Obama fighting false e-mail rumors in South Carolina

Some voters say they are not sure of candidate's faith

Senator Barack Obama met with voters in Charleston yesterday before today's vote in South Carolina. With him from left were Mary Jacob McKinley, Anne Marie Crevar, Christina Stewart, and Josephine Richardson. (EMMANUEL DUNAND/AFP/Getty Images)

PATRICK, S.C. - Barack Obama has proclaimed his Christianity on national television. His campaign has sent out mailers that show him praying and declare him a "Committed Christian" to refute false e-mail chain letters that claim Obama is a Muslim.

"You get one of those e-mails, don't believe it," Obama told more than 1,800 people at North Charleston High School on Thursday. "I've been a member of the same church for 20 years, and I praise an awesome God."

But in interviews in several rural South Carolina communities this week, a number of voters said they believed that Obama is, or was at one time, a Muslim, and some said it could influence their votes.

"He's acknowledged he was raised up Muslim, he says now he's changed," said Glenn McLain, 72, who owns a car lot and body shop in Patrick, a tiny town northeast of Columbia, S.C. "With ties like that, I don't think it would be good for our country."

McLain said he heard Obama had grown up Muslim on television, but he could not be more specific about when or on what program. McLain, who said he would probably vote for John Edwards, said he would not consider voting for Obama mainly because he is inexperienced, but also partly because of his religious beliefs.

Jackie Blanton, 78, a retired schoolteacher who lives in Gaffney, said she had heard Obama would not take his oath of office as a new senator in the traditional way.

"He did not want to use the Holy Bible, he wanted to use the Koran, and I resent that," she said.

Like McLain, Blanton, a longtime Edwards supporter, said her objection to Obama mostly had to do with his lack of experience, but she said she was also disturbed by the rumor she had heard.

A widely circulated chain e-mail falsely accuses Obama of secretly being a "radical Muslim," claiming that he attended a Wahhabist school while growing up in Indonesia, and that he took his oath of office on the Koran.

"The Muslims have said they plan on destroying the US from the inside out - what better way to start than at the highest level, with the President of the United States, one of their own!!!!" the e-mail says.

Obama is a member of the United Church of Christ. His Kenyan paternal grandfather and Indonesian stepfather were Muslim, but he attended secular and Catholic schools and was never a practicing Muslim.

But getting that message across has been difficult for his campaign in South Carolina, even after he said he was a Christian in a nationally televised debate in Las Vegas last week, in response to a question about the e-mails.

Mike Putnam, 60, a retired entrepreneur from Shelby, said he remained uncertain about Obama's religion.

"The only thing I can stand here and tell you tonight is I have heard he's a Muslim, and I heard him say on TV the other night he was a Christian," he said. "How do I know? I haven't done a background check on him for his religion."

Not all voters who received the e-mails assumed they were factual. Donna Caskey, a 61-year-old retired schoolteacher from Lancaster who is leaning toward voting for Edwards, said that when she received one from a friend, she turned to the Internet to figure out whether it was true.

"I did a lot of research, and that is such bunk," she said. She said sent her research to the friend who sent her the e-mail in hopes of helping to stop the spread of lies. "We do have a lot of people in our state, bless their darling hearts, they're gullible."