by Katie Fretland

More Americans now believe that religious institutions should stay out of politics, after a decade of support for church involvement in social and political issues, according to a new national study.

The Pew Research Center finds that 52 percent of the general public and 50 percent of conservatives believe that churches and houses of worship should keep out of politics. In 2004, when President Bush won the presidential election, just 30 percent of conservatives reported that religious institutions should leave the political conversation.

"The poll ... suggests that frustration and disillusionment among social conservatives may be a part of the reason why a greater number now think that religious institutions should keep out of politics," according to Pew's report on the study.

"The greatest increases since 2004 in the view that churches and other houses of worship should not express themselves on political matters have occurred among less educated Republicans and people who say that social issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage will be important to their vote."

The survey also found a small increase (40 to 46 percent) since 2004 in respondents who report that they are uncomfortable hearing how religious a politician is. However, Republicans continue to show support for expressions of religious faith and prayer by politicians, Pew reports.

Key issues for religious voters this year are the economy and energy, while abortion and gay marriage have dropped in importance, according to the survey.

Presumptive GOP nominee John McCain has similar amounts of support from evangelical and conservative Christians as President Bush did before the 2004 election, but the support is not as enthusiastic. McCain enjoys a 28 percent rate of strong support from white evangelicals, while Bush had a 57 percent rate of strong support from that bloc. A strong majority of black Protestants (88 percent) support presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama, while white Catholics are divided between the Illinois senator and McCain.

The results of the survey are based on telephone interviews with 2,905 adults from July 31-Aug. 10 with an overall margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points. The results include interviews with 2,414 registered voters, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.

Read the full study on religion and politics at www.people-press.org.

by Bay Fang

During a visit to earthquake-stricken Sichuan province in China, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visited a project run by Samaritan's Purse, Franklin Graham's evangelical aid organization.

She made the point that it is the relationship between people that makes the difference in relations between countries, and invoked the experience of Hurricane Katrina, saying that even the US needed international assistance during times of disaster.

"I remember very well during Katrina in the United States," she said. "People think of the United States as a developed, wealthy country with its own resources. But we so much appreciated the outreach from countries around the world to help the people in need."

by Katie Fretland

Sen. Barack Obama has defended himself against accusations by an influential conservative that he had distorted the Bible and pushed a "fruitcake interpretation" of the Constitution.

Yesterday, James Dobson, founder of the Christian group Focus on the Family, said in a radio segment that Obama distorted "the traditional understanding of the Bible to fit his own worldview, his own confused theology" during a June 2006 speech.

"Any notion that I was distorting the Bible in that speech, somebody would have to be pretty hard pressed to make that argument," Obama said. "It was a speech that affirms the role of faith in not just my life, but in the life of the American people."

In the speech, Obama asked, "Which passages of Scripture should guide our public policy? Should we go with Leviticus, which suggests slavery is okay and that eating shellfish is abomination? How about Deuteronomy, which suggests stoning your child if he strays from the faith?"

Obama also said Jesus' Sermon on the Mount is "a passage that is so radical that it's doubtful that our own Defense Department would survive its application."

Dobson said Obama was dragging religious understanding "through the gutter."

Read more about what Dobson said and the Obama camp's response in The Swamp.

by Katie Fretland

Many Americans have strong religious beliefs, but the majority is open to interpretations of the teachings of their faith and believes in more than one way to salvation, according to a new study by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.

Seventy percent of people surveyed with a religious affiliation reported that many religions can lead to eternal life.

Researchers examined Americans' religious beliefs and political attitudes in the second part of a huge study on major religions in the United States.

"The fact that most Americans are not exclusive or dogmatic about their religion is a fascinating finding," said Luis Lugo, director of the Pew Forum, in a press release. "Most people will be surprised that a majority of adherents in nearly all religious traditions, including a majority of evangelical Protestants, say that there isn't just one way to salvation or to interpret the teachings of their own faith."

The study also found that politics and religion is intertwined, with Mormons among the most politically conservatives and Jews, Buddhists and Hindus among the most liberal.

Here are some findings released today from the study based on interviews in English and Spanish with 35,000 adults:

by Christi Parsons and Katie Fretland

Hebba Aref was in the running to appear on the stage at a campaign event for Barack Obama the other day when a volunteer learned that Aref, a Muslim, would be wearing a head scarf.

That's when the invitation to appear behind the Democratic presidential candidate for the television cameras suddenly evaporated, with a volunteer for the Obama campaign citing politics as the reason.

"This is not meant to be any slam on Obama," said Sharif Aref, Hebba Aref's brother, who attended the rally in Detroit with her. But "this type of discrimination is occurring everywhere--in the North, South and even at Obama rallies."

On Wednesday, the Obama campaign apologized for the volunteer's actions, as well as for those of another volunteer who reportedly told a Muslim supporter she could be part of the backdrop only if she removed her scarf. The incidents were first reported by Politico.com.

The volunteers at the event in Detroit weren't acting on the directions of campaign staff, aides to Obama said.

"This is, of course, not the policy of the campaign," said Obama spokesman Bill Burton. "It is offensive and counter to Obama's commitment to bring Americans together, and simply not the kind of campaign we run."

In fact, Obama has appeared in public with Muslim supporters on a number of occasions, and the day after the Monday incidents he was photographed with a group of supporters that included a woman wearing a scarf, or hijab. The campaign said it had called the women to apologize after learning about the incidents.

But several Muslim supporters at the rally, where Al Gore appeared, were deeply offended by what the volunteers did. And the Council on American-Islamic Relations urged Obama to invite the women to an upcoming event.

See the rest of the story in today's Tribune:

And see a mother's reaction to her daughter's snub, in the Swamp.

by Mark Silva

In case you're still wondering about that Father's Day gift - and if that picture-frame seems a bit worn out - consider the gifts that President Bush and the Holy Father exchanged in the privacy of the papal study at the Vatican today:

This was Bush's third meeting with Pope Benedict XVI - their second at the Vatican.

Crowds lined the streets leading into St. Peter's Square, with many snapping photographs - more fodder for frames.

Two Swiss Guards in full, technicolor regalia manned the gate for the president's arrival. The pope greeted the president at St. John's Tower, part of a medieval wall around the city state, located in the luscious green Vatican Gardens, with palm, Italian pine, cedar and other assorted trees. A beautiful maze garden affords a view of the dome of St. Peter's Basilica.

The president and pope, meeting privately for nearly a half hour in the papal study, talked about human rights, HIV and AIDS in Africa and lifting people out of poverty, according to Dana Perino, the White House press secretary.

And they exchanged gifts at the end of the meeting. The president gave the pope a framed photo of the two taken in April near the colonnades at the White House. The 11" x 14" photo was framed in sterling silver with a presidential seal and engraved signatures of the president and First Lady Laura Bush. The pope presented the president with a framed photo and four volumes on St. Peter's Basilica.

Following the meeting, the two walked into view in the gardens under a largely sunny sky. They walked through the Lourdes Grotto, a replica of the "Grotto of Massabielle" of Lourdes given by the French people to Pope Leo XIII in 1952. The original is in Lourdes, sent to Pope John XXIII in 1958 on the centenary of the apparitions of the Madonna in Lourdes. The pope wore white robes and cap, with a large gold cross hanging from his neck, the president a dark blue suit and blue tie.

A choir sang "Exulte Deo," by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, and "Alma Redemptoris Mater," by Giuseppe Liberto. The president's motorcade departed soon after noon, with Bush bound for Paris.

With thanks to the observant pool reporting of USA Today's Jeff Stinson

by Mark Silva

On this Sunday when a candidate's church again has become the focus of his campaign - something which Sen. Barack Obama has attempted to resolve by removing himself from that congregation - many voices will be raised.

The Rev. C. Welton Gaddy, a Baptist minister and president of the Interfaith Alliance, calls it "a sad day in American politics and even sadder in American religion.''

Earlier in this campaign, another candidate attempted to reconcile the perception that many have of his church with his own views on religion and politics.

But for Mitt Romney, former governor of Massachusetts and a Mormon, it was a question about not one church, but rather about his faith and his allegiance to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He attempted to assert his independence while confronting public prejudices, particularly among the most conservative, fundamental Christians who comprise a significant base of the Republican Party.

For Obama, the Democratic senator from Illinois who is close to clinching his party's presidential nomination, it's not a question of his religion or even his church so much as what has been preached from the pulpit of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago.

The longtime pastor there, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, retires today - but not before laying a groundwork of doubt about his words on racial power and prejudice and what those sentiments might say about those, like Obama, who long sat in his pews.

And then came the Rev. Michael Pfleger, a visiting Catholic who injected yet more racial animosity into a campaign that Obama has attempted to raise above race. The Wright saga had prompted Obama to deliver his own sermon on race in America. But there are only so many times one can return to Philadelphia to take that pulpit.

Ultimately, Obama concluded that it was not enough to disavow the incendiary words of the Rev. Wright, or to distance himself from a pastor who had married him and his wife and baptized his children. If the pulpit of his church would continue to serve as a forum for divisive political rhetoric, he would have to extricate himself from the church.

Yet, just as Romney should never have to resign from the Mormon Church to revive his own political fortunes for another campaign, some say Obama should not have to resign from Trinity United Church of Christ to maintain his political credentials.

The problem, some say, is bigger than any candidate. It is the inevitable intermingling of religion and politics in a nation which attempts to uphold a devout separation of church and state.

"No candidate for the presidency should ever have to resign from or join a particular house of worship in order to be a viable candidate for that high office,'' Gaddy says. "To make such a decision for political reasons dishonors religion and disrespects the Constitution. This is a sad day in American politics and even sadder in American religion. Sen. Obama is at the center of the storm, but all who wed religion to partisan politics share responsibility for this tragic development."

by Jim Tankersley

A leading evangelical Christian group is telling supporters that a "cultural earthquake" rocked California earlier this month, which threatens "to permanently alter marriage and families in America."

Focus on the Family Action, the political offshoot of Dr. James Dobson's Colorado-based Focus on the Family, is ramping up its coast-to-coast "battle to save marriage," its senior vice president for government and public policy explained in a fundraising e-mail this week. The effort is a response to a California court ruling that legalized gay marriage in that state, and which Focus on the Family Action says "will be felt in every state that does not already have a constitutional amendment defining marriage as the union of a man and a woman" because California does not require residency for marriage.

"Homosexual activists across the nation will be emboldened to push their anti-family agenda (it's happening this very moment in Colorado)," senior vice president Tom Minnery writes in the Focus letter. "The only recourse is for Californians to pass a state marriage-protection amendment on the ballot this November."

Later, he adds: "The California homosexual marriage 'earthquake' could forever change the cultural landscape of our nation -- unless pro-family citizens like you and me take a stand."

A series of state initiatives banning gay marriage drew big attention in 2004. Republicans credited them for bolstering evangelical turnout at the polls and helping to push President Bush to re-election victory, particularly in battleground Ohio. Analysts wondered in the aftermath of the California ruling if the issue could once again factor heavily this year.

Both John McCain and Barack Obama oppose gay marriage, and, unlike Bush, both oppose a federal constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. Obama supports civil unions for gay couples.
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by Frank James

It's becoming ever more clear -- Sen. Barack Obama has substantial problems with Jewish voters but what's unclear is what he can do about it.

The latest evidence for Obama's problem with Jewish voters who have usually been reliably Democratic but have real uncertainties about Obama is an excellent piece in this morning's New York Times by Jodi Kantor.

Kantor talked with Jewish voters in South Florida, many of them liberal Democrats, and found real skepticism about Obama, some of it based on a lack of familiarity with him, some of it on misinformation and some of it on plain old-fashioned racism.

By campaigning heavily in Florida, including flooding the state's airwaves and cable pipes with ads, Obama may be able to do something about Jewish voters who have so far resisted his charms because of their unfamiliarity with him or misinformation. But it's hard to see what such campaigning can do to reverse years of racial suspicions many Jewish voters hold about African-Americans.

Anyway, right from the starting blocks, Kantor's piece captures how difficult things are going to be for Obama as he courts voters who should be behind him but aren't.

"The people here, liberal people, will not vote for Obama because of his attitude towards Israel," Ms. Weitz, 83, said, lingering over brunch.

"They're going to vote for McCain," she said.

by Frank James

Why is this day different from all other days? Because Sen. Barack Obama is scheduled to visit a synagogue in Florida in his effort to win over skeptical Jewish voters and is being greeted this morning by a newspaper ad in three South Florida newspapers in which a Jewish Republican organization seeks to put him on the spot.

See the ad here.

The group issued the following press release yesterday:

RJC Releases Ad in Advance of Obama's Synagogue Visit

"Our hope is that Senator Obama will use this opportunity in Florida to give full and complete answers to these critical questions and concerns," said RJC Executive Director Matt Brooks.

by Mike Dorning

Barack Obama's once-unlikely campaign for the presidency is poised to pass a crucial threshold tonight, winning a majority of the elected delegates to the Democratic National Convention. It's a moment the campaign celebrates as a claim to a popular mandate for his party's nomination, even though Obama still must gain more commitments from elected officials and political insiders who are superdelegates before he can clinch the Democratic nomination.

The history-making campaign of the freshman senator who now seems likely to be the first biracial major-party presidential nominee and first Generation X nominee started not with a campaign rally or a television appearance but with a short video posted on his web site.

From his Internet announcement that he was forming a presidential exploratory committee in January 2007 to the legions of small-dollar donors who have funded a campaign that bested the formidable fundraising machine of a former president and first lady, the Internet has figured powerfully in each step of Obama's presidential campaign in much the same way that the then-new medium of television helped propel John F. Kennedy to the presidency in 1960.

Here, then, are a few of the most memorable Internet moments of Barack Obama's bid for the White House.

Some of the best moments:

1. "Yes We Can" video by will.i.am generates at least 14 million views in several postings on YouTube.

2. The Obama Girl's "I got a crush...on Obama" becomes a pop culture phenomenon.

3. The debut of MyBarackObama.com on the day of his February 2007 official campaign kick-off rally in Springfield, Ill., stirs supporters to create more than a thousand Obama groups on the first day of business.

4. The Obama campaign's first quarterly fundraising total bests Hillary Clinton in cash raised for the primary, in part because of large haul of Internet dollars, foreshadowing a big draw of small-dollar donors over the Internet that will give him financial superiority over the Clinton's well-tested fundraising network.

5. Obama announces his presidential exploratory committee over the Internet on his web site.

6. A video of Obama's full speech on race relations, "A More Perfect Union," is viewed at least 5.5 million times in several postings on YouTube.

Some of the worst Obama Internet moments:

1. Excerpts of incendiary sermons from former Obama pastor Jeremiah Wright are posted on YouTube gaining even greater attention after the clips are aired on television.

2. E-mail campaigns spread false rumors that Obama is a Muslim and unwilling to hold his hand over his heart during the Pledge of Allegiance.

3. An Obama internet consultant is linked to an unauthorized "mash-up" video portraying Hillary Clinton as 1984's "Big Brother," based on a famous Super Bowl ad for Apple lampooning IBM.

by Mark Silva

SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt -- "Democracy does not threaten Islam or any religion,'' President Bush told a largely quiet forum of Middle East leaders here today. "Democracy is the only system of government that guarantees their protection.''

But this is the story that greeted people throughout this region early this morning when they turned on CNN International, the BBC World News and other regional broadcast outlets:

Dateline Baghdad: A soldier used a Quran, the Islamic holy book, for target practice in a predominantly Sunni area west of Baghdad, prompting an apology from the military, a spokesman said Sunday.

The action, which occurred on May 9 and was discovered two days later, threatened to further strain relations between the Americans and Sunni allies who have joined forces with them against al-Qaida in Iraq in Radwaniyah and other areas. The incident was first reported by CNN, which broadcast a ceremony at which the top American commander in Baghdad apologized to tribal leaders in Radwaniyah. The military confirmed the details.

And cable television viewers here saw a contrite U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Jefferey Hammond: "I come before you here seeking your forgiveness. In the most humble manner I look in your eyes today and I say please forgive me and my soldiers."

Once again, the vaunted ideals of the United States campaign for democracy in the Middle East, including its avowed reverence for religious freedom, have collided with the conduct of an American soldier. On a smaller, but no less symbolic scale, it is the Abu Ghraib of religious freedom.

"There are people who claim that democracy is incompatible with Islam,'' Bush told his audience here today. "But the truth is that democracies, by definition, make a place for people of religious belief. America is one of the world's leading democracies - and we are also one of the most religious nations in the world. More than three-quarters of our citizens believe in a higher power. Millions worship every week and pray every day. And they do so without fear of reprisal from the state.

"In our democracy, we would never punish a person for owning a Koran,'' the president said. "And we would never issue a death sentence to someone for converting to Islam. Democracy does not threaten Islam or any religion. Democracy is the only system of government that guarantees their protection.''

No punishment for owning a Quran. Only for shooting one.

Travis Childers delivers his victory speech in Booneville, Miss., Tuesday night May 13, 2008. (AP Photo/Michael H. Miller)

by Jill Zuckman

Another Republican district bites the dust.

First, House Republicans lost previously safe seats in Louisiana and Illinois - including the one belonging to former House Speaker Dennis Hastert. Last night, they lost a third in Mississippi.

Travis Childers, a Democrat, defeated Republican Greg Davis in a special election to fill the remaining months of the congressional term. The seat had been held by Roger Wicker who moved to the U.S. Senate after Trent Lott stepped down.

"The scoreboard now reads 'Change 3, Status Quo 0,'" crowed Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.), the chairman of the House Democratic Caucus. "In districts across the country, the American people are rejecting Bush Rubberstamp Republicans and casting their votes for real change."

House Republican Leader John Boehner issued a somber statement calling the news "a wake-up call to Republican candidates nationwide."

by Matthew Hay Brown

John C. Hagee, the Texas preacher whose endorsement of John McCain has proved something of a mixed blessing, has expressed regret for his comments on the Catholic Church.

The three-page letter that Hagee sent Monday to the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights should be good news for McCain, who had faced pressure from some to distance himself from the televangelist over his repeated references to "the great whore" and "the apostate church" -- language understood as anti-Catholic slurs.

A strong supporter of Israel, Hagee also has stressed Catholic anti-Semitism, citing the Inquisition, the Crusades and Hitler's Catholic schooling. But in his letter, released today by the Catholic League, Hagee expresses "deep regret for any comments that Catholics have found hurtful."

"In my zeal to oppose anti-Semitism and bigotry in all its ugly forms, I have often emphasized the darkest chapters in the history of Catholics and Protestant relations with the Jews," Hagee writes. "In the process, I may have contributed to the mistaken impression that the anti-Jewish violence of the Crusades and the Inquisition defines the Catholic Church. It most certainly does not."

His invocation of the great whore and the apostate church, he writes, are not intended as references to Roman Catholicism. But he acknowledges that the phrases from the Book of Revelation are "a rhetorical device long employed in anti-Catholic literature and commentary."

The Catholic League, which has referred to Hagee as a "veteran bigot," now is declaring an end to the controversy.