Obama Cranks Up Appeal To Religious Voters
A religious reader forwards us an email that the Obama campaign blasted out to what apparently is a mass list of people who do religious outreach and charity work:
Dear Friend,After college, I worked as an organizer on the streets of the South Side of Chicago with a range of faith communities and neighborhood organizations. I had the opportunity to meet extraordinary people of faith single mothers, students, pastors and parishioners. In that time, which was formative to my own Christian faith, I realized that everyone has a story to tell if others simply take the time to listen.
Through your work in social ministry, education, and advocacy you listen to these stories every day and take action, working for the common good. In the face of many of our greatest moral challenges, from unjust war, to growing economic inequality and the global scourge of disease, you live out that Gospel mandate that calls us to be our brother’s keeper and our sister’s keeper.
It is with an abiding respect for this work that I am writing to invite you and members of your community to join my campaign for a new kind of politics in America.
Obama's appealing directly to religious voters by putting the call for a new politics in a religious context -- which becomes more interesting when you keep in mind that it's partly about pushing back against the false Muslim smear rumors, though this email is a lot more than just that.
In the email, Obama also claims that he is "building the largest grassroots network of people of faith in any campaign in history." You have to wonder, though, whether Obama's faith outreach really exceeds the GOP's Evangelical outreach in recent years. Still, this sort of stuff does give Obama another argument in the primary -- that as a general election candidate he could conceivably do a lot to counter the right-wing smear that the Dems are the "Godless" party.
Plus he also has to counter that horrible viral email about him being a Muslim.
I was seated next to a woman at a restaurant recently who was obviously a member of the religous right and out of the blue she brought up that Obama is a Muslim (she must have figured out we were dems from our conversation). I replied 'Oh, you must have gotten that horrible email. That crazy rumor has been debunked but nobody has been able to find out who started it.'
That shut her up ;~)
February 4, 2008 12:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
No surprise here.
After all Obama had no problem, to the contrary openly embraced and courted, homophobic and misogynistic black preachers as part of his "black" campaign in SC.
Are these elements entitled to space in the public square?
Well of course; what a dumb question.
Do these elements have a place in a supposedly "progressive"
campaign?
Of course not; an even dumber question.
Obama is coming to embody the most regressive Democratic principals all covered by his vacuous promises of change.
If it does come to Obama versus McCain how many will vote the devil we know over the devil we don't?
February 4, 2008 12:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
Smart move. We really need to appeal to the better side of religious voters. We have a tendency to write them all off as crazies who only care about abortion and making sure gays don't have rights, but there are also a lot of religious people who care about (and remember) the main message of the Bible, at least the New Testament, which was all about social justice, helping the poor, basically populism. The Right is having such a hard time holding together their base now because they have exploited their anti-abortion and anti-gay sentiments while acting in the complete opposite way of "what would Jesus do?" Now they are starting to see Democrats as the real keepers of that tradition of compassionate religiosity, it is just a matter of them being welcomed and them being able to become more open minded. So we need to fight for these people, and bring them to our side, so the GOP loses a strong base, and so we can have more political support for populist/progressive policies. Obama obviously helps here because of his background, and because he isn't seen by the majority of Americans as being the embodiment of adultery and lying. The Clintons lost their values cred a long time ago, and this is just another example of how the Clintons would continue to divide our country and bolster the GOP.
February 4, 2008 12:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
No surprise here.
After all Obama had no problem, to the contrary openly embraced and courted, homophobic and misogynistic black preachers as part of his "black" campaign in SC.
Are these elements entitled to space in the public square?
Well of course; what a dumb question.
Do these elements have a place in a supposedly "progressive"
campaign?
Of course not; an even dumber question.
Obama is coming to embody the most regressive Democratic principals all covered by his vacuous promises of change.
If it does come to Obama versus McCain how many will vote the devil we know over the devil we don't?
February 4, 2008 12:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
Smart move. We really need to appeal to the better side of religious voters. We have a tendency to write them all off as crazies who only care about abortion and making sure gays don't have rights, but there are also a lot of religious people who care about (and remember) the main message of the Bible, at least the New Testament, which was all about social justice, helping the poor, basically populism. The Right is having such a hard time holding together their base now because they have exploited their anti-abortion and anti-gay sentiments while acting in the complete opposite way of "what would Jesus do?" Now they are starting to see Democrats as the real keepers of that tradition of compassionate religiosity, it is just a matter of them being welcomed and them being able to become more open minded. So we need to fight for these people, and bring them to our side, so the GOP loses a strong base, and so we can have more political support for populist/progressive policies. Obama obviously helps here because of his background, and because he isn't seen by the majority of Americans as being the embodiment of adultery and lying. The Clintons lost their values cred a long time ago, and this is just another example of how the Clintons would continue to divide our country and bolster the GOP.
February 4, 2008 12:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
Greg,
It could be pushing back against the Muslim smear, OR, it could be a legitimate call to live out your faith by changing the way politics work. I'm Catholic, old enough to remember when we were more about helping the poor--without regard to the individuals' religions or lack thereof--and that's all I took from this message.
And no, Republicans do NOT have a lock on Christianity. For many of us, they are modern day hypocrites who preach hate instead of love and tolerance.
Obama has even given liberal Christians their voice back. This message was targeted to this group, not to political pundits.
February 4, 2008 1:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
Smart move. We really need to appeal to the better side of religious voters. We have a tendency to write them all off as crazies who only care about abortion and making sure gays don't have rights, but there are also a lot of religious people who care about (and remember) the main message of the Bible, at least the New Testament, which was all about social justice, helping the poor, basically populism. The Right is having such a hard time holding together their base now because they have exploited their anti-abortion and anti-gay sentiments while acting in the complete opposite way of "what would Jesus do?" Now they are starting to see Democrats as the real keepers of that tradition of compassionate religiosity, it is just a matter of them being welcomed and them being able to become more open minded. So we need to fight for these people, and bring them to our side, so the GOP loses a strong base, and so we can have more political support for populist/progressive policies. Obama obviously helps here because of his background, and because he isn't seen by the majority of Americans as being the embodiment of adultery and lying. The Clintons lost their values cred a long time ago, and this is just another example of how the Clintons would continue to divide our country and bolster the GOP.
February 4, 2008 1:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
This is by no means a new strategy for the Obama campaign -- he has been (successfully, in my opinion) appealing to religious voters directly for a long time now, trying to turn on its head the notion that Dems are the "godless" party.
See the November 2006 issue of Sojourner's magazine for proof (www.sojo.net).
February 4, 2008 2:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
Great...more Jesus-freak crap! Like there hasn't been enough of that for the last 7+ years! Though we were not meant to be..we certainly are a fucking Christian nation now! Ugh.
Keep Church and State separate and keep your silly superstitions to yourself! "Not a sermon, just a thought."
February 4, 2008 3:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
As an atheist, I'm uncomfortable with the overwhelming emphasis on religious rhetoric in a presidential campaign - by all the candidates. But unfortunately, it seems to be a necessity in American politics. And one thing about Barack Obama, he always confirms his support for the separation of church and state, and he specifically recognizes non-believers as having the same rights as everyone else. After 7 years of being made to feel like a second-class citizen - at best - I'm very glad to support someone like Obama for the presidency. And I don't care WHAT his religious beliefs are.
Bill
February 4, 2008 4:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
As an atheist, I'm uncomfortable with the overwhelming emphasis on religious rhetoric in a presidential campaign - by all the candidates. But unfortunately, it seems to be a necessity in American politics. And one thing about Barack Obama, he always confirms his support for the separation of church and state, and he specifically recognizes non-believers as having the same rights as everyone else. After 7 years of being made to feel like a second-class citizen - at best - I'm very glad to support someone like Obama for the presidency. And I don't care WHAT his religious beliefs are.
Bill
February 4, 2008 4:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Whatever we once were, we are no longer a Christian nation--at least not just. We are also a Jewish nation and a Muslim nation and a Buddist nation and a Hindu nation and a nation of non-believers. And even if we were to kick out all the non-Christians, whose brand of Christianity would we teach? Al Sharpton's or James Dobson's? Which passages? Should we teach Leviticus, that tells us to hit our children if they should stray from the faith? Or Deuteronomy, which teaches that eating shellfish is an abomination? Or maybe we should just go with the Sermon on the Mount, a passage so radical our own defense department would not survive it's application."Obama's Call to Renewal Address on Faith and Politics
February 4, 2008 6:31 PM | Reply | Permalink