Conservative Classifieds

Add Some Zip to Your Web Site! Have your own web site? Pick up a web sticker to direct your readers to information on legislation, congressional votes, candidates, elections, and more! Just choose your favorite sticker, and copy the code for easy installation.

E-mail this story to a friend Have comments? Send them to the editor. Printer Friendly Version Subscribe for Free!

(AP) -- Religion is supposed to be Barack Obama's strength.

Unlike many Democratic candidates before him, Obama speaks with ease about his faith. He attends Sunday worship and knows his Bible. His supporters believe he can pry some committed churchgoers away from the GOP.

But the furor over comments by his Chicago pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, broadcast again and again on TV and viewed by millions on YouTube, is tempering those hopes.

''It certainly gives people pause,'' even in the Democratic Party, said Corwin Smidt, a Calvin College professor who studies religion and politics.

All the top Democratic presidential contenders spoke of their faith this election year. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, a Methodist and Obama's remaining Democratic rival, has spent years reaching out to traditional Christians. But more than any other candidate, Obama has made religion a core part of his message and outreach.

The Illinois senator has held faith forums, created a grass-roots support network of ''congregation contacts'' and has spoken at evangelical churches that Democrats had rarely visited.

His strategy is rooted in the Christian faith he found as an adult through Wright at Trinity United Church of Christ, a predominantly African-American megachurch. Obama's book, ''The Audacity of Hope'' was inspired by a Wright sermon.

But last week, Obama distanced himself from his pastor, after video circulated of Wright's most inflammatory rhetoric from the pulpit. Among the most remarked upon sound bites was Wright proclaiming ''God damn America'' for its racism. He also accused the government of flooding black neighborhoods with drugs. In a March 18 speech on race that was partly aimed at damage control, Obama described the history of injustice that fueled Wright's comments, while also condemning his pastor's statements and acknowledging the resentment of whites.

Shaun A. Casey, an Obama adviser and a Christian ethics professor at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, said the campaign will change nothing about its faith outreach because of the controversy.

''We're months and months away from the general election. I think that gives Sen. Obama time to lay out his own views,'' Casey said. ''Over time, people will spend a lot more time listening to what Sen. Obama says than to a few well-chosen, cherry-picked video clips from his pastor.''

But at least for now, the campaign is on the defensive.

No one expects Obama or Clinton to draw voters from the Christian right, especially considering the candidates' support for abortion rights.

Still, polls have found that younger evangelicals are less tied to the Republican Party than their parents have been. As a generation of old-guard Christian conservative leaders, such as the late Rev. Jerry Falwell, fade from the scene, some evangelicals are pushing for a broader agenda that includes environmental protection and fighting poverty. And Christian right activists remain wary of the presumptive Republican nominee, Sen. John McCain.

Democrats view this as a rare opening that could win them the White House. In a close general election, if the Democratic nominee can peel away even a small percentage of the traditional Christian vote, he or she could win the presidency.

>> Continued -- Page 1 2

Copyright 2008 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.