Democrats appear to be having the time of their lives at the 2008 National Convention. Obama's surprise appearance after Biden's speech brought even more enthusiasm to the crowd and television viewers. In the world of religion and politics, it has been fascinating to see that every speech references God and no politician can close a speech without "God Bless You" and/or "God Bless America." The blogs are reporting that faith at the convention is getting center stage. David Finnigan with RNS says that "Democratic Party leaders are making an aggressive push for Catholic and evangelical voters" , with their faith-focused ideas. Another blog from the Newsweek site, however, says that Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama both "laid off the God Talk" in their speeches despite the "sermons and homilies from the 2008 Democrats." The Convention has had two faith caucus panel discussions, which was part of a new initiative from the Democratic Party "to put faith in action," and the Convention has shown that spirit by having the official program always begin with an invocation and end with a benediction. There is a good press release from the DNC-2008 describing the First-ever Faith Caucus Meetings, here. Sarah Brown wrote another piece for Al Jazeera titled, "Talking Politics and Faith," which looked at the drama of the interfaith meeting at the convention when three anti-abortion protesters were thrown out for disturbing the event. Brown also wrote that the event was like a religious ceremony, and she discusses with Muslim women representatives their hopes that Americans of different faiths would work together.
Picture from Al Jazeera website, here.