Courting the Christian Vote

Senator Obama is making a concerted appeal for the evangelical christian vote. Today, he made a proposal to expand George Bush's faith-based initiative! Trust me, the left blogosphere is not finding this initiative because of fears about separation of church and state.

Tomorrow, Wednesday, Obama will be going to Colorado Springs, the hometown of Dobson's Focus on the Family, to make a speech about National Service.

Lastly, Matthew 25 Network, a PAC unaffiliated but supportive of the Obama Campaign's Christian Outreach is running an ad in Colorado Springs touting the candidate's faith.

I think this is a very promising strategy that has a chance of winning some of the young and African-American Christians who might otherwise see the Republican party as their only choice. Think here of a Rick Warren or a T.D. Jakes. For anyone who was skeptical about his commitment to the role of faith in the public sphere as outlined in the Call to Renewal speech so viciously attacked by James Dobson, here is a policy action to back up the words. I am waiting for Tony Perkins, who wrote Personal Faith, Public Policy, to respond to this without attempting to reduce the debate to abortion.

If the argument, in courting Christians, is going to boil down to abortion and gay marriage, there's really no point, but if the discussion can be widened as Obama is trying to do, then there's a chance of winning moderate, non-conservative Christians. I sincerely believe there are many who want Obama to give them a reason to vote for him.

Listen to Matthew 25's ad below:


BTW, I noted with interest the recent re-emergence of a chain email that claimed that a movie was about to be released that potrayed Jesus and his disciples as homosexuals. It is interesting that a variation of this email also arrived in 2000. Hmmh, I wonder what else was going in 2000? A visit to snopes.com confirms that this email is a hoax.

Update I: Just saw Bishop Harry Jackson on Bill O'Reilly. I was quite disappointed that he could not find a single positive thing to say about this initiative. All he would say was that McCain needs to not ignore Evangelicals and then proceeded to reduce the discussion back to gay marriage. The CBN Report on this initiative also ended with a discussion of Obama's relationship to the gay community.

Update II: "There's a disconnect between his policy and his words." So said Tony Perkins on Anderson Cooper, even though Obama's just committed $500 million to faith-based initiatives. Ultimately for Perkins and company, the argument is back to abortion and gay marriage.