The biggest crisis in Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign came when he was forced to distance himself from his longtime Chicago pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, whose fiery rhetoric became too hot to handle.
All of which prompted the question: What does Obama really believe?
Veteran author Stephen Mansfield set out to find out, and his new book, The Faith of Barack Obama, tries to answer that question. Mansfield, a former Protestant pastor, has also investigated the private faith of public figures including President Bush, Winston Churchill and Booker T. Washington.
Some answers have been edited for length and clarity.
Q. Why write a book about Obama's faith?
A. I had written a book a few years ago on the faith of George W. Bush because I thought this story really captured the society, what was going on to understand the times. I feel the same way about Obama's faith now. I think you really have to understand his faith and his journey of faith to understand what our society is.
Q. Why release the book before the election?
A. People really want to understand what he believes. Now is the time to understand that. We need to know who Barack Obama is religiously. There have been some pretty striking myths circulating out there that are very unfair. At the same time, there have been some things about him, misunderstandings, that pretty much are the fault of his campaign for not being clear about what he believes. I wanted to write a book that was objective. I'm neither for him or against him.
Q. How would you describe Sen. Obama's faith in a few sentences?
A. He's a Christian without question, a Christian that leans theologically and politically liberal. He doesn't accept everything that traditional Christianity hands him, and he doesn't believe everything within Scripture is inspired. So, that leads him to come to politics with a bit of pick-and-choose approach to theology.
Q. You write that Sen.
Obama is what America is becoming. What is that?
A. America is just moving away from traditional church-oriented Christianity. It is not moving away from Christianity as a whole but the trends are toward a bit more of a pick-and-choose. We saw (in a recent Pew Forum U.S. Religious Landscape Survey) that Americans love their faith but they don't believe that their faith is the only path to God. They don't necessarily hold every aspect of their faith, the traditional aspects. That is exactly where Obama is.
Q. Your book on President Bush's faith came out in 2004, at the height of the religious right. Does Obama reflect a rise in the religious left?
A. There has been a decided shift in the last few years. Part of it because a lot of the national religious-right leaders are off to shame now. Part of it because there's a new young voter coming out alive who is also religious and left wing. And part of it because there is a certain amount of defection among the evangelical voters who are moving toward Obama.
Q. Is the religious left empowered now?
A. They're getting their national voice. There has always been a religious left -- the labor movement, abolition movement, the clergy and people who marched with Martin Luther King and stood with Cesar Chavez. But somehow that impetus did not reach to the high levels of the Democratic Party. So, other than maybe Jimmy Carter ... you really didn't have an integration of faith and policy. But now that has changed.
When Obama said at the 2004 convention, "We serve an awesome God out there in the blue states," I think he was sounding a trumpet call that there are those of us that are on the political left that have faith and passion for God.
Q. Is Sen. Obama destined to be president?
A. No, I don't think he's destined to become the next president. He may become the next president. But I will tell you increasingly people are using that language. I've even spoken to conservative bloggers who say Obama may be "the chosen one." That thinking is definitely out there. I don't think it is written or determined yet that he will be president. This election will decide that.
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