Obama: 'Go out, do Lord’s work'

RACE TO '08 | Senator addresses United Church of Christ faithful at national meeting

HARTFORD, Conn. — Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama electrified his own Saturday — members of the United Church of Christ — the social activist denomination he joined when he embraced Christianity at age 26.

The Illinois senator peppered his speech at the group's national meeting with overtures to Americans not in the audience — the country's wide swath of evangelical Christians, long the backbone of the Republican Party.

He called for a new "politics of conscience" in which people of all faiths and of no faith find common ground and work together to overcome social ills, from poverty to violence.

"My faith teaches me that I can sit in church and pray all I want, but I won't be fulfilling God's will unless I go out and do the Lord's work," Obama said in a 30-minute talk on faith and public life.

About 12,000 church members are attending the UCC's five-day national convention, which ends Tuesday.

Richard Cizik, spokesman for the National Association of Evangelicals, said Obama is held at a distance because of his support of abortion rights and stem cell research.

"He can't just pander to us," Cizik said by phone. "He needs to authentically speak what he morally believes. So far, it's not registering."

Obama said leaders of the Christian Right had wrongly painted Democrats as disrespecting evangelical values.

"Somewhere along the way, faith stopped being used to bring us together and started being used to drive us apart," he said.

The 1.2 million member UCC, which is marking its 50th anniversary, represents a merger of traditions that organized the Boston Tea Party, battled slavery and was a catalyst in the civil rights, women's rights and gay rights movements.

"For this courage, you have been attacked," religion commentator Bill Moyers told church members earlier Saturday.

In the hours before Obama's speech, campaign workers downplayed the UCC's liberal image. 

"Sen. Obama's proud of the church's inclusiveness and the diversity," spokeswoman Jen Psaki said. "He doesn't agree with their position on every issue."

The UCC supports same-sex marriage; Obama says it's up to states to decide. The UCC is critical of Israel; Obama is a stalwart supporter, a key issue for Jews and evangelicals.

Obama promised universal health care for all Americans in his first term if elected president. He also called for the end of the Iraq war, which the UCC leader, the Rev. John Thomas, said was "conceived in deception, carried on in arrogance."

Obama made several references to the 9,000-member South Side Chicago church to which he belongs. Trinity UCC is a church that still believes in altar calls. Obama, the son of Muslim and Christian parents, answered that call as a young man, mentored by Trinity's pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

Wright was in Chicago Saturday but offered a videotaped introduction of the senator. During his talk, Obama received three standing ovations and, at the end, was cheered for nearly three minutes.