LYNCHBURG, Va. (BNc)- Obama entrusted his faith tour outreach to professor Shaun Casey, who talks to handsful of people on the sidelines.

Casey was named faith advisor to the Democratic presidential candidate Barack Hussein Obama in June. He is a graduate of Abilene Christian University.

Last week in Lynchburg, Va., Casey talked to a small group at the Starlite Café about Obama’s faith and how his religious views will affect policies in a Democratic White House — allowing more access to Christians and Muslims than ever before.

Reports varied between 15 and 25 present for the event, apparently a number too large for at least one reporter to count on his fingers.

Regardless of the “preacher count,” the number gathered in the backyard of Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University, with 10,000 fundamentalist evangelical students, pointed up the failure of the Obama campaign to reach out to the religious conservatives.

Billy Valentine, director of Catholics for McCain, a grassroots organization of young Catholics not affiliated with the Republican presidential candidate’s campaign, characterized the event as a “flop.”

Casey affirmed that “if we have an Obama administration, I can guarantee you that Muslim Americans will have more access to the engines of democracy and legislation and policy making in the Obama administration than any White House in history.”

The Obama campaign described the faith forums as “an opportunity for people of faith to come together — across denominational lines – to talk about how they live their faith outside the four walls of the church, what they want to see from their presidential candidates and how Obama’s faith informs how he thinks about the issues facing Virginia families.”

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