Shaun Casey, who teaches religion and politics at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C., has been hired by the Obama campaign to focus on outreach to evangelical voters.
Casey, who has been informally advising the Obama campaign on faith issues for a year, next month will become a formal part of the faith outreach staff, Casey said today. His title will be senior adviser for religious affairs.
The Obama campaign plans a strong push to attract religious voters -- with small group "faith forums" held around the country, regular meetings with clergy of various faiths, frequent appearances in religious media and a faith outreach staff of a half-dozen that may grow as the general election nears. Expert observers, however, say they find the senator's outreach to white evangelicals the weakest part of the effort. It will be Casey's job, he explained, to get Barack Obama's story and policy positions out into the evangelical world.
It will also be Shaun Casey's job to explain to evangelicals his own religious beliefs such as his bizarre conviction that "Jesus was an illegal alien" which he proclaimed in Faithful Democrats:
...I am convinced Matthew included the flight to Egypt by Jesus and his family to show that Jesus' own story was part of the ancient story of Israel. They, too, fled to Egypt, suffered persecution, were redeemed by God, and then were empowered to live lives in solidarity with sojourners and aliens wherever they encountered them. Likewise disciples of Jesus throughout history pick up the same ministry of solidarity with displaced people. Jesus was an illegal alien and that ought to shape how we enter the current debate. But too often political ideology clouds good theology. In the current debate over immigration policy it distresses me to no end that so many of my fellow church goers ignore this fundamental tenet that should be central to our identity. Instead as theological amnesiacs we insist on a secular law and order ideology over a biblical mandate.
Great way for outreaching to evangelicals by reinterpreting the Bible to conform with trendy leftwing 21st century political ideology. Apparently Ms Boorstein did little research on the background of Shaun Casey who was previously in the news running cover for Obama over the Reverend Wright controversy. Boorstein also seems to imply that Casey himself is an evangelical without actually saying so:
Casey, who was raised an evangelical and received his undergraduate degree from Abilene Christian University before heading to Harvard Divinity School, has also informally advised Sen. John Kerry and Democratic Party chair Howard Dean in the past.
So Casey was "raised an evangelical" but does that mean he is one now? Boorstein does not say. She also neglected to tell the readers that Casey is a visiting fellow with the far left Center For American Progress which, along with Media Matters, is heavily funded by billionaire George Soros. Among the "charitable" projects of this group is a blatant attempt to silence conservative talk radio. Perhaps CAP visiting fellow Shaun Casey can cite for us the Bible passage justifying censorship.
