Asked by a Christianity Today blogger why there was less “religious outreach” at the Republican convention than the Democratic convention, Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., said that in the GOP, “It’s in the DNA. It’s the priest or the pastor that kicks off the convention and prays in the name of Jesus. It’s people speaking of their faith or their testimony. It’s more woven into who we are and what the party is.”
Hillary Clinton has made her experience and competence key selling points to voters. But the ongoing disarray and incompetence in Clinton’s campaign undermines that argument and raises real doubts about whether she’s ready to lead on day one.
According to the New York Times, some of Clinton’s top donors are disappointed by the lavish spending in her latest campaign finance report — such as $5 million for political consultants in January alone, and $25,000 for rooms at the luxury Bellagio hotel in Las Vegas. Even some of her staunchest supporters complain that the loose spending points to “costly errors of judgment†and amounts to “a road map of her political and management failings,†according to the article.
Another sign that the religious conservative Republican base is all over the place: Fred Thompson has won the endorsement of the National Right to Life Committee. This is despite his past work as a lobbyist for a family planning group and his stated lack of support for a federal constitutional amendment against abortion. “I was pro-life on every, every vote,†Thompson said of his Senate voting record. This also follows endorsements of Rudy Giuliani by Pat Robertson, of Mitt Romney by Paul Weyrich, of Mike Huckabee by Donald Wildmon and of John McCain by Sam Brownback.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
“These self-promoting values hacks don’t speak for the American mainstream,” declared New York Times columnist Frank Rich about Tony Perkins, James Dobson (in photo), Gary Bauer and other leaders of the religious right. “They don’t speak for the Republican Party. They no longer speak for many evangelical ministers and their flocks. The emperors of morality have in fact had no clothes for some time. Should Rudy Giuliani end up doing a victory dance at the Republican convention, it will be on their graves.”
Rich cited a CBS News poll that found white evangelical voters care more about the war in Iraq and health care than about any other issues, while abortion and same-sex marriage are at the bottom of their list of election priorities. Yet, Rich noted, the recent Values Voters Summit “didn’t even think to list the war, health care or fighting poverty among the 12 hot-button options.”
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Wichita is ground zero in the latest New York Times Magazine cover story, which says the religious right "shows signs of coming apart beneath its leaders." As we say in our editorial today, writer David D. Kirkpatrick "oversold the idea of an ‘evangelical crackup,’ but there is no question that in Wichita and far beyond, Christians are rethinking how and how much to bring their Bible-based values to bear in the public square."
The article ends with this quote from the Rev. Terry Fox, whose transition from "Jerry Falwell of the Sunflower State" to pastor of Summit Church frames the piece: "Some might compare the religious right to a snake. We may be in our hole right now, but we can come out and bite you at any time."
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Here is another example of the influence religious conservatives have had in the Bush administration: The U.S. Department of Justice has changed its civil rights focus by "aggressively pursuing religion-oriented cases while significantly diminishing its involvement in the traditional area of race," the New York Times reported.
The Times also reported that the department "has transferred or demoted some experienced civil rights litigators while bringing in lawyers, including graduates of religious-affiliated law schools and some people vocal about their faith, who favor the new priorities. That has created some unease, with some career lawyers disdainfully referring to the newcomers as ‘holy hires.’"
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Focus on the Family’s James Dobson may have some free time on Nov. 4, 2008. Having said earlier that he could not vote for John McCain "under any circumstances," Dobson now saysRudy Giuliani wouldn’t get his vote either. The problem? Giuliani’s abortion-rights record and messy personal history. So if either man gets the GOP nomination, Dobson wrote, "I will either cast my ballot for an also-ran — or if worse comes to worst — not vote in a presidential election for the first time in my adult life."
Posted by Rhonda Holman
If the marriage of conservative Christianity and the Republican Party had a matchmaker, it was the Rev. Jerry Falwell, who diedtoday in Lynchburg, Va., at age 73. His Moral Majority became the foundation of the religious right that has so influenced American politics for nearly three decades. His significance was not diminished even by the frequent controversies in which he found himself — such when he said after Sept. 11 that the ACLU, "abortionists," gay rights and the courts had "helped this happen."
For example, though John McCain counted Falwell among the "agents of intolerance" in the GOP in 2000, McCain concluded last year that he would need Falwell if he wanted to win the White House in 2008.
It will be interesting to see how Falwell is eulogized in the coming days, then who rises among social conservatives to take his prominent place in politics.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Last fall’s elections were terrible for social conservatives in Kansas, as Rep. Nancy Boyda, D-Topeka, helped Democrats take over Congress, Gov. Kathleen Sebelius easily won re-election, Attorney General Phill Kline got trounced, and moderates reclaimed the State Board of Education.
Though Tuesday’s municipal elections shouldn’t have been about social issues, some anti-abortion groups tried to make them about that — without electoral success. Their candidate, Wichita Mayor Carlos Mayans, lost badly. If Kevass Harding holds onto his tiny lead, all three conservative candidates for the Wichita school board will have lost.
With these election results and the passage of casino gaming by the Legislature this session, are social conservatives losing their grip on power? If so, will they regroup and rise again?
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
The Rev. R. Albert Mohler Jr. (in photo), president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, triggered a slew of discussion and outrage when he wrote on his blog about a possible genetic "cure" for homosexuality.
Mohler cited past studies and a recent article in Radar magazine that brought up the possibility of genetically treating fetuses for homosexuality. Mohler pondered a time in the future when a hypothetical hormonal patch could transform a mothers’ prenatal son or daughter from a homosexual into a heterosexual.
Human-rights and gay-rights groups have blasted Mohler, as have some Christian conservatives who are upset that he is open to the possibility that gayness may be biological and not a lifestyle choice.
Tyler Gray, the author of the article in Radar magazine, also is unhappy with Mohler’s use of his work. "You can’t just pick the parts that you like and say, ‘I’m going to use this to say that I would be OK with a treatment that would eradicate homosexuality,’ " he told the Washington Post.
Posted by Ross Stewart
Good for the National Association of Evangelicals for standing up to James Dobson (in photo), Tony Perkins, Gary Bauer and other Christian conservatives who claimed that the association was “using the global warming controversy to shift the emphasis away from the great moral issues of our time, notably the sanctity of human life, the integrity of marriage and the teaching of sexual abstinence and morality to our children.”
The real problem is that some conservative Christians want to define evangelism by a few social issues while ignoring other issues that aren’t aligned with their political affiliations. But as association vice president Rich Cizik responded, “We (evangelicals) should be primarily concerned with what the Gospel says, not whether you’re getting off some political train.”
Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne thinks this could be a defining shift for evangelicals. “Those are the words of a New Reformation,” he wrote. “Many evangelicals are boarding a new train. It runs along tracks defined by the broad demands of their faith, not by some party’s political agenda.”
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Religious conservatives’ setbacks in Kansas last year thread through a Rolling Stone piece headlined “Evangelicals in exile.” Look at Kansas and elsewhere, author Robert Dreyfuss suggests, and it looks like the Christian right is on the ropes.
But Democratic strategist James Carville counsels against counting out conservative Christians. “The reports of their demise have been greatly exaggerated. If anybody thinks that they’re not going to exert influence in the Republican nominating process in 2008, they’re nuts.”
Posted by Rhonda Holman
It’s time to stop celebrating the new moderate majority on the Kansas State Board of Education and start worrying about 2008, when the election could once again swing board control back to anti-evolution religious conservatives.
Moderate board member Janet Waugh (in photo) told the Douglas County Democratic Party Saturday that pro-science forces need to start recruiting candidates right away, especially with two moderates — Bill Wagnon of Topeka and Carol Rupe of Wichita — expected to give up their seats in 2008, the Lawrence Journal-World reported.
"We’re only 6-4, and in two years this can turn," she noted.
As if to prove her point, anti-evolution crusader Rev. Terry Fox recently issued a call to arms from the pulpit of his Summit Church in Park City, telling his flock that "these groups that believe that man came from a monkey are back in charge on the board" and vowing that "God’s army is reorganizing and will come again."
Posted by Randy Scholfield
I received three urban legend e-mails in the past week. One was about how the liberal media didn’t report on Billy Graham leading people through the streets of New Orleans (that’s because it never happened). Another was a Paul Harvey commentary on how Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., is linked to the Black Panthers (Harvey never said it, and the claim isn’t true). The third was an Andy Rooney commentary about all the Christian symbols on federal government buildings (Rooney didn’t write it, and much of the information is inaccurate).
Another e-mail making the rounds recently was about how Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., has ties to terrorists.
It seems like all the urban legend e-mails that I get (including an oldie but goody about how Procter & Gamble is satanic) are trying to appeal to conservative Christians. Is that true of most of these e-mail hoaxes, or do these just happen to be the ones that people forward to me? Do liberals have their share of hoax e-mails?
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
If you’re planning a trip to a major city in the last quarter of this year, you may want to reschedule: Millions are expected to die in urban terror attacks around then.
Then again, televangelist Pat Robertson has been wrong before. Last year, for example, he predicted gigantic storms and a tsunami on the Eastern Seaboard. He also famously claimed to have leg-pressed 2,000 pounds.
This year, he’s relaying a recent conversation with God in which he was informed of the terrorist threat.
“The Lord didn’t say nuclear. But I do believe it will be something like that,” Robertson said.
Posted by Dave Knadler
“Since 1992, every national Republican electoral defeat has been accompanied by an obituary for the religious right,” David Kuo (in photo) wrote in a New York Times op-ed piece. “Every one of these obituaries has been premature — after these losses, the religious right only grew stronger.”
But Kuo, who wrote the book “Tempting Faith,” about the betrayal he felt when he was deputy director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, said there was been a “radical change in the attitudes of evangelicals.” He said that instead of directing their energies toward political campaigns, more evangelicals may spend their time helping the poor. One reason: A poll by Beliefnet.com found that nearly 60 percent of non-evangelicals have a more negative view of Jesus because of Christian political involvement.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Much has been made about how an estimated 30 percent of white evangelicals voted for Democrats this election. But that’s only slightly better than the 28 percent who voted for Democrats in 2004, the New York Times reported. And despite the prediction that disillusioned white evangelicals might stay home on Election Day, they made up about 24 percent of those who voted, up from 23 percent in 2004. However, there were a few states — such as Ohio and Pennsylvania — where a shift in these voters did help Democrats. Also, liberal Christians were much more active this election and helped defeat anti-evolution school board candidates and pass ballot initiatives to raise the minimum wage.
So the good news for Republicans is that their white evangelical base held firm, despite the political scandals. But the bad news is that the GOP lost anyway.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
We’ve steered clear of the allegations about evangelical leader Ted Haggard because the initial source looked shaky and the timing seemed suspect.
Now that Haggard has left his pulpit, resigned as president of the National Association of Evangelicals, and a church leader has confirmed “some admission of guilt” — well, let’s just say the blood is in the water.
The allegations first aired Tuesday on a Denver radio station: A guy claiming to be a male prostitute said he had a three-year sexual relationship with Haggard. If that wasn’t enough to make fundamentalist heads start exploding, he also said the preacher used meth during their encounters.
Given that Haggard has been a leader of a Colorado effort to ban same-sex marriages, it’s an understatement to say this is going to have some political fallout, no matter how it ends.
For the record, Haggard denies both the gay sex and the drug use. And James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, denounced the story as a politically motivated attack — just before Haggard put himself on administrative leave.
Posted by Dave Knadler
Leaders of Christianity-based political action groups are finally looking beyond opposition to abortion and same-sex unions and are heeding the Christian call to consider the "least of thy brothers."
Christian leaders such as the Rev. Richard Land (in photo) of the Southern Baptist Convention and the Rev. Ted Haggard, president of the National Association of Evangelicals, are pressuring President Bush to ease the suffering in the Darfur region of Sudan, the Washington Post reported. The leaders are also taking a closer look at environmental issues.
Some conservative Christians feel that a broader approach threatens their current agenda, which has defined and sustained support. But the new leaders are looking at the younger supporters who are more globally aware.
The new head of the Christian Coalition, the Rev. Joel C. Hunter, is seeking to "rebuild and rebrand" the conservative lobbying group by reaching out to a broader base.
Posted by Angie Holladay
Thomas Frank argued in this best-selling book “What’s the Matter With Kansas?” that the GOP talks about abortion and other social issues, but what it accomplishes is tax cuts for the wealthy. But that’s just the disgruntled take of an angry liberal, right?
Well, David Kuo, President Bush’s former deputy director of the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, makes a similar charge in his new book, “Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Political Seduction.” Kuo argues that the Bush administration used the faith-based agenda for political purposes and that White House staffers ridiculed some evangelical supporters as “nuts” and “goofy.” He has also complained about “taking Jesus and reducing him to some precinct captain, to some get-out-the-vote guy.”
Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne says these latest complaints — from one of their own — ought to cause evangelicals to re-evaluate what they are getting out of the partnership with the GOP. He wrote: “Are they mostly being used by a coalition that, when the deals are cut, cares far more about protecting the interests of its wealthy and corporate supporters than its churchgoing foot soldiers?”
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
As part of an editorial calling for tighter limits on funeral protests, the Daily Union in Junction City asked readers to pick which quote goes with which source: Al-Qaida’s Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, or Topeka’s Westboro Baptist Church leader Fred Phelps.
It’s harder than you’d think. Here are the quotes:
A) “Death is better than living on this earth with the unbelievers among us, making a mockery of our religion.”
B) “Stay tuned — it won’t be long and you will have so many dead bodies . . . that you won’t be able to bury them.”
C) “Regardless of how the world has changed after (Sept. 11), ‘Death to America’ will remain our reverberating and powerful slogan: Death to America.”
D) “The world and the United States of America . . . in particular, have deeply corrupted themselves and incurred the wrath of God.”
E) “Your doomed destiny will be annihilation, misfortune and abjectness.”
F) “God hates the U.S.A. and America is doomed.”
G) “The Bush presidency was a bunch of cocky fools. . . . They threw themselves, their people and their nation into a sea of fire from which they are uselessly trying to secure themselves.”
Answers: A) Bin Laden, B) Phelps, C) Nasrallah, D) Phelps, E) Ahmadinejad, F) Phelps, G) Zawahiri.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
The decision by local conservative pastors Joe Wright and Terry Fox to end their talk radio program, “Answering the Call,” is the latest setback for Fox in his aim of reaching a larger audience with his fire-and-brimstone political message.
The duo say their top-rated weekly radio program, launched two years ago, can’t find enough financial supporters willing to underwrite the $10,000 monthly needed to stay on the air.
The cancellation seems to be yet more fallout from Fox’s departure from Immanuel Baptist Church, where he was blamed, among other things, for diverting mission money to the radio program.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
Gov. Kathleen Sebelius said in an interview with The Eagle editorial board last week that she was discouraged by the persistent backward image of Kansas held by some outsiders — and pointed to funeral picket Fred Phelps as a major contributor to that negative image.
But she’s chosen not to speak out against Phelps, she said, because she doesn’t want to give him what he thrives on — publicity. Still, she sounded a note of frustration. “I don’t know what to do about Fred,” she said. “I’ve never known what to do about Fred.”
Meanwhile, one of Fred’s daughters, Margie, had a Reader Views letter in The Eagle Tuesday complaining about how the family’s funeral protests have been portrayed. She vowed that her clan would never be silenced, “because the prophets of God can’t be shut up.”
Posted by Randy Scholfield
When the Rev. Terry Fox resigned as pastor of Wichita’s Immanuel Baptist Church, he said it was because some church members thought he traveled too much, and that any other explanations were just rumors. Getting a top leader at Immanuel to talk about the abrupt departure has been almost impossible. But this week the church released a statement that Fox’s use of church funds to support his radio program was a factor in the resignation. It also said that testimony from many witnesses “reflected negatively on the Scriptural qualifications expected of a pastor” — whatever that means. And it said that Fox threatened to sue “individuals who might say anything negatively” about him.
Earlier, two Immanuel deacons told The Eagle that, in addition to the travel issue, other church concerns were Fox’s “arrogant” attitude toward the congregation, “the appearance of integrity failures,” and his constant references to political and social issues, such as abortion, from the pulpit. Fox denied that he did anything wrong by using church mission money to support his radio program, and he said that he didn’t threaten to sue anyone when he met with church officials.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
A photo in Monday’s Eagle of the Phelps clan picketing a rainbow flag in Meade offered the sad sight of children standing next to signs saying “Soldiers Die God Laughs” and “Fags Eat Poop.”
It underscores how bigotry and hate are perpetuated — through stunted, ignorant parents indoctrinating their children.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
Asked by a Christianity Today blogger why there was less “religious outreach” at the Republican convention than the Democratic convention, Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., said that in the GOP, “It’s in the DNA. It’s the priest or the pastor that kicks off the convention and prays in the name of Jesus. It’s people speaking of their faith or their testimony. It’s more woven into who we are and what the party is.”