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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nIn addition to Wright, the controversy centered around two key events: inflammatory comments made by the Rev. Michael Pfleger, a controversial Catholic pastor, from Trinity\u2019s pulpit and the Obama family\u2019s formal departure from Trinity, the church where Obama and his wife, Michelle, were married and Obama and their children were baptized. <\/p>\n\n
After the primaries, some media outlets still tried to probe the Wright-Obama connection. But others seemed to try to bring closure to the issue. For instance, a June 18 Hannity & Colmes interview with talk show host Elisabeth Hasselbeck used the Wright controversy to continue to raise questions about Obama\u2019s judgment. But in the same week, a June 15 Washington Post front-page article reads more like a requiem, surveying the damage caused by a scandal the media helped broadcast: \u201cThis was not how it was supposed to be. Obama, the biracial presidential candidate who has pledged to unite Democrats and Republicans, rich and poor, blacks and whites, was going to provide an opening for Trinity and other black churches to shatter their stereotypes and bolster their national presence. Instead, a landslide of negative video of Trinity\u2019s pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., and right-wing political attacks left Obama\u2019s former church and others like it even more marginalized and vilified.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Even then, the issue did not disappear in some voters\u2019 minds. An Oct. 14 CBS News\/New York Times poll<\/a> released three weeks before Election Day found 11% of voters were bothered by Obama\u2019s past associations with Wright. <\/p>\n\n Obama also faced pointed public criticism for his policy positions from an evangelical leader with whom he had no ties \u2013 the Rev. James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family and host of a weekday radio show broadcast on more than 3,000 stations in North America. During the week of June 23-29, Dobson\u2019s criticisms of Obama \u2013 that he was \u201cdistorting the traditional understanding of the Bible\u201d \u2013 accounted for 6% of the campaign newshole \u2013 the fourth-most prominent campaign narrative that week. This storyline disappeared almost as rapidly as it appeared, but, over the course of the general election period, this narrative represented 5% of the religion-focused coverage. <\/p>\n\n Palin was the most recent candidate to be linked by the press to controversial church leaders and practices. <\/p>\n\n When the surprise choice of Alaska\u2019s governor was first unveiled by the McCain campaign, members of the press scrambled to report on all aspects of her biography \u2013 including ties to Pentecostal and evangelical churches she has attended in Wasilla, Alaska.<\/p>\n\n Some of the coverage was shaped by video and audio clips recorded in her church, an echo of the Wright controversy involving Obama. One audio clip taken at Wasilla Bible Church, a nondenominational, evangelical congregation, featured David Brickner, executive director of Jews for Jesus, an organization that seeks to evangelize Jews. <\/p>\n\n In the sermon, which was available on the church\u2019s website, Brickner described God\u2019s \u201cjudgment of unbelief\u201d of unconverted Jews. But a Politico report stoked the controversy. The Sept. 2 article said that \u201cBrickner also described terrorist attacks on Israelis as God\u2019s \u2018judgment of unbelief\u2019 of Jews who haven\u2019t embraced Christianity.\u201d Palin\u2019s pastor, Larry Kroon, was recorded endorsing Brickner\u2019s message, with Palin in attendance. The McCain campaign immediately issued a statement to distance Palin from Brickner, saying she did not know he would be speaking that day. <\/p>\n\n Another incident linked to Palin focused on what was captured in another video. It featured Kenyan preacher Thomas Muthee praying for Palin as she launched her gubernatorial campaign in 2005. The video was taken at Wasilla Assembly of God, a church affiliated with the Assemblies of God, a Pentecostal denomination. Muthee is seen along with two other church figures laying hands on Palin, a common practice in Pentecostal churches intended to confer power and blessing on the recipient. Muthee\u2019s prayer for Palin and her association with the church put a brief spotlight on Pentecostalism<\/a>, which emphasizes such practices as speaking in tongues, prophesying, divine healing and other miraculous signs of the Holy Spirit. <\/p>\n\n In an Aug. 30 story, a spokeswoman for the McCain-Palin ticket told<\/a> the Associated Press that Palin had attended different churches and did not consider herself a Pentecostal. In an interview shortly before her selection as McCain\u2019s running mate but published shortly after it, Time magazine asked Palin what her religion<\/a> was. Palin responded, \u201cChristian.\u201d When asked if she was any particular type of Christian, she answered, \u201cNo. Bible-believing Christian.\u201d<\/p>\n\n Both Brickner and Muthee were the subject of news reports in Politico, the AOL news website, The Atlantic and MSNBC\u2019s Countdown with Keith Olbermann. A headline about the Muthee incident, which sensationalized the figure by calling him a \u201cwitch hunter\u201d \u2013 Muthee had prayed for Palin to be protected from \u201cevery form of witchcraft\u201d \u2013 remained on the Drudge Report\u2019s website for days. <\/p>\n\n Perhaps due to their late emergence into the campaign, these stories about Palin\u2019s religious associations never snowballed to anywhere near the level of exposure given to Obama\u2019s relationship with Wright or McCain\u2019s association with Texas evangelical megachurch pastor the Rev. John Hagee. <\/p>\n\n For McCain, the pastor predicament occurred at the end of the primary season, when Hagee<\/a>, one of his endorsers, made comments that drew fire. Hagee, who later apologized<\/a>, said<\/a> Adolf Hitler had been fulfilling God\u2019s will by hastening the desire of Jews to return to Israel in accordance with biblical prophecy. McCain then rejected Hagee\u2019s support. It was mostly a short-lived incident but burst into McCain\u2019s media coverage in the week just before the general election began. During the week of May 19-25, the story composed 8% of the total campaign newshole \u2013 but between June and mid-October, it dropped considerably, composing only 2% of all the religion-focused coverage for that period.<\/p>\n\n This story gained little traction. While it is difficult to pinpoint the exact reason for the lack of coverage, McCain\u2019s relationship with Hagee was less personal than Obama\u2019s with Wright, and McCain made decisive and quick efforts to distance himself from the man. The press did not use the story to probe further into McCain\u2019s religious faith. The issue lingered only briefly into the early weeks of the general election, accounting for 4% of McCain\u2019s religion-related press between June and mid-October. <\/p>\n\n The New York Times ran a front-page story on June 9 that focused on McCain\u2019s efforts to woo religious conservatives but reported that some of these groups were wary of McCain given the way he distanced himself from Hagee. On May 23, a panel on CNN\u2019s Anderson Cooper 360\u00b0 discussed the idea that the incident may have helped Obama with religious voters and may have hurt McCain. <\/p>\n\n Biden was not criticized for a personal relationship with a controversial religious figure but rather for making comments at odds with religious leaders in his own faith. Biden, a lifelong Catholic who had considered becoming a priest when he was a student, was reproved by Catholic bishops for his stance supporting abortion rights and his interpretation of Catholic teachings on the issue.<\/p>\n\n On the Sept. 7 Meet the Press, host Tom Brokaw asked Biden what he would say if Obama asked him, \u201cWhen does life begin? Help me out here, Joe.\u201d Biden replied, \u201cI\u2019d say, \u2018Look, I know when it begins for me.\u2019 It\u2019s a personal and private issue. For me, as a Roman Catholic, I\u2019m prepared to accept the teachings in my church.\u201d But, Biden added, \u201cfor me to impose that judgment on others is inappropriate in a pluralistic society.\u201d <\/p>\n\nSarah Palin <\/h4>\n\n
John McCain<\/h4>\n\n
Joe Biden <\/h4>\n\n