Obama's faith at heart of Lynchburg discussion

Barack Obama’s surrogate for religious matters told a small Lynchburg gathering Tuesday that an Obama presidency would decrease the country’s “level of fear and division and loathing” that exists across religious, ethnic and cultural lines.

Shaun Casey, the Democratic candidate’s evangelical outreach coordinator, also told about 15 people in a forum at the Starlight Café on Fifth Street that Obama’s policies would reduce the number of abortions in America.

In addition, Casey said, Obama would give all religious groups, including Christians and Muslims, more access to policy making than any White House in history.

“His administration will model the kind of pluralism that we long for today,” said Casey, who teaches divinity students at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C.

Casey focused his presentation on two issues: abortion and persistent e-mails that say Obama is a Muslim.

Walter Fore, of Lynchburg, told Casey during the forum that he gets angry that “every election, the first thing that comes up is abortion.”

“We’ve got too many things” that are problems, Fore said, including a cycle of teen pregnancies that continues “such a poverty level that we will never escape.”

“We have too many issues to talk about to get hung up on abortion” and other hot-button topics, Fore said.

Casey replied that he sees many younger Christians who perceive “a basket of moral issues that is bigger — poverty, climate change and the national economy.”

“The good news is, slowly but surely, in some of these communities where it is all about abortion, the younger generation is bringing the change,” Casey said.

Abortions decreased during the Clinton presidency, Casey said, attributing the decline to economic prosperity during those years.

“I believe that more women who had unintended pregnancies visualized bringing that pregnancy to full term, and they could see a path to raise that child so it could launch and prosper and have a decent prospect,” Casey said.

Obama proposes to continue that reduction through universal access to health insurance, improved care for everyone, and reduced poverty, Casey said. The number in poverty increased by 6 million in the past eight years, he said.

The e-mail rumors that Obama is a Muslim have “generated real fear and animosity” in some parts of the country, and they aren’t going away, Casey said.

The truth, Casey said, is that Obama grew up in a non-religious household and did not come to a personal faith of any kind until he was an adult doing organizing work with churches on the south side of Chicago, Casey said.

That faith is Christian, Obama has said. During his visit to Lynchburg in August, Obama told 2,000 people that “I believe in Jesus Christ as my savior.”

No one at Tuesday’s meeting brought up the fact that, earlier this year, Obama criticized and separated himself from his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, because of remarks Wright had made concerning race.

Obama’s efforts to separate himself from Muslims brought a challenge to Casey from a Muslim in the audience.

A Bedford County resident who said his Muslim name is Sheik Ahmed Rashid told Casey that “the Muslim community is angry” because Obama’s religious stance doesn’t seem inclusive.

“I encourage you to have more outreach to the Muslim community,” said Rashid, who added that he was speaking about the national-level Muslim faith and not about the Lynchburg area.

Rashid also said he’s pragmatic and understands the political factors that require Obama to keep saying he isn’t a Muslim, “but how do you think we feel?”

Casey replied that Obama has said publicly that “there are millions of Muslims in America, they are fine citizens and they are part of the community.”

Casey also said Muslims in Northern Virginia may have given Sen. Jim Webb his margin of victory in the 2006 election against George Allen.

“Let me take the longer view, beyond the next 49 days, and if we have an Obama administration, I can guarantee you that Muslim Americans will have more access to the engines of democracy and legislation and policy making in the Obama administration than any White House in history,” Casey said.

Another surrogate-candidate appearance for Obama is planned for today in Central Virginia.

In Bedford, former Mississippi Gov. Ray Mabus was to be at the Democratic Committee headquarters on Main Street at 6 p.m. to talk about solutions Obama offers for rural Virginians, including health care, better jobs, and trade agreements to keep jobs in America.

Michelle Obama, his wife, is scheduled to hold a Women for Obama voter registration rally at the University of Virginia at 4:50 p.m. Jill Biden, wife of vice presidential nominee Joe Biden, also plans to be there.