From his frequent God talk on the campaign trail to his latest proposal to expand aid to faith-based programs, Democrat Barack Obama is serious and aggressive when it comes to courting faith voters.
-
(Photo: AP Images /Jae C. Hong)Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., speaks during a news conference after he toured the East Community Ministry in Zanesville, Ohio, Tuesday, July 1, 2008.
The Illinois senator not only challenges the long-held tacit alliance between evangelicals and the Republican Party, but is doing so with some success, according to a well-known emergent leader.
"I think there's a very, very sizable percentage – I think between a third and half – of evangelicals, especially younger [evangelicals], who are very open to somebody with a new vision," said Brian McLaren, a former pastor and now informal adviser to the Obama campaign, according to CNN.
McLaren believes a significant number of evangelical voters are breaking away from the Republican Party to rally behind Obama, who speaks about a faith that cares for the poor and seeks to protect the environment.
"We've watched the evangelical community be led – be misled – by the Republican Party to support things they really shouldn't have supported," McLaren said, giving as example the group’s “blind support” for the Iraq war, which he claims was “launched on either mistaken or false pretenses.”
The evangelicals who are attracted to Obama are part of a new generation of faith voters where the issues of Darfur, global warming, poverty, and torture are considered as important, or at least nearly as important, as the traditional key issues of abortion and gay “marriage” when choosing the next president.
As a reminder of his commitment to faith-driven solutions to social problems, Obama announced Tuesday his plans to expand President Bush’s faith-based programs if elected to the White House.
Obama, a former community organizer in Chicago, said his program would better reach smaller congregations, be a “critical part of my administration,” and proposed a $500 million per year program to provide summer learning to 1 million poor children.
White House spokesman Tony Fratto said the faith-based initiative is important to Bush, according to Bloomberg news, and if Obama supports the idea, “that’s something we’d all be very happy about.”
While Obama has been outspoken about his faith and its influence on his political decisions, Republican rival John McCain has been shy about sharing his own Christian faith.
An advisor to the McCain campaign had earlier explained that the Arizona senator does not want to use his personal faith for political gain, according to Christian Broadcasting Network.
Nonetheless, McCain has reached out to influential Christian leaders, including the Greek Orthodox head in America Archbishop Demetrios, and on Sunday, father-son evangelists Billy Graham and Franklin Graham.
Although McCain’s campaign lacks the aggressive outreach of the Obama camp, polls show that he still leads by a wide margin among evangelical voters.
A CNN poll conducted by Opinion Research Corporation in June found nearly two-thirds of white evangelical voters surveyed (64 percent) supported McCain, and 30 percent backed Obama.
Notable, however, is McCain’s significantly lower support from evangelicals as compared to Bush’s 78 percent in the 2004 election, according to exit polls.
"The evangelical community seems to be sitting on the fence to a particular degree," observed Jacques Berlinerblau, a professor at Georgetown University, according to CNN.
And that could open the door for Obama, he said.
"If Sen. Obama can get between 30 and 33 percent [of the evangelical vote] in those crucial swing states, he's absolutely golden," Berlinerblau said.
Obama is focusing his campaign this week on American values, including religious faith and patriotism, leading up to Friday’s Fourth of July holiday.
Comments
This is funny.
James Reynolds sez: " . . . he wants to force these religious groups to allow anyone to join thier organization regardless of faith or ideology. So, essentially these organizations will become political instead of religious, wont ask for essential funds, or the whole program will bephased out because the churches will not back down.
So, uh, Mr. Reynolds, are you suggesting that patriotic Christian conservative evangelical churches do not pick and choose their members today? What if one of the "flock" wanted to smoke test religious philosophy at a synagogue or, God forbid, at a mosque? Would that patriotic Christian conservative evangelical church expel that member out of an unfllinching sense of Christian love?
As for abortion, however reprehensible the procedure might be, don't any of you have lives that are not focused on that subject area day and night? Can you be so obsessed with this one focal point that you are not aware of the hunger, lack of health care, housing, employment, and money that besets this nation today?
Or of the horrid tragedy that is Iraq manufactured by The Great Satan Bush and his fellow travelers? Are any of you truly Christians or is "Christian" a nice social grouping that gives you a sense of belonging?
"Your anger is so bad, that you cannot possibly come from the Lord."
I'm just trying to figure out how Jesus could have said "you sons of hell!" in a nice tone of voice. Just how can you drive someone from the temple with a whip and be nice about it? Jesus got mad and rightfully so.
"Be angry, but do not sin; do not let the sun go down or your wrath, nor give place to the Devil." Eph 4:26-27
Please note the Bible actually SAYS to be angry. So, exactly what is the basis of your statement? Codependency says we don't want to be angry because anger is bad. Guess what...not being angry when it is appropriate is bad.
Anyone else think it's weird that the title of this article is "Obama Prying Loose Evangelicals from Republicans"....and there's another article on here titled "Obama Backed by Less Religious Americans".
That just doesn't make sense.
lina,
I wasn't sure if you noticed that you were on a Christian message board. What were expecting? Recipes for rhubarb pie?
lina,
Can you think or talk without quoting science?
IGH - can you think or talk without quoting the Bible?
lina and dddd becareful on future posts or i will ask the owners of this site to ban you permanently. Dont pull this site into the gutters. You and many others who come here really need to understand that God is good man is wicked and we need Jesus to Save us from the coming Judgement.
Hebrews 10:29 "What, then, of those who despise the Son of God? who treat as a cheap thing the blood of God's covenant which purified them from sin? who insult the Spirit of grace? Just think how much worse is the punishment they will deserve!
Heb 10:30 For we know who said, "I will take revenge, I will repay"; and who also said, "The Lord will judge his people."
Heb 10:31 It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God!"
I don't vote parties. I vote my conscience.
lina,
No, not really.
Jesus did away with capital punishment.
It's not a matter of the death penalty being a deterent, it's a matter of principle. Both the death penalty and abortion are wrong because people are taking matters of life and death in their own hands. It's important with the death penality because our behavior as Christians have to be above the behavior of murderers.
Do any of you think that you are to use Christ as a bludgeon to hit people over the head with? Do you think God wants people to come to him out of fear or love? Your anger is so bad, that you cannot possibly come from the Lord. When you label people and bully, you committ sin. You can condemn the actions, but not the person. Can I get a role call from everyone on how much time you all spend reading your Bibles everyday?
"Why are some people who are on death row, awaiting execution, put on suicide watch? They're gonna die anyway?"
Life is full of little ironies now isn't it? The legal system says they have the right to a final appeal to the governor. They cannot do this if they are dead. We wouldn't want to violate their rights even if they waive them.
"And you can't get much more severe in your punishment, unless you get into torture."
Yep. It's a matter of simply removing the problem if you can's solve it. I was in court today for a freinds case. (The judge explained to his ex's lawyer that the only thing she proved (in 5 hours of court time) was that the child support needed to go up and it did by $10 per week. It cost his ex $13,000 in legal fees closing a 2 year battle.)
I determined we could end the threat of global warming if they'd end stupid litigation thus removing 90% of the paper usage in the legal world and saving all those trees....
In short, there will always be people who will do wrong. In the case of murder, sometimes the only real solution is to remove them from society permenantly via the death penalty. It would be so much more simple if people simply didn't murder!
Obama is only "duping" the weak minded. Which the Bible said would happen. So, I'm not worried.