Religious Views Isolating Obama

Religious Views Isolating Obama

Senator and Democratic nominee for President Barak Obama, is isolating religious groups in his appeal to religions who typically support Republican candidates. Both the Christians and Muslims are criticizing Obama for his treatment of them in his campaign.

Recently a top Evangical Christian and broadcaster James Dobson has leveled criticism about Obama’s alleged “distortion” of the Bible and has a “fruitcake” approach to the U.S. Constitution. Obama said in a recent speech that certain portions of the Bible would allow parents to stone their children and require that the Defense Department be abolished. "He's deliberately distorting the traditional understanding of the Bible to fit his own world view, his own confused theology," Dobson said.

Obama in a recent speech made these comments: itt would be “impractical to govern based solely on the word of the Bible, noting that some passages suggest slavery is permissible and eating shellfish is disgraceful. "Which passages of scripture should guide our public policy?" Obama asked in the speech. "Should we go with Leviticus, which suggests slavery is OK and that eating shellfish is an abomination? Or we could go with Deuteronomy, which suggests stoning your child if he strays from the faith? Or should we just stick to the Sermon on the Mount? "So before we get carried away, let's read our Bible now," Obama said, to cheers. "Folks haven't been reading their Bible”.

In the comments aired Tuesday on his show, Dobson said Obama should not be referencing antiquated dietary codes and passages from the Old Testament that are no longer relevant to the teachings of the New Testament. "I think he's deliberately distorting the traditional understanding of the Bible to fit his own world view, his own confused theology," Dobson said, adding that Obama is "dragging biblical understanding through the gutter."

Already facing flack because of the anti-American comments of the minister of his own home church Obama is inflating the controversy by these and other religious comments. In trying to reach out to the religious who do not support John McCain, he’s already got 2 strikes against him in his support of abortion and gay rights. An attack by a noted evangelist, heard by 60 million Americans each day is a strong blow. Dobson has already disowned Bush due to his participation on stem cell research. We already know how strong of a political force religion can be in an election and in politics generally.

Obama campaign heads made swift efforts at damage control. ."And I do suggest that the separation of church and state is important,” said Obama, “But there's no theological work being done in that speech in terms of the Bible." Joshua DuBois, Obama's national director of religious affairs, said the senator is committed to reaching out to people of faith and standing up for American families. . "Obama is proud to have the support of millions of Americans of faith and looks forward to working across religious lines to bring our country together."

Dobson was also critical of what he identified as an attempt to appeal to broader segments of the population by not just framing their arguments around religious precepts. He said that this translates into a demand that the religiously motivated translate their concerns into broader universal applications, rather than religion-specific values. Dobson said the suggestion is an attempt to lead by the "lowest common denominator of morality." "What he's trying to say here is, unless everybody agrees, we have no right to fight for what we believe”.

And he was offended by another comment Obama made in the same speech: "Even if we did have only Christians in our midst, if we expelled every non-Christian from the United States of America, whose Christianity would we teach in the schools? Would we go with James Dobson's or Al Sharpton's?" Dobson’s camp responded that many people have called Sharpton a black racist, and Obama is somehow equating Dobson with that and racial bigotry.

Neither has Obama been garnering favor with the Muslims. Still accused of having strong Muslim ties, his former strong support from that religion has waned. Obama has denied that he had kept his Muslim supporters at arm's length. They cited statements in which he had spoken inclusively about American Islam. The strained relationship between Muslims and Obama reflects one of the central challenges facing the senator: how to maintain a broad electoral appeal without alienating any of the constituencies he needs to win in November. Obama apologized to the two Muslim women but such gestures have fallen short in the eyes of many Muslim leaders. "The community feels betrayed," said Safiya Ghori, the government relations director in the Washington office of the Muslim Public Affairs Council.

Even some of Obama's strongest Muslim supporters say they are uncomfortable with the forceful denials he has made in response to rumors that he is secretly a Muslim. On his website Obama characterizes the claim that he is a Muslim “a smear”. For Muslims, Obama's hands-off approach is not surprising in a political climate they feel is marred by frequent attacks on their faith because of the terror threat and Bin-Laden. The joke within the national Muslim organizations is that Muslims should endorse the person they don't want to win.

Despite the complications of wooing Muslim voters, Obama and his Republican rival may find it risky to ignore this constituency. There are sizable Muslim populations in closely fought states such as Florida, Michigan, Ohio and Virginia.

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