungry and comfort the afflicted; to make peace where there is strife and rebuild what has broken; to lift up those who have fallen on hard times."

The president also spoke candidly about his own faith, acknowledging that he had not been raised in a particularly religious household. "I had a father who was born a Muslim but became an atheist, grandparents who were non-practicing Methodists and Baptists, and a mother who was skeptical of organized religion," Obama said.

President Obama said he became a Christian many years after his childhood when he moved to the South Side of Chicago after college. "It happened not because of indoctrination or a sudden revelation, but because I spent month after month working with church folks who simply wanted to help neighbors who were down on their luck - no matter what they looked like, or where they came from, or who they prayed to. It was on those streets, in those neighborhoods, that I first heard God's spirit beckon me. It was there that I felt called to a higher purpose - His purpose."

Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) delivered the closing prayer at the ceremony, which also featured a performance by Casting Crowns, a Christian rock group. The National Prayer Breakfast is currently co-chaired by Reps. Vern Ehlers (R-MI) and Heath Shuler (D-NC). The event is held each year in Washington, D.C., on the first Thursday of February and every U.S. president since Dwight D. Eisenhower has participated.

The President was scheduled to sign an executive order regarding the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships on Thursday.