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 (3)

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 (13)

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 (29)

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 (8)

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 (1)

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 (5)

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)