Obermann’s show<\/a> I can’t say with absolute certainty that such people don’t exist. However, neither at that time nor since have I seen any polling data to suggest that “evangelicals” are all of a sudden rushing to embrace the Democratic ticket. Sure, there are evangelicals like Steven Mansfield who just wrote The Faith of Barack Obama<\/u> who are absolutely convinced that he is an authentic and honest Christian–but who told me on my radio show that he wouldn’t be voting for the Senator because Obama is “pro choice”. Why go after voters who will say, in the end, “nice fellow, true believer, not voting for him though”? <\/p>\nNow comes the merchandising add-on to this story: faith merchandise announcing, for example, that you are a “Catholic for Obama”. I’m not sure how far this will go. Will we see “Presbyterians for Obama”? Or, to dig deeper, “Left Handed Methodists for Obama”? Or maybe “United Church of Christ Members Who Don’t Agree With Jeremiah Wright For Obama”?<\/p>\n
Seriously, I think one of the great strengths of the American political system has been that it has largely avoided setting up political parties along religious lines. Many countries have chosen to do otherwise and have suffered from it. It is not a healthy direction, in my opinion, to have political parties treat members of faith communities as just one more special interest group. Religious values often motivate people to act in ways that help their communities and even give a general direction to their voting patterns. But, shouldn’t candidates be most interested in finding people of every race, religion, and ethnicity who agree with them on the merits of their positions alone? Perhaps this is too much to ask.<\/p>\n
And, by the way, back on those shirts and other paraphernalia–does
\nanyone really believe that if one Scientologist or one Mormon saw some
\nguy wearing a “Scientologist\/Mormon for Obama” tee he or she would say:
\n“that’s the capper for me; I’m voting Democratic this time”. If you
\nfind that person, have him or her call me, please. <\/p>\n
–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There is a belief, widely shared in the Obama camp, that there is a plethora of voters out there who are dying to vote for a Democrat if they can just be convinced that he or she is truly religious. The storyline goes that there were folks who didn’t believe Al Gore or John Kerry…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":164,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[24],"class_list":["post-51","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-election-08","tag-barack-obama-merchandising-democratic-party"],"yoast_head":"\n
LEFT HANDED METHODISTS FOR OBAMA - Lynn v. Sekulow<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/2008\/09\/left-handed-methodists-for-oba.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"LEFT HANDED METHODISTS FOR OBAMA - Lynn v. Sekulow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"There is a belief, widely shared in the Obama camp, that there is a plethora of voters out there who are dying to vote for a Democrat if they can just be convinced that he or she is truly religious. 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An accomplished speaker and lecturer, Lynn has appeared frequently on television and radio broadcasts to offer analysis of First Amendment issues. News programs on which Lynn has appeared include PBS's \"NewsHour,\" NBC's \"Today Show,\" Fox News Channel's \"O'Reilly Factor,\" ABC's \"Nightline,\" CNN's \"Crossfire,\" CBS's \"60 Minutes,\" MSNBC's \"Countdown with Keith Olbermann,\" Fox News Channel's \"Hannity & Colmes,\" ABC's \"Good Morning America,\" CNN's \"Larry King Live\" and the national nightly news on NBC, ABC and CBS. On the radio, Lynn serves as host of \"Culture Shocks,\" a daily look at various issues affecting society and the culture. In the 1990s he served for two years as regular co-host of \"Pat Buchanan and Company\" and after that did a weekly syndicated radio program, \"Review of the News,\" with Col. Oliver North. Lynn is a regular guest on nationally broadcast radio programs, including National Public Radio's \"All Things Considered,\" \"Morning Edition\" and \"Talk of the Nation,\" as well as having appeared on national networks such as CBS Radio, CNN Radio, ABC Radio and AP Radio. Lynn began his professional career working at the national office of the United Church of Christ, including a two-year stint as legislative counsel for the Church's Office of Church in Society in Washington, D.C. From 1984 to 1991 he was legislative counsel for the Washington office of the American Civil Liberties Union. In 2006, Lynn authored Piety & Politics: The Right-Wing Assault On Religious Freedom (Harmony Books). In 2008 he coauthored (with C. Welton Gaddy) First Freedom First: A Citizen's Guide to Protecting Religious Liberty and the Separation of Church and State (Beacon Press). Lynn writes frequently on religious liberty issues, and has had essays published in outlets such as USA Today, The Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Nation. Lynn also has op-eds published frequently by the McClatchy and Scripps-Howard newspaper chains. A member of the Washington, D.C. and U.S. Supreme Court bar, Lynn earned his law degree from Georgetown University Law Center in 1978. In addition, he received his theology degree from Boston University School of Theology in 1973. Lynn, who was born in Harrisburg, Pa., and raised in Bethlehem, Pa., lives in Chevy Chase, Md., with his family.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/author\/blynn"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/164"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}