Obama's Gay & Religion Problem (Again)

While Barack Obama gave an excellent MLK speech in which he addressed the problem of anti-gay bigotry in the African-American churches:
Obama's MLK Day Speech

“For most of this country's history, we in the African-American community have been at the receiving end of man's inhumanity to man. And all of us understand intimately the insidious role that race still sometimes plays - on the job, in the schools, in our health care system, and in our criminal justice system.

And yet, if we are honest with ourselves, we must admit that none of our hands are entirely clean. If we're honest with ourselves, we'll acknowledge that our own community has not always been true to King's vision of a beloved community.

We have scorned our gay brothers and sisters instead of embracing them. The scourge of anti-Semitism has, at times, revealed itself in our community. For too long, some of us have seen immigrants as competitors for jobs instead of companions in the fight for opportunity.”


However, as is the case on other issues, Obama’s oratory rhetoric falls a little short in his actions:


Obama Plays Christian Card in S.C. By circulating a “Committed Christian” Flyer, which goes even beyond Mike Huckabee’s Christian-themed rhetoric:
Obama Makes Jerry Falwell Proud

Granted, Obama is responding to the right-wing campaign to paint him as a muslim, but it is troubling that candidates from both parties ignore the separation of church and state and appeal to religious prejudice (pro-Christian, etc.) to win votes.


Obama has another Gay Problem, Obama Enlists another anti-gay black minister to campaign for him:
Obama and Gays Again
Obama took some heat from the gay community for having anti-gay “ex-gay” gospel singer Donnie McClurkin on a “gospel” campaign tour in S.C., but now he has done it again. This time the Obama campaign has enlisted Rev. Kirbyjon Caldwell, a black minister who served as a faith advisor to G.W. Bush, and was also part of the Donnie McClurkin gospel campaign tour.
Caldwell’s church runs an “ex-gay” ministry that claims to cure gays.
The Metanoia Ministry website includes as one of its goals “Support groups for ex-gays and those in the process of overcoming homosexuality.”

Obama may have to win the support of black churches and African-American evangelicals, but does he have to enlist the support of opponents of LGBT civil rights in his campaign??