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Barack Obama Targets The Religious Right
The Telegraph (UK) ^ | 6-11-2008 | Alex Spillius

Posted on 06/11/2008 3:31:37 PM PDT by blam

Barack Obama targets the religious Right

By Alex Spillius in Washington
Last Updated: 8:46PM BST 11/06/2008

Democratic nominee Senator Barack Obama is aiming to lure members of the religious Right, as the movement that twice helped George W Bush win the White House. His campaign is set to launch the Joshua Generation Project, an initiative that will include household gatherings, blogs and concerts, to attract young evangelicals and Catholics ahead of November's US presidential election.

The campaign has noted an "unprecedented energy" among young religious people for the Illinois senator and aims to bring them into a new coalition of voters that will include non-devout youth, independent voters and some Republicans.

Earlier this week Mr Obama in his home city Chicago held a meeting with 30 religious leaders, authors and theologians, many of them who have not declared their support. In what was wide-ranging, two-hour discussion, spokesman for Franklin Graham, who succeeded his father as head of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, said on Wednesday that he found the senator "impressive" and "warm".

David Brody, senior correspondent with the Christian Broadcasting Network, said the presence of several conservative figures at the meeting was a "really big deal", adding it "may be a signal that Obama's campaign is ready to break down the traditional wall of separation between conservatives and liberals when it comes to religious talk".

Mr Obama is aware that by supporting abortion and gay marriage he will prevent many religious conservatives from voting for him, but he nonetheless hopes that his "outreach" will help defuse the cultural conflict that has marked the US for several decades.

"Reaching out to the faith community is a priority for Barack Obama and will be a priority under an Obama administration. This is one of several meetings he will have over the coming months with religious leaders," said Obama campaign spokesman Jen Psaki.

He is however straying onto relatively friendly territory. For all his difficulties with his controversial former pastor, the Rev Jeremiah Wright, the 46-year-old first-term senator he is known as a genuine, practising Christian.

His Republican rival for the White House, Senator John McCain, may be "pro-life" but is no darling of the Religious Right, whom he once called "agents of intolerance", and lacks the inspiration on other issues offered by Mr Obama. He is struggling to mobilize what is a key section of the Republican base to work on his behalf.

Growing numbers of influential evangelical leaders such as Rick Warren and Joel Hunter have addressed the need to depoliticize the movement, which from the late 1970s onwards became identified with the Republicans.

Evangelicals make up the biggest religious group in the country, with 26.3 of the population, while in a 2004 study 56 per cent described themselves as Republican.

Abortion and gay marriage have been regarded as non-negotiable issues, but more now see "whole of life" as more important, and have embraced causes such as climate change, Darfur and poverty, opening the door to voting for a candidate such as Mr Obama.

"Many of them have become very disillusioned with the Republican Party for the way they have been used. Their issues were raised in campaigns and not acted on," said Os Guinness, a leading evangelical scholar, adding that he once heard a senior White House staffer refer to evangelicals as "useful idiots".

"We are now seeing the end of the dominance of the Religious Right, the coalition that made it so powerful is breaking up," he said.

Mr Guinness, who has lived in the US for 20 years, recently launched an "evangelical manifesto" with seven other theologians condemning Christians on the Right and Left for "using faith" to express political views "without regard to the truth of the Bible".


TOPICS: News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 2008; catholicvote; christianvote; evangelicals; franklingraham; joshuageneration; mccain; obama; osguinness; religious; rickwarren; right; targets; youthvote
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1 posted on 06/11/2008 3:31:37 PM PDT by blam
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To: blam

Obama supports killing born babies. McCain is pro-life.

Anyone considering themselves a Christian shouldn’t have a hard time on this one.


2 posted on 06/11/2008 3:33:30 PM PDT by LowTaxesEqualProsperity
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Next, he’s targeting the NRA...


3 posted on 06/11/2008 3:33:46 PM PDT by D-fendr (Deus non alligatur sacramentis sed nos alligamur.)
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To: LowTaxesEqualProsperity

It would help if he was a Christian. Read this:

http://foxforum.blogs.foxnews.com/2008/06/02/barack-obama-is-not-a-christian/


4 posted on 06/11/2008 3:42:12 PM PDT by golfisnr1 (Democrats are like roaches - hard to get rid of.)
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To: blam
"His campaign is set to launch the Joshua Generation Project, an initiative that will include household gatherings, blogs and concerts, to attract young evangelicals and Catholics ahead of November's US presidential election.

The campaign has noted an "unprecedented energy" among young religious people for the Illinois senator

They are delusional. No normal, sane Christian would support Obama's Trinity church brand of "Christianity", and the Marxist, Christian hating agenda of that secret Islamic organization.

5 posted on 06/11/2008 3:43:19 PM PDT by Nathan Zachary
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To: blam
This language of family values and higher moral values.

What language Hussein? It happens to be the way we live our lives you moron!

Here's other links to Obama in his own words (I'll have to add the video to this quote as soon as it comes out):

THE AUDACITY OF TRUTH - OBAMA IN HIS OWN WORDS


6 posted on 06/11/2008 3:46:19 PM PDT by Jeff Head (Freedom is not free...never has been, never will be. (www.dragonsfuryseries.com))
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To: blam
This language of family values and higher moral values.

What language Hussein? It happens to be the way we live our lives you moron!

Here's other links to Obama in his own words (I'll have to add the video to this quote as soon as it comes out):

THE AUDACITY OF TRUTH - OBAMA IN HIS OWN WORDS


7 posted on 06/11/2008 3:47:02 PM PDT by Jeff Head (Freedom is not free...never has been, never will be. (www.dragonsfuryseries.com))
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To: blam

Oops...sorry for the double post.


8 posted on 06/11/2008 3:47:26 PM PDT by Jeff Head (Freedom is not free...never has been, never will be. (www.dragonsfuryseries.com))
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To: blam

“he is known as a genuine, practising Christian.”

Who voted for infanticide through partial birth abortion, euthanasia, and would considers abortion a good thing.


9 posted on 06/11/2008 3:49:26 PM PDT by OpusatFR
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To: blam
Lessee, The Telegraph, one of the foreign media outlets that -- along with The Guardian -- genuinely hurt Kerry's campaign with their ineptitude, now seeks to rise to the occasion again...thank you guys with bad teeth!
10 posted on 06/11/2008 3:50:42 PM PDT by StAnDeliver (Schadenfreude!)
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To: blam
...adding that he once heard a senior White House staffer refer to evangelicals as "useful idiots".

Barbara Streisand!

Useful Idiots was the soviet term for American liberals.

11 posted on 06/11/2008 3:51:06 PM PDT by editor-surveyor (Jimmy Carter is the skidmark in the panties of American History)
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To: blam
His campaign is set to launch the Joshua Generation Project, an initiative that will include household gatherings, blogs and concerts, to attract young evangelicals and Catholics ahead of November's US presidential election.

This man is DANGEROUS, and is the definition of the new word:

OBAMINATION.

12 posted on 06/11/2008 3:51:15 PM PDT by BOBTHENAILER (One by one, in small groups or in whole armies, we don't care how we do it, but we're gonna getcha)
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To: blam

Perhaps BHO should learn to string two sentences together without his teleprompter first.


13 posted on 06/11/2008 3:54:01 PM PDT by Nachum
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To: BOBTHENAILER

It’s called the “Joshua Generation Project.” The name is based on the biblical story of how Joshua’s generation led the Israelites into the Promised Land.

******

Obama spoke about the “Joshua Generation” in a speech he gave in Selma, Alabama in March of 2007. Read part of that speech below. It will give you an good idea of where the Obama campaign is heading with this effort:

Obama: “I’m here because somebody marched. I’m here because you all sacrificed for me. I stand on the shoulders of giants. I thank the Moses generation; but we’ve got to remember, now, that Joshua still had a job to do. As great as Moses was, despite all that he did, leading a people out of bondage, he didn’t cross over the river to see the Promised Land. God told him your job is done. You’ll see it. You’ll be at the mountain top and you can see what I’ve promised. What I’ve promised to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. You will see that I’ve fulfilled that promise but you won’t go there. We’re going to leave it to the Joshua generation to make sure it happens. There are still battles that need to be fought; some rivers that need to be crossed. Like Moses, the task was passed on to those who might not have been as deserving, might not have been as courageous, find themselves in front of the risks that their parents and grandparents and great grandparents had taken. That doesn’t mean that they don’t still have a burden to shoulder, that they don’t have some responsibilities. The previous generation, the Moses generation, pointed the way. They took us 90% of the way there. We still got that 10% in order to cross over to the other side. So the question, I guess, that I have today is what’s called of us in this Joshua generation? What do we do in order to fulfill that legacy; to fulfill the obligations and the debt that we owe to those who allowed us to be here today?”


14 posted on 06/11/2008 3:55:06 PM PDT by kcvl
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To: blam
Barack Obama Targets The Religious Right”

Stalin targeted the Christians in the Soviet Union too..only thing thing is, they ended up in concentration camps and the gulags in Siberia. Hey Obama, thanks, but no thanks.

15 posted on 06/11/2008 3:55:22 PM PDT by KevinJohnson
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To: blam
For all his difficulties with his controversial former pastor, the Rev Jeremiah Wright, the 46-year-old first-term senator he is known as a genuine, practising Christian.

Oh please! On what planet?! This is the: 'If we say it often enough people will believe it.' game plan.
16 posted on 06/11/2008 3:55:28 PM PDT by socialismisinsidious ( The socialist income tax system turns US citizens into beggars or quitters!)
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To: OpusatFR
"he is known as a genuine, practising Christian.
Who voted for infanticide through partial birth abortion, euthanasia, and would considers abortion a good thing."

Who is descended from Muslim, Arab/African slave traders, and was not born in the U.S. and cannot serve as President, and refuses to declare a belief in the deity of Christ.

17 posted on 06/11/2008 3:56:25 PM PDT by editor-surveyor (Jimmy Carter is the skidmark in the panties of American History)
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To: BOBTHENAILER

Did Obama steal the name of Generation Joshua?!

http://www.generationjoshua.org/dnn/

******

It’s called the “Joshua Generation Project.” The name is based on the biblical story of how Joshua’s generation led the Israelites into the Promised Land.

******

Obama spoke about the “Joshua Generation” in a speech he gave in Selma, Alabama in March of 2007. Read part of that speech below. It will give you an good idea of where the Obama campaign is heading with this effort:

Obama: “I’m here because somebody marched. I’m here because you all sacrificed for me. I stand on the shoulders of giants. I thank the Moses generation; but we’ve got to remember, now, that Joshua still had a job to do. As great as Moses was, despite all that he did, leading a people out of bondage, he didn’t cross over the river to see the Promised Land. God told him your job is done. You’ll see it. You’ll be at the mountain top and you can see what I’ve promised. What I’ve promised to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. You will see that I’ve fulfilled that promise but you won’t go there. We’re going to leave it to the Joshua generation to make sure it happens. There are still battles that need to be fought; some rivers that need to be crossed. Like Moses, the task was passed on to those who might not have been as deserving, might not have been as courageous, find themselves in front of the risks that their parents and grandparents and great grandparents had taken. That doesn’t mean that they don’t still have a burden to shoulder, that they don’t have some responsibilities. The previous generation, the Moses generation, pointed the way. They took us 90% of the way there. We still got that 10% in order to cross over to the other side. So the question, I guess, that I have today is what’s called of us in this Joshua generation? What do we do in order to fulfill that legacy; to fulfill the obligations and the debt that we owe to those who allowed us to be here today?”


18 posted on 06/11/2008 3:57:42 PM PDT by kcvl
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Michelle Obama Under Fire for 2004 Letter Defending Partial-Birth Abortions
Life News | 5/21/08 | Steven Ertelt

Posted on 05/21/2008 3:56:13 PM PDT by wagglebee

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Michelle Obama, the attorney wife of pro-abortion Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, is coming under fire for a letter she wrote defending partial-birth abortions. The 2004 letter, written to help Obama in his campaign for his U.S. Senate seat, opposes the ban on the abortion procedure...


19 posted on 06/11/2008 3:58:21 PM PDT by StAnDeliver
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To: All

He is a Muslim. See ‘The Obama File’ under ‘religion’.


20 posted on 06/11/2008 4:10:30 PM PDT by patriot08
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