Obama's "off-the-record" meeting with Christian leaders

I’ve never been invited to meet with a Democratic presidential candidate. So I was surprised when I received an invitation a couple of weeks ago to join “a small group of religious leaders, academics and faith-based organizations” to meet with Senator Barack Obama in Chicago on June 11. Since I am opposed to the leftist political stands of the Democratic Party and of Obama specifically, I didn’t really want to attend.

But I was curious what the junior Senator from Illinois would say to Christian leaders when it’s well known that he supports abortion and the gay rights agenda. In addition, he has ties to Islam as a child through both his father and stepfather. The denomination he has attended as an adult is the most liberal Protestant denomination. The church in Chicago that Sen. Obama and his family attended, Rev. Jeremiah Wright was its pastor. It’s well known that Rev. Wright believes in Liberation Theology. He has also accused the government of spreading the AIDS virus among blacks and famously preached the Sunday after September 11, 2001, that God should “damn America” rather than bless it for all the so-called evils he thinks America is guilty of.

What could he have in common with “conservative” Christian leaders?

I returned from the meeting very concerned. Here is a liberal—Obama--reaching out to the Christian community at a time the conservative--Sen. John McCain--seems to be distancing himself from the so-called “Christian Right.” I think McCain has a lot of work to do to get the support of the Christian community. Obama seemed to have the support of at least half of the 43 leaders who attended the Chicago meeting. And in my opinion, he “made points” with the rest. The tone of the meeting was respectful and generally upbeat.

I was curious to see who would attend. They wouldn’t release a list of invitees ahead of time. It turns out my son Cameron, who founded Relevant Media Group, was also invited. But neither of us knew this until I copied him with an email saying I intended to go, and he told me he was also attending.

The invitation to the meeting stated, “This is an off-the-record (no media) time for questioning and listening, with no expectation of endorsement.”

We were told that some of the attendees, who covered a wide range of the Christian community, wouldn’t come if the meeting was on the record. However, the press had found out and there were news reporters and television camera crews waiting to ask questions as we left the building to get a taxi to the airport. By the time I had arrived at Midway Airport and began to check my e-mails while awaiting my flight to Orlando, someone had sent me a blog that was surprisingly accurate about the meeting (click here to read it). Today an Associated Press report quoted a couple of attendees (click here to read it). Without revealing specifically what was said at the meeting, I’ll confirm that most of the report was accurate.

So I am merely reporting my personal reflections of the meeting with Sen. Obama while keeping my word about it being “off-the-record.”

Sen. Obama personally took time to meet each person and shake their hand. He’s not as large a man as I envisioned from seeing him on television. But, he’s warm and personable --- obviously one of the reasons why people like him. He seemed to remember names well. He hugged a couple of the participants—mostly the black preachers who attended. He also seemed to be on top of the issues; and he’s obviously very intelligent.

The questions were mostly “softball” questions in my opinion. I was concerned after three or four general questions that we wouldn’t ask the most important questions. So I raised my hand and he called on me. I said, “Senator, I want to ask a question I'm sure you are expecting regarding your position on abortion. I represent a segment of the church where nearly everyone considers the issue of supporting life to be the most important issue and where nearly everyone would be opposed to abortion. I want to ask what your stand on abortion is and if you believe what I think you believe, how you justify that with your Christian faith and why you think we should vote for you.”

Since his response was “off-the-record,” I can say that the time he took to answer was probably 15 minutes. He came across as thoughtful and much more of a “centrist” than what I would have expected. He did not appear to be the crazy leftist that is being supported by George Soros and his radical leftist friends. Sen. Obama looked me in the eye as he answered my question, almost as if it were a one-on-one interview. I had already read the chapter on “faith” in his book the “Audacity of Hope.” If you want to know how he answered the question, read that chapter. In other words, other than his demeanor and obvious attempt to win over the Christian leaders in the room, he didn’t say anything new.

I knew personally about one-third of the people in the room. I had heard of another third of the invitees. Some of the people from the more liberal part of the church were unknown to me. Those from the evangelical community tended to be more the ones who are interested in global warming and social justice as well as the two issues conservative Christians are known for—pro-life and pro-family.

You may know that I supported Gov. Mike Huckabee during the primaries. Like Huckabee, Obama was winsome and good with giving extemporaneous answers to difficult questions. I had hoped that Huckabee would have gotten the nomination. Huckabee was never able to raise the kind of money that Obama has raised. But he did get a lot of the grassroots excited as Obama has obviously done.

Sen. John McCain was my second choice for the nomination. He is a true American hero. He has served well in the Senate for many years. He is strong for our national defense at a time we are in a war with Islamic terrorists. And, he is strong for Israel. He also has the right stands, in my opinion, on abortion and the sanctity of marriage.

Unlike Huckabee, he is not comfortable talking about his faith. It’s well known he has a temper and he has been known to swear in public. The fact he divorced the wife who stuck by him and raised his children while he was in a prisoner of war camp to marry a much younger woman, doesn’t sit well with those of us who believe marriage is for life.

But, we’re not electing the person we think is the most righteous. We’re voting on the one we think will lead America in the right direction for the next four years. Whether Obama, Sen. Hillary Clinton or any of the other Democrats had gotten the nomination, I believe the policies they espouse are dangerous not only to the security of our country if they are weak in the battle against terrorism, but they will hurt businesses if there is more governmental interference. And, on the moral issues such as the sanctity of marriage, it’s absolutely scary to think of what will happen if same sex marriage is allowed in this nation. At the same time, the next president will probably nominate not one but several Supreme Court justices to replace some elderly justices who obviously can’t live forever.

My friend Marc Nuttle recounts this in his book “Moment of Truth,” which I highly recommend. You can get it by clicking here.

There’s probably a lot more that I could say about the meeting. But the most significant thing is just the fact that the meeting was held and that several dozen prominent leaders took time to meet with Sen. Obama who I believe won over the loyalties of many.

I urge Sen. John McCain to have a similar meeting—or several such meetings. There is a lot of latent support for him in the Christian community. But after being “still armed” by the McCain camp, while being wooed by the Obama camp, this may be the first time a majority of evangelicals will vote for a Democrat for president since Jimmy Carter, who talked of being “born again” and got many evangelical votes in 1976.

Give us your thoughts below.


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