Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama turned up the heat on his faith outreach in Kentucky, which holds its primary on Tuesday, by distributing fliers of him speaking in front of a big illuminated cross.
“Faith. Hope. Change,” reads the bold printed words at the top of the flier. Then below the picture of the glowing cross is a message from Obama about his Christian faith.
“My faith teaches me that I can sit in church and pray all I want,” Obama is quoted on the flier. “But I won’t be fulfilling God’s will unless I go out and do the Lord’s work.”
The flier is the latest push by the likely Democratic presidential nominee to court religious voters. The faith flier coupled with TV and radio ads that began running in Kentucky last week seek to emphasize that Obama is Christian.
“We want people to know what is important to him, and a large part of that is his Christian faith,” said Obama spokesman Clark Stevens, to Kentucky-based The Courier-Journal newspaper.
However, some pundits commented that the effort has deeper purposes: of assuring American voters that Obama is a normal Christian after the recent controversy with his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, who had made anti-American remarks; of quelling rumors that he is a closet Muslim; and to prepare for the November general election against presumptive Republican nominee John McCain.
“They believe they can compete with McCain and the Republicans on the faith vote,” said David Brody, a senior correspondent with the Christian Broadcasting Network, to Fox News.
“McCain doesn’t want to talk about his faith all that much,” Brody said. “Barack Obama is comfortable talking about that. … He’s speaking evangelical talk, so to speak, and that resonates.”
Brody says Obama is trying to woo moderate evangelical voters away from McCain. He noted that Obama is not going after the old-guard evangelicals, but younger, more moderate evangelicals that will not automatically reject him because of his support for abortion and gay rights.
Obama was endorsed by a major pro-choice group last week, and his campaign says he “respects” the California Supreme Court decision to overturn the state’s ban on gay “marriage,” according to Fox News.
Looking ahead to the general election, John Green, a senior fellow at the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, said the Kentucky faith outreach will serve as "an interesting taste test to see how well the campaign's efforts are working," particularly among white, working-class voters in key swing states, according to the Wall Street Journal.
A Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life survey released this year found that 85 percent of Kentuckians identified themselves as Christians. A Courier-Journal Bluegrass Poll in 2007 found that 49.8 percent of those surveyed were self-described evangelicals or born-again Christians.
On Sunday, Mike Huckabee, a former Republican presidential candidate, commented on Obama’s cross ad while on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” He took case with the media’s different response to Obama’s cross ad versus his famous Christmas ad, in which the edges of white bookcases in the background formed what looked like a cross.
“I think it’s interesting that nobody’s jumping on Obama for this very blatant cross in his ad. And I took grief for months,” Huckabee said. “I’m still taking it, over something that wasn’t even a cross. It was a bookshelf, for heaven’s sake.”
The ex-Arkansas governor criticized the double standard that exists for Republicans and Democrats who speak about their faith in campaigns.
“If Republicans even get near a church, we are accused of embracing it,” he said.
Nevertheless, he praised Obama as a “person of faith.”
Past faith outreaches by the Obama campaign include a Gospel concert tour in South Carolina, meeting with evangelical Hispanic leaders, and participating in faith forums.
Comments
Wonder how he fits all this in with his black liberation theology.
Obama wants to be the Preacher Man of the United States.
'"The Christian Party".
Oh boy, a theocracy in the making, sounds interesting. Besides, one political party already bends over backwards and panders to the faithful, it's the GOP.
I suggest a Third party called "The Christian Party".
Where Catholics, Orthodox and Protestants stand together as one, at least politically, to apply basic and I mean BASIC Christian principles that come straight out of Holy Scripture. By living the beatitudes, the 10 commandments and seeing how God's people tackled problems in Scripture we would do a HELL of a lot better than both Democrats and Republicans.
We do not need any more extremists. We need to be a God centered country where all can participate in building, not a theocracy, but a country built on integrity and moral values on which we were founded. It would be a getting back to basics model of our first 100 years as a country. We are a Christian country and if you don't like it, go somewhere else. It is not the Country who should shape the People it is the People who shape the Country. So, stand up and fight Christians for our God given right to live a life for Christ and make our country a blessing to Almighty God.
Where is a good 3rd party candidate when America needs one?
Ugh! What a phony.
Given his years of attending service at Rev. Wright's church, how can Sen. Obama assure voters that he is a "normal Christian." He won't do it by promoting abortion and homosexuality or by thinking of religions as something people only cling to in times of trouble or by teaching that Jesus is not the only way to salvation.
Hope Page: itsallaboutjesusnotme.blogspot.com
I didn't know abortion was the" Lords work." Obama would be bad for america. But there are many christians who have no spiritual discernment, And i would not surprise me at all if that part of the church bought into obama.
I agree with SqueakyWheel--Obama can put up all fo the crosses that he wants and speak of "doing God's Will", but he still votes for abortion. How can he speak of doing God's Will when everyone knows that killing unborn children is NOT God's Will? He's just trying to use the cross for votes-any real christian can see right through that. <><
Please, Mr. Obama...How about a big picture of an unborn child behind you, instead of the Cross? Apparently, you need a constant reminder that unborn babies are the most innocent of victims that you are unwilling to advocate for. So much for "change." It's the same old, same old...
msnchris70 - It is almost never that I agree with you but I must say I agree with your 7:02pm post.
I think all our choices are horrible!!!!
The least of all the Evils I have to say is McCain and Hillary is only a little bit worse and then Obama is always a supporter of Intrinsic Evil. If it is Evil and immoral, I'll bet he is for it.
While he says Iraq was a horrible decision, did anyone miss him saying that he would be happy to attack Pakistan? Are we all not tired of Extremists. McCain seems to be the most centered. He is too liberal for Conservatives and too Conservative for Liberals. I'm not a big fan of his, but at least he is not an extremist.
I love Obama and I hope that he becomes the next president. It's about time to fight against discriminatory, selfish, intolerable people and the disgusting conservative right.
Mmm! Moderate evangelicals? Lets try and say it right those who attend evangelical churches and are not born again or don't hold to the teaching of the bible that Homosexuality as a practice is a sin against God along with telling lies and adultry and that abortion is also a sin against God those who ignore Obama's views on these issues for the "greater good" are in danger of helping those who parade their sin in the public square while wanting to restrict the gospel in the public square.
He is a heretic! His Church is both Racists and supporters of infanticide. How can someone call themselves a Christian if they are wrong on moral issues. We must reject his reverse form of racism his Pastor preaches, we must reject anyone who supports the murder of innocent babies and we must certainly reject someone who supports sodomy as equal to heterosexual sex which is both unitive and procreative. Gay marriage is an abomination!
I pray that our Catholic church and Evangelical Protestants everywhere stand up against this man who perverts our historic and Scripture based morals. He is a DECEIVER!