Religious Right Leaders Back McCain -- New Set of Problem Pastors?
Frederick Clarkson printable version print page     Bookmark and Share
Wed Jul 02, 2008 at 11:53:48 PM EST
Ohio Religious Right leader Phil Burress recently said of McCain, "We don't like him, and he doesn't like us." But Burress has gotten himself out ahead of the pack of Religious Right leaders who appear poised to finally get around to helping McCain. In the wake of McCain having been recieved by Billy and Franklin Graham, and a widely reported meeting of Religious Right leaders in Denver this week, we are about to see how badly the Religious Right wants to stop Barack Obama, or at least limit the damage.
Burress writes:

As a result of 40 Ohio Pro-Family Forum leaders meeting with two McCain Campaign staffers last Saturday, six of us were asked to meet privately with him yesterday afternoon. There was a lot of media coverage, but the attached story does the best job of explaining the meeting. However, it does leave out the fact the Ohio Pro-Family Leaders have decided to move forward and start working to educate Ohio Values Voters about the vast differences between McCain and Obama. Personally, I can't wait any longer and can't take the chance that Obama will be our next president. I spent an hour sitting next to McCain, questioning him and listening as the group took him to task on issues like embryonic stem cell research. Dr. Willke, Founder of National Right to Life, gave him every reason to reverse himself on that issue. [But apparently, he didn't.] For me this election is primarily about the next Supreme Court appointments, even though McCain is with us on many other issues as well.

About 90 leaders attended the Denver meeting, according to the Associated Press..

"Our shared core values compel us to unite and choose the presidential candidate that best advances those values," said [Matthew] Staver, who heads the Florida-based legal advocacy group Liberty Counsel and originally backed the candidacy of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee. "That obvious choice is Sen. John McCain. I think people left the meeting in unity the likes of which have not been evident through the primaries."

Staver said the result will be more leaders "energizing their base" and targeted efforts in battleground states and states with anti-gay marriage ballot initiatives this fall such as Florida and California.

According to Staver, those in attendance included Phyllis Schlafly, head of the Eagle Forum; pastor and "Left Behind" co-author Tim LaHaye and his wife, Beverly, founder of Concerned Women for America; David Barton, founder of WallBuilders; Rick Scarborough of Vision America; and Don Hodel, a former interior secretary and former president of Colorado Springs-based Focus on the Family.

James Dobson, the founder of Focus on the Family and a fan of neither McCain nor Democratic candidate Barack Obama, did not attend.

Time magazine, which first reported the meeting, says that the group agreed to "unite behind McCain."

Stephen Strang, editor of Charisma magazine, who, like most Religious Right leaders had supported Huckabee, was also present in Denver and has come out for McCain.

But like John Hagee and Rod Parsely, it could be that Strang's support will be a mixed blessing, since Strang also recently backed a controversial Canadian evangelist who, as Richard Bartholomew reports at Talk to Action, boasts of raising the dead, making tumours drop off, meeting angels and Biblical figures, and of being told by God to heal a woman by kicking her in the face.

The views of religious right leaders can range from the merely odd, to the wildly anti-democratic, profoundly bigoted and even horrific, as we saw in the case of John ("McCain threw me under the bus" Hagee.

How far such things will continue to be an issue in the campaign, remains to be seen.




Display:
Here are some excerpts from an email sent out by Charisma magazine yesterday:

More than 90 evangelical leaders representing millions of conservative Christians met in Denver on Tuesday to lament the condition of the religious conservative movement and to conclude they should get behind Sen. John McCain even if they didn't like everything about him as a candidate.

"The alternative is so bad we must support John McCain," said Phyllis Schlafly, founder and president of Eagle Forum, adding that the leaders should have held a strategy meeting in 2001 when it was clear Vice President Dick Cheney wouldn't run for president instead of waiting until four months before the 2008 election.

(emphasis mine)

Dick Cheney for president???? Thank God they didn't hold that strategy meeting!!!!

The entire article is available here, where you can see some of the others who are now endorsing McCain:
http://www.charismamag.com/cms/news/archives/0702081.php

The email also included an excerpt from an accompanying article by Stephen Strang, Charisma's publisher:

Its [sic] well known I supported Gov. Mike Huckabee in the primaries. From my perspective as a conservative Christian he was the perfect candidate--strong on the issues important to me yet an effective leader in Arkansas who is articulate, passionate and caring for those less fortunate.

I couldn't understand why more conservative Christian leaders--especially some in the Arlington Group--didn't support him. Some said he couldn't beat Sen. Hillary Clinton. Ironically Sen. Barack Obama is now the one to beat.

But now I'm supporting Sen. John McCain. I've long admired him as a great American hero. On the important issues I believe he's right on. However, he hasn't cozied up to the so-called religious right. But that's not a problem to me. Too many leaders in the Christian conservative movement wait to see who asks for their support instead of being principled. At least McCain is principled.

That is available in its entirety here:
http://www.strangmail.com/sendstudio/link.php?M=356109&N=1316 &L=3239&F=H


by ulyankee on Thu Jul 03, 2008 at 03:12:18 PM EST



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