Place an Ad | Subscribe | Advertise With Us

Obama’s faith at heart of Lynchburg discussion

By Ray Reed

Published: September 16, 2008

Barack Obama’s surrogate for religious matters told a small Lynchburg gathering Tuesday that an Obama presidency would decrease the country’s “level of fear and division and loathing” that exists across religious, ethnic and cultural lines.

Shaun Casey, the Democratic candidate’s evangelical outreach coordinator, also told about 15 people in a forum at the Starlight Café on Fifth Street that Obama’s policies would reduce the number of abortions in America.

In addition, Casey said, Obama would give all religious groups, including Christians and Muslims, more access to policy making than any White House in history.

“His administration will model the kind of pluralism that we long for today,” said Casey, who teaches divinity students at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C.

Casey focused his presentation on two issues: abortion and persistent e-mails that say Obama is a Muslim.

Walter Fore, of Lynchburg, told Casey during the forum that he gets angry that “every election, the first thing that comes up is abortion.”

“We’ve got too many things” that are problems, Fore said, including a cycle of teen pregnancies that continues “such a poverty level that we will never escape.”

“We have too many issues to talk about to get hung up on abortion” and other hot-button topics, Fore said.

Casey replied that he sees many younger Christians who perceive “a basket of moral issues that is bigger — poverty, climate change and the national economy.”

“The good news is, slowly but surely, in some of these communities where it is all about abortion, the younger generation is bringing the change,” Casey said.

Abortions decreased during the Clinton presidency, Casey said, attributing the decline to economic prosperity during those years.

“I believe that more women who had unintended pregnancies visualized bringing that pregnancy to full term, and they could see a path to raise that child so it could launch and prosper and have a decent prospect,” Casey said.

Obama proposes to continue that reduction through universal access to health insurance, improved care for everyone, and reduced poverty, Casey said. The number in poverty increased by 6 million in the past eight years, he said.

The e-mail rumors that Obama is a Muslim have “generated real fear and animosity” in some parts of the country, and they aren’t going away, Casey said.

The truth, Casey said, is that Obama grew up in a non-religious household and did not come to a personal faith of any kind until he was an adult doing organizing work with churches on the south side of Chicago, Casey said.

That faith is Christian, Obama has said. During his visit to Lynchburg in August, Obama told 2,000 people that “I believe in Jesus Christ as my savior.”

No one at Tuesday’s meeting brought up the fact that, earlier this year, Obama criticized and separated himself from his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, because of remarks Wright had made concerning race.

Obama’s efforts to separate himself from Muslims brought a challenge to Casey from a Muslim in the audience.

A Bedford County resident who said his Muslim name is Sheik Ahmed Rashid told Casey that “the Muslim community is angry” because Obama’s religious stance doesn’t seem inclusive.

“I encourage you to have more outreach to the Muslim community,” said Rashid, who added that he was speaking about the national-level Muslim faith and not about the Lynchburg area.

Rashid also said he’s pragmatic and understands the political factors that require Obama to keep saying he isn’t a Muslim, “but how do you think we feel?”

Casey replied that Obama has said publicly that “there are millions of Muslims in America, they are fine citizens and they are part of the community.”

Casey also said Muslims in Northern Virginia may have given Sen. Jim Webb his margin of victory in the 2006 election against George Allen.

“Let me take the longer view, beyond the next 49 days, and if we have an Obama administration, I can guarantee you that Muslim Americans will have more access to the engines of democracy and legislation and policy making in the Obama administration than any White House in history,” Casey said.

Another surrogate-candidate appearance for Obama is planned for today in Central Virginia.

In Bedford, former Mississippi Gov. Ray Mabus was to be at the Democratic Committee headquarters on Main Street at 6 p.m. to talk about solutions Obama offers for rural Virginians, including health care, better jobs, and trade agreements to keep jobs in America.

Michelle Obama, his wife, is scheduled to hold a Women for Obama voter registration rally at the University of Virginia at 4:50 p.m. Jill Biden, wife of vice presidential nominee Joe Biden, also plans to be there.

Reader Reactions

Posted by ( Freedom ) on September 24, 2008 at 6:24 am

SCRIVSTORM,,no i have,nt read that article,,but i did say so far he,s got 29 % of white,,so thats 71 % in the air take away the 1/3—33%,,that just wont vote black and you have 38 % for mccain,,which does sound about right,,,i,m sure he dosent have any black voters,,and very few mex,s,,there is 15 % undecided,,so hopefully the 40% who have some dislike will after the debates will go OBAMA,,BUT ONLY IF OBAMA,,dosent hemm,,haww,,duuudd,,like he does off the cuff,,that make him come across as not on top of it or thinking to much which we all know is a sign indecesion,,aka ,,weakness,,i worked for GOV.WILDER campaign,,and it was a known fact,,the only way he was going to get elected was a majority of white votes,,so he made it a point to really mix it up w/whites,,cause he knew he could count on the black vote,,but he broke the black ceiling in a powerful southern state,,va,,,,OBAMA will be the same,,and in college in my political class,,we took a show of hands as to who we would vote for,,then the professor said now put your vote on paper,,guess what,,more people voted democrat on paper than show of hands because ,,EVERYBODY wants to be on the winning team,,and i will be honest i have some red-neck white friends who make fun of me for voting for OBAMA,,but i use it as a means of getting people over the black issue,,by sticking with the facts of our republican suc gov..some scrach their heads,,((those are the one that will say repub,,but vote demo))but some then jump to ‘'WELL i,m anti-abortion”“((now those are the ones who cant get over the black issue,,prejudgest and will never vote black))no matter what its still better than the 60,s..and like i tell myself to keep from going insane is that if we loose,,we still will have the congress /senate,,and lets face it ,,thats not the best,,but bush sure has been having a hell of a time getting around us,,and has veto more things in these past 2 yrs than all his terms,,true that grid-locks and slows down our gov,,but anything is better than 8 more yrs ,,so even if repub,,get the w/h,,thay will be lame-ducks,,

Report Inappropriate Comment

Posted by ( scrivsand ) on September 23, 2008 at 6:15 pm

Freedom
Have you seen the article by RON FOURNIER and TREVOR TOMPSON stating that 40% of all white Americans hold at least a partly negative view toward blacks, and that includes many Democrats and Independents. It was based on a poll conducted by Stanford University. And 1/3 of Democrats won’t support him just based on his race. Now you know if that is what some are willing to say, imagine how many of them will go to vote behind closed curtains and push that button for McCain when nobody knows who voted for who. That is just crazy! In this day and time it is just sad that people still judge others by race, religion, sexual orientation, gender, and of course how much money you have.

Report Inappropriate Comment

Posted by ( Freedom ) on September 23, 2008 at 2:42 pm

SCRIVSAND,,its real sad how color works,,until of course you are in dire need of a black firefighter,,black policeman,,black er doctor,,blood transfusion,,an organ donor,,or the black warrior in the fox hole w/u,,then color dosent even come to play,,if only it could be like that always,,but our hope is that it will ,,and our history is that it is better than yesteryear,,and faith says never give that dream up !!

Report Inappropriate Comment

Posted by ( Freedom ) on September 23, 2008 at 2:30 pm

,,BWATTSB32,,i just want to say that as of today OBAMA is ahead in the polls by 3% nationally and state wide,,so i disagree with your ,,he dosent stand a chance,,if blacks make up 15 % and half vote thats 8 %,,if the mex vote an they make up 25%,,and half of that is 13%,,thats 21 %,,and we all know not all mex,s or blacks will vote for OBAMA,,so lets just for the heck of it knock off another 5%,,for a 16%,,well what are you left with,,,asia and whites,,and asia are what 5 %,,again 3%,,so thats 19 %,,and 19% subtracted from the 48% he holds now ==29% white voters who support OBAMA,,more than the rest of all minorities put together!!so i say you are WRONG ,,to illude that OBAMA wont win,,because of race,,afterall we have had a black gov,,we have atlanta gov..we have colin powell and we have ms rice,,football ,,nasa,,so i disagree that we are not gonna vote for OBAMA,,now true the white neo-nazi people wont,,but nor will those hard core blacks who think OBAMA is an UNCLE TOM,,but either way i certainlly dont think either of those groups will have an effect to swing the elections,and i trully hope you are wrong,,note the HOPE word,,

Report Inappropriate Comment

Posted by ( scrivsand ) on September 22, 2008 at 10:10 am

bwattsb32,
I totally agree with that on the stimulus check that some people received that money would have been better spend if that had added it to Social Security or even to people who receive food stamps. Every year when my husband and I file tax I have some neices that receive thousands more in refund than we ever will even though we pay more. This morgage thing is a trip we just bought our first house and the bank is a tricky beast if we had gone with the first one that we looked at we would be in the hole they were basing our payments on my husbands overtime, now you know overtime comes and goes. If it had one we would be in the same situation as some of these people if we had used that bank. Now I have white and black people in my family and I have been trying my best to encourage all of them to vote, but you know some of them really irritate me in the fact that they think that their vote doesn’t matter. Can you believe that, doesn’t matter! I myself I vote for the canidate I think the most important thing that you can do is read on the canidate’s policy’s and vote for who is going to do the best job for America as a whole and not what party they belong to but still some people are going to vote straight down that party line no matter what the cost is to them or to the rest of us. My husband and I had this discussion a while back I wonder why everybody sees Obama as black and not white since he is equally both?

Report Inappropriate Comment

Posted by ( bwattsb32 ) on September 21, 2008 at 6:56 pm

scrivsand,

I will be voting for Obama, even though I don’t think he has any real chance of winning. I hope everyone votes, as well. The way I see it, the popular vote will be 72M for McCain, 61M for Obama. Even if every eligible black person votes for Obama (considering we are only 12% of the population and only about 60% will vote - or not be turned away) that’s about 20M votes - not enough to cancel out the turnout of voters who will make sure that a black person does not win the presidency of the United States.
Concerning socialism and the “re-distribution of wealth” comment, where is the Robin Hood statement in his tax policy? It doesn’t exist. Let me give you a real-life, recent example of re-distribution of wealth just perpetrated by the Republican party. My wife an I DID NOT receive the most recent tax rebate. I have 3 aunts who did. My wife and I paid more in taxes for 2007 than the three of them earned (combined). That’s money from the rich (my wife and I) given to the not as wealthy (my aunts). Do you want another example of socialism by Republicans, it’s unfolding as we speak with the financial bailout—most working people I know don’t own stocks and most don’t have mortgages, but they do pay taxes. So who is paying for what with this bailout and exactly who is being benefited?
Finally, of course I understand that whites will vote for McCain and black will vote for Obama—that’s the world we live in. It’s not right or fair, but neither is our history.

Report Inappropriate Comment

Posted by ( scrivsand ) on September 21, 2008 at 3:01 pm

bwattsb32,
I think that you are going to find that there are going to be some white people who don’t vote for him strictly based on his race and I am equally as sure that there are going to be black people strictly based on his race. I don’t believe that he is anymore Muslim than he is Catholic he attended both of those schools and I believe that is all that they were schools he didn’t spent 3 years total in both I think. But now correct me if I am wrong about that. I do believe that the socialism comments are coming from taxing heavily on the rich and redistributing it to poorer people. I think that health care should be affordable I am lucky in the fact that I have insurance but even with insurance I still pay alot when I go to the doctor or dentist and can not imagine how hard it is for people who have not insurance. Here is an example last week I went to the dentist to get two filling and before I left I had to pay $85.00 that is with my insurance and I do think that if that is what I am paying someone with out my have to drop off an arma the door on their way out. But don’t worry about the lies they are always exposed and it seems to happen every year to every canidate reguardless of their color. Just a little while after McCain picked Palin there was a story circulating that her daughter actually gave birth to her last child. It always gets crazy around a presidental election but I think this time it is going to be worse because of the war, economy, and health care. But the good news is there is only a few more weeks till the election and I hope that everybody votes!

Report Inappropriate Comment

Posted by ( bwattsb32 ) on September 21, 2008 at 11:04 am

The answer: It must be that he has a better tan. Listen, I don’t care who anyone votes for if the reason they don’t want to vote for them is policy based. But these lies must stop, people are beginning to believe them.

Report Inappropriate Comment

Posted by ( scrivsand ) on September 20, 2008 at 11:12 pm

bwattsb32,
Gotta know, what’s the answer?

Report Inappropriate Comment

Posted by ( bwattsb32 ) on September 20, 2008 at 12:48 am

For all of you Obama haters out there…#1 He is Christian, not muslim. If you have proof that he is lying, provide it instead of spreading more lies. #2. Even if he were Muslim, we have something in the country called freedom of religion. Does this only apply to you? #3. Obama is not a socialist by any stretch. In fact, his views on socialism are more to the right than most. He has NEVER uttered a word about anything socialists. For example, he wants AFFORDABLE health care, not UNIVERSAL. It shouldn’t cost you $2000 to go to the emergency room, or $500 to get a physical. You guys are so full of hate that you refuse to listen to any message and continue to make up lies against the man. If you don’t want to vote for the man, then just don’t vote for him…why do you have to go and make up stuff that isn’t true. What’s the real reason why you don’t want to vote for him? I think I know that answer.

Report Inappropriate Comment