.....As a result of his consistent support for abortion -- even voting against a measure to prohibit taxpayer funding of it -- Obama received a 100 percent rating from the Illinois Planned Parenthood Council when he was an Illinois state legislator.......

By Steven Ertelt, LifeNews.com Editor, July 30, 2007

Washington, DC - Barack Obama is a rising star within the Democratic Party and has a legitimate shot at becoming its nominee in the 2008 presidential race. Obama has a long record of supporting unlimited abortion but, in a recent interview with CBN News, he claims he has a strong Christian belief system.

For most Christians, abortion is diametrically opposed to Biblical values.

Leading Christian churches such as the Catholic Church, Southern Baptist Church, and many others strongly condemn abortion because it involves the destruction of human life made in God's image.

But Obama, who has a 0 percent pro-life voting record during his time as an Illinois senator, maintained in the interview that he has "always been clear that my Christian faith has motivated me for 20 years, and I'm not ashamed to talk about it, or the role that faith should play in our American life."

Obama appears to believe that Christians who are pro-life have it wrong on abortion.

"Faith got hijacked, partly because of the so-called leaders of the Christian Right, all too eager to exploit what divides us," he told CBN News in the interview.

When he got into politics, he explained, "My intention was to contrast the heated partisan rhetoric of a distinct minority of Christian leaders with the vast majority of Evangelical Christians - conservatives included -- who believe that hate has no place in our politics."

"When you have pastors and television pundits who appear to explicitly coordinate with one political party," he added, "then I think you're attempting to hijack the faith of those who follow you for your own personal or political ends."

CBN News Senior National correspondent David Brody wrote an editorial column about the interview he conducted with Obama.

"I know there are those of you who believe his views on abortion ... don't line up with the Bible" he said. "He realizes that too and let's face it -- he's probably not going to win over the single issue voter."

"But as we've discussed before in this space, there are some Evangelicals and social conservatives who have a broader view. He may win over some of those folks when he talks about a host of social justice issues like poverty, environmentalism, Darfur, etc," Brody observed.

Still, Brody said that if Obama wants to appeal to the majority of Christian voters who are pro-life should he be the nominee in 2008, he will have to learn how to attract them without condemning them.

"His whole deal is that he wants to bring both sides together, so he needs to make sure that he doesn't alienate one side," he said.

"When he talks critically about those "so-called leaders of the Christian Right," it's important to understand that those leaders share the same values with millions of Evangelicals," Brody concluded.

Obama will have a hard time attracting pro-life voters, especially if he faces a pro-life Republican next November.

While in the Senate, he has voted to spend taxpayer dollars to fund groups that perform or promote abortions in other countries and voted twice against parental notification and consent. He also has voted to force taxpayers to pay for embryonic stem cell research, which involves the destruction of human life.

As a result of his consistent support for abortion -- even voting against a measure to prohibit taxpayer funding of it -- Obama received a 100 percent rating from the Illinois Planned Parenthood Council when he was an Illinois state legislator.

Obama went further than some abortion advocates by voting against the Illinois Born Alive Infants Protection Act, which requires proper medical care and treatment for babies who are born alive after a botched abortion.

"Such extraordinary disregard for the lives of the most helpless members of our society disqualifies Obama from serving as our President," Joe Scheidler said in a statement sent to LifeNews.com about that vote.