Democrats Should Woo Churchgoers, Obama Says
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
WASHINGTON – Senator Obama chastised fellow Democrats yesterday for failing to “acknowledge the power of faith in the lives of the American people,” and said the party must compete for the support of churchgoers.
“Not every mention of God in public is a breach to the wall of separation. Context matters,” the Illinois Democrat said to Call to Renewal, a faith-based movement to overcome poverty.
“If we don’t reach out to evangelical Christians and other religious Americans and tell them what we stand for, Jerry Falwells and Pat Robertsons will continue to hold sway,” he said.
“I think we make a mistake when we fail to acknowledge the power of faith in the lives of the American people and join a serious debate about how to reconcile faith with our modern, pluralistic democracy,” he said.
