Faith progressive democrats expressed apprehension recently that the party may be missing the boat by giving less emphasis to their faith outreach—more so with democratic control of Congress at stake in this fall’s general elections, the Washington Post reported.

The Democratic National Committee’s (DNC) faith staff of six has now dwindled to one part-time slot–a huge difference from the 2008 elections when the democrats hired faith consultants, advertised regularly on Christian radio and featured candidates, including President Obama, who spoke openly about their relationship with God, the Washington Post said.

Faith progressives are apprehensive after high-profile losses in the November Virginia gubernatorial race, and in a special election to fill the US Senate seat of the late Edward M. Kennedy in Massachusetts in January.  In last week’s Democratic Senate primaries, there was little visible new faith outreach, to the dismay of party religious activists, the Washington Post reported.

New strategy

When Obama took office he expanded the faith office that was established by President George W. Bush, which includes branches in a dozen federal agencies and a core staff that communicates with faith leaders about policy issues, according to the Washington Post.

Office director Joshua DuBois declined to comment on Democratic political outreach, but did say the White House is in frequent contact with faith leaders.

However, Timothy M. Kaine, chair of the DNC, and other party leaders attribute the decrease in paid faith staff to a new strategy in how the party does outreach, the Washington Post said.

The White House has opted to expand its network of grass-roots volunteers and shrink its national staff of organizers who were in the past broken down by race and religion, the Washington Post reported.

Patrick McKenna, a spokesman for the Pennsylvania Democratic Party, said that the current economic climate has led to more focus on issues of recession rather than on faith based issues such as abortion, according to the Washington Post.

Faith vote

In the past many major democratic wins were credited in part to spending by national democratic organizations on faith outreach and by recruiting candidates who framed policy positions in terms of religious morality, the Washington Post said.

Notable among these were the 2005 victory of Kaine as governor of Virginia in 2005, a number of anti-abortion congressional Democrats in 2006, and Obama, who won more churchgoing voters in 2008 than any other Democratic presidential candidate in a decade, the Washington Post reported.

The Republican Party has a far more extensive infrastructure to connect with religious voters, especially evangelical Christians.  It has databases filled with tens of millions of e-mail addresses as well as long-standing ties to religious broadcasters and conservative religious groups such as the Family Research Council and Focus on the Family, according to the Washington Post.

According to Kaine, a staff mem

Are Democrats bungling their faith outreach?

ber who also does African American outreach has been assigned to oversee faith as well, but had been on medical leave.  Kaine said the party will be hiring more faith staff and crafting a faith outreach plan as the fall election season gets close, the Washington Post said.

Brian Jones, a strategist and former communications director for the Republican National Committee said, “It’s not done in one or two or three political cycles.”  The Republican party’s faith outreach dates as far back as the presidency of Ronald Reagan, the Washington Post reported.

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Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia—the world’s largest Christian university–announced recently that they have formed a committee to investigate the background of their seminary president Ergun Caner, the Washington Post reported.

Liberty University is investigating its seminary president, Ergun Caner over allegations that he's not the ex-Muslim he passed himself off to be.

The investigating committee will be headed by Liberty university administrator Ron Godwin.

Findings will be released by June 30.  Ergun Caner distinguished himself as a Muslim expert and is a popular speaker in the university lecture circuit.

Since he became president, he has tripled enrolment in the school that was owned by the late Jerry Falwell, Sr., according to Christianity Today (CT).

The CT said that among the claims that Caner made which have been brought to question are:

• That he grew up in Turkey (when he actually grew up in Ohio).
• That he was raised in a devout Sunni Muslim home (rather than a nominal one).
• That he had been involved in Islamic jihad.
• That he has debated dozens of Muslims about the Islamic faith.  (There is no video or audio evidence).

Caner’s reputation came to task when Mohammed Khan, a 22 year old London based Muslim, posted 17 of Caner’s speeches on YouTube.  Khan interjected portions of the speeches with his own commentary.  Among others, Khan said that several times when Caner claimed to be reciting the Shehada, (part of the Islamic creed), he was actually quoting a prayer from the Qur’an, which Khan said is very different.  Khan disputed Caner’s claim to be an Islamic expert.

This set off a rash of bloggers who commented on the issue.  Christianity Today quoted several bloggers including the following:
Debbie Kaufman, an Enid, Oklahoma Southern Baptist laywoman, who said, “This matters because we are to win people to Christ.”
Gene Clyatt, a Southern Baptist pastor in Superior, Montana, questioned Caner’s claim that he was trained as a jihadist until the age of 15.  In Ergun’s book, Unveiling Islam which he co-wrote with his brother Emir, he said that his parents married in Sweden and the family moved to Ohio when he was a young boy.

In the book the brothers said they recited daily prayers, visited the mosque weekly, and read the Qur’an and Hadith regularly.  They said they were raised to be devout, serious Muslims.

James R. White, director of the Phoenix-based Alpha & Omega Ministries, said “The president of a large theological seminary has created a myth concerning his background that is incredibly self-contradictory.”  White teaches Islam at golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary.

Sympathy

Some bloggers however expressed sympathy for Caner.

Hussein Wario, also a former Sunni Muslim who converted to Christianity, noted that while Caner had co-authored 17 books, it is only now that he is being criticized because of Khan’s videos.

Wario also said in his blog, Cracks in the Crescent, “I am a Reformed Christian and I am utterly ashamed of Dr. White. In my opinion, he is a disgrace to the Reformed faith—sola scriptura—because of his meddling in this matter and his disregard of the scripture. He is tacitly helping Muslims with their war against Muslim converts to Christianity.”

Roy J. Oksnevad, director of Muslim Ministries at Wheaton College said that the American church tends to pressure ex-Muslims to talk very negatively about their former faith.

Repent

Tom Chantry, on the Christ Reformed Baptist Church blog, suggested repentance on the part of Caner and Liberty University.  Chantry said in his blog that while it is difficult to make restitution in cases of deceit, it can be done, and that Caner can apologize and seek forgiveness.

However Liberty University must do the same, Chantry said, noting that the institution had benefitted from the celebrity culture of Evangelical Christianity and if they had instead put their focus on the Word of God, this may have been prevented.

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Two years ago, former Virginia Governor Tim Kaine forced State Police Chaplains to deny Christ or resign from their jobs.  As a result six chaplains resigned, and two others– Rex Carter and Mike Honaker, decided to turn in their badges.

Now current Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell is getting flak because he overturned Kaine’s decision, and has allowed state Police Chaplains to publicly pray, “in Jesus name.”

This has upset the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), who felt the ban should have been embraced rather than rejected.

They accused McDonnell of giving in to conservatives and Christians, and cited the First Amendment in defense of the ban.

Ken Blackwell, columnist of WORLDmag noted that Thomas Jefferson authored Virginia’s Statue for Religious Freedom.

As president, Jefferson invited a Baptist lay preacher to give a sermon to the U.S. House of Representatives, which was attended by Secretary of State James Madison—co-author of the First Amendment.

The restoration of the right to pray “in Jesus name” came as a result of a two-year campaign led by Chaplain Klingenschmitt, who led rallies, sent up to 15,000 petitions, and faxed voters guides to over 23,000 Virginia pastors in the name of free speech.

This mobilized the pastors and shifted the election polls, previously at 47-44 percent, to 59-41 percent in favor of McDonnell.

The church goers and conservatives shifted their support on the basis of this issue.

With McDonnell fulfilling his campaign pledge, the six chaplains who had lost their jobs and Rex Carter and Mike Honaker will be invited back to their jobs.

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