Truthdig: Don’t Believe Obama’s Hype on Evangelicals

The Illinois senator chastised his colleagues for leaving the evangelicals to the Republicans.

Electorally, he may be correct, but no self-respecting progressive should be fooled. On the whole, evangelicals are the most regressive people in the country. Just look at the hatred and intolerance they’ve made central to the Republican Party.

AP:

Sen. Barack Obama chastised fellow Democrats on Wednesday for failing to “acknowledge the power of faith in the lives of the American people,” and said the party must compete for the support of evangelicals and other churchgoing Americans.

“Not every mention of God in public is a breach to the wall of separation. Context matters,” the Illinois Democrat said in remarks to a conference of Call to Renewal, a faith-based movement to overcome poverty.

“It is doubtful that children reciting the Pledge of Allegiance feel oppressed or brainwashed as a consequence of muttering the phrase `under God,'” he said. “Having voluntary student prayer groups using school property to meet should not be a threat, any more than its use by the High School Republicans should threaten Democrats.”

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