Spirit
Obama on religion and politics
A reader named Matthew asks your blogstress to consider the words of Senator Barack Obama , delivered last week to the "Call to Renewal" conference convened by the Rev. Jim Wallis, a liberal evangelical. The left is quite abuzz about Obama's speech, in which he urges outreach by Democrats to evangelical Christians, ordinarily presumed to be acolytes of the right: For some time now, there has been plenty of talk among pundits and pollsters that the political divide in this country has fallen sharply along religious lines. Indeed, the single biggest "gap" in party affiliation among white Americans today is not between men and women, or those who reside in so-called Red States and those who reside in Blue, but between those who attend church regularly and those who don't. Conservative leaders have been all too happy to exploit this gap, consistently reminding evangelical Christians that Democrats disrespect their values and dislike their Church, while suggesti