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Trying to figure out the political mind of Focus on the Family leader Dr. James Dobson is like attempting to solve a Rubik's Cube while blind and, folks, I tried it and it can't be done. That's a bit of hyperbole I threw in this column just to make a point because even I'm not that stupid. But I would like to ask Dr. Dobson a question. Just the other day, Dobson apparently changed his mind and decided he could possibly support John McCain, who is the Republic Party's presumptive presidential nominee. For those of you who haven't followed the...

Presidential hopefuls John McCain and Barack Obama will speak Aug. 16 at Saddleback Church in what is expected to be the only joint campaign event for the candidates before the national conventions. The Lake Forest megachurch’s pastor, Rick Warren, will moderate the joint appearance, which will take place on the eve of the two national party conventions. After a brief appearance together, the two candidates will separately spend an hour talking with Warren.

McCain's Lead Among Evangelicals Smaller than Bush's in '04 Religiously Unaffiliated Voters Strongly Favor Democratic Candidate July 17, 2008 Republican presidential candidate John McCain has a smaller lead among white evangelical Protestants than Republican George W. Bush had at a similar point in the 2004 campaign, even though Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has made few inroads into this key constituency. Those who are unaffiliated with a particular religion, on the other hand, are just as supportive of the Democratic candidate as they were at this point in the 2004 campaign and are substantially more supportive of Obama than they...

Catholic League president Bill Donohue responded today to a story last night by CNN’s Anderson Cooper on attempts by some Catholics to get the McCain campaign to oust Catholic author and activist Deal Hudson from the Catholics for McCain National Steering Committee: “Anderson Cooper said last night that those opposed to Hudson were citing two reasons why he should be dumped from the McCain campaign as an advisor: Hudson ‘harassed an 18-year-old female college student 10 years earlier,’ and his ‘brokering a deal between a meeting of conservative Catholics and San Antonio mega-preacher John Hagee.’ “There is nothing Catholic about...

Randy Brinson says he "almost fell out of my chair" when he heard that expected Democratic nominee Barack Obama had chosen Zanesville, Ohio, as the setting for a recent speech in which he embraced the concept of using faith-based groups to help carry out government social service efforts. It wasn't that Zanesville struck Brinson as an odd locale. Quite the opposite. It was that Obama had clearly figured out something that Brinson already knew. "Zanesville is Ground Zero for conservative evangelicals in Ohio," says Brinson, who, as founder of the voter registration organization "Redeem the Vote," knows a thing or...

I’m blown away by how bubbly some supposed evangelicals have become over Barack Obama. Several major “evangelical” ministers, Christian entertainers (whatever that means), and lesser pundits have thrown their names and crowds behind BHO for POTUS. I’d like to name their names, but that would somehow flatter them and then their posse would email/call me and I’d have to talk to them and act nice and stuff, which is about as appealing to me as watching Joan Rivers make out with Cher. Before I’m labeled a hater by the Ichthus wing of the Obama camp, I’d like to clarify for...

While it is sometimes useful to think of political and social groups as either "left" or "right," there are times when such labels are extremely misleading. Political commentators run into particular problems when they think of evangelical voters as the "Christian right." A recent USA Today editorial, for instance, was headlined “Why the Christian right fears Obama." The author argued (in essence) that the Christian right fears Sen. Barack Obama because the Christian right isn't all that fond of Sen. John McCain and might shift its support to Obama. The author here is only one of many commentators who, not...

John McCain has stepped up his appeal to Christian conservatives, meeting recently with religious leaders in Ohio and making a publicized pilgrimage to see Billy Graham. McCain advisers believe religious-right voters will come around in November. The campaign's internal polls suggest that the Arizona Republican has a 60 percent margin of support among evangelicals over Mr. Obama. But diminished turnout in the group, particularly in close states, could be fatal to Mr. McCain. Mr. Scarborough, who backed Mike Huckabee in the GOP primary, said his primary motivation is not enthusiasm about Mr. McCain but fear of Mr. Obama. "I am...

Sen. John McCain is making surprising headway with religious conservatives - that part of the Republican electoral coalition he was expected to find the most resistant. For a campaign that Republican critics have called ill-managed, disorganized and message-challenged, the Arizona senator's organization has, from all outward appearances, been doing things right in its appeals to evangelicals and other religious conservatives. In the past week, Mr. McCain won over a major group of social conservatives, thanks to personal appeals, and the campaign has made personnel moves appealing to religious voters. In Denver last week, a meeting of nearly 100 religious conservative...

Huckabee No Savior for McCain Kathryn Jean Lopez In Texas just before Independence Day, former Arkansas governor and Republican presidential contender Mike Huckabee co-sponsored a "Rediscovering God in America" pastors' conference. The event, Huckabee said, was "to remind and encourage us that the proper position for America when facing evil and confronting enemies is not to find excuses for defeat but to find the resources, the courage and the strength from God necessary to win." But if John McCain thinks Huckabee as veep will give divine strength to the GOP ticket in November -- he's wrong. For some in the...

A good sign for the McCain camp from an absolutely essential constituency. It's not so much that these leaders can move thousands of votes, but to have them off the reservation and teeing up unhelpful quotes for the next four months would have been a huge problem for the GOP. Reports Michael Scherer: At a meeting Tuesday in Denver, about 100 conservative Christian leaders from around the country agreed to unite behind the candidacy of John McCain, a politician they have long distrusted, marking the latest in a string of movement that bodes well for McCain's general election prospects among...

WASHINGTON — Politically speaking, Susan Speakman is a different kind of evangelical. Mrs. Speakman, 59, a pastor and educator at Bethany Presbyterian Church in Bridgeville, Pa., an activist evangelical church southwest of Pittsburgh, backs Senator Barack Obama in the presidential race. Along with her 23-year-old son, Stephen, she supports Mr. Obama because of his stands on the Iraq war and matters of social justice. The two of them plan to spread the word in their community and beyond. “What caught my attention early on was his comment that we don’t want red states and blue states, but we want to...

America stands at a religious and a political crossroad. If Barack Obama becomes president, his religiosity will be embraced to some extent by certain members of our society. There will be more unseemly and drastic changes than our country has ever experienced. Obama and others of his ilk will dedicatedly undermine the traditional understanding of God’s Word to change our society as they see fit. The Democrats implemented a strategy to vie for votes using Christian verbiage to draw people to them. However, Rev. Jeremiah Wright and Father Michael Pfeger spoiled it to a degree with their flamboyance.

MONTREAT, N.C. - Billy Graham is as close to a religious icon in American politics as anyone, so it’s no surprise that a U.S. presidential candidate would seek his blessing. On Sunday Republican John McCain did just that, essentially, traveling to the ailing evangelist’s mountaintop home to meet and pray with him and son Franklin, who heads the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. ...

CBNNews.com - John McCain is making a new effort to rally Christian conservatives. Political analysts believe McCain will need their strong support to win the White House in November. The presumptive Republican Presidential nominee met with conservative Christian leaders Thursday in Cincinnati, Ohio. During the hour-long meeting, the leaders urged McCain to talk more about social issues. "If he doesn't start talking about the social issues, I don't see how he can possibly win Ohio," said Phil Burress, president of Citizens for Community Values. The Arizona senator asked the leaders how he could win more conservative support. "We made it...

In a one-two punch, Focus on the Family’s Dr. James Dobson ripped into Barack Obama, saying that Obama terrifies him, while on Tuesday night’s "Hannity & Colmes" show, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee warned that the Illinois senator’s views on such issues as partial birth abortion takes away the equality of unborn children, and that Obama makes him uncomfortable. Dobson appeared on Sean Hannity’s radio show Tuesday. During the show, Hannity commented that he found Obama to be dishonest overall, noting that “I think he was dishonest to the American people” when speaking of his former pastor and spiritual adviser...

MEDIA ADVISORY, June 23 /Christian Newswire/ -- Commenting on Senator Barack Obama's recent meeting with a group of prominent Christians, Vision America Action President Dr. Rick Scarborough, a Southern Baptist minister, said the Senator did nothing to reconcile his actions and words with his professed Christianity. "Claiming you're a Christian isn't enough," Scarborough said. "Here's a man who doesn't deviate one iota from the extreme leftwing of his party, when it comes to values issues," the Vision America Action President charged. "He supports partial-birth abortion. As a member of the Illinois State Senate, he had a 100% perfect rating from...

Dr. James Dobson of Focus on the Family -- who has stayed unusually quiet in this election cycle likely due to his loathing of presumptive GOP presidential nominee Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. -- will tomorrow attack Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, on Tuesday for a speech the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee delivered in 2006 to the liberal Christian group Call to Renewal. The AP was given an advance copy of Dobson's 18-minute radio segment, which has already been taped, and will air Tuesday. In it, Dobson hammers Obama's views of religion, and says the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee is trying to...

(also) Having a "Fruitcake" Interpretation of the ConstitutionDr. James Dobson of Focus on the Family -- who has stayed unusually quiet in this election cycle likely due to his loathing of presumptive GOP presidential nominee Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. -- will tomorrow attack Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, on Tuesday for a speech the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee delivered in 2006 to the liberal Christian group Call to Renewal. The AP was given an advance copy of Dobson's 18-minute radio segment, which has already been taped, and will air Tuesday. In it, Dobson hammers Obama's views of religion, and says the...

Princeton, New Jersey (Reuters) - Matt Dunbar is not your typical evangelical Christian. With his tousled hair, sideburns and a scruffy "soul patch" beard, the 26-year-old New Yorker belongs to a growing minority of young evangelicals who want to broaden their political agenda beyond the traditional opposition to abortion and gay marriage. Evangelicals like Dunbar are eager to move on and tackle such hot topics as global warming and social justice. As they move to the center of the political spectrum, they are deciding whether Republican presidential candidate John McCain or Democrat Barack Obama aligns best with their values and...

WASHINGTON -- With the Democratic presidential nomination in his grasp, Sen. Barack Obama is making a full-throttle push for centrist evangelicals and Catholics. It's a move that's caught some conservative evangelicals off guard. They say they are surprised and dismayed to see a liberal-minded politician attempting to conscript their troops. At the same time, they say that Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has done little to court their affections. "I've never seen anything quite like it before," said evangelical author Stephen Mansfield, who wrote "The Faith of George W. Bush" and has a forthcoming book about Obama. "To be running against...

Few Americans would invite an investigation by the Internal Revenue Service, but that's exactly what Minnesota pastor Gus Booth wanted when he stood behind his pulpit and told his congregation God wanted them to vote Republican. In an election where candidates openly discuss their faith and are regularly seen in churches, and a time when pastors' sermons lead the politics sections of newspapers, one might be excused for not knowing that it is illegal for a church to endorse or oppose a candidate for president. But when Booth addressed the members of his Warroad Community Church one Sunday in May...

...Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., is actively courting Christian voters, many of them the children of evangelical Protestants who have voted Republican for decades and were instrumental in putting George W. Bush in the White House.

Despite the lack of enthusiasm for his candidacy among some Christian conservative activists, Sen. John McCain so far is performing well among rank and file evangelical voters. A Washington Post-ABC News poll released this week found McCain collecting about 68 percent of the white evangelical vote, compared to Barack Obama's 22 percent. That number is very similar to level of support President Bush received in June 2004, when he led then Democratic nominee Sen. John Kerry 65 to 30 among white evangelicals. And it's essentially unchanged from polls in March, despite the Arizona senator's distancing of himself from evangelical pastors...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--Despite media speculation to the contrary, three new polls show that evangelicals, including Southern Baptist pastors, support Republican John McCain over Democrat Barack Obama by wide margins. The polls were released as Obama courts Christian leaders and voters in hopes of cutting into what has traditionally been a Republican stronghold. During the Democratic primary, Obama's campaign released a flyer in conservative Kentucky showing him at a pulpit, with a cross in the background, quoting him as saying, "I won't be fulfilling God's will unless I go out and do the Lord's work." The flyer called Obama a "committed...

Quietly for now, perhaps more visibly later, Sen. Sam Brownback has set himself a missionary task. That task involves persuading the so-called "religious right," his core constituency, to get behind the John McCain presidential candidacy. .... "You get down to the raw points of it, and that's the (Supreme Court)," he said. He tells conservatives that McCain's "very reliable on that... and so (in a different way) is Barack Obama." "Barack's a good guy - I like him - but he's a very liberal Democrat," Brownback said. "If you have a liberal Democrat plus a Democratic House and Senate, that's...

For religious conservatives at the Texas Republican Convention, even the song list at Friday's prayer rally suggested dark days ahead for the GOP. "We're going to support McCain," he said with a distinct lack of enthusiasm. "He may not have been all of our first choice, but he is our choice." "I'm going to support McCain and try to help people see the reality of the total picture and how dangerous Barack Obama is," said state Sen. Dan Patrick, a conservative talk-radio host with a strong evangelical following. "There is no other choice."

ELCA Presiding Bishop, Other Religious Leaders, Meet with Obama 08-087-JB CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Rev. Mark S. Hanson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) was among more than 30 national Christian leaders who met here June 10 with U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), the presumptive Democratic nominee for president. Hanson was invited by Obama's staff to meet privately with the Senator in a meeting in which Darfur, the Iraq war, gay rights, abortion and faith issues were discussed, the Associated Press reported. Hanson said the meeting's purpose seemed to be an effort by Obama "to begin...

Barack Obama's presidential campaign plans to strike at the heart of the Republican base by attempting to woo Evangelical Christians and Roman Catholics to his side. The Christian Broadcasting Network's David Brody first broke the story on his blog "The Brody File." Obama's campaign for the conservative Christian vote, which has largely gone to the Republican presidential candidate in recent elections, has been dubbed the "Joshua Generation Project." Joshua, Moses' successor, led the Israelites into the Promised Land. It wasn't the group that fled Egypt in the Exodus, though. They died in the wilderness, lacking faith in God's promise. It...

"The right wing, the Christian right, has done a good job of building these organizations of accountability, much better than the left or progressive forces have. But it's always easier to organize around intolerance, narrow-mindedness, and false nostalgia. And they also have hijacked the higher moral ground with this language of family values and moral responsibility.

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...

Barack Obama discussed Darfur, the Iraq war, gay rights, abortion and other issues Tuesday with Christian leaders, including conservatives who have been criticized for praising the Democratic presidential candidate. Bishop T.D. Jakes, a prominent black clergyman who heads a Dallas megachurch, said Obama took questions, listened to participants and discussed his "personal journey of faith." The discussion "went absolutely everywhere," Jakes told The Associated Press, and "just about every Christian stripe was represented in that room." Jakes, who does not endorse candidates and said he also hopes to meet with Republican presidential candidate John McCain, said some participants clearly have...

McCain Campaign Declines to Meet with Billy Graham Sunday, June 8, 2008 10:10 PM By: Doug Wead For almost six decades, Billy Graham has been America’s most influential preacher and evangelist, a man sought out by every president since Harry Truman. Editor's Note: After this report was published the McCain campaign clarified its position about a meeting with Dr. Billy Graham. Read the clarification — Click Here Now. In another disturbing sign that Sen. John McCain has little interest in reaching out to his conservative base, including evangelical Christian voters, his campaign has declined an offer to meet with the...

In another disturbing sign that Sen. John McCain has little interest in reaching out to his conservative base, including evangelical Christian voters, his campaign has declined an offer to meet with the Rev. Billy Graham. For almost six decades, Graham has been America’s most influential preacher and evangelist, a man sought out by every president since Harry Truman. Today, the 89-year-old Graham is in declining health and stays near his home in Montreat, N.C. His last public appearance, in May 2007, marked the dedication of his library. Three former American presidents -- Jimmy Carter, George H. W. Bush and Bill...

Lori Viars, an evangelical activist in Warren County, Ohio, essentially put her life on hold in the fall of 2004 to run a phone bank for President Bush. Her efforts helped the president’s ambitious push to turn out evangelicals and win that critical swing state in a close election. But Ms. Viars, who is among a cluster of socially conservative activists in Ohio being courted by Senator John McCain’s campaign through regular e-mail messages, is taking a wait-and-see attitude for now toward Mr. McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee. “I think a lot of us are in a holding pattern,” said...

A well-connected authority in the evangelical world said in an interview this week that Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama could get up to 40 percent of the evangelical vote.

The Brody File’s good friend, Dan Gilgoff over at Beliefnet.com has a great interview with Evangelical Public Relations Executive Mark DeMoss. DeMoss has a good read on the climate among Evangelicals. He’s well respected. He believes Barack Obama could get up to 40 percent of the Evangelical vote this November. Read below and then get my take. Gilgoff: Barack Obama is trying hard to win evangelical voters. Does that effort stand a chance? DeMoss: If one third of white evangelicals voted for Bill Clinton the second time, at the height of Monica Lewinsky mess—that’s a statistic I didn’t believe at...

STAYAWAY CHRISTIANS ALMOST COST ELECTION Many Christians believe that prayer played a major role in sending George W. Bush to the White House, but stayaway believers came close to losing him the election, according to his chief political adviser, Karl Rove. Rove said that one reason the 2000 election was so tight was that as many as 4 million Christian conservatives did not go to the polls, reported "The Chicago Tribune." Although the Bush campaign had expected 19 million evangelical voters to vote for their man, election returns revealed only 15 million turned out to cast ballots. Speaking yesterday at ...

I don't know how many of Joel Osteen's flock were thinking of voting for Barack Obama, but I'd like to make sure every last one of them hears this comment from Fr. Michael Pfleger, longtime friend of Obama and one of the Democratic candidate's spiritual mentors: "Hillary and McCain would wish they had a preacher with the integrity of Jeremiah Wright. … They got some old weak preacher…some old Joel Osteen cotton candy preacher." Let's just come out and say it — Pfleger is an A-1 jerk [perhaps not the first word that came to mind], and Obama only started...

Among Republicans, the move of religious conservatives to the campaign fringe has come about for two reasons, one intentional, the other accidental. When McCain was nominated, Republican voters knew that the Religious Right wasn't going to play the role it had with Bush in 2000 and 2004. The natural affinity didn't exist between these religious activists and the religiously reserved McCain. The expectation remained, however, that through an effective faith outreach, the McCain campaign would bring reluctant religious conservatives into the fold. It would be a tough sell, but given the choice between Obama, the "infanticide candidate," and the pro-life...

Rev. Rod Parsley withdraws McCain endorsement Saturday, May 24, 2008 10:08 PM THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH After saying Friday that he would not withdraw his endorsement of Sen. John McCain, pastor Rod Parsley has changed his mind. The pastor of World Harvest Church, in the Canal Winchester area, issued a statement almost identical to one he had sent late Friday night, but with one key change: the addition of the sentence “Therefore I withdraw my endorsement.” Spokesman Gene Pierce wouldn’t shed light on Parsley’s decision, saying only “this statement is a clarification on (Friday’s) statement.” McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee for...

In the face of mounting controversy over headline-grabbing statements from Pastor John Hagee, CNN has learned presumptive Republican nominee John McCain has decided to reject his endorsement.

America was founded in order to destroy Islam? Statements like that give the anti-jihad movement a wingnut patina that, of course, ABC is happy to perpetuate in this anti-McCain hit piece, which breezes by the fact that his campaign has strongly disavowed these statements. But when McCain's campaign strongly disavows these statements, is he disavowing them all -- including the manifestly true statement that some Muslims quite obviously intend to conquer and Islamize the world? Is McCain completely unaware of the 1991 Muslim Brotherhood document, An Explanatory Memorandum on the General Strategic Goal for the Brotherhood in North America," in...

Pastor John Hagee has pulled his endorsement of Republican presidential candidate John McCain; McCain subsequently renounced Hagee’s endorsement. Catholic League president Bill Donohue commented on this development today: “One week ago today, I met with Pastor Hagee in my office. I found him to be sincere, apologetic and friendly. I also found him to be the strongest Christian defender of Israel I have ever met, and that is why attempts to portray him as anything but a genuine friend to Jews—one for whom the Holocaust is the horror of horrors—is despicable. “Hagee’s decision to sever all ties to McCain is...

In February 2004, U.S. Senate candidate Barack Obama's wife, Michelle, sent a fund-raising letter with the "alarming news" that "right-wing politicians" had passed a law stopping doctors from stabbing half-born babies in the neck with scissors, suctioning out their brains and crushing their skulls. Michelle called partial-birth abortion "a legitimate medical procedure," and wouldn't supporters please pay $150 to attend a luncheon for her husband, who would fight against "cynical ploy[s]" to stop it? But that's not why Obama's opponent Alan Keyes said Jesus Christ wouldn't vote for him. Obama recalled Keyes' statement in a recent USA Today opinion piece...

I have been telling Brody File readers for months that if Barack Obama becomes the Democratic nominee he will make a pitch to win over independent/moderate Evangelicals. Well, we now have evidence. In Kentucky, he is making a direct appeal to Evangelicals with flyers that mention his conversion experience and they highlight a big old cross. Remember Mike Huckabee’s supposed subliminal cross in his Christmas campaign ad? Well, the Obama campaign ditches the subliminal and goes for the in your face cross. Look at the flyer here. The Obama campaign has consistently believed that their candidate can compete for the...

While Democrats duel, the unofficial Republican nominee considers a vice president. John McCain should start by asking what he needs. The admiral’s son fits two legs of his own party’s three-legged stool: foreign policy (zinging terrorism) and economic (scoring spending). Alas, he is out to sea with social and cultural conservatives, the one group without which national Republicans once routinely lost, and will surely lose again. According to a new Pew Research Forum poll, 44 percent of the electorate terms itself “born-again.” Politically, these Christian, mostly Protestant, evangelicals are the Republican Party’s largest block: 35 percent of George W. Bush’s...

As November's election nears, some otherwise right-thinking conservatives and Christians, unhappy with GOP presidential candidate John McCain, have concluded America would actually be better off in the long run with Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama in the White House for the next four years. They recount all of McCain's personal and policy sins. They say, at least if Clinton or Obama is elected, Republicans will unite in opposition to the new president's wacko policies. But if McCain becomes president and champions bad policies, they argue, Republicans in Congress will be paralyzed, unable to oppose effectively any wrongheaded initiatives championed by...

WASHINGTON, April 25 /Christian Newswire/ -- The Reverend Rob Schenck (pronounced SHANK), president of the conservative National Clergy Council and chairman of the Committee on Church and Society for the Evangelical Church Alliance, will attend a National Press Club Breakfast featuring Sen. Barack Obama's long-time pastor, Dr. Jeremiah Wright, on Monday, April 28, at 8:30 AM, at the National Press Club, 529 14th Street NW, Washington, DC 20045. Rev. Schenck said, "Jeremiah Wright's liberation theology puts him in a camp of violent extremists who use guns and grenades in the name of religion. Dr. Wright needs to unequivocally denounce these...