Obama Gets Mixed Evangelical Reaction

"I hear your voices, I need your help, and I will be your president, too."

One demographic that Obama did not win over that night was evangelical Christians. According to exit polls, McCain won them, 74%-24%.

 

Just four days until the inauguration, it has become a reality that for millions of evangelicals, the incoming president who -- despite his controversial decision to have mega-church pastor Rick Warren deliver the inaugural invocation -- was not their candidate of choice.

So how are they anticipating the start of an Obama administration? As it turns out, the response to the president-elect is across the board -- in fact, as diverse as the members of the evangelical church in America are.

 

Even the term "evangelical" makes a number of their leaders bristle. They're quick to point out that the movement today reflects a broad range of views that mobilizes its members as easily around environmental activism and Darfur, as it does abortion and gay marriage. 

 

And in that diversity, there are some early signs that despite their overwhelming support for McCain, evangelical leaders are not monolithically opposed to Obama or his incoming administration.

Indeed, even with their anti-abortion views, there seem evangelicals who are willing -- for the time being at least -- to give Obama a chance to lead, before mobilizing against his administration.

"This is an interpretative moment for evangelicals," said Tony Carnes, a writer for Christianity Today and a sociologist at the Values Institute in New York. "They are asking -- what does the unpopularity and performance of George W. Bush, the defeat of McCain and the victory of Obama mean for them?" 

Rick Warren -- an early signal

Obama's choice of Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at the inauguration has been an encouraging early sign of inclusion to many evangelical leaders.

Richard Land, outspoken evangelical leader with the Southern Baptist Convention who was named "God's lobbyist" by Time magazine's list of 25 most influential evangelicals, brimmed with pride at Warren's selection. "It was a good indication to evangelicals and others [that the] president-elect meant what he said when he wanted to build bridges," he said.

 

Land says he received a call from Obama's religious affairs director, Joshua DuBois, after Warren had been chosen. "Dubois told me that this was very intentionally done and that he, the president-elect, was the originator of the idea. He wanted to send the signal that you can disagree with him on some issues but still have a place with him at the table and work together on other issues of agreement."

 

Those sentiments were shared by Florida mega-church pastor Joel Hunter, the author of "A New Kind of Conservative."

 

"I have been very encouraged with how President-elect Obama has taken the initiative to include evangelicals in the conversation. He's listened with an attentive ear." In fact, Hunter, a registered Republican, delivered the benediction at the Democratic National convention and joined fellow ministers to pray with Barack Obama on Election Day. 

 

Obama also scores high marks for how he handled the criticism from gay rights activists after the Warren announcement. "He didn't get too defensive. He said this is a picture of how we're going to operate. I don't think he betrayed the gay and lesbian deferences that he has. In all his speeches, he stands up for gay and lesbian rights," Hunter said.

Waiting and seeing

Other evangelical leaders, however, are taking a wait-and-see approach to see exactly how candidate Obama actually wields power in the White House.

Pastor Tony Evans from the Dallas Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship is well accustomed to the intersection of presidential politics and faith. He was one of the first spiritual leaders whom then-Gov. George W. Bush reached out to -- seeking prayer and counsel -- before he launched his first presidential bid.

"From an evangelical standpoint, there was great affinity for [President Bush's] spiritual priorities. In my case, he's a friend, and because I knew of his faith, there is that sense of loss. But I'm not ready to say that all of that is gone with Obama. I don't want to pre-judge him."

Yet Evans says it's important for the evangelical church in America to soberly take in the message of November 4. "It is a wake up call... It means we can't be totally committed to politics. I don't believe our answers will ultimately come in on Air Force One."   

 

"From a Christian perspective," he added, "God is an independent. He doesn't ride the backs of elephants or donkeys."

And indeed, there are those leaders who seem to giving Obama a chance to lead before making a judgment.

John Hagee, the San Antonio based televangelist and founder of Christians United for Israel, says he is respecting the wishes of the American people and their choice of Obama. "Sen. Barack Obama is our president-elect, and we are commanded to pray for him. We must pray that God will give him the wisdom of Solomon to lead America through our present crisis," he said. 

Hagee was last in the spotlight after the McCain campaign sought his endorsement, only to later publicly reject it after Catholic leaders, among others, expressed outrage and accused Hagee of waging a war against the Catholic church.

Yet even Hagee's own words hint at the prospect of a future showdown. "Our respect and prayers do not prevent us from continuing to speak out and speak out strongly when we disagree on Biblical issues with the president. Like all other Americans, we evangelicals must continue to be engaged in the democratic process even after Election Day."

Hagee isn't alone in foreshadowing that the new president will encounter some rough stretches when it comes to social conservatives and evangelicals in the days ahead.

Jay Sekulow, a constitutional lawyer with the American Center for Law and Justice and ardent advocate of conservative and evangelical causes, puts it far more bluntly: "I wouldn't call it fear and loathing. I think it's a realization that things are going to be different and significantly different."

"He's not one of us"

Weeks ago, Obama responded to criticism about Warren's invitation from the left and gay activists by stressing his philosophy of inclusion, even with those he disagreed with. "That's part of the magic of this country is that we are diverse and noisy and opinionated," he said.

But there are those in the evangelical tent who aren't exactly angling for a place at the table, even though a good number of prominent evangelicals are at least willing to wait and see.

 

Joe Watkins -- an ordained minister, MSNBC political analyst, and former White House aide to the first President Bush -- describes it this way: "The concern for evangelicals is that he either doesn't share their core beliefs in God's infallible word or he isn't willing to support Christian faith and values issues as president. While he doesn't appear to be openly hostile to evangelicals, effectively opposing the issues that they care about has the same effect."

George Barna, the evangelical pollster and researcher of the Barna Group, echoes that sentiment. "His first act in office would be to sign an executive order that allows abortion," he said. "That, more than anything, has sent the signal to evangelicals -- he's not one of us, he will not be one of us, we've got to do something."

And Barna points not only to immediate actions, but also the real fears he claims evangelicals have about Obama's election. "He may be in office maybe four years or eight years, but his impact will be felt for 30 years. he will change the Supreme Court. They realize this going to be a long, hard stretch. I don't know if fear or it's distaste or mistrust. But certainly, they realize that they have very little in common."

Abortion, the defining moral issue

And over and over again, many evangelicals say it comes down to one moral issue that prevents them from wholeheartedly embracing the 44th president: abortion.

Obama's pro-choice position remains a nearly insurmountable obstacle for some evangelicals, such as Chuck Colson who said he responded "with joy that we have elected our first African-American president."

Colson, the former Nixon aide who went to prison for his role in Watergate, now leads Prison Fellowship, a Christian ministry that supports prisoners and their families. "I pray for him every day, ever since he was elected. I want him to succeed. I like a lot of his cabinet picks," he said.

"But do I consider him an evangelical? No. If he's comfortable with his faith, I wouldn't challenge him on it. But I have reservations about how serious a Christian he is and not treat life as sacred. The Bible is unequivocal about it."

Jay Sekulow predicts that any forward movement on Obama's part to sign the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) as he's pledged to do will "cause a revolt in the evangelical community."

Obama's not the center of the universe

Despite some of this angst and opposition in evangelical quarters, there are still others, like Franklin Graham -- eldest son of "the nation's pastor" Billy Graham -- who are urging Christians to look less toward the White House and further out into the world.

  

"Some Christians have gotten sucked into analyzing political polls and cultural issues," said Graham, president of Samaritan's Purse. "This is not a true picture of Christianity. Christians are called to exemplify the love of God that compels mankind to consider their past, their present, and their future."