Religion Writer blogger Andrea Useem has posted this curious photo of a Baptist church marquee in Lynchburg, Virginia, home of the Falwell dynasty. Apparently, some evangelicals are irked at the perception that Obama is emphasizing works at the expense of faith:

The pastor seems to be taking a shot at Obama’s James-like emphasis on works alongside faith. In the campaign’s much-dissected flyer aimed at voters in Kentucky, for example, Obama is quoted as saying: “My faith teaches me I can sit in church all I want and pray, but I won’t be fulfilling God’s will unless I go out and do the Lord’s work.”
On the church billboard, however, the pastor is urging us to read Acts 4: 12:
“There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved.”
in other words, “by faith alone.”

It’s official. There’s now a loose but unmistakable movement by conservative Christians to urge evangelicals to scrutinize Barack Obama’s faith and to question whether it’s sufficent for a presidential candidate to have deep faith. This movement says that the devil is in the details, so to speak. It’s why Focus on the Family’s James Dobson urged his radio listeners this week to pick up the Newsweek cover story on Barack Obama’s faith life.
Will this gambit work? Will more evangelicals embrace Obama because he’s a man of faith and is taking their vote seriously, or reject him because his Social Gospel theology is at odds with their own?

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