By John Whitesides, Political Correspondent
ZANESVILLE, Ohio (Reuters) - Democratic presidentialcandidate Barack Obama promised a more active approach tofaith-based social programs on Tuesday in a bid to bolster hissupport among evangelical and religious voters.
Obama visited a community ministry in a conservative regionof the election battleground state of Ohio to unveil a plan toreinvigorate faith-based community programs first pioneered byPresident George W. Bush.
The Illinois senator, who will face Republican John McCainin November's presidential election, said he would put moremoney and emphasis on strengthening the link between governmentand community faith programs.
"The fact is, the challenges we face today -- from savingour planet to ending poverty -- are simply too big forgovernment to solve alone," Obama said. "We need anall-hands-on-deck approach."
McCain and Obama are gearing up for a pitched battle forevangelical support in November's election. Neither candidatehas inspired strong enthusiasm in the religious community,normally a core Republican bloc.
Most polls show McCain beating Obama by 3-to-1 or moreamong evangelicals, but Obama hopes to do better among thegroup than Democrat John Kerry did in 2004, when Bush won fourof every five evangelicals.
Obama has been hindered by the controversy about theincendiary comments of his former pastor, the Rev. JeremiahWright, and by false Internet rumours that he is a Muslim, aswell as Internet whisper campaigns about his patriotism.
But Obama hopes growing concerns among evangelicals aboutissues like global warming and poverty, and unhappiness withthe war and the leadership of Bush and Republicans, give him anopening to court an electorate that accounted for more than 20percent of voters in 2004.
"I want this to be central to our White House mission," hetold reporters in Zanesville.
Obama, who stressed his religious faith during the 16-monthnominating battle with Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, saidhe learned early on as a community organizer in Chicago thevalue of acting on his faith.
"I came to see my faith as being both a personal commitmentto Christ and a commitment to my community -- while I could sitin church and pray all I want, I wouldn't be fulfilling God'swill unless I went out and did the Lord's work," he said.
Obama said the office of Faith-Based and CommunityInitiatives set up by Bush as part of his "compassionateconservative" agenda never lived up to its early promise andsocial service programs for the poor had been underfunded.
He proposed a new Council for Faith-based and NeighbourhoodPartnerships to reinvigorate the effort.
"The new name will reflect a new commitment," he said aftera tour of a ministry that provides food, clothing and servicesfor the needy in Zanesville.
His proposal would launch a training program to offerinstruction to community faith-based organizations on how toteach smaller groups to take advantage of government programs,and he would provide new summer opportunities for up to 1million children.
The new summer learning program would cost $500 million ayear -- financed by cutting wasteful spending in federalprocurement and management.
He stressed that recipients of government funds in theprogram would be prohibited from discrimination on religiousgrounds in hiring and from proselytizing with public funds, andthe money could only be directed to nonreligious programs.
"I believe deeply in the separation of church and state,but I don't believe this partnership will endanger that idea,"Obama said.
Obama begins a three-day campaign swing to the West onWednesday, visiting Colorado, North Dakota and winding up inMontana on the July 4th Independence Day holiday.
(Editing by David Wiessler)
(For more about the U.S. political campaign, visit Reuters"Tales from the Trail: 2008" online athttp://blogs.reuters.com/trail08/)
