With all the discussions about whether or not the President is a Christian, I did something I'd never expected to do: I went to the library, checked out a copy of The Audacity of Hope, and read it.

We have to be careful judging - but in his own words, in his own book, in his own chapter on Faith (page 226 of the hard-cover edition) -- Obama recalls his little daughter asking what happens to us when we die. His response was to tell her she wouldn't have to worry about that for a long time, and, he writes, that seemed to satisfy her.

He goes on to say:

"I wondered whether I should have told her the truth, that I wasn't sure what happens when we die, any more than I was sure of where the soul resides or what existed before the Big Bang."

Christianity didn't seem to factor into his answer to his daughter, or into his own thoughts about life after death. You'd think a Christian father would have told his little girl at least something about God and heaven.

Jill Meyer