As Obama campaigned in Georgia and Alabama, party officials confirmed that Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy planned to endorse him Monday in Washington. Obama was endorsed during the weekend by Caroline Kennedy, the senator's niece and daughter of the late President Kennedy.
In Macon, Ga., Obama spoke for about a half hour to about 1,000 people at the interracial and interdenominational Harvest Cathedral. He talked about how he became a committed Christian as a young man in Chicago after rarely attending church as a child.
On his first visit to the church he now belongs to, Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, Obama said, "I was introduced to Jesus in a way I had never been before."
Part of his mission as a politician, he said, is "to go out and do the Lord's work."
Recounting the biblical story of the Good Samaritan, Obama said, "Our commitment cannot rest so long as we are still divided by race" and have homeless veterans, poor schools, uninsured people and unemployed workers.
Georgia and Alabama are among the 15 states holding Democratic primaries on Feb. 5. Seven other states hold Democratic caucuses that day.
