Posted on 09/17/2008 12:48:43 AM PDT by markomalley
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.
People in NOVA are stupid enough, but I can't see the people in the real VA (as opposed to the state of NOVA) being polite (and then laughing their asses off, in private, after they'd left).
They just don’t get it.
It ain’t about religion.
To someone else...
These people project all their hopes on the empty void called Obama... Sad state of affairs...
"Obama presidency would decrease the country’s “level of fear and division and loathing” that exists across religious, ethnic and cultural lines."
In other words, if you elect Osama, there is no need to fear nationwide race riots, burning and looting.
yitbos
PING
It’s just a shame that pesky abortion thing won’t go away!
How?
(By making us all Muslims?)
Seriously, how could ANY presidency do this?
What continually amazes me is how the left thinks government can do ANYTHING if only we allow the government to take control of every aspect of our lives.
I believe we are being set up for things to come in an Obama administration.
Watch the youtube video of (Gaddafi says Obama ia a muslim) a Memmri tv translation of his speech in june at the 1:00 point
What a turnout - 15 people. Yup, BHO generates excitement here in flyover country, all right.
Lynchburg? Why the name alone is offensive and they should change it!
OK enough sarcasm. But would it really surprise anyone if some PC nutjobs said this? Like the city councilman in Dallas (was it?) who said the term “black hole” was racist. Unreal.
Fear and division and loathing? They must be talking about the way lefty elites feel about the rest of us. Most average Americans I know are tolerant and don’t care about the religious or cultural backgrounds of people who are different than they are.
Read: Push sharia law.
Did I miss something? All this happened in front of 15 PEOPLE??? That’s it???
Fifth Street is the heart of the poor black section of Lynchburg. It’s largely a place you don’t go after dark, or at least used to be. Take that into account when reading this article. The “crowd” was probably 100% black or close to it.
}:-)4
My guess is that the “crowd” included 10-12 media types.
JUST REMEMBER ‘ODINGO’ IN KENYA, (who claims to be OBAMA’S COUSIN, and OBAMA campaigned for in 2006), and the LONG THREAD HERE on FREEREPUBLIC back a few months ago. When Odingo lost election in Kenya, 1600 people died in mass killings, and ethnic cleansing of the Rift Valley, Kenya. UN Kofi Annan went and brokered a deal to get Odingo half of Power as Prime Minister of Kenya, although he was defeated in the Presidential election there, only because he claimed there would be more bloodshed and that he was cheated out of the election.
THERE SHOULD BE MARTIAL LAW, if Obama loses and they start that crap here in America. AND ANYONE ARRESTED WHO STARTS ANY VIOLENCE..NO DEALS WITH THE UN OR ANYONE ELSE.
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