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WORLD> America
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Obama cites past drug use at forum on faith
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-08-17 10:39 Obama and McCain met briefly on stage between their respective appearances. Both have struggled for different reasons to garner support in the religious community. Obama, a Christian, has had to repeatedly debunk rumors that he is Muslim and was forced to distance himself from a controversial former pastor. McCain, who grew up Episcopalian but now attends an evangelical Southern Baptist church in Arizona, has had trouble winning over conservative evangelicals because of his past support for stem cell research and his blunt criticism of the movement's leaders in 2000. But the Arizona senator's opposition to abortion has redeemed him in the eyes of many in that religious community. Obama touched on the abortion issue in his portion of the questioning. He said he supported a woman's right to have an abortion but wanted to work to reduce the number of such procedures. Evangelicals account for one in four US adults and have become a key conservative base for the Republican Party with a strong focus in the past on opposition to abortion and gay rights and the promotion of "traditional" family values. Such issues delivered almost 80 percent of the white evangelical Protestant vote to President George W. Bush in 2004 but the movement is more fractured and restless this year though it remains largely in the Republican camp. |
