Obama’s play for the evangelical vote continues…but, unlike his predecessor, he’s less interested in what faith can do and much more interested in how the faithful can help.
From AP:
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is announcing plans to expand President Bush’s program steering federal social service dollars to religious groups and — in a move sure [...]

And not only does it promise to be fairly flattering portrayal, but the author is detailing why evangelicals (especially young ones) may swing for Obama this election.
From Politico:
The forthcoming volume from Stephen Mansfield, whose sympathetic “The Faith of George W. Bush” spent 15 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list in 2004, is titled [...]

Apparently the fervor isn’t exactly at a fever pitch for McCain, and Mark DeMoss, one of the more high-profile PR flaks for the biggest evangelical groups, is suggesting this could mean a shift to Obama.
From God-o-Meter:
You represent some of the nation’s most powerful evangelicals. What do those leaders say about McCain?
This is one guy’s [...]

As you all are likely aware, Barack Obama left his church this weekend. While the pulpit of his church has certainly served as a stage for some rather incendiary statements over the years, this move by Obama is about more than just politics. Similar to John McCain’s recent renunciation of controversial pastor John Hagee, Obama’s [...]

While this won’t shut up critics who think Obama actually believes the nonsense that Wright said, it will stop stories like this latest Father Pfleger flap from happening during the general election.

Here’s a reaction from The Corner:
It’s been just over two months since Obama’s Philadelphia speech on race — the one that was compared by [...]

Bravo to Governor Patterson for saying New York should recognize gay marriages from other states, but this has obviously made A LOT of social conservatives angry and they’re not going down without a fight.
First, Patterson’s reasoning…
Paterson issued a memo earlier this month saying that gay New Yorkers who marry where it is legal will have [...]

With this latest pastor flare-up, I stumbled across an old post from Dennis Sanders about Wright in March.
He comes at this story from a very unique perspective, and as much as I’d like for the Wright story to just go away because I don’t think Obama should be held responsible for what somebody else [...]

Obama has already condemned Comedian Father Michael Pfleger, and his connection to this joker seems tenuous at best, but that’s not going to stop people from associating Obama with remarks he had absolutely nothing to do with.
Here’s a story from the Today Show…

Honestly, I think this might help Obama. Eventually, people are going to get [...]

First the lobbyists and now the preachers.
This time it’s Rod Parsley, who has basically said America was founded to destroy Islam and has characterized Allah as a “demon spirit.”
From ABC:
Sen. John McCain rejected the endorsement of a second controversial pastor Thursday, saying there is no place for the Rev. Rod Parsley’s comments about Islam.
“I [...]

I can’t say this wasn’t expected, but it would have been nice to see him simply address Hagee and be done with it. After all, this issue would have come up without the Wright issue.
From CNN:
“Obviously, I find these remarks and others deeply offensive and indefensible, and I repudiate them. I did not know of [...]

First, the audio…

Second, the commentary…
From Megan McCardle…
John Hagee is certainly right to wonder how God could have let the Holocaust happen. But . . . well, I’m kind of speechless. [...] How long before McCain has to publicly repudiate him?
From The Carpetbagger Report:
This is the guy whose support McCain worked for a year to [...]

Well done…
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - The California Supreme Court has overturned a ban on gay marriage, paving the way for California to become the second state where gay and lesbian residents can marry.
The case involved a series of lawsuits seeking to overturn a voter- approved law that defines marriage as a union between a man [...]

Wow. I really never thought I’d see the day.
But how does this square with the Bible?
From the AP:
VATICAN CITY - Believing that the universe may contain alien life does not contradict a faith in God, the Vatican’s chief astronomer said in an interview published Tuesday.
The Rev. Jose Gabriel Funes, the Jesuit director of the [...]

The NYTimes op-ed pages, via CSIS’s Edward Luttwack, promoted a new type of Obama Islam smear: that because Obama was once a Muslim he is going to get killed by Muslims for being an apostate.
I have a response to this at Huffington Post.
Just one part:
First of all, under orthodox Islamic law, the punishment [...]

The first 14 minutes of the program today were devoted to reverend and his latest statements.

And so it goes…

Just a followup on what I shared earlier.

(h/t: TPM)

After yesterday’s performance by the reverend, you knew it had to be coming. And while this isn’t the same as throwing Wright under the bus, it does suggest that Obama understands how far off the reservation his former pastor’s views are.
From TPM comes this from Obama:
The person I saw yesterday was not the person that [...]

He spoke about his pastor problems today:
“I think people will understand that I am not perfect and that there are going to be folks in my past like Rev. Wright that may cause them some concern but that ultimately my 20 years of service and the values that I’ve written about and spoken about and [...]

Looks like he’s suggesting he’ll try to bend the ear of his former parishioner to sway policy decisions. And Obama can’t be too happy about that.
From Politico:
The Rev. Jeremiah Wright said Monday that he will try to change national policy by “coming after” Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) if he is elected president.
The pastor also [...]