They had no choice but to go hog wild on Wright–painting Barack as a whacked out Black Christian–because they forgot that they had already painted him as a secret Muslim.

Next up: Barack is a Manchurian Candidate, controlled by Willliam Ayers and the Weather Underground. (rolling eyes)

I look at this issue in two ways:
1- as a progressive person of faith, I allow myself a little thrill to see that evangelicals (who aren’t all within the Religious Right) seem to be loosening up their definition of ‘values’ to mean more than abortion and bashing gay folks. That’s good for the progressive cause, IMO.

2-But there’s another part of me that thinks that this continued blurring of the line between private religious faith and public service seriously disturbing.

By insisting that our elected officials must pass some kind of ‘religious test’ (satisfy some standard of appropriate religious behavior) then the already breached line separating church from state disintegrates even further, to the detriment of both church and state.

The GOP has recently discovered the perils of relying on the fundamentalist evangelical bloc. The Dems should be, too.

Most of my friends (all of us over 30), would chew nails before we cast our vote for the Republican party. While we disagree with Obama on certain issues, we recognize that the government cannot legislate people’s sexuality.

I’m not voting for Obama because he claims to be a Christian. Lots of politicians claim to be Christians and look at our political situation. I’m voting for him based on the greater issues, the ones that I believe will benefit the greater amount of issues. I’ll let God handle the rest.

What we do want people to know is that George Bush does NOT represent our Christianity, and that is something I make sure I underscore to my non-Christian friends.

Many voted for Bush because he was “pro-life” and what did they get?

A preemptive war and torture…not very pro-life, is it?

All evangelicals are moved by Obama’s message of unity and healing, and Obama can attract these votes in huge numbers.

I do believe one of the big stories of this general election will be Obama’s appeal to the so called religious conservatives.

It’s not 1980 any longer, and the Moral Majority people don’t have that kind of influence.

So, this narrative of evangelicals being in the pocket of the Republicans was just a slice of the truth.

Also, it may be a little easier for me to remember since I subscribe to Obama’s videos and podcasts through iTunes :)

It just kills me when people claim that Obama doesn’t talk enough about faith. Rember his 40 minute “Call to Renewal” keynote speech on faith in 2006 that garnered criticism in left circles? Rikyrah, yes you are on to something.

http://obama.senate.gov/podcast/060628-call_to_renewal_1/

I thought it was a terribly underutilized and unknown part of the guy insofar as if you didn’t read the book or see the videos you would have never known that side of him.

When put into this context it clearly makes sense.