Meet Rod Parsley

Mother Jones has assembled some highlights from the anti-Muslim screeds of Rev. Rod Parsley, who's been tagged as John McCain's answer to Jeremiah Wright. McCain's defenders respond that Parsley, who has campaigned with McCain and whom McCain praised as "one of the truly great leaders in America," is not nearly as close to the Arizona senator as Wright is (was?) to Obama.

As God-o-Meter read and watched the excerpts from Parsley's sermons, it couldn't help but think: there's got to be a good number of Republican voters, particularly in the party's conservative religious base, who agree with him. Judge for yourself. Video reel produced by Mother Jones and Brave New Films, article (below) by Mother Jones's David Corn:

According to Parsley, there's no coexisitng with Muslims. He tells the tale of a Christian man who once dared to sell land to a mosque rather than to a church—an ominous sign that Christianity is losing the struggle against Islam. "You need to understand today" who was responsible for 9/11, Parsley nearly shouts. "Muslim Islamic fundamentalists and extremists are what did that, and your government and politicians and preachers want you to snuggle up next door to them and allow them to build a mosque next door to your church, while you sing hallelujah."

The preacher paints a dark picture:

Islam is growing rapidly and is becoming more violent. America has historically understood herself to be a bastion against Islam in the world…History is crashing in upon us...Americans need to wake up...We can tell you...Britney Spears' lyrics to her latest CD. But we don't know anything about other religions...'We ought to just all get along'...'We shouldn't say anything about other faiths.' Excuse me. Excuse me. The fact is that Americans are woefully ignorant of other faiths. This is not only tragic. But when it comes to Islam, now the greatest religious enemy of our civilization and the world, it's dangerous.

The problem, Parsley insists, is not radical Muslims who have hijacked a faith, but the religion itself:

I must state three important truths...No. 1, the God of Christianity and the God of Islam are two separate beings...Mr. Bush, I support you. You need to stop saying that the God of Islam and the God of Christianity are the same God...No. 2, Muhammad received revelations from demon spirits, not from the living God. No. 3, Islam is an anti-Christ religion that intends, through violence, to conquer the world. Did you get those three truths?

In a long riff, Parsley maintains that Muhammad was tricked by a demon into believing that he had heard the word of God. Thus, he asserts, the entire religion of Islam is based upon a satanic deception: "Muhammad was tragically beset by a demon which he mistook for the living God. He thus became a mouthpiece of a conspiracy of spiritual evil...There are so few who will talk about [this]."

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Filed Under: Islam, John McCain, Rod Parsley

posted by Dan Gilgoff @ 3:19pm Permalink Email This Add to:

Obama Backers Smack Back at Catholic League

When Catholic League for Civil and Religious Life President Bill Donohue attacked John Kerry's faith outreach director as insufficiently godly--"her resume is that of a person looking for a job working for Fidel Castro"--the Kerry campaign silenced her, forbidding her to talk to the press.

When Donohue attacked the Democratic National Committee's faith outreach director for similar reasons shortly thereafter, she resigned. Barack Obama's National Catholic Advisory Council is taking a different tack, fighting Donohue's attacks head on.

God-o-Meter reported late last week that the Catholic League characterized Obama's Catholic council as a bunch of "Catholic dissidents" because some of their social positions jarred with the official Vatican line. Today, many members of the council--not all--joined forces with other Catholic activists and struck back with a letter to Donohue. Here's the money line:

Mr. Donohue, your work to fight legitimate cases of anti-Catholic bigotry in this country should be applauded. But when you smear other Catholics with whom you disagree, you betray your own cause.

Here's the full text of the letter:

May 8, 2008

Dear Mr. Donohue:

We write in our individual capacities and not on behalf of the campaign. Last week you labeled many of our friends, and some of us, as “Catholic dissidents” because we support Senator Obama.

Unlike the Catholic League, the U.S. Catholic Bishops advise careful consideration of candidates' positions on a broad set of issues. While abortion and other life issues are of fundamental concern, the bishops teach that particular issues must not be misused “as a way of dismissing or ignoring other serious threats to human life and dignity” such as “racism and other unjust discrimination, the use of the death penalty, resorting to unjust war, the use of torture, war crimes, the failure to respond to those who are suffering from hunger or a lack of health care or an unjust immigration policy” (Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship, #29). Our bishops go on to point out that “these are not optional concerns which can be dismissed.”

Across these issues Senator Obama offers much to the well-formed Catholic conscience, which helps to explain why many Catholics are supporting him.

As Catholics, we view abortion as a profound moral issue. But what have nearly three decades of Republican promises to end abortion accomplished? Other aspects of the conservative Republican agenda have been carried out with fervor, such as weakening of the social-safety net, privatization, deregulation, destruction of labor unions, and belligerent and aggressive foreign policy. But ending abortion remains the perennial promise, one that is too often hijacked by partisan operatives who seek only to divide voters. Many Catholics are fed up with the divisive tactics and empty promises around this issue.

Senator Obama recognizes that abortion presents a profound moral challenge, tied in part to a loss of the sense of the sacredness of sex and lack of parental involvement. On the campaign trail he regularly calls on parents to turn off the television and has called on fathers to meet their family responsibilities. Regrettably, these clips are not included in your press releases.

Senator Obama has also reached out to Americans on both sides of this issue and embraces practical proposals designed to reduce the number of abortions in this country, including comprehensive health and sex education, better health care, economic support for women, and promoting alternatives like adoption.

Like other Americans, we have watched as many candidates brought to office on a so-called prolife platform insisted on policies that have left the lives of millions more of our brothers and sisters at risk from war, uncontrolled pollution, deeper poverty, and growing economic inequality.

Not this year.

This year, there are many Catholics – Democrats, Republicans, and Independents – who won’t let that happen again.

We are proud to be counted among Senator Obama’s Catholic advisors. Collectively our experience spans decades of scholarship and service working for and with the Catholic Church on the broad set of issues under the “consistent ethic of life.”

We were drawn into the campaign by Senator Obama’s vision for the common good, his profound message of hope, and his ability to unite citizens across class, race, and even party lines. We are excited about his promise as president, and we commend him to our fellow Catholics.

Mr. Donohue, your work to fight legitimate cases of anti-Catholic bigotry in this country should be applauded. But when you smear other Catholics with whom you disagree, you betray your own cause. Our measure of what it means to be a “good” Catholic is not defined by the narrow pronouncements of partisan operatives; but rather by the rich teachings of our Church and our informed consciences.

Sincerely,

Former Congressman Tim Roemer of Indiana
Sr. Catherine Pinkerton, Congregation of St. Joseph
Governor Jim Doyle of Wisconsin
Governor Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas
Senator Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut
Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts
Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts
Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont
Representative Xavier Becerra of California
Representative Lacy Clay of Missouri
Representative Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut
Representative Anna Eshoo of California
Representative Raúl M. Grijalva of Arizona
Representative George Miller of California
Representative Linda Sanchez of California
Mary Jo Bane, Professor, Harvard Kennedy School
Nicholas P. Cafardi, Catholic Author and Scholar, Pittsburgh, PA
Lisa Sowle Cahill, Professor of Theology, Boston College
Tom Chabolla, Assistant to the President, Service Employees International Union
M. Shawn Copeland, Associate Professor of Theology, Boston College
Ron Cruz, Leadership Development Consultant, Burke, VA
Sharon Daly, Social Justice Advocate, Knoxville, MD
Richard Gaillardetz, Murray/Bacik Professor of Catholic Studies, University of Toledo
Grant Gallicho, Associate Editor, Commonweal Magazine
Margaret Gannon, IHM, A Sister of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Scranton, PA
Don Guter, Judge Advocate General of the Navy (2000-2002); Rear Admiral, Judge Advocate
General's Corps, U.S. Navy (Ret.), Pittsburgh, PA
Teresa Heinz, Chairman, Heinz Family Philanthropies
Cathleen Kaveny, Professor of Law and Professor of Theology, University of Notre Dame
Victoria Reggie Kennedy, President, Common Sense About Kids and Guns
Peggy Kerry, Independent Consultant, New York, NY
Jim Kesteloot, President and Executive Director, Chicago Lighthouse
Vincent Miller, Associate Professor of Theology, Georgetown University
David O'Brien, Loyola Professor of Catholic Studies at the College of the Holy Cross
Reverend Michael Pfleger, Pastor of Faith Community of St. Sabina, Chicago, IL
Sr. Jamie Phelps, O.P., Director and Professor of Theology, Institute for Black Catholic Studies,
Xavier University
Peter Quaranto, Senior Researcher and Conflict Analyst, Resolve Uganda (Notre Dame Class of
2006)
Dave Robinson, International Peace Advocate, Erie, Pennsylvania
Vincent Rougeau, Associate Professor of Law, University of Notre Dame
Mary Wright, Inter-Faith Liaison, Louisville, KY

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Filed Under: Barack Obama, Catholic League, Catholics

posted by Dan Gilgoff @ 8:58pm Permalink Email This Add to:

Religious Outreach Week at McCain HQ

Or maybe religious conservative awareness week.

On Tuesday, Senator McCain gave a speech promising to appoint conservative jurists to the courts. Some in the Christian Right applauded.

On Wednesday, he gave a speech that opened with a celebration of evangelical hero William Wilberforce and that included McCain's strongest calls to date for the U.S. to defend religious freedom abroad, do more to combat human trafficking, and crack down on online child predators. It's an unusual speech for McCain, and worth reading. What struck God-o-Meter is that, even in a speech on religion and the threat of moral relativism, McCain sounded more like a secular humanist worshipping at the altar of American exceptionalism than he did a man of faith:

There is a tendency in our age to accede to the spurious excuse of moral relativism and turn away from the harshest examples of man's inhumanity to man; to ignore the darker side of human nature that encroaches upon our decency by subtle degree. There are many reasons for this. Blessed with opportunity, and intent on the challenges of work and family, our own lives often seem too full and hectic to take notice of offenses that seem distant from our own reality. There is also the threat in a society passionate about its liberty that we can become desensitized to the dehumanizing effect of the obscenity and hostility that pervades much of popular culture. It is in our nature as Americans to see the good in things; to face even serious adversity with hope and optimism. And yet, with so much good in the world, for all the progress of humanity, in which our nation has played such an admirable and important role, evil still exists in the world. It preys upon human dignity, assaults the innocence of children, debases our self- respect and the respect we are morally obliged to pay each other, and assails the great, animating truths we believe to be self-evident – that all people have a right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness -- by subjecting countless human beings to abuse, persecution and even slavery.

Will such talk bring wary religious conservatives around to McCain's side? David Brody, for one, sounds skeptical:

The question for McCain is whether he will really work hard on these issues and spend some political capital or is this just lip service? Is it just a "to do checklist"? ...What social conservatives want to see from John McCain is PASSION on these issues, not words.

Indeed, what interests God-o-Meter is whether McCain's campaign to win over voters of faith is just a weeklong blitz or part of a sustained, long-term effort that probably should have been started more than a year ago. In fairness to McCain, he did have a serious religious outreach campaign underway a year ago, but it was canned during his summer '07 implosion and is just getting back on line now.

To bottom line is, McCain has a lot of catching up to do among religious voters. Is this week the beginning of that catch-up campaign, or a series of showy gestures?

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Filed Under: David Brody, human traffiking, John McCain, religious freedom, religious outreach

posted by Dan Gilgoff @11:31am Permalink Email This Add to:

Kirbyjon Caldwell And Obama's Faith Outreach

Beliefnet has posted God-o-Meter's interview this week with Rev. Kirbyjon Caldwell, spiritual advisor to George W. Bush--Caldwell delivered the benediction at both his inaugurals and introduced him at the 2000 Republican National Convention--and endorser of Barack Obama.

What stood out to God-o-Meter, besides Caldwell's defense of Rev. Wright and the list of similarities he's noticed between Bush and Obama, is how plugged in Caldwell has been to the Obama campaign for a year now, a testament the scope and depth of Obama's religious outreach effort. Here's one of GOM's exchanges with Caldwell (some of which was edited out of the posted version for space):

How do you know about Obama’s family life? For the last 12 months, I’ve been talking to people who are part of the campaign very, very regularly. And I listen very intently to what they say. And the few times I have been around the Senator, I’ve noticed very carefully what he does… Let me give you a little tidbit. When he was in Houston, we had a history-making number of folks show up here for the rally… As he was leaving the event I said, "Is there anything we can pray for for you?" And he said, "Pray for my wife and my children…." You know, he doesn’t ask for--he doesn’t ask that you pray for his strength or pray for his stamina so he can endure these 16-hour days. He’s not focused on himself. He says, "Pray for my wife and my children."

When you say you’ve been in regular contact with the Obama campaign over these last 12 months, can you be more specific?

Well, we have prayer calls on a regular basis. There’s another African American Leaders Council that I’m on. I participate in that periodically. And I’m also in pretty current, constant conversation and dialogue with his religious affairs group.

You mean Joshua DuBois, Obama's religious outreach director?

Exactly, exactly.

The Obama campaign's been reaching out to Caldwell for over a year? Given that he's a FOB (friend of Bush) and belongs to Hillary Clinton's denomination (he leads the nation's largest Methodist denomination), one could easily see Caldwell being a lower priority target for the Obama team. The fact he doesn't suggests the kind of long term, comprehensive religious outreach campaign that used to win elections for Republicans.

One of the keys to such an operation is those prayer calls Caldwell mentioned. They make religious leaders like Caldwell feel a lot more invested in the campaign than if they'd just been courted on a political level.

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Filed Under: Barack Obama, Kirbyjon Caldwell, Methodists

posted by Dan Gilgoff @ 9:57am Permalink Email This Add to:

Does Catholic Outreach Matter?

Does Catholic outreach matter?

Even after Hillary Clinton’s impressive wins among Catholics in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Indiana (though Obama did make modest gains among Catholics in that state and North Carolina yesterday) the conventional wisdom was that economic issues--not religion--were driving Catholics to support her over Obama. These Catholics, the thinking goes, overlap with the white working class voters that Obama has had difficult connecting to lately, particularly after his remarks about small towners and the Rev. Wright flap.

As the Obama camp has struggled to win white Catholics, his advisors have joined the chorus of voices claiming that the notion of the Catholic voting bloc is more or less a myth. In a memo to reporters after the Pennsylvania primary, when Obama lost Catholics to Clinton by more than two-to-one, the campaign made its case:

[P]undits will often discuss the “Catholic vote” in monolithic terms, suggesting that American Catholics vote in blocs. From universities to think tanks, this notion has been refuted. There are nearly 70 million American Catholics, young and old, rich and poor, white, African American, Latino, Asian. When other important factors are considered, often the impact of this vote becomes difficult to assess.

If the Obama campaign really believe this, why has it spent so much time and resources trying to close the gap among Catholics, hiring a fulltime Catholic outreach director and rolling out an impressive National Catholic Advisory Board?

God-o-Meter put the question today in an interview with Joshua DuBois, Obama’s faith outreach director. Here's how he responded:

Catholic voters and Catholic families are American families and they share the same concerns as other Americans have about filling up the gas tank, so our religious outreach is not focused necessarily about talking about religion, but on reaching out to religious communities and talking about shared values issues like health care and employment. So Catholic outreach and other religious outreach allows us to penetrate certain social networks and communities that we might not otherwise reach. And once we’re there, the focus isn’t on speaking to religious concerns, we speaking to concerns shared by all Americans. And as those communities get to know him, the more they’ll support him.

Religion is not what’s motivating these folks. It’s a lack of exposure and information and getting to know Senator Obama. It’s important to let folks know you care about the group that they’re a part of. So the main reason for doing religious outreach is so that people of faith know they will be valued and listened to and that there will be dedicated individuals on his staff to hear and process their concerns.

It’s important to reach out to meet people where the are, and one place people are, so that a Catholics for Obama barbecue is saying that we’re coming to you and that you don’t have to come to us with your values--we’re going to meet you where you are. Sure, there are certain parts of Catholic social teaching that we discuss, but I cant’ stress enough that it’s the basic American values… it’s a myth that we’re walking into these sessions [with Catholic voters] with Catholic doctrine in hand.

It sounds like DuBois is saying that Catholic outreach matters for the same way that outreach to bowlers or snowmobile drivers would. Not so much because those folks voters are driven by an urge to shape public police to help the cause of bowling or snowmobile driving, but because but because they would be drawn to a candidate who values their interests. And religion, of course, religion is much more than an interest--it's what believers organize their lives and shape their attitudes about life around. Which makes it all the more important for politicians to show that they appreciate that force and to try to connect with them around it.

You listening, John McCain?

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Filed Under: Barack Obama, Catholics, Joshua DuBois

posted by Dan Gilgoff @ 1:23pm Permalink Email This Add to:

Obama Camp Explains Catholic Gains

What explains Barack Obama's gains among Catholics yesterday?

The Obama camp just 'round its explanation for progress among religious voters, including Catholics, in memo form:

In Indiana and North Carolina the campaign:

• Launched a series of inter-faith American Values Tours;
• Organized statewide pastor calls with Senator Obama and other prominent faith leaders;
• Held organizing meetings and listening sessions;
• Kickoff of Catholics for Obama "Call to Family" drive with house parties and front-yard barbeques around the state, where guests celebrated ties of kinship and called relatives and friends for Barack. Vicki Kennedy dialed in to talk about her own convictions and to rally supporters;
• Organized "Call to Chapel" days of worship with supporters attending services on Sunday;
• Community gatherings with Max and Ethel Kennedy;
• Targeted phone-banking and canvassing to faith communities across the states;
• Held a series of concerts to worship together in unity;
• Organized a statewide tour of pastor breakfasts throughout small towns in North Carolina;
• Written appeals, targeted media work and one-on-one outreach.
• Building statewide general election leadership teams of young adult Evangelical and Catholics through Facebook and internet sites.

Barack Obama is building one of the largest grassroots campaigns of people of faith in history. Thousands of people of faith stand ready to mobilize their communities and help Barack Obama win in November. We are building the relationships and groundwork now to ensure important American values are represented in this movement for change.

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Filed Under: Barack Obama, Catholics, Indiana, North Carolina

posted by Dan Gilgoff @10:48am Permalink Email This Add to:

Wright Looms Large, But Obama Beats Him

What was more impressive about yesterday's primary, the fact that Rev. Wright was on so many voters minds or that Obama managed to largely overcome all the negative feelings about his former pastor. In North Carolina and Indiana, almost half of Democratic voters said the Wright situation was important. Those voters broke for Clinton 57 to 41 in North Carolina and 72 to 27 in Indiana. Just imagine how much more lopsided those figures would have been had Obama not denounced Wright last week. Even with Wright at the fore of voters' minds, Obama still managed to win big in North Carolina and lose small in Indiana.

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Filed Under: Barack Obama, Indiana, Jeremiah Wright, North Carolina

posted by Dan Gilgoff @ 7:43am Permalink Email This Add to:

Obama Improves Among Catholics

Obama lost big among Indiana Catholics last night, but not nearly as big as in Pennsylvania and Ohio, where Catholics were probably more responsible than any other voters in giving Hillary Clinton a second wind over the last month. Catholics accounted for one in five Hoosier voters, and they broke for Clinton 59 to 41, according to exit polls. Compare that to Pennsylvania, where Clinton took Catholics 69 to 31, or Ohio, where Clinton won them 63 to 36.

The Obama camp had focused intensely on Indiana Catholics, but God-o-Meter is unsure whether that's responsible for his better showing among them. It's just as likely that he performed better among Catholics for the same reasons he improved among other voters, for calling Clinton's proposed summer gas tax holiday a political ploy and for denouncing Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Obama still has his work cut out among Catholics in the general election, but his modest improvements among them will help his campaign battle the argument that he's unelectable, and unpopular among the white working class.

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Filed Under: Barack Obama, Catholics, Indiana

posted by Dan Gilgoff @ 7:01am Permalink Email This Add to:

Catholic League Whacks Obama (Again)

More evidence that the Christian Right wants to face Hillary Clinton this fall?

The Catholic League has just issued another press release slamming Barack Obama for--get this--a Chicago Tribune op-ed written by one of his supporters (no official connection to the campaign) that says l'affaire Wright is proof that Democrats need to halt their campaign to "get religion." Here's the key lines from the Catholic League release:

In today’s Chicago Tribune, Katha Pollitt not only criticizes Rev. Wright, she takes the opportunity to smear almost the entire nation. She says that ‘thanks to Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr., the Democrats have got religion and everything that goes with it—weirdness, wrath, insult, blowhardiness, vanity, paranoia, divisiveness and trouble.’ Her hatred of religion wouldn’t matter so much if she were simply a writer for the Nation. However, she is also a prominent supporter of Sen. Obama: She joined hands with Frances Kissling, a notorious anti-Catholic, to endorse him in a publicly signed statement.

....Obama is not responsible for Pollitt’s bigotry and he does not need to renounce her. But what he must do is start the purge—he must rid his ranks of those who want to silence religion.... Purging the Pollitts from his base would reassure the faithful that they have a place in his campaign.

God-o-Meter feels that the Catholic League is getting nitpicky here. How could Obama be held accountable for what his garden variety supporters feel about religion's role in politics? How exactly would he begin such a 'purge,' even if he wanted to? (As a side note, God-o-Meter is quite surprised to see the Catholic League employ language with strong communist connotations.)

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Filed Under: Barack Obama, Catholic League

posted by Dan Gilgoff @ 3:06pm Permalink Email This Add to:

Family Research Council Likes McCain on Judges

Family Research Council Action, the most influential conservative evangelical advocacy group, likes what it heard about judges this morning from John McCain. Here's the statement from FRC Action president Tony Perkins:

Senator McCain's speech will be well- received by millions of Americans alarmed by activist judges who undermine the rule of law by legislating from the bench.

We applaud Senator McCain for his support of federal judges who will apply the U.S. Constitution. He is correct in criticizing both federal judges who presume to 'make law
instead of apply it' and the obstructionist Senate Democratic leaders who continue to deny hearings to well-qualified judicial nominees.

The Senate Democratic leadership views the judiciary as a tool to dictate social policy. If they can't pass a hate-crimes law, they will support judges who will installone from the bench. If they can't overturn the Defense of Marriage Act, they will find a judge to declare it unconstitutional.

Essentially, the Democrats in the Senate have committed themselves to obstruct and pervert the judicial process until the time, they hope, when a liberal president can nominate judicial activists to reshape the social policy landscape of America.

I thank Senator McCain for the commitment he made today to 'restore the standards and spirit that give the judicial branch its place of honor in our government.... Every federal court should be a refuge from abuses of power, and not the source' of them.

This isn't the only sign that Family Research Council is coming around on McCain.

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Filed Under: Family Research Council, John McCain, judges

posted by Dan Gilgoff @ 2:47pm Permalink Email This Add to: