Courting the Christian vote

Last Modified: 24 Jun 2008
By: Felicity Spector

A Democrat, a liberal, and a progressive - chasing evangelical support? Hold onto your hats.

It's well known that John McCain isn't exactly popular with the more fervent believers, but Barack Obama has now launched an all out push for the Christian and the Catholic vote.

The Illinois senator has already met with around 40 Christian leaders, including senior evangelicals, which one advisor said was such a significant move it was equivalent to a "Nixon in China moment".

And his campaign is about to launch a new grassroots initiative, called the Joshua generation, targetting young people with a series of concerts and house meetings.

There's already a right wing group operating under the same name, but in his Selma Voting Rights march speech last March, Obama spoke of his own mission in similar terms.

Forget the tribute to his now discredited pastor, but read the bit about his challenge to the Joshua generation. Make sure you get us to the promised land, he exorts. Don't forget where you came from. And "the Joshua generation needs to understand ... that the principles of equality that were set forth and were battled for have to be fought each and every day." Be strong, he concludes, and have courage.

Evangelical author Stephen Mansfield is already impressed: "This is language you expect to hear at a youth rally, not from the presidential campaign of the most liberal member of the senate."

There have been some concerns that courting Christians could alienate voters from other faiths, like Jews and Muslims.

At the same time as all this, a new political action committee has been set up - not formally linked to Obama's campaign - called the Matthew 25 Network. It's due to launch this week, with a series of radio adverts and mailshots to be distributed among Christian communities, while promoting Obama's policies in the media.

At the helm, Mara Vanderslice, who was director of religious outreach for the Kerry-Edwards campaign in 2004. A $1,000 a head fundraiser earlier this month helped kick things off. The name of the project comes from Matthew, verse 25, and is meant to convey that religious issues aren't just the contentious ones like abortion and gay rights, but poverty, health policy, and the environment.

There have been some concerns that courting Christians could alienate voters from other faiths, like Jews and Muslims. And the fact that Obama's new anti-smear website has taken such pains to discredit the allegation that he is a Muslim, and therefore somehow linked to radical Islamism, could offend Muslim voters.

"If he were a Muslim, so what? That insinuates that if he were a Muslim, he's automatically a jihadist. That's incredibly insulting to people of the Muslim faith and Arabs who are Christian," the Wall Street journal quotes Tony Kutayli, who's a spokesman for the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee and himself a Christian.

To date, the Obama campaign has no special initiative to attract Muslim voters, although the director of faith outreach, Joshua DuBois, said they were "commited to reaching people of faith broadly and trying to bridge religious divides". It's a fine line to balance - with millions of votes at stake.

Campaign advisor Mike McCurry, a former Clinton press secretary, has admitted that winning over evangelicals is clearly an uphill battle, but there are a lot of them out there and a Republican candidate who doesn't automatically appeal.

And according to David Brody, a correspondent for Pat Robertson's right wing evangelical network: "Folks, this is an important development. It shows that the game has changed. Old rules don't apply. We're in uncharted territory."

Don't expect a mass exodus of religious Christians over to Obama's side, but in a race this tight even the smallest shift could make a crucial difference.