Newt Gingrich won the Republican presidential primary in South Carolina with the strong support of evangelicals. According to exit polls, two-thirds of voters described themselves as evangelical or born-again Christians, 44 percent of which voted Gingrich. Their support turned the first Southern primary from a close race to a runaway victory for Gingrich.

Gingrich found support from evangelicals despite efforts by evangelical leaders in the social conservative movement to rally behind Rick Santorum. Fearing that social conservatives might split their voting power, a group of 150 met last weekend in an attempt to coalesce behind a single candidate. Evangelicals in South Carolina did come together—just for a different candidate. In fact, only 21 percent of evangelicals backed Santorum, the same percentage that voted for Mitt Romney.

Family Research Council president Tony Perkins, who served as spokesman for the Texas gathering, said on MSNBC tonight that he did not expect those in the group to switch to Gingrich. While Perkins said there was a willingness to forgive Gingrich's less-than-perfect personal life, Gingrich's character was still an issue. “There is concern over whether or not he would be that consistent and stable leader,” Perkins said.

Gingrich won, in part, because he was able to win over both religious conservatives and those for whom religion is less important in the voting booth. Voters who said the religious beliefs of candidates mattered “a great deal” backed both Gingrich (45 percent) and Santorum (32 percent).

Among those for whom religion is only matters “somewhat,” Gingrich’s support remained high but Santorum's dropped to only 15 percent. Gingrich also did well among those who said religion mattered little or not all. He received around a third of these less religiously minded voters, nearly equaling Romney's share (39 percent).

Gingrich did well throughout the state. To win, he needed Romney to do poorly in along the coast and in the more populous counties in the state. He won counties with some of the major metropolitan areas like Columbia and Charleston by narrow margins. In the more conservative highlands, Gingrich was able to easily make up the difference and seal the victory.

Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey at January 21, 2012 | Comments (12)

Historically, South Carolina is the make or break contest for the Republican Party. Since 1980, the winner of the state’s primary has become the GOP nominee. With such high stakes, candidates went all in by spending heavily on ads and letting loose any and all attacks they can use on their opponents. The result has been surprise after surprise after surprise in the final days of the contest.

Thursday morning, Rick Perry dropped out of the race, shocking seasoned political observers by endorsing Newt Gingrich. Perry was not predicted to do well in South Carolina, but he was expected to stay in the race until the results came in Saturday.

Perry's announcement came after last weekend’s gathering of 150 evangelical leaders who met to decide on a single candidate to back in the GOP contest, choosing to back Santorum. On Thursday, James Dobson, who was a key figure in the meeting, formally endorsed Santorum. In a statement, Dobson said that his key concern was state of families and marriage.

"Of all the Republican candidates who are vying for the presidency, former Sen. Santorum is the one who has spoken passionately in every debate about this concern. He has pleaded with the nation and its leaders to come to the aid of marriages, parents, and their children. What a refreshing message,” Dobson said. "While there are other GOP candidates who are worthy of our support, Sen. Santorum is the man of the hour.”

Dobson, who endorsed as a private individual, founded Focus on the Family but now leads his new ministry Family Talk.

According to those at the social conservative confab last weekend, one of the reasons for Dobson favoring Santorum over Gingrich was the marital history of the candidates.

On Thursday, Gingrich's past was once again a news topic because ABC aired an interview with Gingrich's second wife, Marianne Gingrich. During the interview, she said that Newt asked her for an “open marriage” when he was confronted about his affair with his now-wife Callista Gingrich. Gingrich quickly denied the charge but declined to elaborate on personal matters. In the past, he has spoken in general terms about his extramarital affairs and three marriages and about how he has sought God's forgiveness.

Before the interview was aired, Gingrich and the other candidates participated in a debate on CNN where the first question went to Gingrich, who was asked if he would like to respond to the allegations.

"No, but I will," said Gingrich, who then turned the question back as a criticism of the media.

 "The destructive, vicious, negative nature of much of the news media makes it harder to govern this country, harder to attract decent people to run for public office,” Gingrich said. “And I am appalled that you would begin a presidential debate on a topic like that.”

Gingrich's response was met by a standing ovation from the audience. “Every person in here knows personal pain. To take an ex-wife and make it two days before the primary a significant question for a presidential campaign is as close to despicable as anything I can imagine.” he said.

Roger Simons, chief political columnist of Politico, noted that Gingrich asked his first wife for divorce while she was being treated for cancer and divorced his second after she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. CNN’s John King asked each of them whether they thought Gingrich’s past behavior was an “issue.” “John, let’s get on to the real issues is all I’ve got to say,” Romney said. Rick Santorum hinted that it was an issue for him. “I am a Christian, too,” he said. “And I thank God for forgiveness. But, you know, these are issues of our lives and what we did in our lives. They are issues of character for people to consider.” And Ron Paul turned the spotlight on himself. “I think too often all of us are on the receiving ends of attacks from the media,” Paul said. “And I’m very proud that my wife of 54 years is with me tonight.”

While Gingrich was addressing his previous marraiges, Santorum continued his campaign to win over social conservatives.  Whether or not he will win in South Carolina, Santorum can now claim at least one victory.  In a reversal, the Iowa Republican Party announced that Santorum, not Romney, won the Iowa caucuses. When the results were originally announced, Romney edged out Santorum by eight votes. However, the final tally has Santorum as the winner by 34 votes. There are still eight precincts whose vote totals are not accounted for, but Santorum is the certified winner. Matt Strawn, chairman of the the Iowa Republican Party, congratulated both candidates “on a hard-fought effort during the closest contest in caucus history.”

The primary in South Carolina is likely to be equally close.  Gingrich, Romney, Santorum, and Ron Paul are each polling well going into the primary today.

Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey at January 21, 2012 | Comments (0)

Heading into South Carolina's primary tomorrow, social conservatives are looking to the hills for help--literally. While the entire state is considered conservative, the mountainous and piedmont regions in the northwest are strongholds for religious and social conservatives. If another candidate will beat out frontrunner Mitt Romney, he will likely need to first unite the hill country where evangelicals form the base of the GOP. But even if this region unites around a candidate, there may not be enough votes to defeat Romney.

In recent polls, Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich were even with around 20 percent of the vote. Another poll shows Gingrich is tied with Romney. Campaigns are spending millions of dollars in ads and both Santorum and Gingrich need a strong showing, if not a win, to continue their bids for the Republican presidential nomination. To win, one of the candidates will need to secure the northern, mountainous region known for its social conservatism.

The northwest counties bordering North Carolina are what Patchwork Nation labels "evangelical epicenters"--counties where there is a much higher proportion of evangelicals than in other parts of the country. They are consistently Republican strongholds who back candidates with conservative views on social issues.

Furman University political science professor James Guth said that while there are regional differences but that polls are showing smaller differences this election cycle.

"With economic expansion in the Upstate and in-migration, the region no long is quite as distinctive from the Midlands and Low Country as it once was,” Guth told CT. “You have a lot more cosmopolitan business and technical types who will vote Republican, even if they don't get involved in party politics."

2008 is turning out to be a close predictor of 2012. In both Iowa and New Hampshire, Romney has done well in cities  and affluent  suburbs where he succeeded four years ago. Social conservatives, like Santorum, have done best in the rural counties and small towns that backed Mike Huckabee.

So far, Romney has not done well in small-town America. In Iowa and New Hampshire, Romney did poorly in the rural counties but better in the cities and suburbs whose numbers gave him the win.

Romney’s performance in cities and suburbs is likely to continue in South Carolina. Romney will likely do best in the more populous areas in the southern half of the state from state capital down to the coast. The suburbs of Columbia, Charleston, and Augusta (Georgia) are must-win areas for Romney. While still socially conservative, Republicans in this region have a history of being concerned about economics, national defense, and electability--all of which plays well for Romney.

Laura Olson, a professor of political science at Clemson University, said that Romney has the advantage of being able to focus on his strongholds while Gingrich and Santorum split the more conservative votes. Santorum may--or may not--receive more of these votes after receiving the support of some evangelical leaders over the past week.
"Evangelicals--even here in South Carolina--are diverse and more than able to think for themselves; so, we shouldn't expect them all to flock to Santorum just because a group of pastors endorsed him," Olson told CT. "There are enough votes that will go to Romney, Perry, and Gingrich that Santorum shouldn't be banking on getting a large majority of evangelical votes."

The wild card in the race is Ron Paul. The libertarian is polling worse in South Carolina than he did in either Iowa or New Hampshire. He is expected to receive only about 10 to 15 percent of the vote. But unlike the other candidates, it is much harder to predict from where he will draw his support. If he does well in the military communities or suburbs, it could draw votes away from Romney. But Paul has also done relatively well among evangelicals, which could hurt Santorum or Gingrich.

Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey at January 20, 2012 | Comments (1)

A group of 150 leaders from Christian conservative organizations met in Texas this weekend. The goal was simple: coalesce around a single candidate who could defeat Mitt Romney (in the primaries) and Barack Obama (in the general election). Going into the meeting, the participants agreed that if they could decide upon a candidate, then they would all support him. After several rounds of voting, Rick Santorum won.

Backing a single candidate could be a political gamble. Win, and they could become kingmakers. Lose, and they could risk irrelevancy.

For social conservatives, it was a bet worth taking. The Republican primary was turning into a lost opportunity. A majority of primary voters preferred a more conservative candidate to the frontrunner Romney, but social conservatives were splitting their vote among several candidates, allowing Romney to win. The gathering in Texas was a last ditch attempt to bring social conservatives together behind one candidate.

According to Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, there were three rounds of voting. Rick Perry, who was a favorite of many social conservatives last summer, failed to make it past the first round. In the final round, Santorum beat out Newt Gingrich by a vote of 85 to 29.

Those in attendance are expected to make statements supporting Santorum. James Dobson will publicly endorse Santorum this week, according to Politico. Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission is not expected to endorse a candidate, but he will discuss social conservatives in the campaign on C-SPAN Sunday.

Gary Bauer, president of Campaign for Working Families, endorsed Santorum last week and spoke in favor of him at the Texas meeting.

“The main 'pillars’ of Senator Santorum's governing philosophy—smaller, Constitutionally based government, lower taxes, a strong and confident American role in the world to keep our nation safe, a commitment to defending America's families and defending the sanctity of life—[are] exactly the blueprint to put America back on the right track,” Bauer said.

Time's Mark Halperin asked Santorum about the group's endorsement. "To my knowledge they've never done something like this,” Santorum said. “Hopefully this is the type of information that will encourage [voters] to do what maybe in their hearts they were already thinking of doing."

Santorum needs voters to be encouraged. According to a recent poll by Public Policy Polling, Romney is leading in South Carolina with 29 percent support among likely Republican voters. Gingrich is second with 25 percent. Santorum is currently fourth with just 14 percent.

The primary—the only poll that matters—will be held Saturday. That leaves less than a week for social conservative leaders to convince voters in South Carolina to back their newly backed candidate.

Photo by Gage Skidmore via Wikimedia Commons.

Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey at January 14, 2012 | Comments (30)

Newt Gingrich recently created a stir over statements linked to race, receiving criticism for linking food stamps specifically with the African American community. Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC), came to Gingrich's defense, saying the NAACP was being “a little too sensitive” about the comments. He also added his own analysis on how to get minorities “off the liberal plantation and out of the liberal barrio.”

Gingrich's comments were part of his general campaign theme of “paychecks vs. food stamps.” Since the start of his campaign, Gingrich has repeatedly called President Obama “the finest food stamp president in American history.” The moniker struck some as racist, a charge Gingrich refuted. Last Thursday, however, Gingrich said he would take his message to African Americans directly.

"Now there's no neighborhood I know of in America where if you went around and asked people would you rather your children have food stamps or paychecks, you wouldn't end up with a majority saying they'd rather have a paycheck,” Gingrich said. “And so I'm prepared, if the NAACP invites me, I'll go to their convention and talk about why the African-American community should demand paychecks, and not be satisfied with food stamps."

The NAACP was quick to respond, pointing out that most people on food stamps are white and that most work and earn a paycheck.

“It is a shame that the former Speaker feels that these types of inaccurate, divisive statements are in any way helpful to our country,” said NAACP president Benjamin Todd Jealous. “Gingrich's statement is problematic on several fronts, most importantly because he gets his facts wrong."

Gingrich defended himself by saying that the “elite media” was distorting his intent. "I am for conservatives going into the poorest neighborhoods of every ethnic group and helping every American have a chance to pursue happiness,” Gingrich said.

Land was asked about Gingrich’s remarks during an interview by MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell. Land discussed his experience at the first summit on faith-based initiatives in 2001, an event co-chaired by Rick Santorum. Land said that at the meeting, African-Americans and Hispanic leaders at the summit supported faith-based initiatives were “off the liberal plantation and out of the liberal barrio.”

"About 80 percent of the people that came were African-American and Hispanic. And I heard them all day say faith-based initiatives [are] an opportunity for us to get off the liberal plantation and out of the liberal barrio, and [to] have people who actually live in the zip codes that have problems make the decisions about what's best for the people in those zip codes,” Land said.

Conservatives including Allen West (R-Fl.) and Pat Buchanan have used the phrase “liberal plantation” because they allege Democratic leaders are keeping African Americans in their control through either welfare programs or propaganda.

Slate's David Weigel, who heard the Gingrich's statement in person, said Gingrich's comment was taken out of context and was newsworthy only because it was the first time Gingrich said he was going to take his food stamps vs. paychecks message directly to black voters.

“The way I heard this was that Gingrich, who spent years being attacked as a racist...was pre-empting any arguments about his motives,” Weigel said. “He was aiming for a nerve with Republicans who frequently ask why black voters, suffering from an unemployment rate that's twice the national average, like Barack Obama so much.”

Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey at January 13, 2012 | Comments (5)

Mitt Romney won the New Hampshire primary. His margin of victory may have been smaller than predicted, but there was one surprisingly strong result: Romney tied Rick Santorum for the lead among evangelical voters (around 26 percent each). Romney did twice as well among born-again Christians in the Granite State than he did last week in the Hawkeye State.

The primary voters in New Hampshire are, on average, more moderate than caucus goers in Iowa. New Hampshire has fewer evangelicals and more Catholics and non-religious voters than Iowa. But evangelicals are evangelicals, and Romney seems to have made significant ground among this key part of the Republican coalition.

These results could be an anomaly, but it may also signal a new dynamic to the race. The conventional wisdom was that the social conservative voters were splitting their vote. As candidates like Michele Bachmann dropped out, they would shift their support to another social conservative candidate. In the first test of this, the only difference between the evangelical vote in New Hampshire and Iowa was the vote for Romney. With Rick Perry and Michele Bachmann no-shows in New Hampshire, Romney seems to have picked up the difference in the evangelical vote.

The same pattern holds for other key parts of the GOP base. Romney won the plurality of votes among those who said they were “conservative” in politics. Among those who described themselves as “very conservative” on social issues like gay marriage and abortion, Romney and Santorum tied with 27 percent of the vote.

Ron Paul continued to get his 20 percent of the evangelical vote, as he did in Iowa. Huntsman did worse among evangelicals than those who are not (10 vs. 20 percent). Santorum did far better among born-again Christians. The former Pennsylvania senator did nearly four times as well among evangelicals than other voters (26 vs. 7 percent).

Because evangelicals made up only one-quarter of the primary voters in New Hampshire, their influence is smaller than in Iowa or in this Saturday's primary in South Carolina. Still, if Romney had done as poorly with evangelicals as he did in Iowa, his margin of victory could have slipped into the single digits. This weekend, a strong showing among evangelicals could mean the difference between a win or a loss in South Carolina.

Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey at January 10, 2012 | Comments (5)

Four years ago, conservative leaders worried that an upstart candidate with little financial support would split the conservative base and allow a moderate to win the Republican nomination. This year, you might see Rick Santorum as the new Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney as the new John McCain. And conservative leaders are once again facing the possibility that the nomination will go to someone whose main virtue to social conservatives is that he is not a Democrat. But conservative leaders will soon gather together to see if they can back a single candidate—something else they have tried before but failed.

Politico reports that leaders of conservative organizations will meet in Texas to decide on a single candidate to support. The meeting will include James Dobson (founder of Focus on the Family), Don Wildmon (founder of American Family Association), and Gary Bauer (founder of American Values). The event will bring together members of the Arlington Group, a group that unites leaders of conservative organizations to discuss, interview, vet, and coalesce behind a single presidential candidate. In 2007, the Arlington Group decided against backing Huckabee, leaning instead toward Fred Thompson, who was seen as being able to mount a national campaign. Of course, Huckabee won the Iowa caucus, Thompson quickly dropped out, and the nomination went to McCain.

Huckabee told World that the Arlington Group “pretty much dissipated” after the 2008 election. “I think [the Arlington Group] splintered and split and many of them took issue with each other because they felt that they had failed to do what originally they had compacted to do, which was to early on interview candidates, pick a candidate, and then coalesce behind that one candidate and try to unite the strength and force that they could. They failed to do that,” Huckabee said.

The Arlington Group has since revised itself. Last summer, the group looked seemed to be unifying behind Rick Perry. Six months ago, social conservatives met and held conference calls to rally support for Perry. The Texas governor hosted a large prayer gathering with the help of the AFA and other groups. When Perry's poll numbers plummeted, the movement was left scrambling. For example, on the same day (December 20) Wildmon endorsed Newt Gingrich but Bob Vander Plaats, president of the Family Leader in Iowa, endorsed Santorum.

After the dust settled in Iowa, Romney stood at the top of the pile of social conservative candidates. While Santorum won the lion share of the votes, the voting bloc was fractured. Michele Bachmann has since dropped out. Perry looked like he would be leaving but continues to campaign. And Santorum and Gingrich are campaigning in New Hampshire. The gathering in Texas will serve as a last-ditch effort to organize behind one candidate.

Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey at January 5, 2012 | Comments (6)

Mitt Romney edged out Rick Santorum for first place in the Iowa caucus by just eight votes yesterday. Just a few weeks ago, a strong Santorum finish was an outcome few envisioned, even among people who supported Santorum. But in the final days before the campaign, enough voters coalesced around the former Pennsylvania senator to push him near the front of the nation's first caucus.

In a crowded field, Romney nosed out Santorum with each receiving around 25 percent of the vote. If the Iowa caucus serves any purpose in the American political system, it is to winnow the field of candidates. Michele Bachmann suspended her campaign this morning.

Going into the caucus, one of the looming questions was whether social conservatives would rally behind a single candidate. Santorum was the candidate they backed. The once long-shot candidate with more time than money invested heavily in the Iowa contest. He now moves onward with little cash on hand and little campaign organization. Still, he beat out both Rick Perry and Bachmann, both of whom once led in national polls. But in the only poll that mattered, Santorum almost received the most votes.

The entrance polls indicate that many evangelicals only recently decided who to support, according to the New York Times.

“Nearly half of the caucusgoers decided whom to support within the last few days. Mr. Santorum was the candidate who benefited the most from these late deciders - a third of them backed him,” Michael Shear reported. “About half of evangelical Christians said they made up their minds within the last few days, while a majority of voters who do not describe themselves that way decided on their vote earlier.”

Entrance polls showed that born-again or evangelical Christians made up a majority of the caucus where six-in-ten Iowa Republican voters described themselves as “born-again or evangelical” Christians. Santorum received a third of the evangelical vote. Ron Paul, who came in third overall, polled second with 18 percent among evangelical voters. Paul's evangelical support was as great as support for Perry (14 percent) and Bachmann (6 percent) put together.

Perry and Bachmann each worked hard to be the “Tim Tebow of Iowa”—a reference to the Denver quarterback known for his evangelical faith and string of last minute wins this NFL season. In an ad, a Super PAC supporting Bachmann compared her to Tebow. "The same could be said of Michele Bachmann: no baggage, Christian, and like Tebow, she keeps fighting and she just keeps winning votes," the ad said. Earlier in the campaign, Rick Perry called himself the “Tim Tebow of the Iowa Caucuses.”

In the final days of the campaign, Bachmann knew that the odds were low that she would win, but she told supporters to expect a miracle. On Monday she told supporters on Facebook and Twitter, “Tomorrow night we are going to see a miracle because we know the one who gives miracles.”

This morning, she announced the end to her campaign. “I will continue fighting to defeat the president's agenda of socialism,” she told her supporters in Iowa.

In his concession speech last night, Perry sounded as though he planned to retreat. He announced that he was not moving on to South Carolina as planned but would instead return to Texas to “assess” his campaign. However after Bachmann's withdrawal from the race today, Perry announced he was returning to the campaign.

Newt Gingrich finished fourth and is clearly taking aim at Romney. In a speech following the caucus, Gingrich called Santorum a “good friend” and someone his campaign admired. But his words for Romney were pointed. Gingrich called Romney “a Massachusetts moderate who, in fact, will be pretty good at managing the decay but has given no evidence in his years in Massachusetts of any act to change the culture or change the political structure or change the government.”

With Gingrich aiming at Romney, Santorum has room to build on his strong finish in Iowa. Santorum said he will be campaigning in New Hampshire.

The contest moves to New Hampshire next week, but the real test for both Santorum and Romney will be in South Carolina on January 21.

Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey at January 4, 2012 | Comments (22)

Iowan Republicans will gather this evening in the caucus meetings to deliberate and vote, caucuses that remain very difficult to predict. The candidates’ campaigns will be watching not only who is receiving votes but where their votes are cast. As the results pour in, the campaigns will be checking to see if counties that typically support social conservatives are breaking for candidates like Rick Santorum, Rick Perry, or Michele Bachmann.

Iowa's political geography looks mimics much of the country for the GOP. For Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney, the key will be to do well in the cities on the east and west sides of the state. The cities are more diverse and moderate than the more rural, conservative midland. Social conservatives, however, will be competing for the base of Christian conservatives located in the southern part of the state.

In 2008, current GOP frontrunner Romney came in second in Iowa behind Mike Huckabee. Supported by social conservatives, Huckabee won most of the 99 counties in Iowa. In that contest, the better Huckabee polled, the worse Romney fared. There was a divide between “Romney-Republican” counties and the counties where social conservatives reside. Romney did well (though not well enough) four years ago because he won the more populous regions on the eastern and western edges of the state.

This year, Romney's campaign will once again be looking to these counties to see how well he does after campaigning yesterday in an attempt to shore up his base of support. The outcomes from Sioux City, the suburbs of Omaha (Nebraska), Dubuque, the Quad Cities, Cedar Rapids, and Waterloo will all be critical in determining how big Romney's bounce will be.

A majority of the state, however, does not live in any of the metropolitan areas. Santorum, Perry, and Bachmann need to build their support a little bit here, a little bit there, gathering votes from the small towns scattered across the Iowa plains. Each candidate hopes to do well throughout the middle of the state, but the south central region is the most important indicator of who will do well among social conservatives. The campaigns of Santorum, Perry, and Bachmann will be keeping an eye on the counties south of Des Moines to see who will be winning among social conservatives.

In an unpredictable race like this year's caucus, there are two more signs to watch. The first is Newt Gingrich's vote total. He has the potential to compete well in eastern and western counties that supported Romney last time around. At the same time, he could receive more support from the rest of the state where more moderate voters will be unlikely to support Romney.

The second sign will be the votes coming out of the Des Moines area, a wealthier and more educated area located in the middle of the state. With diversity and population size, it will likely go the same way as the state as a whole.

By tomorrow, the field will be winnowed and the race will be already off to New Hampshire and South Carolina.

Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey at January 3, 2012 | Comments (2)

Libertarians, contrarians, and college students appear to love Ron Paul. Pragmatic-minded Republican voters tend to support so-called establishment candidate Mitt Romney. But social conservatives have yet to rally around a single candidate. In Iowa, however, Rick Santorum is gaining both endorsements and support in the polls just as his rivals' campaigns fade.

In a campaign season known for the rapid rise and fall of frontrunners, Santorum may prove to be the proverbial tortoise who is rewarded for a slow and steady race. With more time than money, Santorum has spent years crisscrossing the state, meeting with small groups of voters. He has spent little time or money outside the Hawkeye state with the goal to win the ground war in Iowa and use the victory to propel him into the lead nationally.

In a year when other candidates focused on jobs and the economy, the Santorum campaign focused on family values and social issues. He wrote the book on the importance of families in public policy. His campaign touts his personal life as a father of seven home-schooled children. He worked with Iowans to campaign successfully to remove Iowa State Supreme Court justices who overturned the state's marriage law that prohibited same-sex marriage. He put abortion at the front and center of his campaign. On the check-list of issues social conservatives care about, Santorum scores high.

Conservative leaders have given Santorum the thumbs-up. Glenn Beck compared him to George Washington. The Iowa Family Leader, an effective state organization, declined to endorse any candidates in the race, but its president, Bob Vander Plaats, endorsed Santorum, saying that the Pennsylvanian was at home among Iowan social conservatives.

“I believe Rick Santorum comes from us,” Vander Plaats said. “Not to us. He comes from us. He is one of us.”

Until recently, Santorum has faced two (related) challenges. The first was viability. With little money and national name recognition, it was unlikely he could win the nomination, let alone the general election. Second, there were other social conservatives who were seen as having a greater chance of electoral success.

Fortunately for Santorum, his rivals have suffered from self-inflicted wounds. In June, Michele Bachmann rose to the top of the polls. Since then, she has dropped in the polls as her campaign organization has fallen apart. Most recently, her Iowa campaign chair switched allegiances this week when Kent Sorenson endorsed Ron Paul. This summer, her campaign manager Ed Rollins and deputy manager David Polyansky stepped down and in October, other top aides walked away from Bachmann.

Rick Perry, Santorum's other major rival, is also gasping and grasping after his own fall from the frontrunner status. He is explicitly courting religious voters in his campaign ads and has changed his position on abortion. Previously, Perry had said exceptions should be made for cases of rape or incest. On Tuesday, however, Perry said he was having a “transformation” on the issue. With a week before the caucuses, Perry says he now opposes all abortions except in the cases of the life of the mother, matching Santorum’s view.

Perry's campaign is also taking aim at Santorum. On Thursday, the Perry campaign released a new radio ad that hits Santorum for his record on federal earmarks and other budget issues while he served in Congress. The minute-long ad said, “Santorum grabbed for a billion in earmarks until voters kicked him out of office in a landslide.”

If Santorum wins, he will face greater scrutiny. One area likely to raise eyebrows is Santorum's views of contraception. In October, Santorum, said that he would talk about the “dangers of contraception,” that contraception is a “license” to do things not intended for sex (see 17:55 in this video).

Santorum also raised controversy this spring when he disagreed with John McCain over the efficacy of torture in interrogations. Santorum said McCain did not understand how “enhanced interrogation” worked. The comment was quickly rebuffed by McCain's staff. CT interviewed Santorum on several issues last spring.

Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey at December 30, 2011 | Comments (4)

The economy remains the most prominent issue ahead of the primary season as social issues play a less prominent role. The most salient personal split has been between Mitt Romney, an executive-turned-politician who is Mormon, and Newt Gingrich, the former Speaker of the House.

While Romney has his base of support, Gingrich has been taking off in the polls. Christian conservatives appear more comfortable with a thrice-married Lutheran-turned-Baptist-turned-Catholic than a Mormon candidate who has been married for over four decades.

Gingrich's political director in Iowa resigned after less than a week on the job. Craig Bergman's resignation came after the website The Iowa Republican reported that Bergman called Mormonism a cult, just one day before he joined Gingrich's campaign. 

Speaking as part of a focus group, Bergman said, “A lot of the evangelicals believe God would give us four more years of Obama just for the opportunity to expose the cult of Mormon…There’s a thousand pastors ready to do that.”

A century ago, the Senate debated whether to allow Reed Smoot to represent Utah. Smoot was not a polygamist, but there were still questions raised about the issue. Senator Boies Penrose of Pennsylvania took to the floor of the Senate, glared at his colleagues with less-than-chaste reputations, and delivered one of the best retorts in Senate history.

"As for me,” Penrose said, “I would rather have seated beside me in this chamber a 'polygamist' who doesn't 'polyg-' than a 'monogamist' who doesn't 'monag-'."

In a December poll by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, evangelical Republican voters remain much more opposed to Romney than others in the GOP. Only 10 percent of evangelical Republicans support Romney, whereas nearly three times as many other Republican Christians do. 35 percent of evangelicals say there is “no chance” they would vote for Romney, compared to only 21 percent of other Christians.

Romney’s critics say he supported an individual mandate for health insurance, went on record against pro-life positions, and increased taxes. His current stands are seen by opponents as flip-flopping. Critics of Gingrich say he helped originate the idea of an individual mandate for health insurance, went on record recently saying life does not begin at conception, and supported George H.W. Bush's tax increase during negotiations before he opposed them.

According to Pew, 35 percent of evangelicals say they support Gingrich. Another 37 percent say there is “a chance” they would vote for him in the primary. Just 18 percent said there was “no chance” of voting for him. The results for other Republican candidates (other than Romney) were similar.

Gingrich often tells the story of America as one in which the nation was founded on Judeo-Christian principles. He calls out “radical Islam” and liberal judges as threats to this foundation.

Neither candidate has an organized presence in Iowa. Both Michele Bachmann and Rick Santorum are picking up endorsements and have built a network of supporters in the state. As history shows, people might respond one way on a poll but mark an entirely different choice when it comes time to vote. 

Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey at December 16, 2011 | Comments (14)

GOP presidential hopeful Herman Cain is “reassessing” his candidacy in light of an allegation that he had a 13-year-long extramarital affair. Many social conservatives are reassessing their support for the Cain campaign since Atlanta businesswoman Ginger White told a Fox News affiliate that she was involved in a “very inappropriate situation, relationship” with Cain.

Cain campaign suggested that such an extramarital affair would be private and not a legitimate topic for public scrutiny. The allegation of an extended affair comes on the heels of claims of sexual harassment during Cain's time as president of the National Restaurant Association. Cain has denied both the affair with White and the harassment charges.

When Cain faced harassment charges, many conservatives came to the candidate's defense. The charges were simply that—allegations. Cain was considered innocent until proven guilty. Newt Gingrich, one of Cain's rivals for the Republican nomination, told NBC on November 11, “Up to now [Cain] seems to have satisfied most people that the [harassment] allegations aren't proven, and that having people who hold press conferences isn't the same as a conviction. So I think people are giving him the benefit of the doubt.”

According to a poll of likely Iowa Republican voters, born-again Christians and cable news watchers became more supportive of Cain after the harassment allegations.

A poll began a week before the November 7 press conference by women claiming harassment allegations against Cain and ran for another week after. While the average voter grew slightly less supportive of Cain after the press conference, those who watched cable news saw Cain as more intelligent, more trustworthy, and a stronger leader after the allegations than they did before the press conference.

“The effect of the scandal on perceptions of Cain depends on where people are getting their information,” said Dave Peterson, interim director of the Harkin Institute of Public Policy. "Those who tune in to the major networks react as one might expect: they view him more negatively. Cable news watchers, in contrast, report more positive assessments, suggesting that they are rallying behind Cain.”

Among likely Republican caucus goers, there was a drop in the support for Cain among Catholics and Mainline Protestants (those who did not say they are “born again”). Among evangelical, born-again voters, however, there was an increase in support for Cain after the harassment claims, according to data Peterson provided to Christianity Today.

White had records of 61 phone calls by Cain's personal cell phone to her. Fox News 5 texted the phone, and Cain called them back. He said he knew White but was only trying to help her financially.

While Cain denied the allegation of an affair, Cain’s attorney, Lin Wood, sent FOX 5 in Atlanta a statement about the claims:

...This is not an accusation of harassment in the workplace – this is not an accusation of an assault - which are subject matters of legitimate inquiry to a political candidate.

Rather, this appears to be an accusation of private, alleged consensual conduct between adults - a subject matter which is not a proper subject of inquiry by the media or the public. No individual, whether a private citizen, a candidate for public office or a public official, should be questioned about his or her private sexual life. The public's right to know and the media's right to report has boundaries and most certainly those boundaries end outside of one's bedroom door...

The statement did not deny the allegation. It argued that one's private life has no bearing on a candidate's public integrity—an argument that did not sit well with many conservatives who have now turned on Cain.

Al Mohler, president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, called Wood's statement “a disaster” and “an argument of desperation.”

“Voters know that a candidate’s sexual life is an essential dimension of character. So is the candidate’s fidelity or lack of fidelity in marriage,” Mohler said. “Character does not end at the bedroom door. Any effort to make this claim will be recognized by the public for what it is. We live in a morally confused age, but there is little confusion about the fact that sexual behavior and personal character are inseparable. The question of character is among the most crucial issues of a political campaign.”

Iowa talk-radio host Steve Deace told Politico that the statement by Cain's lawyer was the “kill-shot” for Cain's campaign. “For an ordained Baptist minister to assert through his attorney that what happens in his private sex life doesn’t matter is preposterous,” Deace said.

In an interview on the Scott Hennen radio show, Michele Bachmann said her campaign considered Cain's run for the nomination to be all but over.

"When it came out yesterday, everyone said, 'This is it. He's done.'” Bachmann said. “And so people just don't see that there is an ability for him to be able to come back after that." Bachmann told Hennen that she would likely benefit from Cain's departure and from other candidates falling in the polls.

Most of Cain’s opponents, including frontrunners Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich, have remained silent.

Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey at November 30, 2011 | Comments (12)

Those who will likely vote in Iowa’s presidential caucuses remain undecided, a new poll suggests. Those that did report an opinion in the poll admitted that they could still be persuaded to change their vote.

Herman Cain, Ron Paul, and Mitt Romney are leading the pack among likely caucus goers, according to a poll conducted by Iowa State University, The Gazette, and KCRG of 1,256 of registered Iowa voters. Other candidates received single-digit support in the Hawkeye State.

Herman Cain received the most votes among Catholics (35 percent) and Protestant/born-again (25 percent), but he has very little support among secular voters (10 percent). Secular voters represent a small portion of caucus voters, but they are the most unified with six-in-ten of them backing Ron Paul.

Among religious voters, born-again Protestants are the least supportive of Mitt Romney. Only one-in-eight born-again voters support the former governor of Massachusetts, compared to nearly one-in-four support among other Protestants. Evangelicals are twice as likely to support Rick Perry compared to other religious voters.

Michele Bachmann is also trailing in the poll, partly due to her lack of support (0 percent in the poll) among Catholics. Bachmann's former membership in a Wisconsin Synod Lutheran church in Stillwater, Minnesota, previously drew some attention earlier this year because the Synod suggests that the Catholic Papacy is the Antichrist.

The poll found a high level of fluidity among voters. Dave Peterson of Iowa State said that the race in Iowa is still up for grabs.

“My take away from these results is that voters are still really unsure of whom they will support. Over half of the people are still trying to decide, and another third are merely leaning toward a candidate,” said Peterson, who is interim director of the Harkin Institute of Public Policy. “When asked, people will express a preference for one candidate, but that they will also admit that this is a weak attitude. This is anyone's race at this point.”

Religious voters appear fairly undecided.

“Religious voters are particularly fluid at this time," Peterson said. "While only around 16 percent of all voters say they have made up their mind, the rate is even lower amongst voters of faith. 37 percent of secular voters say that they have made up their mind, but less than 10 percent of voters who identify as either Catholic or Protestant have made a firm choice.”
Iowans cast votes for the GOP nomination on January 3.

Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey at November 18, 2011 | Comments (8)

The question of faith and its influence for determining a presidential candidate came up Tuesday night in a GOP debate that was marked by heated verbal battles.

Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who are both Roman Catholic, argued that faith says a lot about a candidate.

“It's a legitimate thing to look at as to what the tenets and teachings of that faith are with respect to how you live your life and how you would govern this country,” Santorum said. “With respect to what is the road to salvation, that's a whole different story. That's not applicable to what the role is of being the president or a senator or any other job.”

Gingrich offered a similar view. “None of us should rush in judgment of others in the way in which they approach God,” Gingrich said. “But I think all of us would also agree that there's a very central part of your faith in how you approach public life. And I, frankly, would be really worried if somebody assured me that nothing in their faith would affect their judgments, because then I'd wonder, where's your judgment -- how can you have judgment if you have no faith? And how can I trust you with power if you don't pray?”

Texas Gov. Rick Perry simply said his faith is ingrained. "I can no more remove my faith than I can that I'm the son of a tenant farmer," he said.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, as a Mormon, faced public resistance to his religion during his 2008 run for the nomination. The issue has only recently haunted his candidacy this cycle, highlighted again with comments made by a Southern Baptist pastor--and Perry supporter--Robert Jeffress’ that ignited a controversy at a summit hosted by the Family Research Council.

Romney argued for tolerance of religion.

“I don't suggest you distance yourself from your faith any more than I would,” Romney told Perry. “[But] the founders of this country went to great length to make sure -- and even put it in the Constitution -- that we would not choose people who represent us in government based upon their religion, that this would be a nation that recognized and respected other faiths, where there's a plurality of faiths, where there was tolerance for other people and faiths.”

Romney took advantage of the topic to criticize “the concept that we select people based on the church or the synagogue they go to,” which he called “very dangerous and an enormous departure from the principles of our Constitution.”

Romney added, “With regards to the disparaging comments about my faith, I've heard worse, so I'm not going to lose sleep over that.”

Jeffress, introducing Perry at the Values Voter Summit Oct. 7, called Mormonism a “cult,” clarifying after the comment became a controversy that he meant a “theological cult.”

In an op-ed for the Washington Post published Tuesday, Jeffress said critics were attempting to eliminate a discussion about religion from political discourse, arguing that “our religious beliefs define the very essence of who we are.”

Perry, asked during the debate to respond to Romney’s previous call to repudiate comments made by Jeffress about Romney’s Mormonism, said he “didn’t agree” with Jeffress’s statement but indicated he would not condemn him for making it. “I don't agree with [the comments]. I can't apologize any more than that,” he said.

The candidates' exchange over religion was only slightly less unruly than the night's previous heated interaction over the topics of healthcare and immigration, both of which resulted in candidates talking over one another and ignoring the moderator, CNN's Anderson Cooper, when he attempted to intervene.

During one such exchange, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney put his hand on Texas Gov. Rick Perry's shoulder as though to restrain him from continuing to speak.

“You have a problem with allowing somebody else to finish speaking. And I would suggest that if you want to become president of the United States you've got to let both people speak," Romney told Perry.

Despite high expectations of his ability to appeal to both conservatives and evangelicals, Perry's campaign has appeared to struggle in recent polls following a quick succession of debates right after his August entrance into the race. In the last three weeks, former Godfathers CEO Herman Cain surged to join Romney as one of the frontrunners in national polls.

Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey at October 19, 2011 | Comments (8)

Former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney and Texas Gov. Rick Perry squared off over their jobs records at the Republican presidential debate Wednesday night. The two frontrunners for the nomination took center stage at the GOP debate that kept most of its focus on economy.

The debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California was also Perry’s debate debut. Perry, who announced his candidacy last month, has edged ahead of Romney this week in nationwide polls. Most questions at the debate, even though posed to the other six candidates, focused on Romney’s and Perry’s positions.

Perry reaffirmed previous statements he’s made on the campaign trail regarding climate change, capital punishment and the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine.

Although Perry said last month that his decision to issue an executive order mandating a vaccine against the sexually transmitted HPV was a “mistake,” at the debate he stood by his reasons for the decision. “At the end of the day, I will always err on the side of saving lives,” Perry said, adding that he “probably” should have let the Texas state government legislate the decision rather than ordering it as governor.

Perry said he felt like "a pinata at the party" after receiving criticism for his decision from Texas Rep. Ron Paul and Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann.

When asked about Texas’ death penalty, referring to the 234 executions during Perry’s three terms as governor of the state, Perry paused for applause from the audience. "I think Americans understand justice," Perry said. “In the state of Texas, if you come into our state and you kill one of our children, you kill a police officer, you're involved with another crime and you kill one of our citizens, you will face the ultimate justice in the state of Texas, and that is, you will be executed."

Perry, a strong believer in states’ rights to legislate most laws on a state-by-state basis, said other states did not have to implement a death penalty. He defended Texas’ “thoughtful” process which he said he trusted prevented the justice system from sentencing anyone innocent.”I’ve never struggled with [sleeping at night] at all,” he said in response to the question posed to him.

Perry also made headlines last month when he indicated he has doubts that climate change is partially manmade. “The science is not settled,” Perry said. "As I recall, Galileo got out-voted for a spell.”

Romney, who gave a speech laying out his plan to create jobs growth earlier this week, pushed back on Perry’s ability to take credit for job creation and a lower unemployment rate in Texas.

Romney also criticized Perry for suggesting that Social Security is a flawed institution, or as Perry put it, “a Ponzi scheme” that steals from young Americans without giving much back. Romney said a Republican candidate needs to be committed to “saving” Social Security, not abolishing it. Herman Cain addressed the federal tax rate, saying, “If 10% is good enough for God, it ought to be good enough for the federal government."

President Obama will deliver a speech before a joint session of Congress on Thursday evening, where he plans to suggest both tax cuts and federal spending programs that will stimulate job growth. Economic issues have so far overshadowed much of the primary debate questions, with the August jobs report indicating that no new jobs have been created in the past month and the nation still faces a 9.1 percent unemployment rating.

Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey at September 7, 2011 | Comments (8)

Evangelical political activists attended a two-day retreat with Texas Governor Rick Perry last weekend, the L.A. Times reports.

The GOP presidential candidate met with social conservative leaders who grilled Perry on his faith and his politics at a remote ranch west of Austin, Texas. According to the L.A. Times sources, Perry convinced his guests that he was one of them.

The retreat, named “Call to Action,” featured representatives from prominent evangelical and socially conservative political organizations. Participants included Family Research Council (FRC) president Tony Perkins, Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission president Richard Land, and Focus on the Family founder James Dobson.

Participants were asked not to take pictures, record the event, or disclose details of what was said. Sources for the L.A. Times said Perry gave his testimony, which included a recommitment to his faith following his stint in the Air Force. He also promised to stand firm in opposing same-sex marriage and abortion.

Speaking to campaign contributors in July, Perry said, “Our friends in New York six weeks ago passed a statute that said marriage can be between two people of the same sex. And you know what? That's New York, and that's their business, and that's fine with me. That is their call. If you believe in the 10th Amendment, stay out of their business."

The remark did not go over well with social conservatives. One week later, he told FRC's Tony Perkins that he supports a Constitutional amendment on marriage that would define marriage as the union of one man and one woman. For some participants at the retreat, the report states, his comments were not sufficient, but Perry reiterated his support for the federal marriage amendment. Several days after the retreat, Perry signed the National Organization for Marriage's pledge to support a Constitutional amendment on marriage. The amendment would define marriage as the union of one man and one woman.

Perry also promised “Call to Action” guests that he would select a pro-life vice presidential running mate. In 2008, Perry endorsed former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani who is pro-choice. Some social conservatives were concerned that Perry's endorsement meant that he would not be a strong opponent of abortion.

Perry currently leads in most polls of Republican voters with 25 to 30 percent support. Over the past month, he has gained 10 to 15 percentage points. This growth has come at the expense of Mitt Romney and Michele Bachmann, both of whom have dropped in the polls.

Image: Via Rick Perry.

Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey at September 2, 2011 | Comments (7)

Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul is more than politician. He's a brand. For the past decade he has represented the libertarian movement within the Republican Party, often putting him at odds with hawks and social conservatives. But to win in Iowa, South Carolina, and other early primary states, Paul needs to win over more than fiscal conservatives. Paul’s campaign has been recently repackaging his candidacy for evangelical voters, preaching a new political gospel that may resonate with many evangelicals: to save America you need to change the culture, not replace the politicians.

Last week, the Family Research Council's Values Bus tour cruised around Iowa with top Republican contenders including Michele Bachmann, Tim Pawlenty (who dropped out of the race), and Rick Santorum. They spoke to crowds about their social conservative credentials. Paul, however, is not that kind of conservative. Other candidates are social conservatives who want public policy to reflect, defend, and promote morality.

Paul, however, has built his brand as a libertarian who wants government to stay out of regulating pornography, prostitution, drugs, gambling, and other vices that excite social conservatives. He preaches a message of liberty, and that often puts him at odds with Christian conservative groups.

However, Paul’s campaign is now reaching out to evangelicals, focusing on how Paul sees libertarianism as reflecting his Christian faith. Senior Paul strategist Doug Wead told Politico that the campaign is actively campaigning to win over evangelical voters.

“The missing link for us, the outreach to evangelicals, which is so key to South Carolina and the south — we’re filling it,” said Wead.

To do this, Paul is talking about his positions using Biblical allusions and references to doctrine. His speech at this year's Faith and Freedom conference illustrates this approach well:

1) Pass the Abortion Litmus Test. Paul begins his talks to evangelicals with a clear statement on his pro-life position. Paul says that life is the one political value higher than liberty. "As an OB doctor, let me tell you,” Paul said, “life does begin at conception."

2) Agree that American Society is Immoral. Paul echoes the social conservative narrative about the change in American society. The problems in American society began in the 1960's with the sexual revolution, the drug culture, and other changes began a decline in morality. Paul's twist, however, is that this is not a reason to enact new laws. Instead, he says that policy reflects morality, so the focus should be on changing the culture, not trying to change society through government.

3) Give Biblical Justifications for Positions. Paul describes his economic views as “biblical economics.” He references Old Testament admonishments against false weights and measures as a reason to go to the gold standard and to get rid of the Federal Reserve. He talks about government as a false idol. He recounts the story of Saul as a lesson against the temptation to want a king—which is an all-powerful government—who will steal young people for war and overtax the people.

4) Use Christian Doctrine, Not Constitutional Jurisprudence. Paul opposes most military conflicts that the U.S. has engaged in since World War II. Rather than explaining this position through the language of libertarianism, national self-interest, and the War Powers Act, Paul uses just war theory, which limits military conflict to defense and the protection of innocent lives.

5) Talk about Social Issues that Require LESS Government. Paul opposes the current role of government in education. He favors private schooling and homeschooling, an area where many evangelical GOP voters want less government.

6) Don't Mention Social Issues that Call for MORE Government. He keeps mum on legalization of heroin, pornography, and prostitution.

For others, however, Paul's views toward legalization of drugs and prostitution make him unacceptable as a candidate. Former President George W. Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson wrote in the Washington Post that Paul's libertarian policy positions are based on an unrealistic view of human nature.

“[Libertarianism] is the arrogance of the strong. It is contempt for the vulnerable and suffering. The conservative alternative to libertarianism is necessarily more complex,” Gerson said. “Responsible, self-governing citizens … are cultivated in institutions — families, religious communities and decent, orderly neighborhoods. And government has a limited but important role in reinforcing social norms and expectations — including laws against drugs and against the exploitation of men and women in the sex trade.”

Publicly, Paul remains reticent about his personal faith, much more so than others in the GOP field of candidates. For instance, you won’t find YouTube videos showing him giving his testimony or talking at length about his faith. One of the few windows into his beliefs came during the 2007 Values Voter Debate. Paul was asked, “Tell us about your personal faith and what it means to your life.” Paul answered by talking about his belief in God and how it affected his view of the Iraq War.

I get to my God through Christ. Christ to me, is a man of peace. He is for peace. He's not for war. He doesn't justify preemptive declared war. I strongly believe there is a Christian doctrine of Just War and I believe this nation has drifted from that, no matter what the rationals are, we have drifted from that and it's very, very dangerous and I see in many ways being un-Christian.
And to justify what we do in the name of Christianity I think is very dangerous and not part of what Christianity is all about. Christ came here for spiritual reasons not secular war and boundaries and geography. Yet we are now dedicating so much of our aggressive activity in the name of God, but God---He is the Prince of Peace. That is what I see from my God, and through Christ, I vote for peace.

Later in his 2008 campaign for president, Paul released a letter that gave this statement on his religious beliefs:

I have never been one who is comfortable talking about my faith in the political arena. In fact, the pandering that typically occurs in the election season I find to be distasteful. But for those who have asked, I freely confess that Jesus Christ is my personal Savior, and that I seek His guidance in all that I do. I know, as you do, that our freedoms come not from man, but from God. My record of public service reflects my reverence for the Natural Rights with which we have been endowed by a loving Creator.

That was 2008. This time around, Paul has included a “Statement of Faith” on his campaign website. It is listed as an “issue,” along with taxes and homeschooling.

“My faith is a deeply private issue to me, and I don’t speak on it in great detail during my speeches because I want to avoid any appearance of exploiting it for political gain. Let me be very clear here: I have accepted Jesus Christ as my personal Savior, and I endeavor every day to follow Him in all I do and in every position I advocate,” said Paul in the statement.

The document lists Paul's religious beliefs, a statement that the candidate has a Christian faith. The remainder of the document is as much about the Constitution and freedom as it is about religion.

A Facebook page for “Christians for Ron Paul” points to his 50 year marriage, his family, and his career as evidence of a life practicing family values.

Editor's note: This post has been updated to include Paul's "Statement of Faith."

Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey at August 19, 2011 | Comments (48)

Tim Pawlenty ended his campaign for the Republican nomination yesterday, the day after Pawlenty ended a distant third in the Ames Straw Poll. The poll is non-binding, but it is an early test of a candidate's campaign strength. Pawlenty's campaign was well-organized, but it did not have the excitement and dedicated following of Rep. Michele Bachmann or Rep. Ron Paul, each of whom finished far above him in the poll.

The departure of Pawlenty is unlikely to shake up the GOP field, but it does raise the question about evangelicals in the Republican party. Pawlenty was the type of candidate that mainstream evangelical leaders would like. In June, 45 percent of the National Association of Evangelicals leadership said Pawlenty was their top-pick for the GOP candidacy. The next favorite pick—“no preference,” followed by former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney.

Pawlenty has evangelical bona fides. His pastor is Leith Anderson, president of the NAE who officiated Pawlenty's marriage in 1987.

Pawlenty also had the support of former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee. Standing next to Pawlenty at an event at the Iowa State Fair, Huckabee said, “I’m endorsing the principles of people who will stand for a smaller, more efficient government, lower taxes, the sanctity of life. And I wouldn’t be on this stage if this guy didn’t stand for those things.”

Dave Peterson, a political science professor at Iowa State University, told CT that Pawlenty was the only candidate that was acceptable to everyone, but he couldn't inspire enough voters to be a viable candidate.

“Pawlenty's strategy was a decent one in theory,” said Peterson, who was at the Iowa State Fair on Saturday. “His hope was that there would be a deadlock between candidates who were unacceptable to sizable portions of the party. Social conservatives wouldn't trust Romney, more establishment Republicans wouldn't trust Bachman, and lots of folks wouldn't trust Paul.”

Speaking on ABC's This Week, Pawlenty said the Republican voters this year were looking for a different kind of candidate.

"What I brought forward I thought was a rational, established, credible, strong record of results, based on experience governing – a two-term governor of a blue state – but I think the audience, so to speak, was looking for something different,” Pawlenty said.

This comment was considered to be a thinly veiled critique of Bachmann. Pawlenty focused on his fellow Minnesotan during last week's Iowa debate where he suggested that she was:

-- irrational (“Her answer is illogical”)

-- unestablished (“It's not her spine we're worried about, it's her record of results.”)

-- not credible (“She's got a record of misstating and making false statements”)

-- with no record of results or experience (“In Congress, her record of accomplishment and results is nonexistent.”)

But it was Bachmann who won the straw poll, even though her campaign was less organized than Pawlenty's.

In January, Pawlenty told CT that to build a viable campaign he needed to build name recognition and raise funds. Speaking yesterday, Pawlenty said he needed a stronger showing in the straw poll to keep raising funds.

"We had some success raising money, but we needed to continue that and Ames was a benchmark for that, and if we didn't do well in Ames, we weren't going to have the fuel to keep the car going down the road,” Pawlenty said.

Minnesota Public Radio suggests a Senate run could be Pawlenty's future.

Image via Pawlenty's campaign.

Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey at August 15, 2011 | Comments (26)

In the first Republican presidential debate in Iowa, all of the candidates were asked about their positions on issues and their qualifications, and the topic of marriage came up more than once. Only one candidate, however, was asked about her own marital relationship. The Washington Examiner's Byron York asked Michele Bachmann if she would “be submissive to [her] husband.” York's inquiry has now become its own debate topic: was the question out of bounds?

York framed his question by asking about Bachmann's own statements on submitting to her husband. Bachmann spoke at the Living Word Church in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, in 2006. Bachmann recounted how she felt God to lead her into law and, eventually, a career in politics.

York asked:

In 2006, when you were running for Congress, you described a moment in your life when your husband said you should study for a degree in tax law. You said you hated the idea, and then you explained: 'But the Lord said, be submissive. Wives, you are to be submissive to your husband.' As president, would you be submissive to your husband?

Bachmann paused (while many in the audience booed) and then answered:

Thank you for that question, Byron. [laughter in audience] Marcus and I will be married for 33 years this September 10th. I'm in love with him. I'm so proud of him. And both he and I...what submission means to us, if that's what your question is, is respect. I respect my husband. He's a wonderful godly many and a great father. And he respects me as his wife. That's how we operate our marriage. We respect each other. We love each other. And I've been so grateful that we've been able to build a home together. We have five wonderful children and 23 foster children. We've built a business together and a life together, and I'm very proud of him.

York has received criticism for asking the question. On Twitter, York said, “Thanks to all for comments on 'submissive' question. It's the kind of question a candidate will have to face, if they go far enough in race...” He later tweeted, “Haven't talked to Bachmann campaign, but I think they're happy with her answer. It was a good one, and most human moment of the night.”

This was not the first time Bachmann has been asked about her statements on submission. In a recent Newsweek interview, Bachmann said that as president, “I would be the decision maker.”

Gary Marx, executive director of Faith and Freedom Coalition told CNN's Belief Blog, "She answered it the most appropriate way in the context it was being asked. She was being asked a deeply theological question in front of millions of Americans. That's why there was such a strong and visceral booing over the very premise of the question."

Other conservatives saw the question as appropriate. The Washington Post’s Jennifer Rubin said Bachmann supporters are “feigning outrage.”

“That indignation is unwarranted. She said it and should be asked about it,” Rubin said. “Moreover, her answer was a home run, not only in substance but in delivery. First was the dramatic pause. Then the smile — no offense taken — and then the conservative feminist grand slam. Whether her answer is scripturally accurate, I have no idea; what matters is this is how she thinks and how she expresses her religious views.”

What do you think? Was the question legitimate or inappropriate? 

Image via Wikimedia Commons.

Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey at August 12, 2011 | Comments (17)

Texas Governor Rick Perry will announce this Saturday his official bid for the Republican nomination for president. Politico reports that  Perry “will remove any doubt about his White House intentions” during an upcoming speech at a South Carolina conservative conference.   

Perry’s decision does not come as a surprise. The past few months were marked with the obvious signs of a presidential run: reports that he was meeting with donors, discussing plans with key Republicans in Iowa and New Hampshire, and planning an August speech in South Carolina, an early primary state.

But there were also oblique indications. Perry makes his official bid just days after participating in “The Response,” a prayer event in Houston he helped organize. While Perry’s involvement with the 30,000- strong-event was described by some commentators as a “coming out party” for the Texas governor, he remained tight-lipped on his political intentions during the conference, which he described as “apolitical” and “nondenominational.” His remarks and prayer were more veiled than those of others on stage. In fact, nowhere in his prayer did Perry address “Jesus” or “Christ,” preferring instead the more ecumenical “Lord” and “Father.” [full text of his prayer below]

Either way, Perry enters the race with evangelical-Republican bona fides.

It is not clear, however, whether Perry will draw support away from Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minnesota), who has received much of her support from grassroots social conservatives. Polls suggest that, despite his stance as a social conservative, evangelical, and southerner, the Texas governor is more likely to pull most of his votes from former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney.

In a June Rasmussen survey, Romney polled at 33 percent of GOP likely voters. Bachmann was second at 19 percent. A new Rasmussen poll, however, included Perry. Perry received 18 percent support while Romney's support dropped to 22 percent, and Bachmann's numbers remained relatively static at 16 percent. Other polls indicate a similar pattern. On average, Romney is polling at around 19 percent compared to Perry and Bachmann, who are each receiving around 13 percent support among Republican voters.

Perry's announcement is likely to overshadow Saturday's Iowa straw poll, an annual event in Ames that Perry will not participate in. The straw poll is one of the first harbingers of the Iowa Caucus. Campaigns with well-organized, highly-motivated campaigns can do well in the straw poll. 

In 2008, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee did surprisingly well. He later won the Iowa Caucuses. This year, the straw poll is expected to go to Bachmann, but a strong showing by former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty or Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) would signal that they have strong campaign organizations. With Perry entering the race on the same day, however, the straw poll's importance drops significantly. Perry is not a straw poll candidate, yet his entry into the race is certain to shake up the field.

 

Perry's prayer at The Response:

 

Lord, You are the source of every good thing, You are our only hope. And we stand before You today in awe of your power, and in gratitude for Your blessings; in humility for our sins.

Father, our heart breaks for America. We see discord at home. We see fear in the marketplace. We see anger in the halls of government. And as a nation we have forgotten Who made us, Who protects us, Who blesses us, and for that we cry out for Your forgiveness.

We pray for our nation’s leaders, Lord -- for parents, for pastors, for the generals, for governors -- that You would inspire them in these difficult times. Father, we pray for our president, that You would impart Your wisdom upon him, that You would guard his family. We pray for our military and the families who love them. Father, especially for those special operators who lost their life yesterday in defending our freedoms.

You call us to repent, Lord, and this day is our response. We give it all to You. For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever. Amen and amen.

Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey at August 8, 2011 | Comments (29)

Republican primary candidate Herman Cain released a statement of apology on his recent remarks on Muslims and Islam. Most recently, the GOP hopeful said he supported the banning of a mosque in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Cain apologized yesterday after meeting with Muslim leaders from the All Dulles Area Muslim Society (ADAMS) Center in Sterling, Virginia.

"While I stand by my opposition to the interference of shariah law into the American legal system, I remain humble and contrite for any statements I have made that might have caused offense to Muslim Americans and their friends," Cain said. "I am truly sorry for any comments that may have betrayed my commitment to the U.S. Constitution and the freedom of religion guaranteed by it. Muslims, like all Americans, have the right to practice their faith freely and peacefully."

Cain has made several comments about Muslims and Islam during the campaign, but he recently attracted national attention for saying that communities should be allowed to prohibit mosques. Cain said on Fox News Sunday that Muslims do not have a constitutional right to worship. According to Cain, Islam is not just a religion--it is “both religion and of set of laws, Sharia law.”

Cain also said he would be wary of allowing a Muslim in his cabinet because he or she might be a terrorist.

“If you at my career, I have never discriminated against anybody because of their religion, their sex, or origin, or anything like that,” Cain said. “I'm simply saying I owe it to the American people to be cautious because terrorists are trying to kill us. And so, yes, I'm going to err on the side of caution, rather than on the side of carelessness.”

Cain's recent comments are not his first on Muslims. In March, Cain told Christianity Today that he resented Muslims who try to convert people in America, a “Judeo-Christian nation.”

And so I push back and reject them trying to convert the rest of us. And based upon the little knowledge that I have of the Muslim religion, you know, they have an objective to convert all infidels or kill them. Now, I know that there are some peaceful Muslims who don't go around preaching or practicing that. Well, unfortunately, we can't sit back and tolerate the radical ones simply because we know that there are some of them who don't believe in that aspect of the Muslim religion. So their role is to be allowed to practice their religion freely, just like we should be allowed to practice our religion freely, and not try to convert the rest of us.

Cain's comments brought scrutiny to Cain's views of Muslims. The New York Times wrote an editorial on Sunday that criticized Cain for using “religious bigotry.”  The editorial also questioned why other Republican candidates were not denouncing Cain's comments.

Cain's comments won praise from Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association. Fischer has said that Muslims are not protected by the First Amendment. Instead, Fischer said that non-Christian religions have the “privilege” to exist in the United States. Fischer says this tolerance should not apply to Islam.

“[Islam's] view of culture is so bizarrely un-American as to be dangerous and destructive to civilized society in all its forms,” Fischer said. “If there ever was a toxic ideology whose spread should be stopped at the starting gate, Islam is it. No community should be forced against its will to allow shrines to this twisted, darkened counterfeit spirituality to take root in its midst.”

Fischer responded quickly to Cain's apology. Fischer wrote on Twitter, “Cain may have torpedoed candidacy w/ apology to Muslims. Conservs looking for someone who sees dangers of Islam, unapologetic @ saying so.”

Faith in Public Life's Nick Sementelli said the apology is good, as far as it goes. But he said there are still questions about Cain's policy positions.

“Would he still require Muslims to take special loyalty oaths to serve in his cabinet? Does he still believe religious freedom doesn't apply to Muslim places of worship?” said Sementelli. “It's good to see Cain recognizing that his comments have caused significant harm, but it's the policy positions he's endorsed that are most dangerous. Until he explains where he stands on these specific questions, he shouldn't be let off the hook.”

Polls suggest that Cain sits at about 6 percent in the race for the Republican presidential nomination, behind Mitt Romney (21%), Michele Bachmann (13%), and other candidates, according to Real Clear Politics.

Image via Wikimedia Commons.

Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey at July 28, 2011 | Comments (7)

Mitt Romney formally announced his bid for the Republican nomination for president yesterday in New Hampshire, but a new poll suggests that the former governor of Massachusetts may still face an uphill climb to secure the votes of evangelicals because of his Mormon faith.

The May 25-30 survey from the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press asked people how they would vote for presidential candidates with different traits. The survey found that a third of evangelicals (34 percent) said they would be less likely to vote for someone who is Mormon, compared to Mainline Protestants (19 percent) or Catholics (16 percent).

The findings were similar to Pew's 2007 survey when Romney attempted a previous run. With evangelicals making up a major voting bloc in the GOP primaries, particularly in early states like Iowa and South Carolina, a reluctance to vote for a Mormon candidate could hurt Romney. It could also affect fellow Mormon (albeit with different level of commitment) former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman who may still enter the race.

Overall, 25 percent of voters would be less likely to vote for a Mormon. Liberal Democrats were most opposed to a Mormon candidate (41 percent). Pew found that among the voters who were opposed to a Mormon candidate, about two-third of them said there was “no chance” they would support Romney for president.

Evangelicals were also much more likely to oppose a gay candidate, with nearly two-thirds of them said they would oppose such a candidate. This is over twice the opposition among either Mainline Protestants (30 percent) or Catholics (25 percent).

Unlike opposition to a Mormon candidate, views of a possible homosexual candidate have changed over the past four years. In 2007, nearly half of Americans (46 percent) said they would be a less likely to vote for a homosexual candidate. In this survey, that percentage dropped to just one-third, and all groups showed less opposition to a gay candidate. Evangelicals also dropped (71 to 65 percent), but this was less than the change among other groups. Some of the largest changes in the two surveys came among African Americans (53 to 34 percent), those over 65 years of age (59 to 40 percent), and conservative Republicans (73 to 58 percent).

Of all the traits Pew asked about, the one the public found most negative was atheism. About 60 percent of Americans said they would be less likely to vote for a candidate who “does not believe in God," about the same percentage as in 2007.

Whether these views actually affect how people vote is an open question. On the one hand, some people may be hesitant to offer an answer that could be seen as intolerant, so the poll may be under-reporting biases against candidates. On the other hand, research on intolerance finds that what people say often sounds more intolerant than people actually act when push comes to shove. In their ideal world, voters may not want to support a candidate with certain traits, but a ballot rarely offers ideal choices.

Editor's Note: Pew identifies evangelicals as white, non-Hispanic Protestants who described themselves as "born-again or evangelical." Mainline Protestants are other white, non-Hispanic Protestants. For comparison, reported percentages on “Catholics” includes only white, non-Hispanic Catholics. Around 18 percent of Americans are evangelicals by this definition. The margin of error for each religious group is larger than for the sample as a whole. The results are descriptive; religious differences could be due to partisanship, ideology, income, or other factors.

Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey at June 3, 2011 | Comments (19)

WASHINGTON --Social conservative groups may not be picking a fight with other factions of the conservative movement at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), but they will still have to continue to work hard to ensure their issues remain on the forefront of conservatives’ minds in the conservative movement and as the 2012 election nears.

Tom Minnery, vice president of government and public policy at CitizenLink, an affiliate of Focus on the Family and co-sponsor of CPAC, thinks their presence has made the conference stronger than it would have been in their absence. As a co-sponsor, CitizenLink helped choose the forum topics and speakers—and snagged a prime spot in the exhibit hall.

Despite the buzz that CPAC has all pushed social conservative issues aside because of their inclusion of GOProud, a gay rights group, Minnery disagrees: “Not only are there good panels here that represent social conservative values but the speakers—like Rep. Michele Bachmann—do too.”
Of the potential presidential candidates who have spoken thus far, most focused on issues related to China, spending, and criticizing President Obama. Bachmann gave the opening keynote and lambasted Obama for “socialist” tendencies; she did encourage social and fiscal conservatives to work together to elect conservative candidates in the next election. “We cannot shun each other for 2012,” she said.

Though he received cheers to a reference to protecting the unborn in his Friday morning address, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney mostly criticized Obama for his failure to remedy the economic crisis. Texas Rep. Ron Paul, won the straw poll vote with 30 percent of the vote while Romney came in second with 23 percent. Other potential candidates came in around 4 percent, though former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin and former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee did not attend.

In an afternoon speech, Minnesota’s former Gov. Tim Pawlenty fired up the crowd discussing everything from the debt ceiling to his compelling personal story to spending. Though he refrained from mentioning marriage or life issues, he encouraged conservatives to “turn towards God, not away from him.”

Minnery also dispels the notion that the strong presence of the Tea Party here—a movement largely concerned with smaller government and lower taxes—conflicts with CitizenLink’s purpose to promote traditional marriage, preserve religious liberty, and promote the sanctity of life. Though he never went so far as to say Focus on the Family and the Tea Party would join forces to elect fiscal and social conservatives in 2012, he finds their strong pro-life stance encouraging. (An April 2010 Gallup poll found 65% of Tea Partiers identify themselves as pro-life).

What about the presence of GOProud at CPAC? Minnery shrugged. “It is an anomaly. The way they’ve treated some of our fellow organizations that aren’t here—like the Family Research Council –is unfortunate and doesn’t build a spirit of unity.” Minnery thinks voters will ultimately determine the fate of gay marriage, not a booth at CPAC.

There are multiple forums per day at CPAC, of them, only two panels on social conservative issues—one Thursday on marriage, one Friday on the pro-life movement—Minnery not only approved of the forums but he corrected me and said the judicial panel this morning, “The Left’s Campaign to Reshape the Judiciary,” belongs under the social conservative tent with marriage and life. During yesterday’s panel “Traditional Marriage and Society,” Minnery argued that one way to fight poverty is to encourage marriages that last.

Tim Goeglein, vice president of external relations at Focus on the Family, hosted today’s forum, “The Pro-Life Movement: Plans and Goals.” To a crowd of 200 people—relatively small considering the 11,000 attendees—he lauded the socially conservative awareness of the students present. “Your generation understands the tragedy of abortion like no generation before you…this is a new pro life movement with a gripping story to tell.”

Erin DeLullo, a forum speaker and consultant with LifeandMarriage.com, encouraged social conservatives to work as hard as fiscal conservatives do to elect like-minded politicians. At the same time, she called out Governor Mitch Daniels—who has called for a truce with social conservative issues until economic issues are resolved—and said “the right to life cannot be put on the backburner.” The audience cheered.

One of those audience members cheering was Andrew Schantz, a student at the University of
Michigan who came to CPAC for the first time this year and sat in on the forum because of his interest in social conservative issues. He thinks the country’s economic crisis has actually boosted support for socially conservative issues. “I think people are returning more to social conservative views because times are hard. It kind of alleviates the economic crisis, focusing on things that are less materialistic and that will make a real impact on the future.”

As for the friction purported to exist here at CPAC between the social conservatives and other groups such as GOProud, Schantz feels like that’s a misunderstanding. “I don’t feel like there’s tension. It’s just that people have different priorities. It’s much harder to change people’s minds about socially conservative than fiscal issues so it takes more of a fighting spirit.”

This year, some—the Heritage Foundation, the Family Research Council, and Senator Jim DeMint, to name a few—chose to take their socially conservatives values and fight elsewhere, boycotting CPAC because GOProud’s presence.

Strong social conservatives and the values they represent were not absent at CPAC, but they appeared to have been pushed to the back of the room. Depending on the perspective of social conservatives and their fighting spirit, that’s either just an opportunity to move to the front or, at the least, mingle with the others present.

Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey at February 12, 2011 | Comments (10)

Thousands of conservatives are meeting in Washington, D.C. at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), representing the diversity of conservatism, from socially conservative activists to national defense hawks to Rep. Rand Paul libertarians. Many social conservative groups are split over whether to boycott CPAC or buy a seat at the table.

At issue is GOProud, a group representing gay conservatives and their allies. GOProud is cosponsoring the conference, which gives it a say in the conference agenda. Missing from the CPAC program are representatives from Family Research Council, the American Family Association, Concerned Women for America, among others. Mike Huckabee, Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC), House Republican Study Committee chairman Jim Jordon (R-OH) are also skipping CPAC this year.

Not all social conservatives have decided to miss the largest conservative gathering this year. They believe that being a part of CPAC is a better strategy than boycotting it.

Sarah Palin, who has never attended CPAC, told CBN's David Brody that she thought it was better to participate even if you disagree with other participants.

"Should the GOP, should conservatives not reach out to others, not participate in events or forums that perhaps arising within those forums are issues that maybe we don't personally agree with? And I say 'no'.” said Palin. “I look at participation in an event like CPAC or any other event along kind of in that same vein as the more information that people have the better.” Palin did not attend CPAC due to other plans.

CitizenLink is one group that opted for this strategy of engagement. Rather than boycott the conference, CitizenLink is cosponsoring it. The payoff is a seat on the steering committee that helps form the conference agenda on social and domestic policy. CitizenLink's Tim Goeglein and Tom Minnery are also featured on the CPAC program.

“Our team will be engaging with those attendees who may not have previously given pro-life and pro-marriage perspectives much consideration — in order to ensure family issues are not lost amid the other important issues that will also be discussed,” CitizenLink's Sonja Swiatkiewicz said.

Leaders from the American Principles Project, American Values, Liberty Counsel, and the National Organization for Marriage wrote a letter to CPAC chairman David Keene announcing that they would be boycotting CPAC because of GOProud's role.

“An organization committed to the ultimate abandonment of the legal and social meaning of marriage by definition disqualifies itself from recognition as a partner in the conservative cause,” said the letter.

Family Research Council president Tony Perkins told MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell that the issue was not who attended or spoke at CPAC. It was about GOProud's leadership role on the CPAC steering committee.

"As a cosponsor, they're a part of setting the agenda. And it's hard to really grasp the idea that those who are working to redefine marriage can sit at the same table and discuss strategy with those who are to trying to promote and protect traditional values," said Perkins.

GOProud founder Christopher Barron responded by saying that Perkins was lying. Barron said that GOProud has the same position on marriage as Dick Cheney and John Bolton. They believe that it is an issue that should be left to the states and that should be decided by voters, not the courts.

"[Perkins] can dress this up all he wants and talk about family and redefining marriage, but that doesn't have anything to do with it," said Barron. "The bottom line has nothing to do with policy at all. It's because we happen to be gay."

On the other hand, other conservative leaders opted to join CPAC. Rep. Michele Bachman (R-MN) is opening the conference, and Rep. Allen West (R-FL) is closing it. Also in attendance are Republican presidential hopefuls Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney, Tim Pawlenty, Rick Santorum, and Haley Barbour.

Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey at February 10, 2011 | Comments (4)

Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN) announced last week that he will not run in next year's Republican presidential primaries, leaving an opening for other candidates to court social conservatives. Pence may not be a household name, but he is well-regarded among conservative activists.

Pence had the potential to be the Dennis Kucinich of the GOP—a black-horse candidate who could poll well among the ideological base of the party. Pence edged out Mike Huckabee and handily beat Mitt Romney (13 percent) and Sarah Palin (7 percent) in the 2010 Values Voter Summit straw poll.

In a recent Rasmussen poll, likely Republican primary voters gave more support to Romney (24 percent) than to either Huckabee (17 percent) or Palin (19 percent). Among evangelicals, however, Romney came in third. Other polls show likely voters are split between Romney and Huckabee, with each polling around 20 percent of likely voters. About 15 percent say they will support Palin.

In an open memo to “conservative and evangelical leaders,” Mark DeMoss, of the Christian public relations firm The DeMoss Group, said that all of the potential candidates for the Republican nomination pass the traditional litmus tests on abortion and marriage. DeMoss offered a new litmust test: “A candidate for president of the United States should be capable of becoming president, and then competent to be the president.” For DeMoss, the candidate that passes that test is Mitt Romney.

“Those who would suggest I am placing values on the back burner will be misreading me and wrong. I am only saying that a candidate’s values alone are not enough to get my vote. For example, my pastor shares my values, but I don’t want him to be my president,” wrote DeMoss.
DeMoss's memo highlights the challenges facing Romney. His base is the business sector, not values voters. He can raise millions of dollars, but he does not have the support of the activists on the ground.

Groups such as Focus on the Family have been critical of Romney in the past. In 2008, they lobbied Romney, who sat on the board of Marriott International, to have the hotel chain stop providing adult pay-per-view movies in their hotels.

Last week, Marriott announced it would stop providing adult movie services. Romney did not vote on the Marriott decision, however, because he recently stepped down from the board. Romney spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom told the Washington Post that Romney recused himself from discussions over the adult movie policy.

Some are suspicious of Romney's Mormon faith. A survey in 2008 found that 25 percent of Americans would be upset if a Mormon was elected president. In contrast, 15 percent said they would be upset with a Baptist being president.

There may be another prominent Mormon to consider in the 2012 presidential race. Jon Huntsman Jr., the U.S. Ambassador to China, resigned in order to consider a presidential campaign.

Huntsman is former Governor of Utah and son of billionaire Jon Huntsman, Sr., who founded the Huntsman Corporation. Huntsman, like Romney, holds traditional views on social issues, but his base would likely be among business leaders.

Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey at February 1, 2011 | Comments (7)

Presidents have often included some mention of abortion in their State of the Union addresses. This week, President Obama broke from this tradition.

His speech on Tuesday featured both big ideas and specific policy proposals. It did not, however, include any nod to pro-choice groups.

Abortion was notably absent Republicans' responses, too. The official Republican response by House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) only alluded to abortion when he said that one responsibility of government was "to protect innocent life."  He did not reference any specific policies.

Tea party leader Rep. Michelle Bachman (R-MN), who is pro-life, also remained mum on the issue during her alternative GOP response to the SOTU.

Ashley Horne of Focus on the Family’s CitizenLink said, “What I would have loved to see was the GOP to give a little more attention to the life issue. The GOP rode in on a wave of pro-life voters. This is why they're here. Pro-family, pro-life voters, the conservative movement ushered them in. And for good reason."

The House of Representatives is expected to take up several pro-life bills, including the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act. This bill would permanently ban the prohibition against using federal funding to pay for abortions. Currently, the ban must be renewed each year, and the ban on federal funding for last year's health care law is an executive order.

Family Research Council president Tony Perkins said the president spoke little about strengthening families.

“President Obama recognized the important role of parents in the educational achievement of their children. President Obama himself has set an example as a father and husband. However, the agenda he has pursued and articulated tonight does not strengthen the kind of family children need: one with a Mom and Dad,” Perkins said.

Jim Wallis, president of Sojourners, said he hoped that Democrats and Republicans could come together to work on issues that both sides find problematic, including the economy, unemployment, Social Security, banking, immigration, health care, federal deficit, and the war in Afghanistan. To solve these, said Wallis, both parties need to listen to each other.

“Until we have listened long enough, carefully enough, and respectfully enough to the legitimate concerns of the other side, we will never accurately understand the issues, problems, disagreements, and ways we can find possible common ground — or, at least, the necessary compromises," Wallis said. "Even when there are clear clashes of interests that must be debated, won, or lost, it is still helpful to understand what those differences really are.” 

The Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) listed its own legislative agenda for the coming year. Many of its top issues were excluded from the SOTU and the GOP responses. In addition to abortion, the ERLC wants Congress to pass a federal constitutional marriage amendment and block “the homosexual agenda.” 

The ERLC expects the current Congress to be friendlier to its policies than the previous one. ““We spent most of our time resisting liberal efforts to undermine biblical values. Regrettably, we could not stop them all. Some of those losses were significant. Yet we remain encouraged. Many of the efforts to undermine biblical values failed. Southern Baptists stepped up when called on. Millions of Christians prayed,” wrote the ERLC.

The ERLC also listed other issues that were included in the SOTU, including immigration reform. Last year, immigration reform bills failed to become law despite lobbying efforts by the ERLC, the National Association of Evangelicals, and other faith-based groups. Obama spoke on the need for immigration reform such as those that were in the DREAM Act, a bill that would let minors who are illegally in the U.S. become citizens if they join the military or finish college.

Faith in Public Life's Dan Nejfelt said Obama's remarks show that faith-based groups had an influence on the policy process.

“After the heartbreaking defeat of the DREAM Act, one can be forgiven for being less than optimistic about immigration reform's political prospects in the near future,” said Nejfelt. “But a mention in the State of the Union at the very least signals that the faith community's effort to keep the issue on the agenda when politicians wanted to sweep it under the rug has made a difference.”

Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey at January 28, 2011 | Comments (4)

Republican Nikki Haley won the gubernatorial race in South Carolina, AP is reporting. Her conversion to Christianity from Sikhism caused a stir earlier in the election.

Republican Sen. Sam Brownback, who gave up his seat, won the Kansas gubernatorial race. See previous CT interviews.

The AP projects that Mary Fallin will become Oklahoma's first female governor (Wiki says she belongs to the Church of God denomination).

Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey at November 2, 2010 | Comments (0)

Republicans scored two early victories in an election that is supposed to create turnover for the House and the Senate.

Kentucky Senate/tea party candidate Rand Paul won Kentucky's Senate race while former Indiana Senator Dan Coats beat Democratic Rep. Brad Ellsworth, reclaiming his old seat.

During the campaign, Paul chastised his opponent state Attorney General Jack Conway for an ad referencing Paul's time as a student at Baylor University, asking whether he was a member of a secret society.

"I believe that those who stoop to the level of attacking a man's religious beliefs to gain higher office," Paul said during a debate. "I believe that they should remember that it does not profit a man to gain the world if he loses his soul in the process."

Right before the election, a new ad paid for by a group that opposed Paul accused him of mocking Jesus Christ and Christians.

CT spoke with Coats, a graduate of Wheaton College, back when he first retired from the Senate.

Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey at November 2, 2010 | Comments (0)

GOP front-runner Nikki Haley's conversion to Christianity from Sikhism is causing a stir in the primary race for governor of South Carolina.

CNN reports that her ties to the Sikh tradition have left some evangelicals in the state uneasy. She has said that she regularly attends a Methodist church but occasionally visits a Sikh temple in honor of her family.

Haley, who faces a runoff against her opponent on June 22, recently launched an ad with an appeal to her faith. "I am a woman that understands, through the Grace of God, with him all things are possible," she says at the end.

Gina Smith of The State reports that Haley's conversion came after her marriage.

Haley’s campaign has said in recent weeks that, since her 1997 conversion to Christianity, she consistently has attended a Methodist church and occasionally attended Sikh services at her parents’ request. Haley and one of her brothers converted to Christianity as adults; her parents and two other siblings are Sikhs.

Haley’s conversion at the age of 24 was influenced by her husband, Michael, raised as a Methodist.

The two married in 1996 in two ceremonies, one Methodist and one Sikh.

“(Religion) was something (husband Michael and I) talked about a lot,” Haley said Monday. “He was brought up Methodist, Christian, and I was brought up Sikh, and so you talk about the similarities and you talk about the differences, and even more so when you’re getting married and you’re going to have kids, it becomes a very real thing on how you want to raise your kids.”

The photo on the right was posted on Haley's website before Easter. "This is a wonderful time to remember the greatness of God’s love and His sacrifice for us while we are surrounded by the ones we love," she said.

Republican state Sen. Jake Knotts apologized but refused to resign over calling Haley a “raghead.”

Update: Gerald McDermott, religion professor at Roanoke College and author of God’s Rivals, spoke with CT by e-mail about some of Sikhism's defining traits.

They combine teachings of Hindu bhakti (devotion to a personal god) and Muslim mysticism (direct communion with the divine in Sufism).

Sikhs are monotheists who reject Hindu idolatry and the caste system. Unlike Muslims, they believe there was new revelation after the completion of the Qur’an—particularly to their founder Guru Nanak (b. AD 1469).

They are known for the five k’s: kesa (uncut hair), kangha (a comb to show they have not renounced the world), kara (a steel bracelet), kachh (short breeches to show cleansing), and kirpan (a sword for protection, but often just an outline etched in the comb).

On her website, she recently changed the wording on her website to the question, "Is Nikki a Christian?"

Truth: In Nikki’s words: “My faith in Christ has a profound impact on my daily life and I look to Him for guidance with every decision I make. God has blessed my family in so many ways and my faith in the Lord gives me great strength on a daily basis. Being a Christian is not about words, but about living for Christ every day.”

A few months ago, the response offered different wording:

Truth: Nikki is a Christian. In her words: ‘I believe in the power and grace of Almighty God. I know, and have truly experienced, that with Him all things are possible. I have looked to Him for leadership throughout my career and will continue to do so as governor.

Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey at June 16, 2010 | Comments (20)

Indiana Rep. Mark Souder admitted to having an affair with a staffer and said he will resign today. In a 2004 interview with Religion and Ethics Newsweekly where he spoke at length about evangelicals, he described his church as somewhere between fundamentalist and evangelical.

According to news reports, Souder said in a statement that he “sinned against God, my wife and my family by having a mutual relationship with a part-time member of my staff."

“In the poisonous environment of Washington, D.C., any personal failing is seized upon, often twisted, for political gain,” he said, according to the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette. “I am resigning rather than to put my family through that painful, drawn-out process.

Souder said his job in Congress was all-consuming, “especially in a district with costly, competitive elections every two years. I do not have any sort of ‘normal’ life – for family, for friends, for church, for community.” According to the bio on his website, he and his family attend Emmanuel Community Church, a church associated with the Church of the United Brethren in Christ, in Fort Wayne.

“As I leave public office, my plans are focused upon repairing my marriage, earning back the trust of my family and my community, and renewing my walk with the Lord,” he said.

In 2006, Souder cited Jonathan Edwards and John Muir as influences on his life in a profile in World magazine (subscription required). "The root word is conserve," he said. "Jonathan Edwards was an early environmentalist who believed we should be stewards of what God created. John Muir, the founding influence on national parks, was an avid evangelical and quoted Bible verses all the time."

Though clearly a part of the Christian conservative movement, Mr. Souder does not follow a movement or party line. He voted against three of the four impeachment charges against President Clinton because he thought the president acted immorally but not impeachably. Back in the 1980s, as an aide to then U.S. Rep. Dan Coats, he helped Mr. Coats develop the notion that Christian conservatives need to compete with liberals in offering better ways to help people in need. Later, Texas Gov. George W. Bush would call it compassionate conservatism and take the idea all the way to the White House.

Souder was aide to former Dan Coats' who is running for his old Senate seat.

Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey at May 18, 2010 | Comments (7)

Concerned Women for America is asking the Republican National Committee to explain the party's expense for a $1,946.25 visit to a club with topless dancers and bondage outfits.

"As women we find the very idea of officials from either party conducting business inside an establishment that objectifies and demeans women outrageous," Penny Nance, the Chief Executive Officer of Concerned Women for America, said in a statement today.

Did they really agree to reimburse nearly $2,000 for a bondage-themed night club? We have several questions for the RNC: Why would a staffer believe that this is acceptable, and has this kind of thing been approved in the past?

Please explain to women if and why you think it is appropriate to attach your organizations to pornographic enterprises? Did you really swill drinks, ogle young girls and plan party business at this kind of establishment?

The RNC will be reimbursed by Erik Brown of Orange, Calif., the political consultant who expensed the committee for the February visit to the club, according to the Associated Press.

Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey at March 29, 2010 | Comments (5)

Florida megachurch pastor Joel Hunter told CT today in an e-mail that he has left the Republican Party.

For 40 years I was a registered Republican like Paul was a registered Pharisee after he became a follower of Christ - when it furthered the agenda of the Gospel (as I understood it) then I was active as a Rep. When it didn't, I wasn't.

I was never comfortable being identified with a political Party but the hyper-partisanship and the outside voices hijacking legitimate political debate is not something of which I will be a part.

Christian philanthropist Howard Ahmanson left the GOP to become a Democrat in May 2009.

CT has profiled Hunter and interviewed him several times in the past about his relationship with President Obama.

(h/t Ben Smith)

Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey at March 12, 2010 | Comments (28)

Focus on the Family founder James Dobson today endorsed Texas Governor Rick Perry for re-election, according to CNN.

Perry faces a primary battle against Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, who was endorsed by former President George H.W. Bush in January.

"Over the years, Gov. Perry has established a record that is consistently pro-life, pro-marriage and pro-religious liberty," Dobson said in a statement. "No other candidate in this race measures up to the high standards established by Gov. Perry on these critical issues of our day."

In the 2008 election, Dobson endorsed former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee in the primaries and later endorsed Arizona Senator John McCain. Dobson retired from his role at Focus on the Family but announced he would begin his own radio show. The Colorado Springs Gazette reported that Dobson's show will begin February 26.

Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey at February 22, 2010 | Comments (13)

Former Indiana Senator Dan Coats threw his hat into the ring yesterday and announced his plan to campaign against Indiana Senator Evan Bayh this year.

Democrats quickly began attacking Coats's lobbying background and criticizing his residency in Virginia. In Talking Points Memo style, Marc Ambinder considers other Republicans the Democrats may have to overcome this year, including Roy Blunt of Missouri, Rob Portman of Ohio, Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, Rob Simmons of Connecticut, Mike Castle of Delaware, Mark Kirk of Illinois, and John Boozman of Arkansas.

Coats served four terms in the House of Representatives before he was appointed to replace Dan Quayle in the Senate when Quayle became vice president. He was elected in 1990 and in 1992 won the seat outright and served as ambassador to Germany under President Bush. Bayh, a former two-term governor, was elected in 1998 to succeed Coats, who chose not to seek re-election then.

Christianity Today wrote about Evan Bayh's possibility as President Obama's vice presidential candidate and spoke with Coats, a graduate of Wheaton College, when he first retired from the Senate.

Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey at February 11, 2010 | Comments (6)

Chris Christie became the first Republican in several years to become New Jersey's governor in the Democratic-leaning state.

He joins Virginia governor-elect Bob McConnell as the second Republican Catholic to be voted into gubernatorial office today.

The Associated Press reports that with 75 percent of the precincts reporting, Christie leads with 50 percent of the vote over his Democratic opponent Gov. Jon Corzine, who is left with 44 percent of the vote. President Obama invested in the race, campaigning with Corzine five times on three visits.

During the campaign, Corzine targeted Christie in an ad criticizing Christie's support of a constitutional ban on abortion and opposition of funding stem cell research.

Christie has explained his positions on social issues to the Star-Ledger.

In an interview, Christie today outlined his own positions on social issues, saying he evolved from pro-choice to pro-life with the birth of his children but would not use the governor's office to "force that down people's throats." However, he said he favors restrictions on abortion rights such as banning partial-birth abortions and requiring parental notification and a 24-hour waiting period.

He said he favors the state's current law allowing same-sex couples to form civil unions but would veto a bill legalizing same-sex marriage if it reached his desk. Corzine has said he would sign such a bill.

Late last week, Ben Smith of Politico reported that on two groups that were mailing out information about cultural issues in the race.

A pair of conservative advocacy groups -- the New Jersey Faith & Freedom Coalition and the New Jersey Family Policy Council -- are dropping mail in the Garden State that takes on Corzine and Daggett on cultural issues.

The pieces, which got into the hands of Democrats, were mailed to a household with an Irish last name, surely under the assumption that said household was Catholic.

Running in deep-blue Jersey, Christie has avoided cultural issues during the campaign.

Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey at November 3, 2009 | Comments (4)

Republican Bob McDonnell won Virginia's governor race today, becoming the second Catholic governor of Virginia, the Associated Press reports. Outgoing Democratic Gov. Tim Kaine became the first.

The former state attorney general defeated Democratic candidate, R. Creigh Deeds, who attempted to slam McDonnell for his 1989 master’s thesis while attending Regent University. McDonnell had described working women and feminists as "detrimental" to the family. Deeds's strategy didn't work, the Washington Post writes.

The strategy appeared to work for a time, as polls tightened. But McDonnell fought back with a series of TV spots featuring supportive testimonials from his daughter, an Army veteran who served in Iraq, and a gallery of professional women who had worked for him in the attorney general's office. Increasingly, voters said they saw Deeds's campaign as a largely negative one that failed to define his own vision for the state.

The Post also reports that McConnell was careful not to alienate independents or Democrats, praising President Obama for promoting charter schools and fatherhood.

Although known for a social conservatism deeply informed by his religious faith during his 14 years as a delegate representing Virginia Beach, during the gubernatorial campaign McDonnell studiously avoided controversial such social issues as abortion, immigration and gun rights, largely neutralizing the Democrats' effort to portray him as an extremist with a stealth agenda.

The New York Times reports that McDonnell kept his distance from the further right end of his party. Ian Urbina writes, "When the conservative activist Ralph Reed sponsored robo-calls to voters featuring former Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska asking them to vote their values, Mr. McDonnell’s campaign declined to answer questions about the calls and emphasized that the campaign had not asked Ms. Palin to make them."

Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey at November 3, 2009 | Comments (1)

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee comes in first among likely Republican voters for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination, according to a new Rasmussen Reports poll released today.

And even though former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin’s forthcoming autobiography has topped Amazon book charts for weeks, she trails (18 percent) Huckabee (29 percent) and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (24 percent). In July, voters placed Romney (25 percent) and Palin (24 percent) in a close tie while Huckabee finished a close third at 22 percent.

This time around among evangelicals, Huckabee leads Palin by 17 percent while Palin beats Romney by 14 percent.

In other news:

-- Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, apologized last week for giving a "Josef Mengele Award" (referring to a Nazi doctor) to President Obama's health care adviser Zeke Emanuel.

"I was using hyperbole for effect and never intended to actually equate anyone in the Obama administration with Dr. Mengele," he wrote. "I apologize to everyone who found such references hurtful," Dr. Land continued. "Given the pain and suffering of so many Jewish and other victims of the Nazi regime, I will certainly seek to exercise far more care in my use of language in future discussions of the issues at stake in the healthcare debate."

-- U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder focused mostly on hate crimes in his address to the Anti-Defamation League Saturday night, touching on anti-Semitism and crimes against Muslims.

-- While the world waited for each update on balloon boy last week, another boy--4th-grader Terence Scott--asked Obama at the University of New Orleans, "Why do people hate you?" "They supposed to love you," said the youngster, "and God is love."

Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey at October 19, 2009 | Comments (2)

South Carolina First Lady Jenny Sanford offers forgiveness to her husband and his mistress in her first interview since he admitted his affair. The Vogue article describes her shock, struggles, and faith. See my post on Her.meneutics for more.

Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey at August 17, 2009 | Comments (0)

Tennessee Republican Paul Stanley announced yesterday that he was resigning from the state Senate after his affair with an intern became public.

"I have decided to focus my full attention on my family," the a 47-year-old evangelical said in a statement. Stanley defended his support of a ban on adoptions by unmarried couples in a radio interview yesterday.

"Whatever I stood for and advocated, I still believe to be true," he said. "And just because I fell far short of what God's standard was for me and my wife, doesn't mean that that standard is reduced in the least bit."

The intern's boyfriend had threatened to release nude photos of her unless Stanley paid him $10,000, according to news reports.

Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey at July 29, 2009 | Comments (5)

South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford's saga has taken a turn with the latest revelations that he had "crossed the line" with other women. Al Mohler, Charles Colson, and La Shawn Barber seem pretty disgusted with his "love story" description.

"This was a whole lot more than a simple affair, this was a love story," Sanford told the Associated Press. "A forbidden one, a tragic one, but a love story at the end of the day."

As Dan Gilgoff noted, few conservative Christian organizations have spoken up on Sanford while politicians and pundits discuss whether he should resign. But here's Mohler's latest.

David acknowledged the reality of his sin, expressed his hatred of the sin, and became a model for us all of repentance. Governor Sanford, on the other hand, demonstrates the audacity to speak wistfully of his sin, longingly of his lover, and romantically of his descent into unfaithfulness.

Governor Sanford is no King David, and the people of South Carolina -- as well as the watching world -- now observe the sad spectacle of a man who, while admitting to wrongdoing, shows no genuine repentance.

...If the governor is really serious about demonstrating character to his four sons, he should resign his office and give himself unreservedly to his wife and family.

Colson and others discuss Sanford's use of biblical analogies on The New York Times website.

Having read the governor's latest statements about several prior dalliances (enough confessing already, please) I think he needs to go home, and get his own house in order before he can do much for the state of South Carolina.

It's time to bring this tawdry and embarrassing soap opera to a quick ending. I pray for the governor, his wife and his four kids. Get that together, governor, and everything else will fall into place.

Here's what Barber has to say:

But Governor Sanford seems neither humbled by nor contrite about his dishonorable actions, despite the tears. He's admitted to more dalliances and stated publicly that he doesn't love his wife. If he truly were contrite, he'd do the honorable thing and resign. But not only will he not resign, he compared himself to King David of Israel:

The only conservative organization I could find that is tackling the Sanford affair is the Palmetto Family Council in South Carolina, which has started a petition called "Stand with Jenny." I wrote more about Jenny Sanford on Her.meneutics, the Christianity Today blog for women.
A spokesperson told Newsweek that the petition had about 1,000 signatures yesterday.

Oran P. Smith, president and CEO of the Palmetto Family Council, told Mark Barna that the group originally called for forgiveness toward Gov. Sanford. But then the group received pushback from its female constituents. "Women said we should not let this go without people understanding the gravity of what he's done," Smith said.

Meanwhile, the Associated Press and World magazine have done a nice job rounding up the details behind "C Street," which Sanford referred to last week.

The AP tries to make sense of how Sanford could be "in love" with his mistress but love his wife and kids at the same time.

So while there are countless romantics out there urging Sanford to follow his heart, he can expect mostly tough love from his own spiritual community.

"The emotions are the icing on the cake," says Ben Witherington, a New Testament professor at Kentucky's Asbury Theological Seminary. "They're not the cake."

Witherington says feelings are a "notoriously unreliable guide" in personal relationships because they tend to change with time. Marriage is not just a commitment of will, he says, but a commitment before God.

"That's why, at a Christian wedding service, you don't say, 'I feel like' and 'I feel like.' You say, 'I will' and 'I will,' 'I do' and 'I do.'"

Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey at July 2, 2009 | Comments (12)

South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford admitted today that he saw his mistress more times, including what was supposed to be a farewell meeting in New York accompanied by a spiritual adviser, according to an Associated Press report.

The governor told that AP that with his wife's permission, went to New York with a "trusted spiritual adviser" serving as chaperone to end the affair. The three went to church and dinner together and parted ways the same night. The AP article does not indicate who the adviser was.

The AP also interviewed the man Sanford referred to during his press conference as a "spiritual giant," who declined to say whether he had met Sanford's mistress. Sanford and his wife attended Warren "Cubby" Culbertson's spiritual "boot camp."

He thinks Sanford was simply caught off guard by "the power of darkness." Culbertson also thinks that the only thing holding his friends' marriage together right now is "their vow to God."

"Because it's not feelings - it's not emotions," Culbertson said, the smile fading from his tanned face. "For most Christians, at some point in your marriage, if you're married long enough, you do it because that's what we're called to do - out of obedience instead of out of passion. And I think that's where Mark and Jenny are right now."

As politicians and pundits discussed debate whether Sanford should resign, he apologized to members of his cabinet, referring to the story of David and Bathsheba in the Bible.

"What I find interesting is the story of David, and the way in which he fell mightily - fell in very, very significant ways, but then picked up the pieces and built from there," he said.

Sanford offered an apology on his website using words like grace, renewal, and the sin of pride.

So in the aftermath of this failure I want to not only apologize, but to commit to growing personally and spiritually. Immediately after all this unfolded last week I had thought I would resign - as I believe in the military model of leadership and when trust of any form is broken one lays down the sword. A long list of close friends have suggested otherwise - that for God to really work in my life I shouldn't be getting off so lightly.

The full letter is after the jump:

Dear Friends,

I write to apologize and ask for your forgiveness.

Well beyond the personal consequences within my own family, I know that at so many different levels my actions have upset, offended and disappointed friends and supporters and for this I am most sorry. As I mentioned in last week's press conference, I've always believed God's laws were there to protect us from ourselves, and what has transpired over this last week vividly illustrates the damage that comes personally, and to those you love and respect, in doing otherwise.

So in the aftermath of this failure I want to not only apologize, but to commit to growing personally and spiritually. Immediately after all this unfolded last week I had thought I would resign - as I believe in the military model of leadership and when trust of any form is broken one lays down the sword. A long list of close friends have suggested otherwise - that for God to really work in my life I shouldn't be getting off so lightly. While it would be personally easier to exit stage left, their point has been that my larger sin was the sin of pride. They contended that in many instances I may well have held the right position on limited government, spending or taxes - but that if my spirit wasn't right in the presentation of those ideas to people in the General Assembly, or elsewhere, I could elicit the response that I had at many times indeed gotten from other state leaders.

Their belief was that if I walked in with a real spirit of humility then this last legislative term could well be our most productive one - and that outside this term, I would ultimately be a better person and of more service in whatever doors God opened next in life if I stuck around to learn lessons rather than running and hiding down at the farm.

They have also made the point that a good part of life is about scripts - that the idea of redemption isn't something that Marshall, Landon, Bolton and Blake should just read about, it's something they should see. Accordingly, they suggested that there was a very different life script that would be lived and learned by our boys, and thousands like them, if this story simply ended with scandal and then the end of office - versus a fall from grace and then renewal and rebuilding and growth in its aftermath.

I won't belabor all these points, but I did want to write as expressed earlier to say that I'm sorry and that more than anything I personally ask for your prayers for me, Jenny, the boys and so many others who have been impacted by what I have done.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. Take care.

Mark

Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey at June 30, 2009 | Comments (28)

Mark Sanford, the governor of South Carolina, admitted that he had an affair with a woman in Argentina after mysteriously disappearing from the public for several days.

"God's law indeed is there to protect you from yourself, and there are consequences if you breach that," he said in a press conference today. "I've been unfaithful to my wife. I've developed a relationship with what started out as a dear, dear friend from Argentina."

He also alluded to getting counseling through "C Street," which Dan Gilgoff connects to The Fellowship, the Christian group behind the National Prayer Breakfast.

Reporter: Did your wife and your family know about the affair before the trip to Argentina?

Sanford: Yes. We've been working through this thing for about the last five months. I've been to a lot of different - as part of what we called "C Street" when I was in Washington. It was, believe it or not, a Christian Bible study - some folks that asked members of Congress hard questions that I think were very, very important. And I've been working with them. I see Cubby Culbertson in the back of the room. I would consider him a spiritual giant. . . .

Family Research Council had Sanford on their weekly radio show on June 12 to ask Sanford why he objected to taking stimulus money.
"The Bible is very, very clear about the principle of debt and who owns who in the equation of debt," Sanford told Tony Perkins.
Perkins replied, "The Bible says the borrower is the servants to the lender and I think the concerns here is the strings that may attached to these federal monies." Sanford was also invited to attend to the 2009 Voters Values Summit but his photo has been taken down.

A Newsweek profile in May says he thought the religious right has been too influential in recent years, but the profile doesn't offer more details.

A 2007 New York Times article indicated that several conservative evangelical leaders courted Sanford, but he declined their requests to be a guest at their meeting.

Finally, in a measure of their dissatisfaction, a delegation of prominent conservatives at Amelia Island tried to enlist as a candidate Gov. Mark Sanford of South Carolina, a guest speaker at the event. A charismatic politician with a clear conservative record, Mr. Sanford is almost unknown outside his home state and has done nothing to prepare for a presidential run. He firmly declined the group's entreaties, people involved in the recruiting effort said. A spokesman for Mr. Sanford said he would not comment.

Sanford's wife Jenny said in a statement that she asked her husband to leave home and stop talking to her two weeks ago.

I believe Mark has earned a chance to resurrect our marriage.

Psalm 127 states that sons are a gift from the Lord and children a reward from Him. I will continue to pour my energy into raising our sons to be honorable young men. I remain willing to forgive Mark completely for his indiscretions and to welcome him back, in time, if he continues to work toward reconciliation with a true spirit of humility and repentance.

This is a very painful time for us and I would humbly request now that members of the media respect the privacy of my boys and me as we struggle together to continue on with our lives and as I seek the wisdom of Solomon, the strength and patience of Job and the grace of God in helping to heal my family.

Fox's Neil Cavuto asked Rudy Giuliani whether he had any advice for Mark Sanford.

"Tell the truth. Just tell the truth. You're human. You make terrible mistakes. You commit sins. Think of it from a religious point of view. He's a religious man. The whole Christian religion is about salvation and redemption and it's for real. And I really believe that. He really believes that."

Sanford's announcement comes one week after Republican Sen. John Ensign admitted he had an affair.

Update: World Magazine reports that Sanford considered the evangelical Seacoast Church in Mount Pleasant, S.C. as his home church. Sanford's pastor, Greg Surratt declined to tell reporter Jamie Dean whether he knew about Sanford's affair before today.

Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey at June 24, 2009 | Comments (7)

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele has apologized for a recent comment he made that linked Mitt Romney's failed presidential campaign to Republicans' concern about
Romney's Mormon faith.

"It was the base that rejected Mitt because it had issues with Mormonism," Steele told a caller May 8 on a radio talk show when he served as a guest host for conservative Bill Bennett.

The audio and transcript of the portion of the show featuring Steele's comments were posted on Think Progress, the Web site of the Center for American Progress Action Fund.

The Republican National Committee responded by telling reporters that Steele considers Romney to be a "respected" part of the GOP.

"Chairman Steele regrets the way his comments have been interpreted," RNC spokeswoman Gail Gitcho said in The Hill newspaper. "Chairman Steele believes Mitt Romney is a respected and influential voice in the Republican Party and looks to his leadership and ideas to help move our party and our nation in the right direction."

Kim Farah, a spokeswoman for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, declined to comment on the matter.

But Romney spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom told The Hill: "Sometimes when you shoot from the hip you miss the target. This is one of those times."

A 2007 poll by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life found that GOP evangelicals were the most reluctant to consider voting for a Mormon -- 36 percent -- compared to 25 percent of the overall electorate.

Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey at May 12, 2009 | Comments (6)

Former vice presidential candidate Jack Kemp has died, according to the Associated Press. Kemp was diagnosed with cancer in January.

Kemp ran on the presidential ticket with Sen. Bob Dole in 1996. A 1996 New York Times article provides more background on Kemp's faith and politics.

After his marriage, Mr. Kemp became a Presbyterian. He does not like to talk about his religion, although he says he has become a born-again Christian. He is a staunch opponent of legal abortions. But as a politician, he has always been more interested in economic issues than in the social issues like abortion that dominate the political thinking of organizations on the Christian right.

Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey at May 2, 2009 | Comments (3)

Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania caused a surprising turn of events for Washington today when he said he would switch to the Democratic party, possibly taking away enough Republican's Senate filibuster votes.

If Democrat Al Franken is eventually sworn in as the next senator from Minnesota, and Specter successfully switches parties when he runs again in 2010, the Democrats will be able to advance President Obama's agenda more smoothly.

Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey at April 28, 2009 | Comments (5)

Christian philanthropist Howard Ahmanson has announced that he has left the GOP to become a Democrat.

"The Republican Party of the State of California seems to have decided to narrow itself down to one article of faith, which may be described as NTESEBREE: No Tax Shall Ever Be Raised Ever Ever," he writes in a column.

This is how Time described Ahmanson in their cover story on the top 25 evangelicals: "Money makes the Word go round, and this wealthy, conservative Republican couple takes a dizzyingly ecclectic approach to funding evangelism ... The couple, both 55, now are warning powerful conservative Christians about the pitfalls of hubris in the aftermath of their victories over liberals last November."

CT included the Ahmansons in a 2002 story on the "Patrons of the Evangelical Mind."

(h/t Rod Dreher)

Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey at March 25, 2009 | Comments (6)

I confess. After President Obama's address last night, the place I watched it at closed right before Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal's response. So I'm confined to the blogs and Twitter, but even conservatives are saying his delivery needs work.

New York Times columnist David Brooks called it "stale" and "insane" and "a disaster for the Republican Party." (h/t Ben Smith, Politico)

That's unfortunate for Jindal, considering what Brooks told me last week.

Are there other evangelicals you would like to see more of?

I liked Mike Huckabee's campaign. There [are] a bunch of governors who are committed Christians as well as very modern, sophisticated politicians like Bobby Jindal in Louisiana. The people will naturally emerge, I think.

Over at Beliefnet, Rod Dreher makes a religious comparison.

Bobby Jindal was a total disappointment. He was badly over-rehearsed; Matthew, my kid, watched with me and said, "He sounds totally artificial. He sounds like a televangelist." I can't improve on that description. It sounded like that to me too.

On the other hand, Mike Gerson writes on a more positive note for the Washington Post.

It is also an indication of what has been called the "ecumenism of the trenches" -- the remarkable alliance between evangelicals and Catholics on moral issues such as abortion and family values against an aggressive secularism. ... If Jindal runs for president in three or seven years, he will be widely viewed as an evangelical choice.

There is an interesting similarity between Jindal and Kenneth from 30 Rock I couldn't help noticing.

Update: A few of our Twitter followers responded to this blog post. Here are a few replies:

tnhuckaby@CTmagazine I thought he did fine.
sherylshearer@CTmagazine So one poor performance ruins a politician? Plueeze. Way to show grace.
bwscoles@CTmagazine Too bad you printed this. Jindal's strength is substance not delivery. Seems for a "Christian" mag, that should be your focus.

Update #2: Turns out, I wasn't the only one who thought 30 Rock's Kenny and Jindal had some similarities. Here's Kenny's response to the Internet's response to Jindal's response to Obama's speech.

Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey at February 25, 2009 | Comments (12)

The Republican National Committee has elected former Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele chairman, the first black person to fill the position.

Steele, a pro-life Catholic, fought against a moderate image, but advocated for electing moderates to be elected in the party.

"There are a lot of people who would join us and be a party of our efforts who are pro-choice but they love our message on money; they love our value system on family values, broadly speaking, so then how do we cross-appeal," Steele said in a December interview with David Brody of the Christian Broadcasting Network. "How do we make ourselves relevant to the 21st century electorate which is clearly of a different mindset on a host of issues?"

Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey at January 30, 2009 | Comments (2)

Notice how so much political reporting these days about the future of the Republican Party is about the God Gap between religious conservatives and the rest of the party? Much of it hinges on the fact that Sarah Palin has become the movement's new political face. The New York Times reports today that conservatives are already discussing her future political prospects should the McCain-Palin ticket be defeated next Tuesday (The Times says it's "conservatives" who are excited about Palin, but the paper is basically writing about social conservatives):

Whether the Republican presidential ticket wins or loses on Tuesday, a group of prominent conservatives are planning to meet the next day to discuss the way forward, and whatever the outcome, Gov. Sarah Palin will be high on the agenda.

Ms. Palin, of Alaska, has had a rocky time since being named as Senator John McCain's running mate, but to many conservatives her future remains bright. If Mr. McCain wins, she will give the social conservative movement a seat inside the White House. If he loses, she could emerge as a standard bearer for the movement and a potential presidential candidate in 2012, albeit one who will need to address her considerable political damage.

Her prospects, in or out of government, are the subject of intensive conversations among conservative leaders, including the group that will meet next Wednesday in rural Virginia to weigh social, foreign policy and economic issues, as well as the political landscape and the next presidential election.

Ms. Palin's aides insist that winning this time around is her sole objective. But there are signs that she, too, is making sure that she is well positioned for the future if she and Mr. McCain lose.

The 2012 Republican primary could be waged on winning religious conservatives than the '08 GOP primary was, with Mitt Romney, Sarah Palin, and Mike Huckabee vying to become the movement's political standard bearer.

(Originally posted at Beliefnet's God-o-Meter)

Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey at October 29, 2008 | Comments (3)

Not to be a party pooper, but it seems to me that one of the most memorable lines tonight came not from McCain's speech, but from the video that introduced him. Here's how it ended:

"What a life. What a faith. What a family. What good fortune, that America would choose this leader at precisely this time. The stars are aligned. Change will come."

The stars are aligned?

There have been discussions about McCain being superstitious, but I can't imagine that the McCain campaign was really intending to offer a "dog whistle" to astrology fans.

But what were they going for? Gravitas? Were they jealous of the Obama comments they included in their very own "The One" ad?

Whatever the intent, it's an off-key note to sound if you're trying to rally a religious conservative base.

Posted by Ted Olsen at September 4, 2008 | Comments (22)

No comments on abortion from Sarah Palin tonight (at least according to the prepared remarks; she's speaking now). But it sure came up a lot tonight from the podium.

"America's hope is in a seasoned, strong leader in this dangerous world ... a President who knows in the core of his soul that human life begins at conception," said Texas Railroad Commission Chairman Michael Williams.

Mike Huckabee had a similar comment: "It is not above John McCain's pay grade to grasp the simple fact that human life begins at conception, and he is committed to protecting it."

And GOP Chairman Michael Steele told the crowd, "John McCain knows we must empower working families and stand with them against the erosion of our constitutional rights, the corruption of our school systems, the weakening of our families and the taking of human life - born and unborn."

Posted by Ted Olsen at September 3, 2008 | Comments (12)

As tens of thousands of people flee Hurricane Gustav's path, White House officials announced that President Bush and Vice President Cheney will not speak at the Republican National Convention Monday night as planned.

Sen. John McCain said that the convention schedule will be altered, the New York Times reports.

"We must redirect our efforts from the really celebratory event of the nomination of president and vice president of our party to acting as all Americans," McCain said in Mississippi. "We have to go from a party event to a call to the nation for action, action to help our fellow citizens in this time of tragedy and disaster, action in the form of volunteering, donations, reaching out our hands and our hearts and our wallets to the people who are under such great threat from this great natural disaster. I pledge that tomorrow night, and if necessary, throughout our convention if necessary, to act as Americans not Republicans, because America needs us now no matter whether we are Republican or Democrat."

CNN reports that a federally supported computer projection says Gustav could cause up to $29.3 billion in property damage. It also projected that Gustav is headed toward 4.5 million people, 59,953 buildings, including 170 hospitals and at least 1,100 police and fire stations.

Yesterday, Gustav was reported as a category 4 storm but is being reported as a category 3 storm, the same category as Hurricane Katrina three years ago that killed thousands of people.

Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey at August 31, 2008 | Comments (0)

John McCain's vice presidential pick Sarah Palin has a Pentecostal background, but reporters seem to be struggling to define her faith.

A profile in the Wall Street Journal says she's Lutheran.

The Washington Post writes, "Her evangelical Christian faith -- she believes in creationism and is adamantly opposed to abortion -- may help [McCain] court skeptical social conservatives."

Hm. I'm not sure those two beliefs necessarily link to an "evangelical Christian faith."

Instead of assigning a label to her faith, Eric Gorski of the Associated Press reports that a business administrator in Pentecostal Assemblies of God told him that her home church is The Church on the Rock, an independent congregation. A spokeswoman for the McCain-Palin campaign told Gorski that Palin attends different churches and does not consider herself Pentecostal.

Tennessean religion reporter Bob Smietana writes that Palin grew up among evangelicals, and attended the Wasilla Assembly of God as a teenager and young adult. Smietana writes that while in Juneau, Alaska's capital, she sometimes attends Juneau Christian Center, an Assemblies of God congregation.

Boston College professor Alan Wolfe writes at The New Republic that Palin is an evangelical, shaped by the region in which she lives.

"... she is not a Southern evangelical, and therein lies a tale."
Southern Baptists, he writes, became preoccupied with sin, while those in the west were more libertarian where sins could become forgiven.

He writes, "Sarah Palin named two of her children after witches, once took drugs, and refused to sign a bill forbidding domestic benefits for gay couples. Any one of these--especially the first--would raise suspicion in the eyes of a traditional Southern Baptist."

With Richard Land's high praise, however, I'm not seeing that suspicion quite yet.

"Palin, the gun-toting mom, has a libertarian streak in politics and a libertarian streak in religion," Wolfe writes. " ... [W]hile Palin may be quickly endorsed by men speaking in Southern accents, she is neither a Billy Graham nor a Jimmy Carter. American evangelicalism, like John McCain, has many mansions. Sarah Palin inhabits only one of them."

The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life broadly describes Palin as Protestant. Although it's clear that some evangelicals are excited about her, I wonder whether she calls herself an evangelical.

Update:

Fred Barnes wrote last summer in the Weekly Standard how Palin's faith impacts her politics.

"Her Christian faith--Palin grew up attending nondenominational Bible churches--was a minor issue in the race," Barnes wrote. "She told me her faith affects her politics this way: 'I believe everything happens for a purpose. In my own personal life, if I dedicated back to my Creator what I'm trying to create for the good . . . everything will turn out fine.' That same concept applies to her political career, she suggested."

Jay Newton-Small at Time Magazine asked Palin some religion questions two weeks ago.

What's your religion?
Christian.

Any particular...?
No. Bible-believing Christian.

What church do you attend?
A non-denominational Bible church. I was baptized Catholic as a newborn and then my family started going to non-denominational churches throughout our life.

As a side note and not religion related, someone asked me if I feel a kindred spirit with Sarah Palin because our names are so similar. Apparently, her middle name is Louise, so it's Sarah Louise Pulliam vs. Sarah Louise Palin. Just a few typos and I'd be running for VP.

Another update: Mollie over at GetReligion criticizes Wolfe's mention in The New Republic that Palin named two of her children after witches.

Todd Palin told People: "Sarah’s parents were coaches and the whole family was involved in track and I was an athlete in high school, so with our first-born, I was, like, ‘Track!’ Bristol is named after Bristol Bay. That’s where I grew up, that’s where we commercial fish. Willow is a community there in Alaska. And then Piper, you know, there’s just not too many Pipers out there and it’s a cool name. And Trig is a Norse name for 'strength.'"

Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey at August 30, 2008 | Comments (32)

I'm finally in Minneapolis (the airline lost my luggage, but at least I have my laptop), and I'm catching up on the Sarah Palin developments.

Although I've seen thrilling remarks in the press releases from conservative evangelicals, Suzanne Sataline from the Wall Street Journal talked with one evangelical who is more cautious.

Richard Cizik, vice president of the National Association of Evangelicals, said he was initially stunned because he had never heard of the Alaskan governor.

"Do we have a Dan Quayle on our hands? I'm open to being persuaded otherwise if she proves herself," Cizik told Sataline.

"I like some of the personal choices she's made, such as carrying a Downs child to term,'' Cizik said, referring the governor's infant son who has Down Syndrome. "So will millions of evangelicals.''

Cizik has been an outspoken advocate for environmental issues, which drew heavy criticism from some conservative Christians, including Focus on the Family founder James Dobson. Cizik said he and other evangelicals need more information about Palin's views on the environment and global affairs.

"I don't think evangelicals are going to vote for this team for superficial partisan reasons. I think lots of people are looking beyond labels this time around,'' he said to the Journal. He told Sataline he hasn't decided how he will vote.

On the other hand, Dobson is pretty excited. Even though six months ago he planned not to vote for John McCain, he told Dennis Prager, "But I can tell you that if I had to go into the studio, I mean the voting booth today, I would pull that lever."

He said in a statement: "Sen. McCain's selection of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is an outstanding choice that should be extremely reassuring to the conservative base of his party. She is a strong executive who hates corruption and puts principle above politics. After floating the names of Tom Ridge and Sen. Joe Lieberman in recent weeks ? selections that would have created consternation among pro-family Republicans ? Sen. McCain has chosen a solid conservative who has a reputation for espousing common sense."

Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey at August 30, 2008 | Comments (6)

I am watching all the positive press releases from conservative evangelicals roll in on Sen. John McCain's vice president pick. So far, I haven't seen a negative one.

I am dying to blog more, but like the other 15,000 reporters, I have to get to the Denver airport to make it to Minneapolis.

More coming, but for now, Dallas Morning News reporter Jeffrey Weiss writes about her Pentecostal background and Mollie over at GetReligion has pulled together several articles on the religion angle.

Update: The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life has put together a biographical page on Sarah Palin. Right now, it's mostly background information but a closer look at the new Vice Presidential candidate's faith will be coming.

Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey at August 29, 2008 | Comments (84)

Michael Lindsay, a sociologist at Rice University, believes that Sen. John's McCain's decision to pick Alaska Governor Sarah Palin is a strategically brilliant development. Lindsay is author of Faith in the Halls of Power: How Evangelicals Joined the American Elite. I spoke with Lindsay this morning.

"The only dirt I know on [Palin] is that there’s some kind of indication that she was using political pressure to get [her ex-brother-in-law] fired. She has a lot of appeal for evangelicals. She’s pro-life, that’s something that’s important to evangelicals. No Republican has ever won the White House without evangelicals."

"If [McCain] had chosen a pro-choice candidate, like Ridge or Lieberman, [evangelicals] would have voted McCain, but they wouldn’t have mobilized around him. [Palin] is pro-life, she was involved in [Fellowship of Christian Athletes] growing up, she has the right background. Her child has Down syndrome. That shows not only a commitment to pro-life, but to living it out. That will be important for evangelical supporters of McCain. I think evangelicals honestly are probably relieved that McCain chose a pro-life candidate. In my research, the reason so many of these leaders were Republican was because of abortion."

"The real liability McCain faces is that he’s built his campaign against Obama on the issue of experience. Here’s a first term governor who was mayor of a small town in Alaska. Not a lot of executive experience, but McCain may be able to say there are different elements in the campaign that are important."

"I don’t know enough about [Palin] to say if she’s a perfect candidate. She doesn’t have the national profile that Mike Huckabee has. It is possible that McCain can introduce her to evangelicals in a way that’s winsome in the next couple of days."

Is she an evangelical?

"I don’t know what her church attendance is like. She’s been involved with groups that cater to evangelicals, but I don’t know if she is or not."

What about Sen. Obama's religious outreach? Do you think it's working?

"I think he’s very smart in terms of religious outreach. He’s got some great people working on his staff working on that front. The thing about Senator Obama’s campaign is that he does not have to win large segments of the evangelical votes. All he has to do is carve off some of votes in certain places. The cosmopolitan vote is the one most up for grabs."

"A cosmopolitan evangelical is someone who is less interested in converting the country or taking the country back for Christ; they are interested in seeing their faith as attractive. They’re less prone to see the evangelical subculture as their primary point of reference. It’s the cosmopolitan evangelicals that [McCain] has to win over in places like Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida."

Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey at August 29, 2008 | Comments (5)

Sen. John McCain chose Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate, and so far, it seems like bells and whistles from the conservative evangelical community.

Roberta Combs, president of the Christian Coalition of America said in a statement: "Governor Sarah Palin is a bold choice for Vice President who is a courageous advocate for unborn children. In addition, she is a conservative who is a reformer not afraid to shake up the establishment."

Back on Aug. 8, Richard Land told CBS she would be the pick that would most excite Southern Baptists and other conservatives.

"Richard Land: Probably Governor Palin of Alaska, because she's a person of strong faith. She just had her fifth child, a Downs Syndrome child. And there's a wonderful quote that she gave about her baby, and the fact that she would never, ever consider having an abortion just because her child had Downs Syndrome. She's strongly pro-life.

She's a virtual lifetime member of the National Rifle Association. She would ring so many bells. And I just think it would help with independents because she's a woman. She's a reform Governor. I think that, from what I hear, that would be the choice that would probably ring the most bells, along with Mike Huckabee, of course, who's a Southern Baptist."

Family Research Council Action President Tony Perkins said in a statement:

"On February 11th of this year, for example, she signed into law the 'Safe Haven for Infants Act,' facilitating the safe surrender of an unwanted newborn to a place of safety and hope. Her actions contrasts sharply with the Democratic nominee, Senator Barack Obama (D-Ill.), who when he was in the Illinois Senate repeatedly helped to kill a bill that sought to protect babies who survived abortion."

Over on the Between Two Worlds blog Andy Naselli has found an article from four months ago when Al Mohler highlighted the Palin family in an article ("Welcome to the World, Trig Paxson Van Palin") and on his radio show (also titled "Welcome to the World, Trig Paxson Van Palin").

Here's a description of the radio show:

A little boy with an extra chromosome was born on April 18. His name is Trig Paxson Van Palin and his new home is the Alaska Governor's Mansion in Juneau. His mom is Governor Sarah Palin, who along with her husband Todd, has welcomed Trig as their second son and fifth child.

On today's show, Mohler explains why Trig's very existence defies the Culture of Death and gives us all hope.

In 2006, the Anchorage Daily News included her religion in a series of articles on her.

"Her Christian faith, they say, came from her mother, who took her children to area Bible churches as they were growing up (Sarah is the third of four siblings)," Tom Kizzia wrote. "They say her faith has been steady since high school, when she led the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, and grew stronger as she sought out believers in her college years."

Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey at August 29, 2008 | Comments (102)

Tom Minnery, a senior vice president with Focus on the Family, is attending many of the religious outreach events at the Democratic National Convention this week. He spoke with me about the Democrat’s religious outreach and the challenges Sen. John McCain has to overcome with evangelical voters.

What do you think so far?
I was entirely disappointed in their supposed outreach to conservative evangelical believers. It was a fraud. There was a panel, a faith forum, how can progressives work with conservative, religious people. Not a single conservative among then nine speakers and it was tired old leftist dogma. There was absolutely no discussion about responsible fatherhood. There was not a single solution proposed that didn’t involve the government.

What did you think about the interfaith service?
It’s interfaith as long as it’s on the left. I didn’t see a prominent conservative leader speak. Rev. [Blake] who spoke about the evil of abortion, I suspect he won’t be part of the interfaith dialogue in the future. It doesn’t exist. What a shame. I was hoping to see if there was real fruit in this dialogue in the supposed reach out to conservatives. They now have a candidate Barack Obama who is comfortable talking about religion, but his is a traditional liberal theological viewpoint and they went with the flow. Jim Wallis is an increasing disappointment. He may be evangelical theologically, but politically he’s liberal. Rick Warren said last week in that interview with the Wall Street Journal that his book is an agenda of the Democratic Party and I agree with that.

What about the Democrats’ efforts to reduce abortion?
There’s only a reason that abortions should be reduced, and that’s for the very same reason it should be eliminated. If it’s not life, what’s the problem with it?

What about John McCain? He’s struggled to talk about his own faith.
He does. I’m not sure of the extent of his saving faith if there is one. We as evangelicals would have hoped to hear a lot more. I hope those who are Christians who are around him are talking to him. He usually talks about that Vietnam soldier’s faith. It loosened his bonds, scratching a cross in the dirt, I’ve heard that about six times. He does seem to have viable Judeo-Christian worldview, which means that things of God are significant, the church needs to be vigorous and independent, he knows the difference between right and wrong, good and evil.

What objections do evangelicals raise about him as a candidate?
He’s inconsistent on the abortion issue, given his view of the stem-cell research side of it. He has caused great mischief for a lot of organizations including our own who try to do issue advertising to let people know how the politicians stand during the election. We can’t do that because of McCain-Feingold. Finally, the Supreme Court knocked that part of it out, but there’s an increasing number of regulations that we have to deal with, so we don’t appreciate that. I think that his joining the gang of 14 to take control over the Supreme Court justices was ineffective. Obviously we’d like a candidate that supports the Federal Marriage Amendment.

Barack Obama has hired people like Joshua DuBois and John McCain has Marlys Popma. Can you compare their religious outreach and whether it’ll work?
We’ve heard more from Marlys more than we’ve heard from Joshua, probably not a surprise. I think that evangelicals are sophisticated enough to know that you’re never going to get a perfect candidate, so you gotta take the best you can get. It’s been difficult for [Dr. Dobson]. The selection of a vice president will be significant.

There are rumors that he could choose a pro-choice candidate.
I don’t think he will. I hope he will not be that dumb. He’s the candidate who’s trying to appeal to moderates and independents. He needs somebody on the ticket who would appeal to conservatives. It’ll be interesting if it’s Mitt Romney. Mitt Romney seems to be a genuine convert on the marriage issue, on the abortion issue, although there are a small number of evangelicals who really despise him. Mitt Romney’s statements from his own campaign against Ted Kennedy for U.S. Senate in which each vied to be more liberal, those things still reverberate.

What about his Mormon faith?
There’s a concern, sure. I think that would dampen some enthusiasm. I think evangelical voters are sophisticated enough to know that Mitt Romney did not seem to turn the state house in Boston into a Mormon temple and he probably won’t turn his office in the White House into a Mormon temple. Republicans tend to give the next nomination to the guy who’s waiting. Secondly, McCain’s age is a factor ... although his mother’s in her 90s.

Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey at August 27, 2008 | Comments (9)

Sen. John McCain told the Weekly Standard last week that he would consider a pro-abortion candidate, but Fox News reports today that has ruled out former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge.

Republican National Committee officials told Fox today that McCain is no longer considering Ridge, who supports abortion rights. McCain has announced that he will announce his running mate Aug. 26, the day after the Democratic National Convention ends.

Fox reports that senior McCain advisers and aides have told RNC officials that McCain "got the message" last week that choosing a running mate who supports abortion rights would not be helpful.

The National Review reported yesterday that the McCain campaign had called state Republican officials around the country the last couple of days to weigh consequences of a pro-choice running mate.

The Associated Press reports that McCain's top contenders are said to include Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, and Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, the Democratic vice presidential pick in 2000 who now is an independent.

Sen. Barack Obama may announce his running mate this Saturday. His short list includes Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, Delaware Sen. Joseph Biden, Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine and Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh.

Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey at August 19, 2008 | Comments (3)

Huck tells Fox that the Mittster would be a bad choice for VP because of his flipflopping, but not because he's a Mormon: "I think there are better choices for Sen. McCain that have the approval of value voters." It's time to connect the flip-flop charge to the anti-Mormon thing.

Many values voters--i.e. evangelicals--distrust Mormons. Why? Because, in evangelical eyes, Mormons claim to be something they're not; to wit, Christians. People who change positions are not trustworthy because they claim to be something they didn't use to be. The suspicion is they're sailing under false pretenses, pretending to be something they aren't. So what I'd say is that by so vigorously embracing all the values values voters embrace--rather than maintaining a certain distance--Romney actually reinforced anti-Mormon sentiment among evangelicals. (As in: "He says he's just like us? What else would you expect from a Mormon?") Just the opposite of what he intended. And at this point irremediable.

Originally posted at Spiritual Politics.

Posted by Ted Olsen at August 14, 2008 | Comments (4)

It's not the name you typically hear on the lips of Christian Right heavies leaning on John McCain to pick a rock-ribbed social conservative as a running mate: Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. But that's Southern Baptist Convention public policy chief--and Beliefnet blogger--Richard Land cited in his recent CBS News interview as his top veep pick:

CBSNews.com: Who's on the list of people mentioned for VP that you think would most excite Southern Baptists and other members of the conservative faith community?

Richard Land: Probably Governor Palin of Alaska, because she's a person of strong faith. She just had her fifth child, a Downs Syndrome child. And there's a wonderful quote that she gave about her baby, and the fact that she would never, ever consider having an abortion just because her child had Downs Syndrome. She's strongly pro-life.

She's a virtual lifetime member of the National Rifle Association. She would ring so many bells. And I just think it would help with independents because she's a woman. She's a reform Governor. I think that, from what I hear, that would be the choice that would probably ring the most bells, along with Mike Huckabee, of course, who's a Southern Baptist.

On Mitt Romney, meanwhile, Land is personally enthusiastic but says a good chunk of evangelicals would oppose him on religious grounds:

CBSNews.com: And what about Mitt Romney?

Richard Land: I think Mitt Romney would be an excellent choice. There are people in the evangelical community who would have a problem with his Mormonism. I am not one of them. I mean, I'm very clear that I do not believe Mormonism is a Christian faith. But that does not disqualify someone from being President or Vice President. And my guess would be that, probably, about 15 to 20 percent of the evangelical community would have a problem with his Mormonism.

So Palin, eh? If Land's saying it, her name must be making the rounds in evangelical circles. And God-o-Meter thinks Land's got a strong point about her ability to deliver independent women voters. How many other vice presidential picks could excite both cultural conservatives and swing voters?

This article is cross-posted from Beliefnet's God-o-Meter.

Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey at August 11, 2008 | Comments (27)