Love the snarkish title.

i want him to think in the box too.  This stuff turns people like me off, but I guess he needs to do it.  

and McCain may see them back out again.

We forget that over the long term, demographics and geographics have switched sides before.

There has been some discomfort amoung atheists or the non-religious about Obama's outreach to evangelicals. I, myself, have always been an atheist, but I don't share this concern, and in fact I think this is exactly what Democrats need to do.

My parents are very religious. But they belong to a church of the social gospel persuasion (the kind that believes in doing god's work on earth). These churches have become increasingly disgusted at the right's attempt to hijack Christianity and to make abortion and gays the only moral or religious issues people should care about (ignoring poverty, peace, and environmental issues). Their church has been networking with other like-minded churches and have become increasingly political over the last 10 years. It hasnt reached the point where CW has become aware of it, but there has been a rebirth of the social gospel in this country.

I work in Canada and it would probably surprise many that even though this country is quite secular the political left is not overwhelmingly secular. In fact the NDP (the party to the left of the Liberal Party, which itself is far to the left of the Democratic Party in the US) relies on members of the United Church (the largest non-Catholic denomination in Canada) for organization and outreach. The first leader of the NDP and godfather of universal medicare in Canada was himself a Baptist minister who was able to bridge the divide between social democratic principles and christianity by tying those principles to the social gospel.

As an atheist, I not only dont have a problem with this, I welcome it.

screwed.  They don't just need their votes.  They need their GOTV apparatus.  The evangelicals are to the Republicans as the unions are to Democrats.

Joshua Generation Project.  How does everyone feel about this?

part of it! Once you open that pandora's box there's no closing it. He's obviously going into the direction of Tony Blair's christian socialist movement.

www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2003/aug/03/ religion.tonyblair

And on the seventh day Tony Blair created...

It may prove an uphill struggle in this secular day and age, but the Prime Minister is aiming to put religion right at the centre of government. Kamal Ahmed reports on a major break with British tradition

Kamal Ahmed The Observer, Sunday August 3 2003

Tony Blair knows it is one of the most delicate of subjects. When asked about it he squirms and tries to change to a more comfortable line of inquiry. But quietly the Prime Minister is putting religion at the centre of the New Labour project, reflecting his own deeply felt beliefs that answers to most questions can be found in the Bible.

The Observer can reveal that Blair is to allow Christian organisations and other 'faith groups' a central role in policy-making in a decisive break with British traditions that religion and government should not mix.

The Prime Minister, who this weekend becomes the longest continually serving Labour Prime Minister in history, has set up a ministerial working group in the Home Office charged with injecting religious ideas 'across Whitehall'. One expert on the relationship between politics and religion described the move as a 'blow to secularism'.

more....

Definition of the Christian Socialist Movement:

www.psa.ac.uk/journals/pdf/5/2002/leach. pdf

I think it's a great idea. Why cede religion to the repugs? Funny how the only ones who oppose this are ex-clintonites. Things that make you go Huh.

I think Christian groups who endorse Obama understand that he is pro-Choice and at minimum for civil unions. Beyond that, there aren't many areas where the platforms of Christians and Democrats don't intertwine. Social responsibility is a huge part of the Bible, and if we can start working with such a huge part of the population, I think we'll be much better off in the long run.

Perhaps. This information would seem to say otherwise. I don't think the representatives at the evangelical debate seemed to care much one way or the other.

Wonderful.  Hopefully it will prod McCain to propose some truly batshit crazy policy in order to lock down their vote (and thereby lose the center).  It's a strategy that can pay off in multiple ways.

i'm gonna incorporate a non-profit and get one of those spiffy faith-based grants and pray for you... and charge the government $150 an hour for doing so. dunno if you'll get better, but i sure will.

guest list:

thepage.time.com/2008/06/10/obama-meets- with-religious-leaders/

Yeah.

Either that, or the fact that the Whitey tape doesn't exist has completely blown the credibility of everyone pushing the "black liberation theology" line.

David Brody is a fascinating figure. He writes for CBN, Pat Robertson's outfit, but he's often supportive of Democrats. The man has always liked Obama.

This is a very positive development, and it doesn't surprise me. Last year Obama visited Rick Warren's church and he has continued to let his faith convictions be known throughout the evangelical world.

It's paying off. I teach US history at a small Presbyterian-affiliated liberal arts college in East Tennessee and about 25% of my students are outright fundamentalists (at least they are when they arrive). Yet, Obama is a hero to many of these seemingly conservative Christians. He speaks to them in a way that John Kerry never could have. And John McCain holds no appeal for them. Many of them supported Mike Huckabee in the primary, but they are not wedded to the GOP for good.

I'm Jewish myself but I attend Unitarian services here. I'm as secularist as anybody else. But I recognize that for a lot of people, faith is central to their lives. They don't necessarily want politicians to turn America into the Christian Taliban (some do, but most don't). But they don't want some recognition that politicians have given some serious thought to religion. And Obama conveys that respect and discernment that most Democrats don't.

The meeting with Jakes is very big too. Jakes was George Bush's outreach man to conservative black evangelicals. If Obama neutralizes Jakes, McCain will have virtually no credibility left among black conservative evangelicals (a small but important element; they made the difference in Ohio in 2004).

OK, trolly. When real Christians listen to Barack Obama talk about his faith, they don't hear black liberation theology. They hear Christianity.

Most evangelicals understand that Reverend Wright's most important relationship to Obama is that he led Obama to Christ. That's all that matters to most evangelicals. You'll notice that Mike Huckabee defended Wright quite a bit; he knows what that relationship means to Christians.

Evangelicals will vote for McCain, but not at the levels they did for Bush. Indies will split. And Hillary Dems, to your consternation, are already supporting Obama.

So bugger off.

So back up your comments with proof and then go troll elsewhere.

How can you not respect it?  I dunno, unless it's pandering?  I have frankly had enough of the repubs pandering to political religious types.  I'd rather it be left out of the campaign entirely.  Politics mixed with religion makes a gooey mess.

This gets recc'd for the title alone.

I am also atheist and a big time Obama supporter (jewish by birth). In general I would much rather have anything religious entirely outside the public sphere (public meaning politics or public spaces for that matter) but I also appreciate the way he is trying to maximize his reach. There are plenty of very religious people who care about health care and  unemployment and gas prices (millions of them) and if talking to them about his faith is a way to bring them to our side well....go for it I guess.

And you're just waiting for that to happen, aren't you, georgiast? And you'll just be filled with rage when it doesn't.

"Clinton dems" are already moving to Obama, and it's just been a week. Too bad you won't join the party.

By the way: "The evangelical believers love America almost as much as they love God" proves to me that you're just another McTroll.

As a former evangelical (I'm now an athiest) I can tell you that issues like poverty, hunger, genocide, and war matter to evangelicals, especially the younger generation. The Republicans seem bigoted when they talk about these issues.

Evangelicals aren't the single-minded idiots that they are portrayed as by the MSM, they just have a different world view.

Of course there are radicals who would never vote democratic because they vote only on abortion but, there are many evangelicals that are disgusted with the ignorance of the far right. I can speak from personal experiance that if Democrats make their case they can convince evangelical.

I find it fascinating in others (my best friend is a minister-in-training) but it doesn't play much a role in my life. I view religion as the framework for people to justify their actions... that can be good or bad. Religion has been the basis for remarkable good and unspeakable evil. So it is a wash for me whether a politician is religious or not. It is what they do with that religion that matters to me.
I too believe in a secular government and believe it is a fundamental good thing, at the same time I have no problems with, say, the 10 commandments on courthouse lawns, providing that any religion (or belief) who wants equal representation in that environment gets the same access. It just so happens that NOT having the 10 commandments on those lawns is easier all the way around as providing equal access may prove cumbersome.

As to Obama, one thing that reassures me is that he is not coming at his POV from an absolutest stance, but one of humility... Like life, it is a journey.

...keep up the great diaries, I really enjoy them, thanks!!

Obama is going to make McCain fight for Every. Last. Vote. No safe zones for the GOP this year.