Obama's church ties come back to Cleveland's UCC
Posted by David Briggs February 27, 2008 21:00PM


Barack Obama is turning Cleveland into the center of the religious struggle for the hearts and minds of voters in the 2008 presidential race.

From visits to evangelical megachurches in South Carolina to special appeals to black churches in Ohio, the most prominent member of the Cleveland-based United Church of Christ has been up front about his faith in ways few Democrats have been in recent years.

In a close election, the denomination with headquarters on Prospect Avenue downtown may put Obama into the White House by giving him the religious credibility to sway moderate faith-based voters to the Democratic ticket.

Or, analysts say, Obama's association with the liberal United Church of Christ may turn into a point of attack for Republicans seeking to portray him as an out-of-touch, left-wing radical.

Already, e-mail campaigns that have spread into the blogosphere and talk radio have sought to discredit him on religious grounds. One widely circulated message falsely said Obama is a Muslim. Other messages have sought to undermine his appeal as someone who unites Americans by accusing his home church, Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, and its fiery pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr., of being racist.

Obama must talk about faith without either alienating the substantial secular base in the Democratic Party or being marginalized as representing "a very far-left church within a very far-left denomination," says Laura Olson, a Clemson University political scientist.

What gives Obama credibility is his 20-year history of active participation, both in mission work and church attendance, in the UCC, a denomination that traces its history to the Pilgrims and Puritans.

"For a lot of people, the most important thing about a politician and religion is whether the politician has some," said John Green, director of the Bliss Institute of Applied Politics at the University of Akron.

And Obama, from his early victory in Iowa through his 10 straight primary victories, has shown he can reach diverse religious voters.

Some black churchgoers in Greater Cleveland heard two messages Sunday: One from their pastor and one from Obama asking for their support in the March 4 primary.

In a letter read during services, the Democratic presidential candidate said his Christian faith is important to him and leads him to believe "ordinary people, with the grace of an awesome God, can do extraordinary things."

The appeal to black churches was a strategy the campaign started in South Carolina. Officials from the campaign of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, Obama's rival for the Democratic nomination, declined to comment on the letter.

Also in South Carolina, Obama assured members of the Redemption World Outreach Center, a largely white evangelical megachurch in Greenville, "I don't think there's anything wrong with expressing faith in the public square, and I think there's nothing wrong with public servants expressing religiously rooted values."

Last June, in a talk at the General Synod in Hartford, Conn., celebrating the 50th anniversary of the UCC, Obama urged church members to continue to be "troublemakers" for progressive causes such as civil rights.

"Doing the Lord's work is a thread that runs through our politics since the very beginning," he said.

For the first time in a long time, Olson said, Democrats have a candidate who can speak in a prophetic voice "that resonates in broad ways with people of faith."

What may be more problematic for Obama is his association with the UCC, which has been out front on issues such as supporting same-sex marriages and ordination of gays.

That makes Obama attractive to religious liberals and less threatening to secular Democrats, analysts said.

But as the campaign heats up, and more people become aware of his ties to the denomination, religious conservatives and some moderates may be turned off, observers said.

The Rev. Richard Neuhaus, president of the Institute on Religion and Public Life in New York, said being associated with the liberal policies of the UCC "would certainly be a burden, an obstacle, no doubt about it."

Already, Obama has faced what the UCC's president, the Rev. John Thomas, called a politically motivated "smear campaign" accusing his Chicago church, the denomination's largest with an estimated 8,000 members, of being racist because its motto is "Unashamedly Black and Unapologetically Christian."

The Rev. C. Jay Matthews, the influential pastor of Mt. Sinai Baptist Church in Cleveland, said Wright's affirmation of African-American culture and African-American traditions "is not only healthy but much needed."

Still, observers expect the religious heat -- on Obama and the UCC -- to increase if Obama moves closer to the Democratic nomination.

Even small inroads into traditional Republican bases of support can turn the election, analysts said.

"You win elections on the margins," said Corwin Smidt, executive director of the Paul Henry Institute for the Study of Christianity and Politics at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Mich.

To reach this Plain Dealer reporter: dbriggs@plaind.com, 216-999-4812