Sorry to link to such distasteful sources, but I was reading some political news today and found a couple of right-wing sites discussing a flyer Obama recently released to court Kentucky voters.
CBN: Obama and the Cross
Race42008: Barack Obama’s pitch in Kentucky (contains images of the flyer in question)
CBN wonders if publicizing his Christianity like this will help Obama’s image by making him seem less “elitist”. The commenters at Race42008 are crying foul, and don’t seem willing to believe Obama is “really” religious, as if right-wing nutjobs have some kind of exclusive right to religion.
I haven’t heard what other atheists think about this, but I can see how it would make some people a bit nervous. It’s no secret that Obama is a Christian (or at least it shouldn’t be to anyone who’s been paying attention) and he is campaigning in a country that’s mostly Christian, so of course he was going to bring it up at some point. That in itself doesn’t bother me. What I wanted to know was, what does the flyer say? I’m happy to say that Obama didn’t disappoint me.
The front side of the flyer has Obama standing behind a pulpit, in front of a lighted cross. The top reads Faith. Hope. Change. Barack Obama for President.
At the bottom right, we have a quote:
My faith teaches me that I can sit in church and pray all I want, but I won’t be fulfilling God’s will unless I go out and do the Lord’s work.
–Barack Obama
In other words, “hands that help are better than lips that pray.” Well played!
On the other side, Obama establishes his Christian creds: A picture of him next to a stained-glass church window in full-on “hope mode“, a red banner down the side reading Committed Christian
, and a story about how he was volunteering in the South Side after graduating from college and forged a profound connection
with the people living there, who encouraged him to visit a local church (I think we all know which one! 
), where he felt a beckoning of the spirit
and became a Christian. Finally, the requisite picture of him with his wife and daughters, and voter information.
If this is the kind of religious posturing we can expect from him, I say posture away. It’ll be good for everybody to realize that the likes of Pat Robertson and Fred Phelps are not the only religious authorities in this country.
