With jazz great Herbie Hancock and Congressman John Lewis at her side, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton hosted a State Department ceremony on Thursday to mark the departure of a cultural delegation to India to commemorate civil rights leader Martin Luther King’s trip there 50 years ago.

King and his wife, Coretta, traveled to India in 1959 to study the life and works of India’s legendary nonviolent independence leader Mahatma Gandhi. King adopted many of Gandhi’s principles of nonviolence to the U.S. civil rights movement in the early 1960s.
 
Clinton said she was “jealous” of the trip by the delegation, which includes Hancock, civil rights veteran Lewis, King’s son, Martin Luther King III, and Alabama Congressman Spencer Bachus. The group will travel to New Delhi and other sites associated with Gandhi.

Hancock said the philosophy of cooperation, communication and harmony espoused by King and Gandhi “are also essential elements of every jazz band.”

Clinton, meanwhile, said the delegation was “exactly what the State Department should be doing even more of.”

“Jazz is not just about music,” the newly installed diplomat said. “As secretary of state, I’m improvising every day.”

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Photo credit: Reuters/Tim Parker (Herbie Hancock and trumpeter Roy Hargrove play at Powell Symphony Hall in St. Louis on Sept. 28, 2001)

Religion's role in U.S. politics was on full display on Thursday as President Barack Obama spoke and prayed at the annual National Prayer Breakfast.

Obama, an adult convert to Christianity, used the occasion to announce that he will be establishing a White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. This will replace or be an extension of the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives established by former President George W. Bush, who was strongly supported by conservative Christians.

Some of Obama's remarks about the new office are sure to raise eyebrows in those conservative Christian circles. For example:

"The goal of this office will not be to favor one religious group over another – or even religious groups over secular groups.  It will simply be to work on behalf of those organizations that want to work on behalf of our communities, and to do so without blurring the line that our founders wisely drew between church and state."

For many conservative U.S. Christians, it is an article of faith that the founding fathers in the late 18th century did not erect a wall to separate church and state.  Many religious and secular liberals contest that view, making it one of America's never-ending culture war battles.

Obama also let it be known that while he is a Christian he is not about to favor one religious group over another. In his prepared remarks, he said:

"Jesus told us to 'love thy neighbor as thyself.' The Torah commands, 'That which is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow.'  In Islam, there is a hadith that reads 'None of you truly believes until he wishes for his brother what he wishes for himself.'  And the same is true for Buddhists and Hindus; for followers of Confucius and for humanists.  It is, of course, the Golden Rule – the call to love one another; to understand one another; to treat with dignity and respect those with whom we share a brief moment on this Earth."

Americans may debate the walls between their church and state; but there is little doubt that religion and U.S. politics are often joined at the hip.

Photo Credit: REUTERS/Larry Downing (President Obama speaks at National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C., Feb 5, 2009)

DALLAS - Barack Obama and John McCain got a chance during their third presidential debate on Wednesday night to directly address their respective bases when they were asked about abortion.

Moderator Bob Schieffer, who noted that Democrat Obama supports the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court Roe vs Wade decision that grants women a constitutional right to an abortion, while the Republican McCain opposes it, asked: “Could either of you ever nominate someone to the Supreme Court who disagrees with you on this issue?”

Both candidates said they would not apply ”litmus tests” if they were to select justices for the top U.S. court, whose nine members are currently almost evenly divided between conservatives and liberals.

“I would consider anyone in their qualifications.  I do not believe that someone who has supported Roe v. Wade that would be part of those qualifications.  But I certainly would not impose any litmus test,” McCain said.

Obama said: “I am somebody who believes that Roe versus Wade was rightly decided … what ultimately I believe is that women in consultation with their families, their doctors, their religious advisers, are in the best position to make this decision.”

Abortion is one of the most emotive and partisan issues in America. Most Democrats support abortion rights; the Republican Party is opposed to abortion rights and its conservative Christian wing is especially vocal and activist in this regard.

It is an issue that can engergize the bases of both parties, but amid worsening economic news and a plunging stock market, neither candidate has been paying it much attention.

 Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage

 Photo credit: Reuters/Gary Hershorn
 
  

DALLAS - Republican presidential contender John McCain still retains strong support from white evangelical Protestants, but the 72-year-old Arizona senator’s appeal fades with younger voters from this flock.

That is the findings of a survey that was just done for Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner.

It found that McCain has the support of 71 percent of white evangelical Christians versus 23 percent for his Democratic rival Barack Obama.

But the numbers narrow somewhat for evangelicals under the age of 30, to 62 percent for McCain to 30 percent for Obama.

McCain has solidified his support with this important component of the Republican base with his choice of Alaska governor Sarah Palin – a staunch conservative Christian and mother of six — as his running mate.

But the survey found that while older white evangelical women were among Palin’s most ardent supporters, women below 30 from that group were far less enthusiastic about her. 

 It found Palin’s favorability rating among white evangelical women below 30 was only 46 percent; compared with 65 percent for white evangelical women over 30. 

President George W. Bush took close to 80 percent of the white evangelical vote in 2004, underscoring its importance to the Republican Party.

Democratic strategists have hoped to make at least some headway into this monolith. Overall, the 2004 election was a close one so even a few votes poached from the other side, especially in closely contested states such as Colorado or Ohio, could make a huge difference to the outcome of the Nov. 4 White House race.

The survey involved 1400 adults, 18 years or older, including an oversample of 400 evangelical Christians ages 18-29. It was conducted September 4-21, 2008.

The margin of error for white evangelical Christians surveyed is 4.1 percent and rises to 5.5 percent for those between the ages of 18 and 29.

(Photo Credit: REUTERS/Jim Bourg, Sept 26, 2008, USA. Combination images of Senators McCain and Obama speaking at first presidential debate at the University of Mississippi)

LANCASTER, Pa. - The work of community organizers, who work  for low salaries to help people in impoverished communities,  is getting lots of attention this week as Republicans poke jabs at Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama’s job experience.

The three years Obama spent as a community organizer “maybe … is the first problem on the resume,” said former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani in his speech at the Republican convention on Wednesday.

Giuliani, who failed in his bid for the Republican presidential nomination and now runs a lucrative consulting firm, said community organizing sounded as though Obama had “immersed himself in Chicago machine politics.”

Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin also took a swipe in her speech,  saying her experience as a small-town mayor in Alaska was similar to being a community organizer, “except that you have actual responsibilities.”

Obama was a community organizer after college in Chicago. He worked with a church-based group trying to improve conditions in poor neighborhoods and communities hurt when steel plants closed, according to his official campaign website.

He then went to Harvard Law School, became a civil rights lawyer, taught law and ran for the Ilinois State Senate. He was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2004.

On the campaign trail on Thursday, Obama told a crowd in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, that the Republicans “really had fun talking about the work I did after college.”

“I don’t know if they understand what it means for a young person, at the age of 22 or 23, to pass up more lucrative options and work with people who are having a tough time and seeing that when people work together, we can do amazing things, rebuilding communities and setting up job training centers and setting up afterschool programs for kids.

“Maybe that’s not really interesting work for Rudy Giuliani, but for the people on the ground who are seeing a difference in their lives, that’s important stuff,” he said.

At another campaign stop in York, Pennsylvania, he said the remarks about community organizing showed Republicans were out of touch.

“Why would that kind of work be ridiculous?” he asked. “Do they think that the lives of those folks who are struggling each and every day, that working with them to try and improve their lives, is somehow not relevant to the presidency?

“I think maybe that’s the problem. That’s part of why they’re out of touch, and they don’t get it because they haven’t spent much time working on behalf of those folks,” he said.

Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage.

Photo credit: Reuters/Matt Sullivan (Obama campaigning) 

ST. PAUL - Faith-based community organizers have a message for Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin: they have “actual responsibilities” thank you very much.

In a pointed barb aimed at Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama, John McCain’s running mate on the Republican ticket said her experiences as a small town mayor in Alaska were far more taxing than that of a community organizer.

Obama was a community organizer in Chicago two decades ago.

“A small-town mayor is sort of like a community organizer, except that you have actual responsibilities,” the Alaska governor told the Republican National Convention on Wednesday night in a rousing speech peppered with jabs at Obama.

“Contrary to Palin’s disparaging remarks, organizers have major responsibilities for creating policy changes. Feeding the hungry and housing the homeless are clearly responsibilities of people of faith. We do that by providing food and shelter and more importantly, by organizing to address the causes of injustice and inequity which lead to hunger and homelessness,” said Kim Bobo, Executive Director of Interfaith Worker Justice, a congregation-based community organization in Chicago.

Bobo was quoted in a statement issued by several faith-based community organizations that bristled at the remarks by Palin, who has revved up other people of faith — the conservative Christians who comprise the Republican Party’s key base.  

(Photo credit: REUTERS/Rick Wilking, Sept. 3, 2008, USA)

ST. PAUL - Faith was on full display at the Republican National Convention on Tuesday night with prayers from a pastor and tunes belted out by a Christian pop star.

Miles McPherson, a senior pastor of The Rock Church in San Diego and former professional football player, evoked patriotism and faith while leading the convention in prayer:

“Thank-you God for always being there for us. And thank you for making America the greatest country in the world. We pray these things in Jesus’ name,” he said to warm cheers from the crowd.

Such overt displays of religion, politics and nationalism would be almost unheard of in many European countries but are common in America, especially with Republican crowds.

The invocation was given by a former U.S. Air Force chaplain while Christian singer Rachael Lampa sang her songs “When I Fall” and “Blessed” on a night dedicated to the theme of “service.”

In brief remarks broadcast from the White House, President George W. Bush said: “I am optimistic because I have faith in freedom’s power to lift up all of God’s children and lead this world to a future of peace.”

The party has a powerful conservative Christian base which is slowly warming to Arizona Senator John McCain who will accept its presidential nomination for the Nov. 4 election on Thursday night.

It has been energized by his selection of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his vice presidential running mate, a devout Christian who is strongly opposed to abortion rights. She will accept that nomination on Wednesday night.

So expect to a lot more displays of faith on the political stage in St. Paul.

Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage. 

-Photo credit: REUTERS/Mike Segar, Sept 2, 2008

DALLAS - With Delaware Senator Joe Biden on the ticket, will Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama make inroads with wavering Catholics in the race for the White House? 
 
In an election year that has seen both Obama’s campaign and that of his Republican rival John McCain try to woo voters of various faiths it is sure to be a question that pundits will ask in coming days.
 
Obama on Saturday chose Biden, 65, as his vice presidential running mate, ending days of frenzied speculation.  
 
Biden, originally from the battleground state of Pennsylvania, will bring not only foreign policy expertise to the ticket — he chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee — but strong working-class roots and his Catholic faith.
Catholics had strongly supported Hillary Clinton in her failed bid for the Democratic nomination and a number of polls have shown a fairly close race among Catholics with Obama leading nationally by a small margin.
 
Conservative Catholics tend to line up with evangelicals on issues like abortion but there are also many liberal Catholics in America who like the Democratic Party on economic issues. 
 
Almost one-quarter of U.S. adults are Catholic but their electoral clout is somewhat diluted by their distribution.
 
According to a June report by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University in Washington, nearly four in 10 U.S. Catholics reside in New York, California and Texas, none of which are closely contested. The first two are solidly Democratic and Texas is Republican.
 
The report said states “where the Catholic vote could make a real difference are Florida, Ohio and Louisiana.”
 
Pennsylvania is widely seen as another battleground for the Catholic vote.

Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage. 
      
 
(Photo credit: REUTERS/Jason Reed. Biden at a Democratic Party Debate in December)

DALLAS - The Democratic Party remains staunchly behind a woman’s right to choose an abortion.

But the platform statement on the issue that will be adopted at the party’s presidential nominating convention in Denver later this month has been well received by some pro-life Christians, who applaud its emphasis on abortion reduction.

On a conference call Tuesday with journalists, several leading evangelical and Catholic activists welcomed the stress on abortion reduction as the “common ground” between those who support abortion rights and those who oppose them (camps which describe themselves as pro-choice and pro-life).

A draft of the platform circulating last week — which insiders say has had few changes — said “The Democratic Party strongly and unequivocally supports Roe v. Wade (the 1973 Supreme Court ruling granting women a constitutional right to abortion) and a woman’s right to choose a safe and legal abortion.”

But it also recognized the role of health care, education and “caring adoption programs” in reducing “the need for abortions.”

The language seems to be more of a change of emphasis than a radical change from past positions.

But it does strike a chord with some centrist evangelicals and Catholics who feel the pro-life and Republican Party aim of overturning Roe V. Wade has been futile and has not reduced abortions or offered support to low income women who may choose to terminate their pregnancies for economic reasons.

Joel Hunter, a prominent evangelical mega-pastor from Florida who describes himself as a “completely pro-life” conservative Christian and registered Republican, hailed the shift in emphasis as “courageous and historic.”

Jim Wallis, a leading figure on the religious left, said he saw it as “sorely needed common ground.”

“We could truly make reducing the abortion rate in America a non-partisan issue and a bipartisan cause. It is a common-sense approach,” he said in an earlier statement.

Chris Korzen, executive director of Catholics United, also welcomed the move.

Their positive reaction to the platform’s language points to a broader shift among U.S. evangelical and other Christian movements to a wider “agenda of life” that includes a helping hand to the poor.

Not everyone in the anti-abortion rights camp is happy with the language. For many conservative Christians abortion is the taking of an innocent life, period.

Tom McClusky, the vice-president of government affairs at the Family Research Council, a conservative lobby group with strong evangelical ties, told Reuters that he didn’t really see how the Democratic Party’s take on the question had changed.

Abortion remains one of the most divisive and emotive issues in U.S. politics and it is a divide that has tended to follow partisan fault lines.

John McCain, the Republican candidate for the Nov. 4 presidential election, has long opposed abortion rights; his Democratic opponent Barack Obama strongly supports abortion rights.

How the Democratic shift will affect the presidential election is difficult to judge. Will it give Obama a gap to poach some support from evangelical Republicans who are lukewarm on McCain? Or will it harden the resolve of abortion rights opponents?

Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage.

Photo Credit: Reuters/Kevin Lamarque (Pro-life signs outside U.S. Supreme Court after anti-abortion protest Jan. 22)