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.”

Editor’s note: Richard has graciously permitted us to reprint his article from his Preacher Pages blog.

Presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama recently appointed Shaun A. Casey, graduate of Abilene Christian University as his faith advisor. Casey will be given the task of convincing evangelical voters that Obama would be the best choice for President.

Casey previously served John Kerry in a similar role. Dr. Casey is currently professor of religion and politics at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington D.C. and is writing a book on the role of religion in the 1960 Presidential election. Casey attends the Fairfax, Va., Church of Christ.

Lipscomb University recently had him as a featured speaker at the 28th Annual Christian Scholars Conference.  Afterward, Casey celebrated the diversity of the conference.

Barack Obama has been controversial in his statements on religion. Undoubtedly, Casey will be a frontman in helping Obama mitigate his image. Casey was called upon to go before the media to do damage control after the profane comments made by Jeremiah Wright, preacher at Obama’s home congregation. Obama had been a member of the liberal denomination United Church of Christ for many years before he left the congregation as a result of the incendiary comments coming from their pulpit.

Casey recently found his own controversy when he called Jesus an illegal alien. 

In June, Obama battled with James Dobson over comments Obama made in a fundraiser. Obama said,

And even if we did have only Christians in our midst, if we expelled every non-Christian from the United States of America, whose Christianity would we teach in the schools? Would we go with James Dobson’s, or Al Sharpton’s? Which passages of Scripture should guide our public policy? Should we go with Leviticus, which suggests slavery is ok and that eating shellfish is abomination? How about Deuteronomy, which suggests stoning your child if he strays from the faith? Or should we just stick to the Sermon on the Mount — a passage that is so radical that it’s doubtful that our own Defense Department would survive its application? So before we get carried away, let’s read our bibles. Folks haven’t been reading their bibles.

Obama misunderstands the Biblical doctrine of covenants. We no longer live under the Old Testament [Covenant]. Jesus came to bring a new covenant that came into effect when his blood was shed (Hebrews 9:11-15). Leviticus and Deuteronomy are there for our learning, but are no longer binding for us today (Romans 15:4).

This is not the first time that Obama has been chastised for his misunderstandings of Scripture.  “Democratic Presidential Candidate, Barack Obama, recently said that while he did not believe in ‘gay marriage,’ he did believe in same sex civil unions … He said, ‘If people find that controversial then I would just refer them to the Sermon on the Mount, which I think is, in my mind, for my faith, more central than an obscure passage in Romans.’”

Romans 1:26-27 is by no means an obscure passage and Scripture is clear that homosexuality is a sin. 

Casey will be responsible for standing up and defending the progressive religious views of Barack Obama. This will also likely include an attempted Biblical basis for Barack’s strong stand on abortion. Casey is trying to steer evangelicals away from being single-issue voters on issues like abortion and homosexuality. Christians, however, must vote as God’s people and stand against immorality. We cannot ignore moral issues.

However, it is perfectly understandable how Casey can defend Obama’s progressive views. Casey harbors them as his own. He co-wrote a chapter for a publication for the Center for American Progress with John Podesta. They stated,

The role of religion in our Democracy is so integral to discussions of public policy, culture, and society that it should come as no surprise that a secular progressive think tank dedicated to improving the lives of all Americans would want to be engaged in “debating the divine.” Much to the surprise of many conservatives who assume that liberals and progressives are hostile to religion and want to banish it altogether from the public square, the Center for American Progress, from our early days, has embraced prophetic religious voices as critical to social change and social movement throughout American history and vital in today’s policy debates.

Casey’s position as a defender and practioner of a progressive faith [if we want to know where progressive Christianity leads, read this] that is so far removed from Biblical truth is untenable. He writes,

As one wag put it, there are only three things left that all members of the Churches of Christ agree on: 1) There are three sacraments: the Lord’s Supper, Baptism, and attendance. 2) There are at least two members of the Trinity. 3) There will be a collection on Sunday morning. This is an identity crisis. The only chance for an emerging consensus will be forged from the ground up and not by a top down imposition. Before there can be resurrection there must be crucifixion.

One cannot be pretending to be walking in the light while proclaiming the glories of the darkness (John 8:12; 1 John 1:5). It will bring serious consequences (Galatians 1:7-9) and we must steer clear of the influence of darkness (2 John 9-11). Better yet, run.

As U.S. Senator Barack Hussein Obama advances to the forefront of the Democratic presidential race, many questions arise from his relationship with a group known as the United Church of Christ.

Obama, raised in both Catholic and Muslim schools, is a member Chicago’s Trinity United Church of Christ. The views of that group’s now former minister, Jeremiah Wright, have several wondering what connections members of churches of Christ have with the group with which Obama worships.

While the United Church of Christ has no connection with the churches of Christ that follow the Bible as their only rule of faith and worship, they do have a slight common ancestor in the secular sense.

In the United States, most congregations trace their roots back to the American Restoration Movement which is most commonly associated with Thomas and Alexander Campbell, Barton W. Stone, Raccoon John Smith and others.

At least two, if not more congregations of the Lord’s church in North America, though, trace their history back as a faithful church to before the Campbells arrived from Scotland. In addition, there are faithful congregations in Europe that date back several centuries. This effectively puts an end to the charges of “Campbellism.”

The United Church of Christ is a denomination made up of some 1.2 million members in 5,518 congregations. The sect formed in 1957 with the union of the Evangelical and Reformed Church and the General Council of Congregational Christian Churches.

The Congregational church dates from colonial-era America, having its origins in two dissenting English Protestant groups: the separatist Pilgrims, who established Plymouth Colony in 1620; and the Puritans of the Massachusetts Bay Colony who landed in 1629 and 1630 and settled the Boston area.

The Evangelical and Reformed Church began in 1934, having its roots in two 19th century movements that had Calvinistic and Lutheran roots. Both groups trace their origins to Germany.

A smaller segment of the UCC comes from the Restoration Movement through a splinter known as the Christian Connection, which was identified with James O’Kelly, who founded the Republican Methodist Church, which was also identified with the Christian Church. It merged first with the Congregational churches to form the Congregational Christian Churches in 1931 and that group merged later to form the UCC.

The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), which officially parted company with the churches of Christ in 1906 over the question of musical instruments in worship, is in full communion with the UCC.

In recent years, the UCC has been recognized as one of the most liberal denominations in America, recognizing abortion rights, feminism and homosexuality as viable Christian values, despite clear Scripture on each. The group also ordains women and practicing sodomites to the ministry. Churches that encourage homosexuality within the sect are known as “open and affirming churches.” Even those lacking the designation still are homosexual friendly.

Unlike the churches of the Bible, a single pastor oversees the churches, which are part of 38 United States conferences under the guidance of the General Synod, which meets every two years.

Instrumental music and non-weekly communion are also hallmarks of the denomination, which has marketed itself across the United States with television commercials touting only the most liberal of ideas, such as the open acceptance of homosexuality.