Obama's Religion and the 2008 Campaign

by Kenneth D. Wald

While teaching Religion and Politics in the fall of 2007, I told my students that the most interesting aspect of the 2008 presidential election was likely to be the absence of a strong Republican candidate who could galvanize religious conservatives, the party’s base. Although that was (and remains) an important dimension of the campaign, I was as surprised as most observers by the controversy that has swirled around the religious identity and experience of Senator Barack Obama.

Three issues have gained “legs” during the primary season. First was the widespread misapprehension of Senator Obama’s religious affiliation. Many political scientists who discuss religion have probably had experiences similar to mine, being asked repeatedly whether a Muslim can be elected or not. (Obama is of course a Christian, a member of the United Church of Christ). The second issue involved the Jewish community, a mainstay of the Democratic coalition despite its relatively small numbers. Almost from the first contest in Iowa, Jewish voters were targeted by an email smear campaign against Senator Obama, questioning his commitment to Israel and attributing to him anti-Semitic statements made by Louis Farrakhan and other religious leaders. As this is being written, a third issue has unfolded. The former pastor of Senator Obama’s congregation has himself become a target of harsh criticism for his unsparing critiques of the United States in both its domestic and foreign policies. This has forced the Senator to distance himself from Reverend Wright, emphasizing that the pastor’s influence on the candidate is confined to the spiritual rather than political realm. Even that was not enough to quiet the critics, prompting Senator Obama to emphasize his disagreement with Pastor Wright in a recent speech at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia.

Why have these issues arisen? In my judgment, they all represent solutions to the problem Senator Obama’s candidacy poses to Republicans. To begin with, the Republican candidate will go into the election with the heavy baggage of George W. Bush’s low approval ratings. Moreover, Senator McCain has not been enthusiastically embraced by either economic or religious conservatives. If the Republican party had not become a church where any difference of opinion is defined as heresy, McCain would be understood as a fairly orthodox Republican with minor differences from his peers. But that’s not today’s GOP and McCain thus faces a formidable set of hurdles no matter who the Democratic nominate.

To make matters worse, Obama as a nominee is very hard to position and pin down. Lacking a record in national politics, a real advantage during primaries, he presents less of a target. Mindful of the national norms regarding racially charged rhetoric, the GOP also has to be careful about how it approaches a black candidate.

The solution is to swift-boat Senator Obama, distort his record, play up his associations with controversial figures, and try to bring up the Senator’s negatives. This cultural politics “script” has been clear in the three religious issues discussed above. Suggesting that Sen. Obama is Muslim associates him with “The Other,” those who are not of us, who are not like us, who in fact hate us. After all, the man doesn’t wear an American flag lapel pin, has a wife who isn’t proud of her country, and a pastor who damns America. For the Jewish community which has little experience with the Senator, critiques of his association with Farrakhan are played up and the candidate’s own statements on the Middle East are ignored. Precisely because he’s an unfinished template, these attacks leave him vulnerable. The recent obsession with his pastor reinforce the other concerns and may well amount to a coded effort to raise racial concerns. By painting the Senator as a tool of black nationalism, these charges undermine his claim to transcend the traditional politics of race.

We won’t know how much these things matter until November, but they have already revealed a press that is once again driven by the herd mentality and which largely buys into the frame developed by publicists. Lest he be perceived as an Afrocentric Christian, Senator Obama must distance himself from Pastor Wright. Yet no such call has sounded that demands a similar disavowal by Senator McCain of his Christian Right supporters.
Anybody who listens with an educated ear to Pastor Wright will hear a familiar prophetic Christianity that speaks in the harsh cadence of the Jeremiad. America cannot be a “nation under God” if it treats people of color badly, engages in violence, and otherwise violates the Covenant. While the details are different, this is the same idiom used by people like the late Rev. Jerry Falwell and Rev. Pat Robertson. Recall their statements that America was smitten by God’s hand on 9/11 because it had strayed from the proper path. Both critiques hold US behavior up to scriptural standards and condemn the nation for its transgressions. A better journalistic corps would note this rather than simply echo the charges against Senator Obama.

Kenneth D. Wald is Distinguished Professor of Political Science at the University of Florida and co-author, with Allison Calhoun-Brown, of Religion and Politics in the United States, Fifth Edition (Rowman & Littlefield, 2006)