Obama: He's from Kansas, and he's good at "faith-based rhetoric"

[DeepModem Mom]

WP, "On Faith": For Obama, Nothing is the Matter with Kansas
Jacques Berlinerblau

In 2004, 78% percent of White Evangelicals voted for George W. Bush. The GOP, I surmise, would like to achieve similar numbers in 2008. The danger presented by Barack Obama is not so much that he will completely reverse this result. Neither he, nor any other Democrat will be able to do that. It will be decades, if not longer, before Evangelicals return to the Party they once so faithfully supported. Rather, what Obama may be able to do is siphon off scads of “Swing Evangelicals” in battleground states. If I were a Republican operative I would dread the following scenario:

It’s mid-October and the senator is addressing a room full of Kansans in a non-college town. The Kansans (who in my reverie are dressed like the cast of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma) are initially skeptical about this “liberal” affiliated with the socially progressive United Church of Christ denomination. But Obama opens his talk by reminding them that he too is from Kansas (being from Kansas: Kansans love that!). He then surprises his listeners by pointedly noting his disagreements with certain secular mantras of his party (Indeed, it suddenly dawns upon the lone, closeted village atheist in the room that when it comes to separation of church and state, Barack Obama is no Michael Dukakis).

Next, he fires up his audience with Jimmy Carter like gospel-based oratory, except that it’s interesting and fun to listen to. He speaks out-loud about an awesome God and his awesome God does not appear to be a card-carrying member of the ACLU. After the Q and A, as the Kansans head home in advance of their self-imposed, statewide 7:30 pm curfew, 25% of them remain completely unconvinced and unmoved. Another 50% depart intending to vote Republican, but they are generally impressed by what they heard and pleased to learn that Mr. Obama is a Good Christian Man (because Kansans are fair, big-hearted folks, after all). Twenty five percent of his listeners, however, will now consider casting their vote for a Democrat (because Kansans are open-minded folks, after all). The next evening the scene repeats itself in Columbus, Ohio.

The scenario I have conjured up abounds in hypothetical assumptions, not least of which is that Obama will win his party’s nomination. It also ignores certain glaring negatives in his biography (and autobiography) that may make him a difficult sell to White Evangelicals (I will address this issue soon). Yet the point I wish to make is that if there is any present Democratic candidate who can manipulate faith-based rhetoric to trigger a political conversion among conservative religious voters it is the talented junior senator from Illinois.

(Jacques Berlinerblau is program director and associate professor of Jewish Civilization at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. He is the author of "The Secular Bible: Why Nonbelievers Must Take Religion Seriously" and the forthcoming "Thumpin’ It: The Use and Abuse of the Bible in Today’s Presidential Politics.")

http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/georgetown/2007/08/barack_obama_and_the_kansans_a.html

[Adsos Letter]

1. Great...more emphasis on "faith-based initiatives"...

...I thought the Constitutional principle was to keep government out of religion and religion out of government...

Shunting taxpayer funds into "faith-based-initiatives" rather than forcing government to do its job in attending to the general welfare of the citizenry is an abrogation of Constitutional values, and a bad idea to boot. And I am sick and tired of the need to pander to "religion" in order to get elected...

And I say this as a Christian who holds a mix of conservative and progressive values...including a belief that government should stop subsidizing religion through tax-exemption.

ON EDT: I have my asbestos undies on...flame away, it's a part of healthy discourse (just try not to burn my popcorn, please)

:popcorn:

[Sapphire Blue]

2. Obama has a section on his website called 'Faith & Politics':

http://www.barackobama.com/issues/faith/

[Sapphire Blue]

4. There's also 'People of Faith for Barack':

http://faith.barackobama.com/page/content/faithhome

[Prophet 451]

6. 9/11 was a "faith-based initiative"

Tasteless perhaps but true.

I'm a Satanist. When people talk about "faith" in a political context, they only ever mean the dominant faith and the loudest brand of that (i.e. fundementalist Christianity).

Mixing religion and politics brings out the worst in both.

[Adsos Letter]

7. I agree about mixing religion and politics being a bad idea...

...I would qualify it only by saying it is a bad, stupid idea which demonstrates an absolute amnesia towards history.

Even if it were distributed evenly and without prejudice across the board...it's still a bad idea...

[Jim Sagle]

3. Clerical-fascist rubbish!

[madfloridian]

5. I like Obama, but hubby and I ARE card-carrying members of ACLU

They are fighting hard on the FISA issue on which our Democrats failed us.

[frazzled]

8. Obama probably is too ...

I thought that article was bizarre ... I've never heard Obama express "problems" with secular Democrats ... indeed, his theme is that secular Democrats and "faith" Democrats share the same ideas on issues and should come together on things like: torture, civil rights, etc.

Obama has a 79% lifetime rating from the ACLU, which may not sound that great until you realize HIllary Clinton has a 72% lifetime rating from the ACLU ... and John Edwards has a 50% lifetime rating from the ACLU, "the lowest of any top tier presidential candidate"

http://civilliberty.about.com/od/formersenators/p/jo

[illinoisprogressive]

9. I am not religious but, I don't fear Obama being so. he is too passionate about the constitution

[illinoisprogressive]

10. I think there is a disconnect from understanding religion and fundie.

Not all religious people are fundies. My grandmother went to church every Sunday and read the bible everyday but, she was very liberal and understanding.
Many african Americans I know are from the tradition of church being part community gathering. it is part of their live and community but, not in a fundie way.
Church every sunday and reading the bible but, much in the way of my grandmother or in the way it use to be before the 1980s.
Jimmy Carter is religious yet, people don't think he is out to make everyone super religious.
That is the way Obama is.
I think the rise of the extreem fundies and theocracy and the Bush league version of faith has scared many of us away from not just religion but, from those who worship in a jimmy carter way. my grandmother's way.

[Berry Cool]

11. I'm not nearly as insulted by the idea of Obama being able to appeal to religious people

as I am by Jacques Berlinerbeau's characterization (in his mind's eye, anyway) of all Midwesterners as Bible-thumping, naive rubes who "in my reverie are dressed like the cast of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma," regard “liberals” with suspicion, and have a "self-imposed, statewide 7:30 pm curfew." Oh, PLEASE.

Calling us "fair, big-hearted folks" and "open-minded folks" won't get him off the hook for that.

I just read a thread in which a gay man complained about the stereotyping of all gay men as "lame," and also as snappy dressers, decorators, food and wine snobs, etc. Good for him. Now it's time to stop the characterization of all Midwesterners as farm-dwelling, naive, Bible-thumping hicks who, although they are salt-of-the-earth people who would give you the shirt off their backs, wear clothes that are way behind the times, don't know the meaning of the word "nightlife," and are always suspicious of "strangers" and "newfangled" things.

[BeyondGeography]

12. So predictable; ask certain people to jump and bite the "faith" bone, and they ask, how high?

Obama is a once-in-a-lifetime candidate when it comes to articulating the need for Americans to transcend political and religious differences if we are to improve as a society. Many people on our side never hear the message because they automatically scream whenever a politician gives credence to the notion that religion and values play a role in American public life; they just want the whole discussion to go away. The funny part is they probably don't even realize that Obama has the courage and the common sense to include atheists and agnostics in his public statements about religion and politics. From a discussion with CBN's David Brody:

"For progressives, I think we should recognize the role that values and culture play in addressing some of our most urgent social problems. As I've said many times before, the problems of poverty and racism, the uninsured and the unemployed aren't simply technical problems in search of a ten-point plan. They're rooted in both societal indifference and individual callousness - in the imperfections of man. When a gang-banger shoots indiscriminately into a crowd because he feels somebody disrespected him, we've got a moral problem. There's a hole in that young man's heart - a hole that the government alone cannot fix."

Obama believes that religious conservatives need to accept the fact that America has evolved and government policies need to encompass all faiths because the country is no longer just a Christian nation.

"I think that the right might worry a bit more about the dangers of sectarianism. Whatever we once were, we're no longer just a Christian nation; we are also a Jewish nation, a Muslim nation, a Buddhist nation, a Hindu nation, and a nation of nonbelievers. We should acknowledge this and realize that when we're formulating policies from the state house to the Senate floor to the White House, we've got to work to translate our reasoning into values that are accessible to every one of our citizens, not just members of our own faith community."

http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/204016.aspx

[Tellurian]

13. Obama IS whoever he needs to be at the moment he's in front of an audience

If Obama is speaking to a majority of Muslims, he'll brag how his Dad was a Muslim and yada-yada-yada...
Obama is into sales. Selling his most important product..."himself"...I wonder how the people in Kansas will feel when they realize how Obama got to where he is today thanks to his now indicted Chicago benefactor, slumlord, Tony Rezko?

"Barack sold himself as a community organizer when running for office but when he was elected by the community his attentions were devoted to the most corrupt elements in Chicago. The community found itself literally in the cold."

Also this:

"The ad, entitled “Take It Back,” ad uses footage from his declaration speech this past February, in which he told the crowd, “I know that I haven’t spent a lot of time learning the ways of Washington. But I’ve been there long enough to know, the ways of Washington must change.” The narrator then talks about Obama’s work on ethics reform, and his refusal of PAC money in his campaign bolstering his ongoing efforts to make government reform a centerpiece of his campaign."

Freaky huh? And just yesterday, we read: Obama, Republican's Corporate Whore!

[alteredstate]

14. The ACLU remarks are Berlinerblau's, not Obama's

"He speaks out-loud about an awesome God and his awesome God does not appear to be a card-carrying member of the ACLU."