Obama courts evangelicals with stress on faith

By John Whitesides, Political Correspondent

ZANESVILLE, Ohio (Reuters) - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama promised a more active approach to faith-based social programs on Tuesday in a bid to bolster his support among evangelical and religious voters.

Obama visited a community ministry in a conservative region of the election battleground state of Ohio to unveil a plan to reinvigorate faith-based community programs first pioneered by President George W. Bush.

The Illinois senator, who will face Republican John McCain in November's presidential election, said he would put more money and emphasis on strengthening the link between government and community faith programs.

"The fact is, the challenges we face today -- from saving our planet to ending poverty -- are simply too big for government to solve alone," Obama said. "We need an all-hands-on-deck approach."

McCain and Obama are gearing up for a pitched battle for evangelical support in November's election. Neither candidate has inspired strong enthusiasm in the religious community, normally a core Republican bloc.

Most polls show McCain beating Obama by 3-to-1 or more among evangelicals, but Obama hopes to do better among the group than Democrat John Kerry did in 2004, when Bush won four of every five evangelicals.

Obama has been hindered by the controversy about the incendiary comments of his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and by false Internet rumours that he is a Muslim, as well as Internet whisper campaigns about his patriotism.

But Obama hopes growing concerns among evangelicals about issues like global warming and poverty, and unhappiness with the war and the leadership of Bush and Republicans, give him an opening to court an electorate that accounted for more than 20 percent of voters in 2004.