Understanding Barack Obama's Faith | Newsweek Politics: Campaign 2008

Christian Soldiers
Kathryn Joyce 6/19/2009 12:00:00 AM
Ever since former president George W. Bush referred to the war on terror as a “crusade” in the days after the September 11 attacks, many have charged that the United States was conducting a holy war, pitting a Christian America against the Muslim world. That perception grew as prominent military leaders such as Lt. Gen. William Boykin described the wars in evangelical terms, casting the U.S. military as the "army of God." Although President Obama addressed the Muslim world this month in an attempt to undo the Bush administration's legacy of militant Christian rhetoric that often antagonized Muslim countries, several recent stories have framed the issue as a wider problem of an evangelical military culture that sees spreading Christianity as part of its mission.
The Hundred-Year War
Michael Hirsh 6/4/2009 12:00:00 AM
Barack Obama had a head start when he stepped onto the stage in Cairo on Thursday. He had already pledged a "new beginning" to the American people, and now the same grand concept was on offer to the Muslim world: the policies of the Bush administration, in other words, were history. The symbolism was better too. It wasn't just the fact that an American president whose middle name is Hussein was extending a hand to his father's coreligionists, but also that among those in attendance in Cairo were representatives of the Muslim Brotherhood as well as some Egyptian dissidents. Both groups had been conspicuously absent from Condoleezza Rice's 2005 speech in Cairo, which was delivered at American University (Obama's was staged at prestigious Cairo University).
POLITICS
One Nation Under God?
Daniel Stone 4/7/2009 12:00:00 AM
A nation facing problems of biblical proportions appears to be looking less and less to religion for answers. According to a new NEWSWEEK Poll, the percentage of Americans who think faith will help answer all or most of the country's current problems dipped to a historic low of 48 percent, down from 64 percent in 1994.
CAMPAIGN 2008
Heaven Help Them Decide
Arian Campo-Flores
Going back to Ronald Reagan, the Rev. Wilfredo De Jesús—the senior pastor of a 4,500-member Hispanic evangelical church in Chicago—has pulled the lever for Republicans in presidential elections. "I always voted on the issue of abortion and the sanctity of marriage," he says. This time, though, Sen. Barack Obama's message of faith and social justice, combined with strident GOP rhetoric on illegal immigration, has persuaded him to endorse the Democrat. That switch illustrates the extent to which the Latino evangelical vote is in play—a development that could prove decisive on Nov. 4. Though polls show Obama beating Sen. John McCain among Hispanics as a whole by roughly 30 points, Hispanic evangelicals are a tougher sell. In 2004, 63 percent of them voted for President Bush.
POLITICS | TRUE OR FALSE
Evangelicals Are Crucial to Winning the 2008 Election
Lisa Miller
The leaders of the religious right don't have great affection for John McCain. They think he's too moderate on immigration, embryonic-stem-cell research and campaign-finance reform, and they think he doesn't do enough to promote his pro-life positions.
The Miracle Workers
Eve Conant
Richard Land had never met one-on-one with a chairman of the Democratic National Committee. The Tennessee evangelist, an influential force in the Southern Baptist Convention, generally views such people as adversaries, if not enemies. So consider his surprise when, at a nonpartisan leadership conference over the New Year's holiday, Howard Dean leaned in and said he'd love to get together for a private chat. Land agreed to meet for coffee at a downtown Washington hotel.