Obama’s faith at heart of Lynchburg discussion
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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.
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Posted by ( scrivsand ) on September 18, 2008 at 3:36 pm
Freedom Thanks there are some many different estimates looks like TX and CA have taken big hits!
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Posted by ( Freedom ) on September 18, 2008 at 1:21 pm
,,NOBAMA,,the word in the street is that you guys are taking/stealing OBAMA signs out of people yards,,now behave and stop it,,this is REDNECK country !!
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Posted by ( Freedom ) on September 18, 2008 at 1:19 pm
SANDSTORM,,THIS IS THE BEST I CAN COME UP W/ILLEGALS,,IS 340 BILLION A YR..now breakdown;;2.2 b for frree lunch-wic-fod/stmps,,social serv.-90 bil;;welfare-17 bil;;medical-2.5 bil;;education 29 bil((12 bil spent because they cant spek engl))fed.prison-3 million$$ a ady((they make up 30 % of pop))deportation;45 bil,,OTHERS;;THEY COST USA IN LOST WAGES 200 BIL;;they send home 25bil((money not spent here to stimulate our eco))and it converts to 100 bil in mex money,,,SEX CRIMES;; 1 million(( when i tried to get more the page had been pulled??so dont know if thats a million a year or a mil in lock up ??also they were 2 and 1/2 times more likely to commit crimes than pop.;;their kids even worse..ms13 gangs,;;this is based on 10-12 million illegals ,,i know its twice that,,so make it 700 billion a yr,,and most likely your figure is more correct,,so i go w/2 trillion !!this dosent include the illegal voting like LIBERTY,,or the state or local jail/prison population,,and i know that 45 % have illgeitment multi-births that are grant auto-citicenship,,they ave 4 kids,,and they just need to go and proteat in mex for their rights instead of here,,and destroying this country,,and OBAMA/MCCAIN neither will do anything about immagrations and will stop ICE from raids,,and REAGAN gave amnisty to 8 million already !!and even if they are granted citisenship they still take more in social saftynets than they pay in due to undereducated,,its all for the new billionares that this contry produces ,,by sending more profits to the allready rich,,its greed and we poor average joe,s and janes get stuck w/the bill and are kept down so as not to climb the social ladder and fulfill the am dream,,the blacks have been here for 400 years yet they make up 15 % of pop..the mex..who in just 30 years have now reached 25 % of pop..and in another 30 yrs at same rate will be the dominate population of usa!!HOUSTON we have a big problem !!the usa is in MELTDOWN,,
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Posted by ( Freedom ) on September 18, 2008 at 11:53 am
SANDSTROM,,i,m working on the figure,,need more time,,0-MAMA,,u r gettin on my nerves,,read all the posting and u will see how lu/trbc got draged in,,ok,,i am the stupid one not u ,,so quit freingin on my turf!!and that leads us to LBURGER,,hold the pickles and i,ll have x-tra katsup,,thats just for u!!these posting are read nationwide,,i know for a fact nyc/dc/chicago/calif/fla/tenn,,and i do respect myself,,butt my dsylexia dose,nt,,so sorry about that,,please dont abort me !!
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Posted by ( o-mama ) on September 18, 2008 at 10:12 am
For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad. (2 Corinthians 5:10 NIV)
The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned. (Matthew 12:35-37 NIV)
Some of you are so confusing. How did LU & TRBC get dragged into this? Please, no name calling and please stay with the topic. Perhaps a course in Posting 101 will do us some good…....LOL. Peace brother.
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Posted by ( lburger ) on September 18, 2008 at 7:54 am
Please, please, people. Anyone from out of the area who happens upon this Web site is going to think that Lynchburg’s citizens are ignorant and uneducated. Not because you have differing opinions - some believing that Obama’s a Christian, some not - but because many of you can’t (or don’t choose to) spell correctly and your grammar is horrible. Yeah, we’re anonymous (and that’s great, because you can say whatever you want to without fear of reprisals) but that’s no excuse for sloppiness, and your message (whatever that message is) would be more effective if people could actually read it without wading through what looks like an English teacher’s nightmare. Respect yourselves a little.
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Posted by ( scrivsand ) on September 17, 2008 at 10:42 pm
Freedom I meant to ask you I was reading an article that said that illegal’s cost the US about 2.2 trillion dollars a year. I was thinking that estimate was a little low do you know what the numbers are by any chance?
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Posted by ( Freedom ) on September 17, 2008 at 3:42 pm
now to u grasshooper l,4Obama,,REVELATIONS ,,and GOD said,,,“"Iam the GOD of seven spirits”“,,we have Seven world religions ((each w/its own distintive spirit))yet all come together to form GOD ALMIGHTY,,and we have the 7 seas and we had the seven continets,,so ISLAM is just one of the seven,,and seven is his perfect ##,,so whats wrong w/that,,“” I am your God and I MADE YOU in my likeness”“that likeness is the soul,,the flesh houses that likeness,,and the flesh comes in many colors and forms,,therefore i am voting for white OBAMA ,,and to city council,,yea JC was all about overthrowing rome//right??all LU wants is a free ride ,,they want us local/townies taxpayers to pay for nobama socialism of lu where we buy his bridges,,buy and build his tunnels,,and lower his tution until its free like kuwaite and saudie aribia,,and we the 40,000 voting taxpayers assure his 20,000 free loaders a ride in that free medical ambulance,,,and police protection from SOULFORCE,,ET.AL./ETC..,right nobama,,hang in there my friend,,
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Posted by ( Freedom ) on September 17, 2008 at 3:20 pm
NOBAMA,,,oh ye of so little faith !!hey lets get something straight right now,,,i am above christianity,,i am GODS prophet,,so watch out !!it is you who discust me!!ABORTIONS,,GOD gave us domiomion over all his creations,,he gave us pro-creativity in his creation,,he gave us free will,,free spirit,,free mind,,and with it he expects an intellegent response ,,which means if we r so overpopulated that we are killing all living things and endangering all living things(globial warming),,which we r !!correct??therefore the responsible thing to do is curb our population,,when a newborn human child means another 1 million acres of rain forest must be plowed down to feed it,,with that a million creatures must give up their life so that we may live,,then either you castrate human kind or you abort !!forget that no sex thing,,it aint gonna happen ,,look at hot-bull-dog-lips-kid,,and remember your own hormoninal firestorms,,so get rid of the reproductive means or abort,,or keep over-populating and end up aborting all of mothernature(( cosmic miscarage)) ,,because her earth is the embreyo of this universe,afterall just look around ,,what do u see,,MARS //,and because you overextended her capacity to substain life u my friend abort us all !!now moving on go to JesusC ,he was the first world communist ,,go to WIKIPEDIA,,look up CHRISTIAN SOCIALISM,,meanwhile look at the last supper,,wasnt they all sharing equally Tthe last meal,,and did he not say do this in rememberance of me,, and was,nt judias the banker and kisser of death ,,then talk to me about God and his global pre-destine/destine plan of equallity,,and now to the digrace of the founding fathers,,what did they do in the name of JESUS,,they genocide the native population to steal their land and to this day reap from their wealth and still keep them in the most improvish conditions known to all of humanity,((400 years))and after that they went after the Nigarode of Africa,,and did them the same and all in the name of JESUS ,,and they to are just one step above the native indians,,(((sins of our fathers)))and quit your macainism w/me it aint gonna work,,but i do thank you for at least responding and giving me something to rerspond too,,now tone down the insults,,or i will release my Mozes ,,Freedom has spoken ;;
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Posted by ( FedUpWithTRBC ) on September 17, 2008 at 3:12 pm
nobama, What is the point of giving you facts. You won’t believe anything unless it comes from Fox news or from the top of Mount LU/TRBC. The facts have been stated time after time and nobody wants to listen, unless it’s what they want to hear. It’s ridicules that a candidate can’t expand on his platform until it’s first been undisputedly determined whether or not he is a Christian. We have real issues in this country: Bush’s War, out of control inflation, rising gas/oil prices, an unstable housing market, unemployment on the rise, stock market crashing… need I go on? We are heading for another Great Depression and all you and your neocon friends can worry about is whether or not Obama is a Christian or a Muslim. Now that’s being a fool! And No… You didn’t strike a nerve, I just like to poke jabs at fundies and neocons whenever given the opportunity. It’s a hell of a lot more fun than stating facts.
But the fact is, if we get four more years by electing McBush, we WILL see the next “Great Depression”!
Liberty4obama, It’s good to see that there are actually level headed, free thinkers at LU. Keep up the good work and keep the faith. Just make sure you put on an aluminum foil hat when you go to bed, it will block out the “Brainwashing Microwaves”.
Freedom??? You can’t seem to think of anything more to say??? That’s a first. LOL
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