Barack Obama and the Catholic vote, and Catholic positions

A recap of revent events.

Deal Hudson at the Insight Blog notes "the determination of the Obama effort to attract Catholic voters", citing a recent Politico.com column, on the Obama campaign's response to a previous article entitled "Obama Slow to Gain Among Catholics." Hudson's own take published here.

Also, Michelle Malkin points out that Obama has been "explain[ing] how his Christian faith approves of same-sex unions and abortion." On the first issue, Terry Jeffrey at Cybercast News Service:

"I don't think it [a same-sex union] should be called marriage, but I think that it is a legal right that they should have that is recognized by the state," said Obama. "If people find that controversial then I would just refer them to the Sermon on the Mount, which I think is, in my mind, for my faith, more central than an obscure passage in Romans." [Hear audio from WTAP-TV] St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans condemns homosexual acts as unnatural and sinful.

This coming as the homosexual lobby gravitates towards Obama, Bloomberg reports:

Now some gay voters, who have been among Clinton's most stalwart supporters and helped her defeat Barack Obama in Democratic presidential primaries earlier this month, may be drifting toward the Illinois senator, according to political activists and campaign officials.

And on the topic of abortion, Cybercast quotes Obama saying:

“I think that the bottom line is that in the end, I think women, in consultation with their pastors, and their doctors, and their family, are in a better position to make these decisions than some bureaucrat in Washington. That’s my view,” Obama said about abortion. “Again, I respect people who may disagree, but I certainly don’t think it makes me less Christian. Okay.”

Obama, for his own part, is identifying himself often as a praying Christian:

"I am a devout Christian," he told voters in this key state.

"I pray to Jesus every night and try to go to church as much as I can."

Meanwhile, on the always-enlightening Obama Messiah blog, videos like this one:


If Obama manages to beat Clinton in Texas tomorrow, and further distances himself from her in the other Tuesday contests and in the coming weeks, we can expect more where this came from.

Over the past couple evenings I've refined an op-ed piece on the topic of Clinton and Obama that I've submitted to a few places. If none of them choose to run it, I'll publish it here. So either way, you'll see it!