by Frank James

Well, that didn't take long.

The congressional committee putting together the inauguration earlier this afternoon announced that the program for President-elect Barack Obama's inaugural would include an invocation by Rick Warren, the celebrity preacher at Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif.

People for the American Way, one of the best known liberal advocacy groups in the nation's capital, is letting it be known it's not happy with this choice.

An excerpt of a PFAW statement attributed to Kathryn Kolbert, the group's president:

It is a grave disappointment to learn that pastor Rick Warren will give the invocation at the inauguration of Barack Obama.

Pastor Warren, while enjoying a reputation as a moderate based on his affable personality and his church's engagement on issues like AIDS in Africa, has said that the real difference between James Dobson and himself is one of tone rather than substance. He has recently compared marriage by loving and committed same-sex couples to incest and pedophilia. He has repeated the Religious Right's big lie that supporters of equality for gay Americans are out to silence pastors. He has called Christians who advance a social gospel Marxists. He is adamantly opposed to women having a legal right to choose an abortion.

This reaction isn't surprising. But for Obama, making a statement about his inclusiveness and willingness to reach across ideological lines is more important than satisfying liberals on every issue as he has shown with his cabinet choices.

In fact, PFAW's reaction may help Obama with some centrist and more conservative voters.

(photo from http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/krkhan.htm)

by Frank James

In endorsing Sen. Barack Obama for the presidency yesterday, Gen. Colin Powell, as he always does, laid out a well-reasoned argument for his choice.

Unlike so much of the laughably illogical arguments made by partisans on both sides, Powell's case for Obama showed the kind of careful military thinking that comes easily to a man who rose to become the nation's top military officer.

by Frank James

There's some Internet buzz that Sen. Barack Obama, the Democratic presidential nominee, slipped up and admitted somehow on ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos" that he is really a Muslim.

That's not what happened. He did say the words "my Muslim faith" but any fair-minded person will have to admit that when he used that phrase, he was replicating the language of his accusers. He used it with invisible quotes around it.

Here's an excerpt of his interview with Stephanopoulos. At this point in the discussion, he was talking about Republican attacks:

SEN. OBAMA: You know what, these guys love to throw a rock and hide their hands.

SEN. OBAMA: My Christian faith - well, what I'm saying is -

by Katie Fretland

More Americans now believe that religious institutions should stay out of politics, after a decade of support for church involvement in social and political issues, according to a new national study.

The Pew Research Center finds that 52 percent of the general public and 50 percent of conservatives believe that churches and houses of worship should keep out of politics. In 2004, when President Bush won the presidential election, just 30 percent of conservatives reported that religious institutions should leave the political conversation.

"The poll ... suggests that frustration and disillusionment among social conservatives may be a part of the reason why a greater number now think that religious institutions should keep out of politics," according to Pew's report on the study.

"The greatest increases since 2004 in the view that churches and other houses of worship should not express themselves on political matters have occurred among less educated Republicans and people who say that social issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage will be important to their vote."

The survey also found a small increase (40 to 46 percent) since 2004 in respondents who report that they are uncomfortable hearing how religious a politician is. However, Republicans continue to show support for expressions of religious faith and prayer by politicians, Pew reports.

Key issues for religious voters this year are the economy and energy, while abortion and gay marriage have dropped in importance, according to the survey.

Presumptive GOP nominee John McCain has similar amounts of support from evangelical and conservative Christians as President Bush did before the 2004 election, but the support is not as enthusiastic. McCain enjoys a 28 percent rate of strong support from white evangelicals, while Bush had a 57 percent rate of strong support from that bloc. A strong majority of black Protestants (88 percent) support presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama, while white Catholics are divided between the Illinois senator and McCain.

The results of the survey are based on telephone interviews with 2,905 adults from July 31-Aug. 10 with an overall margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points. The results include interviews with 2,414 registered voters, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.

Read the full study on religion and politics at www.people-press.org.

by Bay Fang

During a visit to earthquake-stricken Sichuan province in China, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visited a project run by Samaritan's Purse, Franklin Graham's evangelical aid organization.

She made the point that it is the relationship between people that makes the difference in relations between countries, and invoked the experience of Hurricane Katrina, saying that even the US needed international assistance during times of disaster.

"I remember very well during Katrina in the United States," she said. "People think of the United States as a developed, wealthy country with its own resources. But we so much appreciated the outreach from countries around the world to help the people in need."

by Katie Fretland

Sen. Barack Obama has defended himself against accusations by an influential conservative that he had distorted the Bible and pushed a "fruitcake interpretation" of the Constitution.

Yesterday, James Dobson, founder of the Christian group Focus on the Family, said in a radio segment that Obama distorted "the traditional understanding of the Bible to fit his own worldview, his own confused theology" during a June 2006 speech.

"Any notion that I was distorting the Bible in that speech, somebody would have to be pretty hard pressed to make that argument," Obama said. "It was a speech that affirms the role of faith in not just my life, but in the life of the American people."

In the speech, Obama asked, "Which passages of Scripture should guide our public policy? Should we go with Leviticus, which suggests slavery is okay and that eating shellfish is abomination? How about Deuteronomy, which suggests stoning your child if he strays from the faith?"

Obama also said Jesus' Sermon on the Mount is "a passage that is so radical that it's doubtful that our own Defense Department would survive its application."

Dobson said Obama was dragging religious understanding "through the gutter."

Read more about what Dobson said and the Obama camp's response in The Swamp.

by Katie Fretland

Many Americans have strong religious beliefs, but the majority is open to interpretations of the teachings of their faith and believes in more than one way to salvation, according to a new study by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.

Seventy percent of people surveyed with a religious affiliation reported that many religions can lead to eternal life.

Researchers examined Americans' religious beliefs and political attitudes in the second part of a huge study on major religions in the United States.

"The fact that most Americans are not exclusive or dogmatic about their religion is a fascinating finding," said Luis Lugo, director of the Pew Forum, in a press release. "Most people will be surprised that a majority of adherents in nearly all religious traditions, including a majority of evangelical Protestants, say that there isn't just one way to salvation or to interpret the teachings of their own faith."

The study also found that politics and religion is intertwined, with Mormons among the most politically conservatives and Jews, Buddhists and Hindus among the most liberal.

Here are some findings released today from the study based on interviews in English and Spanish with 35,000 adults:

by Christi Parsons and Katie Fretland

Hebba Aref was in the running to appear on the stage at a campaign event for Barack Obama the other day when a volunteer learned that Aref, a Muslim, would be wearing a head scarf.

That's when the invitation to appear behind the Democratic presidential candidate for the television cameras suddenly evaporated, with a volunteer for the Obama campaign citing politics as the reason.

"This is not meant to be any slam on Obama," said Sharif Aref, Hebba Aref's brother, who attended the rally in Detroit with her. But "this type of discrimination is occurring everywhere--in the North, South and even at Obama rallies."

On Wednesday, the Obama campaign apologized for the volunteer's actions, as well as for those of another volunteer who reportedly told a Muslim supporter she could be part of the backdrop only if she removed her scarf. The incidents were first reported by Politico.com.

The volunteers at the event in Detroit weren't acting on the directions of campaign staff, aides to Obama said.

"This is, of course, not the policy of the campaign," said Obama spokesman Bill Burton. "It is offensive and counter to Obama's commitment to bring Americans together, and simply not the kind of campaign we run."

In fact, Obama has appeared in public with Muslim supporters on a number of occasions, and the day after the Monday incidents he was photographed with a group of supporters that included a woman wearing a scarf, or hijab. The campaign said it had called the women to apologize after learning about the incidents.

But several Muslim supporters at the rally, where Al Gore appeared, were deeply offended by what the volunteers did. And the Council on American-Islamic Relations urged Obama to invite the women to an upcoming event.

See the rest of the story in today's Tribune:

And see a mother's reaction to her daughter's snub, in the Swamp.

by Mark Silva

In case you're still wondering about that Father's Day gift - and if that picture-frame seems a bit worn out - consider the gifts that President Bush and the Holy Father exchanged in the privacy of the papal study at the Vatican today:

This was Bush's third meeting with Pope Benedict XVI - their second at the Vatican.

Crowds lined the streets leading into St. Peter's Square, with many snapping photographs - more fodder for frames.

Two Swiss Guards in full, technicolor regalia manned the gate for the president's arrival. The pope greeted the president at St. John's Tower, part of a medieval wall around the city state, located in the luscious green Vatican Gardens, with palm, Italian pine, cedar and other assorted trees. A beautiful maze garden affords a view of the dome of St. Peter's Basilica.

The president and pope, meeting privately for nearly a half hour in the papal study, talked about human rights, HIV and AIDS in Africa and lifting people out of poverty, according to Dana Perino, the White House press secretary.

And they exchanged gifts at the end of the meeting. The president gave the pope a framed photo of the two taken in April near the colonnades at the White House. The 11" x 14" photo was framed in sterling silver with a presidential seal and engraved signatures of the president and First Lady Laura Bush. The pope presented the president with a framed photo and four volumes on St. Peter's Basilica.

Following the meeting, the two walked into view in the gardens under a largely sunny sky. They walked through the Lourdes Grotto, a replica of the "Grotto of Massabielle" of Lourdes given by the French people to Pope Leo XIII in 1952. The original is in Lourdes, sent to Pope John XXIII in 1958 on the centenary of the apparitions of the Madonna in Lourdes. The pope wore white robes and cap, with a large gold cross hanging from his neck, the president a dark blue suit and blue tie.

A choir sang "Exulte Deo," by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, and "Alma Redemptoris Mater," by Giuseppe Liberto. The president's motorcade departed soon after noon, with Bush bound for Paris.

With thanks to the observant pool reporting of USA Today's Jeff Stinson

by Mark Silva

On this Sunday when a candidate's church again has become the focus of his campaign - something which Sen. Barack Obama has attempted to resolve by removing himself from that congregation - many voices will be raised.

The Rev. C. Welton Gaddy, a Baptist minister and president of the Interfaith Alliance, calls it "a sad day in American politics and even sadder in American religion.''

Earlier in this campaign, another candidate attempted to reconcile the perception that many have of his church with his own views on religion and politics.

But for Mitt Romney, former governor of Massachusetts and a Mormon, it was a question about not one church, but rather about his faith and his allegiance to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He attempted to assert his independence while confronting public prejudices, particularly among the most conservative, fundamental Christians who comprise a significant base of the Republican Party.

For Obama, the Democratic senator from Illinois who is close to clinching his party's presidential nomination, it's not a question of his religion or even his church so much as what has been preached from the pulpit of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago.

The longtime pastor there, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, retires today - but not before laying a groundwork of doubt about his words on racial power and prejudice and what those sentiments might say about those, like Obama, who long sat in his pews.

And then came the Rev. Michael Pfleger, a visiting Catholic who injected yet more racial animosity into a campaign that Obama has attempted to raise above race. The Wright saga had prompted Obama to deliver his own sermon on race in America. But there are only so many times one can return to Philadelphia to take that pulpit.

Ultimately, Obama concluded that it was not enough to disavow the incendiary words of the Rev. Wright, or to distance himself from a pastor who had married him and his wife and baptized his children. If the pulpit of his church would continue to serve as a forum for divisive political rhetoric, he would have to extricate himself from the church.

Yet, just as Romney should never have to resign from the Mormon Church to revive his own political fortunes for another campaign, some say Obama should not have to resign from Trinity United Church of Christ to maintain his political credentials.

The problem, some say, is bigger than any candidate. It is the inevitable intermingling of religion and politics in a nation which attempts to uphold a devout separation of church and state.

"No candidate for the presidency should ever have to resign from or join a particular house of worship in order to be a viable candidate for that high office,'' Gaddy says. "To make such a decision for political reasons dishonors religion and disrespects the Constitution. This is a sad day in American politics and even sadder in American religion. Sen. Obama is at the center of the storm, but all who wed religion to partisan politics share responsibility for this tragic development."

by Jim Tankersley

A leading evangelical Christian group is telling supporters that a "cultural earthquake" rocked California earlier this month, which threatens "to permanently alter marriage and families in America."

Focus on the Family Action, the political offshoot of Dr. James Dobson's Colorado-based Focus on the Family, is ramping up its coast-to-coast "battle to save marriage," its senior vice president for government and public policy explained in a fundraising e-mail this week. The effort is a response to a California court ruling that legalized gay marriage in that state, and which Focus on the Family Action says "will be felt in every state that does not already have a constitutional amendment defining marriage as the union of a man and a woman" because California does not require residency for marriage.

"Homosexual activists across the nation will be emboldened to push their anti-family agenda (it's happening this very moment in Colorado)," senior vice president Tom Minnery writes in the Focus letter. "The only recourse is for Californians to pass a state marriage-protection amendment on the ballot this November."

Later, he adds: "The California homosexual marriage 'earthquake' could forever change the cultural landscape of our nation -- unless pro-family citizens like you and me take a stand."

A series of state initiatives banning gay marriage drew big attention in 2004. Republicans credited them for bolstering evangelical turnout at the polls and helping to push President Bush to re-election victory, particularly in battleground Ohio. Analysts wondered in the aftermath of the California ruling if the issue could once again factor heavily this year.

Both John McCain and Barack Obama oppose gay marriage, and, unlike Bush, both oppose a federal constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. Obama supports civil unions for gay couples.
.

by Frank James

It's becoming ever more clear -- Sen. Barack Obama has substantial problems with Jewish voters but what's unclear is what he can do about it.

The latest evidence for Obama's problem with Jewish voters who have usually been reliably Democratic but have real uncertainties about Obama is an excellent piece in this morning's New York Times by Jodi Kantor.

Kantor talked with Jewish voters in South Florida, many of them liberal Democrats, and found real skepticism about Obama, some of it based on a lack of familiarity with him, some of it on misinformation and some of it on plain old-fashioned racism.

By campaigning heavily in Florida, including flooding the state's airwaves and cable pipes with ads, Obama may be able to do something about Jewish voters who have so far resisted his charms because of their unfamiliarity with him or misinformation. But it's hard to see what such campaigning can do to reverse years of racial suspicions many Jewish voters hold about African-Americans.

Anyway, right from the starting blocks, Kantor's piece captures how difficult things are going to be for Obama as he courts voters who should be behind him but aren't.

"The people here, liberal people, will not vote for Obama because of his attitude towards Israel," Ms. Weitz, 83, said, lingering over brunch.

"They're going to vote for McCain," she said.

by Frank James

Why is this day different from all other days? Because Sen. Barack Obama is scheduled to visit a synagogue in Florida in his effort to win over skeptical Jewish voters and is being greeted this morning by a newspaper ad in three South Florida newspapers in which a Jewish Republican organization seeks to put him on the spot.

See the ad here.

The group issued the following press release yesterday:

RJC Releases Ad in Advance of Obama's Synagogue Visit

"Our hope is that Senator Obama will use this opportunity in Florida to give full and complete answers to these critical questions and concerns," said RJC Executive Director Matt Brooks.

by Mike Dorning

Barack Obama's once-unlikely campaign for the presidency is poised to pass a crucial threshold tonight, winning a majority of the elected delegates to the Democratic National Convention. It's a moment the campaign celebrates as a claim to a popular mandate for his party's nomination, even though Obama still must gain more commitments from elected officials and political insiders who are superdelegates before he can clinch the Democratic nomination.

The history-making campaign of the freshman senator who now seems likely to be the first biracial major-party presidential nominee and first Generation X nominee started not with a campaign rally or a television appearance but with a short video posted on his web site.

From his Internet announcement that he was forming a presidential exploratory committee in January 2007 to the legions of small-dollar donors who have funded a campaign that bested the formidable fundraising machine of a former president and first lady, the Internet has figured powerfully in each step of Obama's presidential campaign in much the same way that the then-new medium of television helped propel John F. Kennedy to the presidency in 1960.

Here, then, are a few of the most memorable Internet moments of Barack Obama's bid for the White House.

Some of the best moments:

1. "Yes We Can" video by will.i.am generates at least 14 million views in several postings on YouTube.

2. The Obama Girl's "I got a crush...on Obama" becomes a pop culture phenomenon.

3. The debut of MyBarackObama.com on the day of his February 2007 official campaign kick-off rally in Springfield, Ill., stirs supporters to create more than a thousand Obama groups on the first day of business.

4. The Obama campaign's first quarterly fundraising total bests Hillary Clinton in cash raised for the primary, in part because of large haul of Internet dollars, foreshadowing a big draw of small-dollar donors over the Internet that will give him financial superiority over the Clinton's well-tested fundraising network.

5. Obama announces his presidential exploratory committee over the Internet on his web site.

6. A video of Obama's full speech on race relations, "A More Perfect Union," is viewed at least 5.5 million times in several postings on YouTube.

Some of the worst Obama Internet moments:

1. Excerpts of incendiary sermons from former Obama pastor Jeremiah Wright are posted on YouTube gaining even greater attention after the clips are aired on television.

2. E-mail campaigns spread false rumors that Obama is a Muslim and unwilling to hold his hand over his heart during the Pledge of Allegiance.

3. An Obama internet consultant is linked to an unauthorized "mash-up" video portraying Hillary Clinton as 1984's "Big Brother," based on a famous Super Bowl ad for Apple lampooning IBM.

by Mark Silva

SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt -- "Democracy does not threaten Islam or any religion,'' President Bush told a largely quiet forum of Middle East leaders here today. "Democracy is the only system of government that guarantees their protection.''

But this is the story that greeted people throughout this region early this morning when they turned on CNN International, the BBC World News and other regional broadcast outlets:

Dateline Baghdad: A soldier used a Quran, the Islamic holy book, for target practice in a predominantly Sunni area west of Baghdad, prompting an apology from the military, a spokesman said Sunday.

The action, which occurred on May 9 and was discovered two days later, threatened to further strain relations between the Americans and Sunni allies who have joined forces with them against al-Qaida in Iraq in Radwaniyah and other areas. The incident was first reported by CNN, which broadcast a ceremony at which the top American commander in Baghdad apologized to tribal leaders in Radwaniyah. The military confirmed the details.

And cable television viewers here saw a contrite U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Jefferey Hammond: "I come before you here seeking your forgiveness. In the most humble manner I look in your eyes today and I say please forgive me and my soldiers."

Once again, the vaunted ideals of the United States campaign for democracy in the Middle East, including its avowed reverence for religious freedom, have collided with the conduct of an American soldier. On a smaller, but no less symbolic scale, it is the Abu Ghraib of religious freedom.

"There are people who claim that democracy is incompatible with Islam,'' Bush told his audience here today. "But the truth is that democracies, by definition, make a place for people of religious belief. America is one of the world's leading democracies - and we are also one of the most religious nations in the world. More than three-quarters of our citizens believe in a higher power. Millions worship every week and pray every day. And they do so without fear of reprisal from the state.

"In our democracy, we would never punish a person for owning a Koran,'' the president said. "And we would never issue a death sentence to someone for converting to Islam. Democracy does not threaten Islam or any religion. Democracy is the only system of government that guarantees their protection.''

No punishment for owning a Quran. Only for shooting one.

Travis Childers delivers his victory speech in Booneville, Miss., Tuesday night May 13, 2008. (AP Photo/Michael H. Miller)

by Jill Zuckman

Another Republican district bites the dust.

First, House Republicans lost previously safe seats in Louisiana and Illinois - including the one belonging to former House Speaker Dennis Hastert. Last night, they lost a third in Mississippi.

Travis Childers, a Democrat, defeated Republican Greg Davis in a special election to fill the remaining months of the congressional term. The seat had been held by Roger Wicker who moved to the U.S. Senate after Trent Lott stepped down.

"The scoreboard now reads 'Change 3, Status Quo 0,'" crowed Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.), the chairman of the House Democratic Caucus. "In districts across the country, the American people are rejecting Bush Rubberstamp Republicans and casting their votes for real change."

House Republican Leader John Boehner issued a somber statement calling the news "a wake-up call to Republican candidates nationwide."

by Matthew Hay Brown

John C. Hagee, the Texas preacher whose endorsement of John McCain has proved something of a mixed blessing, has expressed regret for his comments on the Catholic Church.

The three-page letter that Hagee sent Monday to the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights should be good news for McCain, who had faced pressure from some to distance himself from the televangelist over his repeated references to "the great whore" and "the apostate church" -- language understood as anti-Catholic slurs.

A strong supporter of Israel, Hagee also has stressed Catholic anti-Semitism, citing the Inquisition, the Crusades and Hitler's Catholic schooling. But in his letter, released today by the Catholic League, Hagee expresses "deep regret for any comments that Catholics have found hurtful."

"In my zeal to oppose anti-Semitism and bigotry in all its ugly forms, I have often emphasized the darkest chapters in the history of Catholics and Protestant relations with the Jews," Hagee writes. "In the process, I may have contributed to the mistaken impression that the anti-Jewish violence of the Crusades and the Inquisition defines the Catholic Church. It most certainly does not."

His invocation of the great whore and the apostate church, he writes, are not intended as references to Roman Catholicism. But he acknowledges that the phrases from the Book of Revelation are "a rhetorical device long employed in anti-Catholic literature and commentary."

The Catholic League, which has referred to Hagee as a "veteran bigot," now is declaring an end to the controversy.

by Matthew Hay Brown

Maryland's highest court has rejected a Pakastani man's attempt to invoke talaq, the Islamic divorce that enables a man to dissolve his marriage by telling his wife "I divorce thee" three times.

Farah Aleem already had filed for divorce in Montgomery County Circuit Court in 2003 when her husband went to the Pakstiani Embassy in Washington to invoke the talaq.

By doing so, World Bank economist Irfan Aleem argued, he ended the marriage and did not owe his wife a share of his assets, valued at $2 million.

The state Court of Appeals disagreed.

"If we were to affirm the use of talaq, controlled as it is by the husband, a wife, a resident of this state, would never be able to consummate a divorce action filed by her in which she seeks a division of marital property," the judges ruled.

The talaq, they wrote, "directly deprives the wife of the due process she is entitled to when she initiates divorce litigation."

Nick Madigan of The Baltimore Sun has the rest of the story, after the jump.

By Glenn Thrush

Barack Obama gobbled up a major Hillary Clinton superdelegate Thursday -- but he's suffering from a decline in the polls that coincides with the national tour conducted by his firebrand former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

Former Democratic National Committee Chairman Joe Andrew -- who endorsed Hillary Rodham Clinton last year -- defected to Obama Thursday, the 15th superdelegate to back him in the last week.

"We have two good candidates, but we have two people who've run their campaigns in two different ways," said Andrew, an Indiana superdelegate. "Barack Obama is serious about changing the process in politics. ... I'm inspired by someone who says, you know we don't have to play the game."

At the same time, a bevy of new polls seemed to show Obama is suffering from the "Wright Effect."

Clinton has widened her lead in Indiana, cut Obama's edge in North Carolina down to 7 points and lurched ahead in a major national poll, following a week of wall-to-wall coverage of controversial remarks by Obama's ex-pastor.

A Gallup national daily tracking poll showed Clinton jumping to a 49 to 45 lead over Obama, her biggest lead nationally since mid-March. Obama led Clinton by 10 points in the poll on the eve of the April 22 Pennsylvania primary.

A CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll released Thursday showed Obama and Clinton in a statistical dead heat nationally, with Obama surrendering a 7-point lead in the last six weeks.

Tom Bevan, founder of Realclearpolitics.com, which tracks poll data, termed the shift a "rather dramatic tightening" of a Democratic presidential race many had considered finished prior to Clinton's Pennsylvania victory, Wright's resurfacing and Obama's belated denunciation of the pastor.

by Mark Silva and updated with NW statement

Now the Rev. Jeremiah Wright is facing some splashback of his own from the controversy generated on the campaign trail this year by his most controversial remarks from the pulpit of the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago.

Northwestern University has withdrawn its offer of an honorary degree after the controversy over Wrights's most incendiary comments on race became a problem for Sen. Barack Obama, who finally disavowed his longtime pastor this week.

Wright, retiring from Trinity United Church of Christ on the South Side of Chicago, had been extended an invitation to receive an honorary degree at the university's commencement in June, according to a university statement.

"In light of the controversy around Dr. Wright and to ensure that the celebratory character of commencement not be affected, the university has withdrawn its invitation to Dr. Wright," Vice President of University Relations Alan Cubbage said in the statement.

See the university's full statement here:

by Mike Dorning, updated and revised, 4:11 pm ET

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C.--Engulfed in fresh controversy over new inflammatory remarks by his retiring pastor, Barack Obama made a public break Tuesday with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, denouncing the minister's latest comments as "outrageous, "appalling" and a contradiction of the senator's own life's work.

Obama, appearing visibly pained, did in a hastily called press conference what he had been reluctant to do since controversy initially erupted more than a month ago over Wright's sermons, repudiating not merely the words but the world view of a clergyman who had once been a close spiritual counselor and by Obama's account inspired him to embrace Christian faith

Obama was confronting distracting media coverage of Wright's fiery appearance Monday at the National Press Club, in which the minister reaffirmed his view that the U.S. government may have initiated the AIDS epidemic to wipe out racial minorities and praised Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan as one of the most important voices of the 20th and 21st centuries.

"When I say I find these comments appalling, I mean it. It contradicts everything I am about and who I am," Obama said, adding that Wright's comments "end up giving comfort to those who prey on hate."

In earlier comments on Wright, Obama appeared to be walking a careful line, criticizing Wright's most inflammatory rhetoric but refusing to dissociate himself with a man who had been so close with his family.

But after Wright's defiant performance Monday, in which he mocked his questioners and accused critics of attacking the black church in America, Obama was left with little choice but to denounce Wright more forcefully and make it clear his relationship with the minister had fundamentally changed, or risk having his campaign engulfed by the controversy.

Obama said Tuesday he was incensed that Wright had dismissed his earlier criticism as the actions of a typical politician. "What particularly angered me was his suggestion that my previous denunciation was somehow political posturing," he said, calling it "a show of disrespect for me."

Rev. Jeremiah Wright. (Photo: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images)

by Frank James

Some of the most worrisome words for Sen. Barack Obama uttered by Rev. Jeremiah Wright yesterday at the National Press Club, should be those that indicated that the presidential candidate's voluble former pastor is washing his hands, Pontius Pilate-like, of any responsibility for what becomes of Obama's electoral chances.

Here's the passage that should be among the most horrifying for the Obama campaign:

MODERATOR (reading question): Do you think it is God's will that Senator Obama be president?

In my tradition, however, what everybody has been saying to me as it pertains to the candidacy is, what God has for you is for you. If God intends for Mr. Obama to be the president, then no white racist, no political pundit, no speech, nothing can get in the way, for God will do what God wants to do.

Wright could've easily added loose-cannon preacher to the list.

If Wright truly believes this, and there's no reason to think otherwise, then it means we can expect the South Side Chicago preacher won't be mincing words in the next weeks or months to help his one-time congregant. Far from it.

by Christi Parsons and Frank James

Rev. Jeremiah Wright did two things at the National Press Club this morning.

The man who for decades was Sen. Barack Obama's pastor first offered a learned lecture on the black experience in America and on the African-American faith tradition, an attempt to put into context the controversial sermon snippets that have been airing in recent weeks.

Then, following his speech, the recently retired senior pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago engaged in a question-and-answer period in which he mocked some of the queries, at times browbeat the moderator and generated a string of new sound bites that immediately began making their way into the political realm. (Here's a transcript of his remarks.)

Wright's contempt for the media and his other critics at times seemed downright palpable. His edgy, defiant performance today, which at times verged on arrogance and swaggering, is bound to raise more questions in the minds of many voters who will wonder more about Obama's long association with the preacher.

Wright said he wasn't political and seemed determined to prove it by demonstrating a demeanor likely will put off many voters, particularly, but not only, the white working class Americans Obama must attract in greater numbers than he's been able to if he is to have any chance of winning the presidency should he become the Democratic nominee.

Reminded that some critics have said his sermons are "unpatriotic," Wright told the audience that he is a former service member. He served six years in the Marine Corps and Navy.

"Does that make me patriotic?" he asked. "How many years did Cheney serve?"

Wright objected to criticisms of his relationship with Minister Louis Farrakhan.

by Mark Silva

The Rev. Jeremiah Wright is not running for public office - as he said Sunday in Detroit - but rather "running for Jesus.'' But the best-known student of his Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago is running for the highest office in the land. And today, the retiring and controversial pastor and mentor of Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois will speak out in Washington.

Wright appeared last night at the annual Fight for Freedom Dinner of the NAACP in Detroit, where he told his audience that, "If I were in a Christian church, I would say we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us.... If I were pushing one particular candidate I would say, 'Yes, we can.'.... But since this is a non-partisan gathering and since this is neither a mosque, a synagogue or a sanctuary, just let me say 'We can do it. ... We can make a change if we try.'''

That one particular candidate whose motto Wright borrowed last night has spent a lot of time explaining why he disavows the most notorious words about racial prejudice and political power of the pastor whom he has known and followed for two decades but does not "disown'' the man. A fuller picture of that man has emerged in recent days, with his interview by Bill Moyers of the Public Broadcasting Service and with Wright's speech in Detroit over the weekend, and it will play out on a public stage today at the National Press Club in Washington.

But try as he might, Wright will have a hard time managing the role that his own words are playing in the presidential campaign of 2008 since the most fiery of those words - "God damn America'' - were seized like wild stallions and penned in the circular loop of the 24-hour network news sound-bites.

In North Carolina, the Republican Party is ready to air a television advertisement this week featuring a video clip of those words - playing them against two Democrats running for governor who in turn have endorsed Obama and in turn questioning those candidates' judgment - but of course slamming Obama at the same time in a state where he holds an apparent advantage over Democratic rival Hillary Clinton in the May 6 primary.

"I'm not here for political reasons," Wright told his audience in Detroit. "I am not a politician. I know that fact will surprise many of you because many of the corporate-owned media have made it seem like I have announced I am running for the Oval Office. I am not running for the Oval Office. I've been running for Jesus a long, long, long time, and I'm not tired yet."

(AP Photo/PBS, Robin Holland, HO)

by Manya A. Brachear

In a rare interview, Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. said media organizations that circulated controversial sound bites of his sermons on the Internet wanted to paint him as "un-American" or "some sort of fanatic" in order to bring down Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.

"I think they wanted to communicate that I am unpatriotic, that I am un-American, that I am filled with hate speech, that I have a cult at Trinity United Church of Christ," Wright told journalist Bill Moyers in the first interview he has granted since comments critical of U.S. policies surfaced on television and the Internet.

" 'And by the way, guess who goes to his church, hint, hint, hint?' That's what they wanted to communicate. They know nothing about the church."

Wright, who for four decades built his reputation on straight talk and imperviousness to politicians, has been atypically quiet in recent weeks--canceling four appearances, declining all interview requests and bowing out of a news conference with other clergy.

The fiery pastor preached his final sermon at Trinity in February and officially retires next month. This Sunday, Wright will deliver a sermon at a Dallas church and later speak to the Detroit branch of the NAACP.

Moyers is a member of Wright's denomination, the United Church of Christ. Excerpts from the interview, conducted this week and airing in the Chicago area at 9:30 p.m. Friday on WTTW-Ch. 11, were released today.

See the rest of the report from the Tribune:

by Matthew Hay Brown

Making his first papal visit to the United States in the midst of a presidential election, Pope Benedict XVI had stepped lightly around the issues that ignite partisan debate here - immigration and the war in Iraq among them - even as he urged Catholics to exercise their faith in the public square.

But not so today, when he proclaimed the "inalienable dignity and rights" of "the most defenseless of all human beings, the unborn child in the mother's womb."

The line from Benedict's homily drew cheers from the crowd of 57,000 who packed Yankee Stadium for the third and final mass of the pontiff's visit. In its forthrightness, as compared to the language in which he couched his references to other issues, it had the effect of elevating opposition to abortion above other Catholic positions subject to American political action.

At the United Nations, Benedict's call for "a deeper search for ways of pre-empting and managing conflicts by exploring every possible diplomatic avenue" might have been a veiled criticism of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

A joint statement released by the Holy See and the White House about discussions between Benedict and President Bush on immigration and the conduct of the war on terror seemed intentionally vague.

On abortion, however, the pontiff was unequivocal, praising the Catholic Church in America for its "prophetic witness in the defense of life."

by Matthew Hay Brown

You like the pope? Then you'll love the Democrats.

At least that's what Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean appeared to suggest today, in his party's weekly radio address. The former Vermont governor opened his address this morning with a welcome to Benedict XVI, making his first visit to the United States as pope.

"His visit reminds us of the Catholic values of social justice, working for the common good, and caring for those most in need," Dean says. "These are also the values of the Democratic Party."

In fact, when described more broadly, the pope's values don't line up easily with either of America's major parties. Like most Republicans, he opposes abortion and embryonic stem-cell research; like most Democrats, he's against the war in Iraq and the death penalty.

Those issues make up what Bendict's predecessor, Pope John Paul II, was talking about when he coined "The Culture of Life." President Bush has used the phrase in a narrower sense, focused on abortion and embryos.

Benedict has been careful, visiting Washington and New York during this political season, to avoid even appearing to weigh in on the 2008 election - beyond saying that religious believers should be allowed the freedom to express their faith in public life.

Dean spent the rest of his address on John McCain and the economy. The complete address follows.

by Matthew Hay Brown

The challenges of security, development and the environment require international cooperation -- but the "decisions of a few' have thrown international consensus into crisis, Pope Benedict XVI told the U.N. General Assembly.

An outspoken critic of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, the pontiff didn't name names. And he might not have been referring to any conflict in particular. Still, he echoed a familiar criticism of the Bush administration when he called for "a deeper search for ways of pre-empting and managing conflicts by exploring every possible diplomatic avenue, and giving attention and encouragement to even the faintest sign of dialogue or desire for reconciliation."

Speaking in French and English, Benedict called it the "primary duty" of every state "to protect its own population from grave and sustained violations of human rights, as well as from the consequences of humanitarian crises, whether natural or man-made." Where a state cannot guarantee such protection, he said, "the international community must intervene."

Benedict devoted his address to human rights, including the right to religion, which he said must extend beyond freedom to worship to include thew right of the religious to engage in public life.

"It is inconceivable that believers should have to suppress a part of themselves - their faith - in order to be active citizens," he said. "It should never be necessary to deny God in order to enjoy one's rights."

The complete address follows.

(Papal Mass at Nationals Park celebrated by Pope Benedict XVI/ Photo by Algerina Perna (Baltimore Examiner and Washington Examiner)

by Matthew Hay Brown

When the first U.S. visit of Pope Benedict XVI was announced, Catholics wondered aloud whether he would address the sex abuse scandal that erupted here in 2002.

It turns out the pontiff has much to say on the subject. First, there was the shame expressed to reporters aboard Shepherd One before his flight landed Tuesday at Andrews Air Force Base. Then came his address Wednesday to the nation's bishops - the group that has taken much of the criticism for the scandal.

Today, he raised the issue again during his homily at Nationals Park:

"I acknowledge the pain which the church in America has experienced as a result of the sexual abuse of minors," Benedict told the 45,000 who turned out for his first Mass. "No words of mine could describe the pain and harm inflicted by such abuse. It is important that those who have suffered be given loving pastoral attention. Nor can I adequately describe the damage that has occurred within the community of the Church. ...

"Today I encourage each of you to do what you can to foster healing and reconciliation, and to assist those who have been hurt," he said. "Also, I ask you to love your priests, and to affirm them in the excellent work that they do."

In a wide-ranging homily that amounted to his most expansive message to America yet, the pontiff also referred to "the injustices endured by the native American peoples and by those brought here forcibly from Africa as slaves."

by Matthew Hay Brown

Given the red carpet that official Washington is rolling out today for Pope Benedict XVI, it’s bracing to remember that it was less than 25 years ago that the United States established diplomatic relations with the Holy See.

In an op-ed piece in yesterday’s Los Angeles Times, the Italian journalist Massimo Franco leads a tour through two centuries of mutual distrust between the Washington and the Vatican: “Among Americans, Catholicism was perceived as a religion fine for Irish, Italian, French and Polish immigrants, but not for real Yankees. Or worse, it was seen as a religion of the poor. The Vatican also failed to grasp how widely the pope was viewed as a conspiratorial figure, menacing American freedom and independence.”

That wariness, finally overcome in the alliance forged by President Ronald Reagan and Pope John Paul II against communism, now appears to be forgotten. Benedict may be a leading critic of the war in Iraq; he is also the first pope to make a state visit to the United States. (Pope John Paul II made an unofficial visit to the White House in 1979.)

President Bush – with whom the pope agrees on abortion and embryonic stem cell research, but disagrees on the death penalty – is taking the unusual step of meeting his plane at Andrews Air Force Base this afternoon, before hosting him at the White House tomorrow.

The congressional leadership also is welcoming the pontiff.

by Frank James

Sen. Barack Obama's church, Trinity United Church of Christ, is fed up and not going to take it anymore. "It" would be the media intrusions that have come with the controversy over the by- now infamous comments of its retired senior pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

The church's new lead pastor, Otis Moss III, held a press conference yesterday to make two points. He called for a national conversation about race. And he wanted to read the riot act to some reporters who have gone overboard in the opinion of church members and others, in their pursuit of interviews with Trinity members.

The call for a racial dialogue gave the press conference a more elevated gloss than if it had been merely held for the purpose of telling reporters to cease and desist from bothering church members.

But one got the sense from watching the press conference that the main purpose was to tell the media to back off.

The church is clearly feeling besieged and not just by the media. There have been death threats and other warnings of violence.

But overzealous reporters have been a very real and present annoyance. According to Moss, journalists have tried to conduct interviews during church services. They have accosted members as they've headed into the church.

Some journalists have even actually gone as far as calling church members whose names they found on the sick and shut-in list that appeared in the church bulletin, a list which included the names of people dying in hospices. (Chicago Tribune religion writer Manya Brachear had this very good story about Trinity's sense of having been invaded.)

by Frank James

Looking at the reaction of a MediaCurves focus group of 709 viewers to Sen. Barack Obama's race speech in which he took on the issue of his controversial pastor, Rev. Jeremiah C. Wright, it's once again interesting to see the racial divide in how the speech was received. It's the same racial split Obama so deftly described in his speech.

Blacks who took part of the survey had higher levels of agreement with Obama than non-blacks. And Democrats had more favorable impressions of the snippets of the speech they were shown than independents and Republicans.

Watch for the reaction to Obama when he asserts that he never heard his pastor say anything derogatory about specific ethnic groups. Non-black respondents weren't necessarily buying that while blacks did.

That could indicate a real problem for Obama going forward if a lot of voters believe he's being less than candid.

But even Republicans came back to Obama when he said Wright's mistake was that he was blind to the progress that had made on race issues, advances that explained the reality that one of Wright's own members was, indisputably, a serious contender for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination, in large part because he had forged a multiracial coalition.

by Frank James

11:57 am: More random thoughts on The Speech. Obama is definitely cool, considering the pressure he was under today. He appeared fairly serene even though most commentators were saying the stakes were no less than the his campaign's continued viability. Does he have sweat glands?

Wouldn't it be great to hear Wright give a sermon in response to the Obama's speech? Would he accept Obama's criticisms that his views are a way over-the-top reaction to real and perceived racism? Or would Wright call Obama a sell-out, a "negro", one of the pastor's preferred terms for blacks who aren't sufficiently black enough to suit him?

Of course, we probably won't be seeing much of Wright for the foreseeable future.

Despite today's speech, Obama is going to have to continue to answer questions about Wright and his membership at Trinity United Church of Christ. He appeared to try to set himself up at the end of today's speech to be able to say "I want to talk about the Big Issues" like the Iraq War and the economy.

But that's not going to fly. He spoke honestly about the issue of race today in a way that is rare for presidential candidates. If he wants voters to believe that he meant what he said, he's going to have to continue to speak honestly about it.

This presents a problem for the Obama campaign. He has run a campaign to date that has meant to transcend the race issue. He has not wanted to be seen as an African American candidate.

But now he is squarely in the middle of the race issue. It was bound to happen. He can't avoid it at this point. So he's going to have to deal with it from here on forward. But as he showed today, talking about race doesn't mean you can't talk about the other big issues.

The legend for the video clip is:

Purple: African Americans
Green: Independents
Blue: Democrats
Red: Republicans

by Frank James

If you want to see a vivid visual portrayal of the perceptual split between blacks and whites, take a look at this focus group of 799 people who were shown video snippets of sermons by Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Sen. Barack Obama's pastor.

The reaction of blacks and whites, who looked at the video and showed their agreement or disagreement with Wright by moving their computer mice, diverged from the start and never converged.

Of the survey participants, 48 identified themselves as black while 654 said they were white. There were 65 who said they were Hispanic, 65 who claimed to be Asian and 10 who said they were Native American. (HCD Research Inc., which did the survey, said some participants chose more than one category.)

Using its MediaCurves technology, HCD also got viewers' reactions to Obama's response to questions about his membership at Trinity Church of Christ during a Fox News interview with Major Garrett.

The legend for the video clip is:

Asian/Pacific Islander 44
Black/African American 33
Caucasian (non-Hispanic) 421
Hispanic 28
Native American 7
Other 8

What's interesting in this study is that the curve for African Americans tracks with those for Democrats, Republicans and Independents until Obama says the first he had heard comments like the controversial ones in the YouTube videos circulating on the Internet was relatively recently.

At that points, African Americans clearly give Obama the benefit of the doubt while others, to greater or lesser degrees, find Obama less believable on that count.

by James Oliphant

Sunday, the faux-glamor of the presidential race will be temporarily replaced by the real thing: The Academy Awards. (Obama isn't hosting, right?)

Competition for best picture promises to be fierce. There's the epic "There Will Be Blood," the taut "No Country for OId Men" and the lush "Atonement." And then there's also that plucky little indie movie "Juno" about a wisecracking teenager who makes pregnancy seem like just a nine-month trip to the mall.

Lots of people will be rooting for this underdog film to win, including the fun-loving Troy Newman of Operation Rescue. That's the virulent anti-abortion organization based in Wichita, Kan. that has made it its mission to close clinics that provide abortion services by any means necessary. They're the ones who sends trucks around with bloody pictures of fetuses.

In an interview Wednesday, Newman was effusive in his praise of "Juno," saying it marked a cultural turning point. In the film, pregnant Juno goes to a clinic to obtain an abortion, but once there, gets upset and leaves. She decides to have the baby and give it to a wealthy professional couple.

Newman says there is a reason why "Juno" was this year's feel-good sensation. "If she goes and gets an abortion, the movie's over." In other words, abortion is not a crowd-pleaser.

Sen Barack Obama in Lexington, S.C., January 22, 2008. (Photo: EMMANUEL DUNAND/AFP/Getty Images)

by Frank James

Chicago Tribune religion writer and blogger Manya Brachear asks this question on her blog, The Seeker: in underscoring that he is a Christian, should Sen. Barack Obama go further?

When he upholds his Christianity, should he emphasize for those who are Muslims and those who aren't, that there's nothing wrong with being Muslim?

Manya writes:

The repeated and false claims that Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is a closet Muslim have prompted the candidate to reiterate that he is a committed Christian.

But he stops short of saying that being Muslim wouldn’t be a bad thing. In addition to setting the record straight about his own faith, should Obama also give a shout-out to his Muslim brothers and sisters and defend Islam?

Good question. Manya continues:

by Matthew Hay Brown, updated

If it’s Jan. 22, it must be the March for Life. On the 35th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade, demonstrators today are filling Washington hotels, crowding the Metro and jamming up the streets en route to the National Mall, where they will hear speeches and make their opposition to abortion known.

They have been welcomed by Republicans including President Bush, who met with several marchers this morning at the White House.

“Thirty-five years ago today the United States Supreme Court declared and decided that under the law an unborn child is not considered a person,” Bush said. “Biology confirms that from the start each unborn child is a separate individual with his or her own genetic code. Babies can now survive outside the mother's womb at younger and younger ages. And the fingers and toes and beating hearts that we can see on an unborn child's ultrasound come with something that we cannot see: a soul.”

Supporters of abortion rights, meanwhile, are celebrating the anniversary. The National Organization for Women is planning a vigil this afternoon outside the Supreme Court.

“Though we are celebrating 35 years of constitutional protection of a woman’s right to abortion, we cannot led our guard down,” NOW President Kim Gandy said. “With so many limitations and roadlocks, the promise of Roe is already denied to many women, and access to birth control is under increasing attack. This year we have the chance to elect a new administration and send new members to Congress who will help protect and expand our reproductive freedom. Come November we must elect a president who will be vigilant in upholding a woman's right to make her own childbearing decisions, including access to birth control and abortion.”

by Matthew Hay Brown, updated

President Bush’s church, long at odds with him on matters of public policy, called on the United States and its partners today to begin withdrawing troops from Iraq immediately.

The Bishops of the United Methodist Church approved a resolution calling on Bush, Congress and leaders of the other coalition partners to begin the “immediate safe and full withdrawal” of all troops, declare that there will be no permanent military bases in Iraq, increase support for veterans of all wars and initiate a reconstruction plan to address the humanitarian, social and educational needs of the Iraqi people.

The 125 current and retired bishops now meeting in the Great Smoky Mountains in North Carolina represent more than 11 million Methodists worldwide – including the current occupant of the White House, a member of Highland Park United Methodist Church in Dallas.

In issuing the call, the bishops said their position is based on the denomination’s belief that “war is incompatible with the teachings and examples of Christ,” and on the call of Jesus Christ for “his followers to be peacemakers.”

“Every day that the war continues, more soldiers and innocent civilians are killed with no end in sight to the violence, bloodshed and carnage,” the bishops said in their resolution.

In a response, the White House said that Bush “believes our moral and strategic imperatives are one.”

“We must defeat the violent extremists who threaten the future of Iraq and threaten the United States,” spokesman Scott Stanzel said in an e-mail. “Our men and women in uniform are protecting Iraqi citizens from violent terrorists who want to indiscriminately murder innocent civilians by the tens, hundreds and thousands. Our effort to protect innocent life is a noble cause for which the American people should be proud.”

It’s not the first time church leaders have opposed their most prominent member.

by Mike Dorning

Elizabeth Edwards promised this morning that her husband would promote a health plan that included coverage of abortions for all Americans.

Speaking on behalf of presidential candidate John Edwards at a candidates forum at a meeting of the abortion-rights group Planned Parenthood Action Fund, Edwards promoted her husband's health care proposal as "a true universal health care plan" that would cover "all reproductive health services, including pregnancy termination," referring to abortion.

Later, in response to a question from the audience, Edwards said that the campaign's health care plan would permit Planned Parenthood clinics, which typically provide a range of reproductive health services including abortion, to expand around the country.

"You could expand your services," Edwards said. "You would be an eligible provider for all services you provide."

by John McCormick

Testing out a speech that likely will be similar to one he will give next weekend in Connecticut, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama told Iowans Saturday that America's main challenges are "moral problems."

Obama, who is a member of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, was the keynote speaker for about 300 delegates at the United Church of Christ state convention in Fort Dodge. He will speak June 23 to the 26th annual synod of the United Church of Christ, gathered in Hartford, Conn.

Radio Iowa's O. Kay Henderson has the story from Iowa.

by Frank James

Gallup has a new poll that suggests that Republican candidates for the presidency and other offices are preaching what the choir wants to hear when they knock the theory of evolution and embrace, four-square, the idea of creationism.

In its survey, Gallup found that 68 percent of Republicans didn't believe in evolution versus 40 percent of Democrats and 37 percent of independents who didn't believe in it.

Coming at it from the pro-immigration direction, 67 percent of independents believed in evolution, 57 percent of Democrats and only 30 percent of Republicans.

As the Gallup report notes:

This suggests that when three Republican presidential candidates at a May debate stated they did not believe in evolution, they were generally in sync with the bulk of the rank-and-file Republicans whose nomination they are seeking to obtain.

The problem for an anti-evolution Republican candidate is that if he wins the primary, partly helped by that position, those same views would make him much less palatable to voters in the general election since the majority of them DO believe in the theory of evolution.

So a strong argument could be made that survival of the fittest, politically speaking, and natural selection in elections, would in the long run benefit Republican candidates who sided with Charles Darwin and the majority of the scientific world.

Posted by Mike Dorning at 7:00 am CDT.

This election, Democratic presidential candidates are getting religion. And their web sites are starting to show it.

Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) on Saturday became the first Democratic presidential candidate to unveil a web site devoted to religious outreach. It includes a description of Obama's faith principles and testimonials from religious leaders, including his pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright who says he supports Obama because "of his incarnated faith--his faith made alive in the flesh."

Former Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) today unveiled his own web site themed on faith and moral leadership.

A spokesman for Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) said her campaign will have its own faith-oriented web site up soon.

Posted by Frank James at 2:15 pm CDT

Religious liberals and Media Matters for America held a Washington press conference today to release a report archly called “Left Behind.” It wasn’t about Christians being raptured to heaven a la the fiction of the Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins.

Instead, the report’s full name “Left Behind: The Skewed Representation of Religion in Major News Media” pretty much gives away the report's bottom line – the news media generally ignore the progressive or liberal Christians and how their faith informs their politics.

The result is a warped view of such Christians are and their political choices, according to the report.

Posted by Frank James at 1:46 pm , updated 5:50 pm CDT

The death of Rev. Jerry Falwell, the 73-year old founder of the Moral Majority, a preacher who did more to bring fundamentalist Christians into the secular world of politics than perhaps any other modern religious leader, comes at a critical time for the Religious Right, whose political power was diminished when the Republican Party which relied heavily on its support lost control of Congress last year.

With President Bush, a self-proclaimed born-again believer, serving out the latter part of his time in office, and with no political heir apparent to inherit the support he received from conservative Christians, it's an open question who this important constituency in the Republican Party will coalesce around.

It would've been fascinating to see how Falwell would've navigated a Republican field including Sen. John McCain who in 2000 called him one of the "agents of intolerance" (they had since made attempt at mending things with McCain appearing at Liberty University, the school Falwell founded); Rudy Giuliani, who openly supports abortion rights, and Mitt Romney, the Mormon former governor of that bastion of secular humanism, Massachusetts. Indeed, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is scheduled to be the commencement speaker at Liberty's commencement this weekend.

Now we'll never know who he would've finally supported, assuming he would have supported any of the candidates at all.

Suffice it to say that rare are the people like Falwell in recent American history who have had so large an impact on the nation's political life without being politicians. Agree with him or not, he couldn't be ignored.

Incidentally, McCain's office has issued a statement, followed quickly by Romney, and then this evening by President Bush:

Posted by Mike Dorning at 11:25 am CDT.

Democratic presidential candidate has been criticized by a Jewish group for a fundraiser scheduled this Saturday at the home of retired New York Knicks player Allan Houston, who made comments in 2001 that some considered anti-Semitic.

The New York Magazine blog reports the $1,000-a-head event is drawing heavy criticism from the American Jewish Congress, an anti-discrimination and pro-Israel group.

Houston and fellow Knicks guard Charlie Ward, both deeply religious Christians who were nicknamed the "God Squad," stirred controversy after making comments that indicated Jews were responsible for killing Christ.

Posted by Mike Dorning at 7:00 am CDT.

The Democratic primary campaign this year will now include early question-and-answer sessions on the leading candidates' faith and moral values.

Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John Edwards all are scheduled to appear at a forum on faith and social justice planned for Monday June 4 by Sojourners/Call to Renewal, a progressive evangelical group that concentrates on anti-poverty issues, according to the group.

The forum will be part of the group's annual anti-poverty conference, Pentecost 2007. Despite the name, the conference actually falls a week after the Christian holy day marking the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles fifty days after Easter.

Posted by Karoun Demirjian at 11:33 am CDT

The producers of a film about the struggle for Islam’s identity in the West are launching a public campaign against PBS to get their product shown.

The hour-long documentary, “Islam vs. Islamists: Voices from the Muslim Center”, is one of 22 documentaries funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) for PBS’s America at a Crossroads series, an initiative to examine post-September 11 subjects like terrorism, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the experience of American troops overseas, and global perspectives on U.S. foreign policy.

It follows the efforts of socially liberal Muslims in America and Europe to reclaim their religion from political extremism by speaking out against ultra-conservative imams, in a sort of modern-day Muslim Reformation.

Posted by Frank James at 1:20 pm CDT

How does a congressional leader locked in a difficult political battle with a determined president try to gain the upper hand? If you’re Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), you summon up the pope, as in Pope Benedict XVI.

At his Capitol Hill press conference today, Reid referred to the pope no less than five times to buttress the congressional Democrats’ argument that the U.S. wind down its military efforts in Iraq.

Reid said:

As the pope said on Easter Sunday, a slaughter is taking place in Iraq. The pope further said, "Nothing good is coming from Iraq."

Posted by Frank James at 3:36 pm CST

As it became clear that the U.S. had terribly miscalculated in invading Iraq and many critics looked to cast blame, fingers often pointed at neoconservative intellectuals, many of Jewish ancestry who had argued forcefully for the war.

The allegation was that people either inside or close to the Bush administration like Paul Wolfowitz, Douglas Feith and Richard Perle had sought the war in part to make the Middle East safe for Israel.

As Francis Fukuyama, a disillusioned former neoconservative thinker said in his book “America at the Crossroads: Democracy, Power and the Neoconservative Legacy” some of those charges bore the hallmarks of scapegoating.

“It is perhaps not surprising that some neoconservatives have charged in return that, in the mouths of their critics, neoconservative is a code word for Jewish, since the kind of takeover of the American body politic alleged is all too similar to the kinds of conspiracies laid at the feet of Jews in the history of anti-Semitism.”

Posted by William Neikirk at 11:55 p.m. CST

Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.) called on President Bush today to denounce a Virginia congressman who criticized a newly elected Muslim Democrat for wanting to bring the Koran to his swearing-in.

Rep. Virgil Goode, a Republican, set off a firestorm when he sent a letter to constituents lamenting the fact that Rep.-elect Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), scheduled to be the first Muslim congressman, would bring the Muslim holy book, and not the Bible, to ta private swearing-in ceremony.

Goode also said that immigration laws should be tightened to prevent more Muslims from coming to America and being elected to Congress. He refused to apologize.

Emanuel, who gave strong support to Ellison as head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee during the mid-term elections, criticized Goode at a Chicago press conference on Thursday. He upped the ante today by calling for Bush to step in.

Posted by William Neikirk at 2 p.m. CST

At this time of year, the mail is usually so nice. Cards proclaim Merry Christmas or happy holidays and best wishes for the New Year. So much good cheer is spread around in this season it always makes one feel warm and fuzzy.

But there are exceptions, such as Virginia Republican Rep. Virgil Goode's latest letter to his constituents. Tolerant, it was not.

Goode took note that the new Democratic congressman from Minnesota, Keith Ellison, a Muslim, said he would bring the Koran to his swearing in. "When I raise my hand to take the oath on swearing-in day, I will have the Bible in my other hand. I do not subscribe to using the Koran in any way," Goode wrote.

But he went one step further: "The Muslim representative from Minnesota was elected by the voters of that district and if American citizens don't wake up and adopt the Virgil Goode position on immigration, there will likely be many more Muslims elected to office and demanding the use of the Koran."

Posted by Frank James at 11:43 am CST

There's more evidence that Democrats with presidential aspirations have gotten religion on the importance of finding effective ways to speak to voters whose faith is important to them.

A report by Alexander Bolton in The Hill newspaper today provides some details on how Democratic presidential wannabes have moved religious outreach to the center of their campaign 2008 strategies, lining up staffers, meeting all the right evangelical leaders, you name it.

Posted by Mark Silva at 10:06 am CST

If you have been wondering, lately, if that picture hanging on the wall is just a bit crooked, this will make you want to get up, walk over there and straighten it out:

President Bush is on the radio today talking about finding a bipartisan "consensus on the best path forward'' in Iraq, and the Democrats are responding by putting an evangelical Christian on the radio to question the moral consequences of "a disastrous war.''

Posted by Frank James at 11:47 am CST

USA Today is reporting today on the controversy that has erupted over the desire of the first Muslim elected to Congress, Minnesota Democrat Keith Ellison, to take his oath of office on the Koran instead of a Bible as other newly elected members have done.

As the story by reporter Andrea Stone reports, this particular tempest was ignited by a column by Dennis Praeger which appeared Tuesday on the conservative TownHall.com website.

Posted by Mark Silva at 12:01 am CST

HANOI – President Bush went to church on a warm and sunny morning today in Vietnam, with the president declaring afterward that "there's no more basic freedom.''

Yet in Ho Chi Minh City to the South, where the president will go tonight, activists say a protest to spotlight the repression of religious rights was canceled after police arrested most of the protestors. It was to be staged near the U.S. Consulate. They say two activists, a young man and woman, were beaten by police.

posted by Christi Parsons at 3:15 p.m. CST

Like many fellow Democratic politicians, Sen. Barack Obama is no stranger to the pulpit.

But in December, Obama will go where few progressive Democrats usually venture -- to a large, conservative evangelical church that boasts a Sunday attendance of more than 20,000 people.

Even more unusual is that he’ll attend at the invitation of mega-church Pastor Rick Warren, evangelical icon and author of the popular Christian Living book “The Purpose-Driven Life.”

Posted by William Neikirk at 6:05 a.m. EDT

Many dangers lurk in this great Republic. If it is not terrorism, it is the war in Iraq. If it is not the price of gasoline, it is economic inequality. If it is not crime, it is illegal immigration. If it is not pollution, it is bird flu. If it is not this, it is that.

Now a new book says there's yet another threat you should be worrying about: The Theocons. The name is short for theological conservatives (or the religious right, if you will). The author, Damon Linker, knows a lot about theocons. He was one. He even edited First Things, the most prominent journal of theological conservatives.

Posted by Frank James at 2:16 pm CDT

Just because someone is a conservative Christian doesn’t mean he or she is willing to fib to get an anti-abortion, anti-gay marriage candidate elected.

That truth was on display this weekend at a session I sat in on called “Getting Church Voters to the Polls,” part of the conservative Family Research Council’s Washington Briefing.

Posted by Frank James at 12:40 pm CDT

Last week I wrote about the Red-Letter Christians, a new movement of evangelicals meant to contest the Religious Right for the moral high ground in the nation’s public policy debates.

The RLC held their press conference to pre-empt the conservative Family Research Council’s Washington Briefing, an event meant in part to rally Christian conservatives before the November mid-term elections.

Posted by Frank James at 8:30 am CDT

Muslims by the millions want to kill Americans, James Dobson, the conservative religious leader, told the audience at the Family Research Council's Washington Briefing here in the nation's capital on Friday.

"We have more than 100 members of the press here," said Dobson, founder of the Focus on the Family organization and radio show. "I want to make it very, very clear that we are not saying, at least I'm not saying that all Muslims are violent, that all Muslims are violent, that all of them want to kill us, that all of them are terrorists."

Posted by Frank James at 8:15 am CDT

I spent a good part of Friday at the large conservative Christian gathering put on by the Family Research Council, the Washington Briefing put on by FRC Action, the council's lobbying arm.

There's a lot to discuss, so much so that I'll break up my observations into several postings.

Much of what's said at a conservative gathering like this is every bit as predictable as what's said at similar liberal gatherings. There was the spirited bashing of activist judges, Hollywood, the liberal media and liberals generally.

But that's not to say everything was predictable.

Arkansas's Republican Gov. Mike Huckabee who's exploring the themes he might use if he decides to announce a run for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination, gave a speech in which he didn't once mention his striking 110-pound weight loss, perhaps the best known part of his personal biography nationally.

(Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee speaks to Family Research Council office on Friday.)

Posted by Frank James at 2:55 pm CDT

Today, opponents of the Religious Right made another preemptive step ahead of the conservative Family Research Council’s “Values Voters” conference scheduled to start here in Washington on Friday.

The Center for American Values in Public Life, which identifies itself as a “project” of the liberal People for the American Way organization, released a survey which suggests that for most religious Americans “issues like poverty and health care are more important than hot-button social issues” like gay marriage and abortion.

Posted by Frank James at 12:17 PM CDT

I went to a press conference yesterday and a church service broke out.

The press conference at the National Press Club was held by the new Red Letter Christians network, Christian communicators who say they want to change how Christians influence the national public policy debate. The Religious Right, with its focus on a narrow set of issues like abortion and gay rights, has dominated the public arena for too long, says the RLC.

Posted by William Neikirk at 6:15 a.m. CDT

Last Tuesday President Bush told conservative journalists that he thought a "Third Awakening" of religious fervor was underway in America. At his press conference on Friday, he went over the same ground, saying that he has noticed in his travels that religion is a frequent topic with many people he encounters.

When he is working rope lines and shaking hands, people increasingly say, "I'm praying for you," the president said, adding that he has noticed that this happens more now than when he was running for office back in 1994.

Posted by Mike Dorning at 9:55 am CDT.

Rahm Emanuel (R-Ill.), the House Democrats' national campaign chairman, joined a pro- and anti-abortion rights Democrats this morning in introducing a campaign-season legislative package that puts the party on record setting a goal of reducing abortions in America.

The Tribune offered a preview this morning.

Democrats to roll out plan to curtail abortions

By Mike Dorning
Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON -- Reaching out to more moderate, churchgoing voters with misgivings about abortion, House Democrats plan to unveil legislation on Thursday that sets a public policy goal of reducing abortions in America.

Posted by Glenn Thrush of Newsday at 5:30 pm CDT

WASHINGTON — Karl Rove says he’s not The Exorcist.

Rove, the Bush political shaman Democrats love to demonize, enlisted a trio of clergymen to exorcize Hillary Rodham Clinton’s left-wing spirit when he moved into her West Wing office in 2001, according to an unflattering new biography.

“I talked to Karl. He said it’s not true and, beyond that, he will have no comment," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said.

Posted by Frank James at 4:56 pm CDT

Democrats have been trying to close the religion gap with Republicans for years and it hasn’t quite happened yet. But they’re continuing to try.

One of the latest efforts is a new web site called FaithfulDemocrats.com meant to give Christians who are also Democrats a forum where they can discuss their faith and politics.

Posting by Frank James at 11:57 am CDT

The Gallup Poll organization has a report out today which suggests that a wise strategy for Republicans hoping to keep control of the House would be to encourage regular church goers to go the polls on election day, so long as they’re not black.

Recent Gallup polling indicates that what I’ll call the church gap between Republicans and Democrats hasn’t lessened, with registered voters who describe themselves as regular churchgoers being much more likely to vote Republican than less frequent churchgoers who tend to be Democrats.

Posted by Cam Simpson at 6:05 am CDT

The Associated Press broke big news out of the State Department this week — that former No. 2 Richard Armitage, who is like a brother to former boss Colin Powell, appeared to be the "source" who first outed then-CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson in the CIA leak case.

The AP’s evidence was an Armitage appointment calendar showing a "Private Appointment/Bob Woodward," from 2-3 p.m. on June 13, 2003. But our friends at AP totally missed the real news on Armitage’s calendar that day. One hour after the scheduled close of his Woodward meeting, Armitage had another "Private Appointment." This one was with "Tom Cruise..."

Posted by Mike Dorning at 10:20 am CDT.

An advertising campaign that has been airing on Fox News for several weeks offers an intriguing glimpse of the bond between American evangelicals and Israel and an example of how some supporters of Israel have been using public attention to the conflict in Lebanon as a way to strengthen backing from evangelicals.

The ad campaign, described in greater detail in the story below, relies on Biblical passages as well as vivid imagery to solicit donations in support of Israel.

Ad pitch for Israel aimed at Christians
Evangelicals provide deep well of support

WASHINGTON -- The portraits of suffering on the television commercials follow the familiar imagery of fundraising appeals after major disasters: video of collapsed buildings, the injured being carried away on stretchers and women wailing for the dead.

Good morning.

Here are a few Washington events of note for Tuesday, August 8, as compiled by the Associated Press.

The Federal Reserve Board is deciding today whether to continue raising short-term interest rates.

The National Transportation Safety Board begins a two-day public hearing as part of its ongoing investigation into the cause of a Texas bus fire accident that occurred during the evacuation for Hurricane Rita last year. Location: NTSB headquarters, 490 L’Enfant Plaza SW.

Posted by Jeff Zeleny at 5:28 p.m. CDT

DENVER – A few hours after the sun rose over the Rocky Mountains today, church bells were ringing outside a downtown hotel here. Inside, a few dozen Democrats were talking religion.

The Democratic Leadership Council, a leading group from the party's moderate wing, opened its annual meeting today with hundreds of elected officials and activists from 42 states. The intersection of faith and politics – a lead item on an agenda in two morning sessions – provided moments of considerable hand wringing about how Democrats have dealt with religion.

"It's never made sense to me for the party of tolerance to be intolerant to people of faith," said Rep. Artur Davis (D-Ala.) "If we want to be relevant, we have to keep these principles in mind. We can do it in a way that keeps us as true Democrats and leads us back to govern again."

Posted by Jeff Zeleny at 7:37 a.m. CDT

Sen. Barack Obama is giving fellow Democrats a little religion today.

In a speech to be delivered this morning, the Illinois Democrat gently scolds liberals for being dismissive of religious Americans. It's time, he said, for Democrats to court evangelicals and to speak openly about their own religious beliefs.

"At best," he says, "we may try to avoid the conversation about religious values altogether, fearful of offending anyone and claiming that – regardless of our personal beliefs – constitutional principles tie our hands.

Good Morning.

Here are a few Washington events of note for Friday, April 28, as gathered by the Associated Press.

President Bush is meeting with the President Ilham Aliev of Azerbaijan this morning.

8:30 a.m. Commerce Department releases the Gross Domestic Product for the first quarter.

10 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. WATER QUALITY — US Geological Survey’s National Water-Quality Assessment Program releases a nationwide assessment on volatile organic compounds in wells and groundwater.
Location: Room 2318, Rayburn.

Posted by Frank James at 3:25 pm CST

The Family Research Council wants the Bush administration to reverse a federal waiver that would allow non-U.S. citizens with HIV/AIDS to enter the U.S. to attend this summer’s Gay Games in Chicago.

Earlier this year, the Homeland Security Department gave the Gay Games, a series of sporting events modeled on the Olympics, “designated event status.” Such status would allow non-citizens with HIV/AIDS to visit Chicago for the games.

Posted by Frank James at 5:30 pm CST

For many people, a funeral probably seems an inappropriate time to criticize someone in attendance, especially if it happens to be the president of the United States.

But many Christian funerals are used by preachers to strike the conscience of those attending in order to create a come-to-Jesus moment where souls are won. Sometimes at such funerals, hard things are said. Coretta Scott King's funeral fit that bill.