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March 27, 2007

Evangelical Leaders Reveal Their Partisanship

Evangelical voters between now and November 2008 will be told it is time for a shift in their priorities from abortion and gay rights to a new crusade: defeating Islamic radicals. If Mitt Romney is telling the truth about the priorities of evangelical leaders, following a closed-door meeting with them, they are most concerned about winning against the Islamic jihad. Or at least, that's what they are saying.

Such a change would turn the conventional wisdom about the 2008 GOP presidential primary on its head. No longer would front-runners Arizona Sen. John McCain and ex-New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani find their moderate (or inconsistent) records on abortion or gay rights a looming liability. Under a "terror values" rubric, both could win over evangelicals with their tough-on-terrorism credentials.

It would also allow Giuliani and Newt Gingrich to sidestep the awkward family values questions that otherwise would confront them in their quest for the evangelical vote.

Romney, meanwhile — who's been courting the Christian right most fervently — would suffer from his lack of experience with national defense and international issues. Same goes for former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, current darling of the right.

Did you have any lingering doubts as to the legitimacy of the religious fervor of evangelical leaders? More than anything, this switch should tell you that they are part of the Republican machine. And that machine wants an insider like Giuliani or Gingrich or maybe McCain in the White House, and not Romney or Huckabee. They know they've got to find a way to overcome the morality baggage of their preferred candidates so they can bring the Christian right along. What better way than to get Evangelical leaders to change the entire debate? Forget morality and Christian values in a candidate – we have to defeat those Muslims who want to kill all Christians! We have to win the war for Christ!

Tony Perkins, president of the conservative Family Research Council, holds a similar opinion. "This is a fundamental clash of world views," Perkins said after he and other Christian-right activists met with McCain at the NRB convention. "More than any other segment of the American population, the evangelical movement understands that because they operate from a biblically-centered worldview."

Many evangelicals take few pains to distinguish between Islam's mainstream and its fringes. Some view our war on terror as the latest in a series of battles that started in the 7th century (when Muslim caliphs conquered Christian North Africa) and includes the Crusades for the Holy Land. Even today, the mistreatment and, in some cases, outright persecution of Christian "remnant" communities in predominantly Muslim countries such as Egypt, Syria and Sudan is a mainstay of Christian broadcasts and mega-church sermons.

With evangelicals holding to a worldview like that, this political strategy is virtually guaranteed to work for the Republicans. And the evangelical leaders are playing their partisan roles to perfection.

This month, Focus on the Family founder James C. Dobson has devoted five episodes of his hugely popular daily radio program to the subject of Islamic radicalism. Through a spokesman, Dobson said that terrorism isn't yet on par with abortion and same-sex marriage as a values issue — but that it will be if there's another terrorist attack on the United States.

With all the questions surrounding 9/11 and which Republicans knew what, when, statements like that from Republican leaders (and that is what these people are) send chills down my spine.

Posted by Becky at March 27, 2007 09:07 AM