Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Monday, 10/27/2008 5:18 pm
It should shock nobody to learn that Gary Glenn, president of the American Family Association of Michigan and early Mike Huckabee supporter, is not particularly gay-friendly and so it doesn’t come as much of a surprise that he would be targeting openly gay candidates in his state:
An activist who opposes gay marriage and same-sex benefits for public employees is trying to raise sexual orientation as an issue in a state House race.
Gary Glenn sent an e-mail Friday to supporters and the media targeting openly gay Democrat Garnet Lewis. Glenn wrote that Lewis is a "homosexual activist with an extremely liberal agenda" not representative of voters in the 98th district, which covers parts of Saginaw and Midland counties.
The e-mail notes Lewis has been endorsed by Michigan Equality, Triangle Pride and other gay rights groups.
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Lewis said she's been open about her sexual orientation, which was mentioned in some media reports as early as this summer. But she said she was disappointed that Glenn would try to make it a campaign issue because it's "old news."
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Glenn was a major backer of the successful 2004 campaign to define marriage as between one man and one woman in the Michigan Constitution. He lives in Midland County and is president of the American Family Association of Michigan and chairman of the Campaign for Michigan Families political action committee.
But it looks like you don’t even have to be gay to be the target of Glenn’s ire - all you need really is to have been in some way associated with a gay rights group:
As the November election approaches, a group claiming to promote Michigan families is renewing a campaign that attacks an Allegan County judge for his ties to homosexual groups.
The Campaign for Michigan Families, a political action committee, plans to run 60-second radio spots on Judge William Baillargeon's background. The spots are to air on five West Michigan radio stations.
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The radio campaign attacking Baillargeon comes after the Campaign for Michigan Families, chaired by Gary Glenn of the American Family Association of Michigan, sponsored a round of recorded phone calls to voters about Baillargeon before the August primary.
The robo-calls featured essentially the same message as the radio ads, touting Baillargeon's past service on the board of advisers for the Detroit-based Triangle Foundation, which serves the gay and lesbian community, and asking voters if Baillargeon can be trusted to uphold "our values, given his background."
Baillargeon says that his relationship to the Triangle Foundation “was limited to having his name placed on a ‘resource list’ so that the group could refer legal questions to him,” but apparently that was enough to get Glenn to question “his values” and seek his defeat.
Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Monday, 10/27/2008 4:34 pm
While checking in to see what David Barton had planned for the last week of the election campaign, I was intrigued to see that he was scheduled to be at Cornerstone Church on the Sunday before the election:
Cornerstone just happens to be the mega-church founded and run by John Hagee, and if you check out their calendar, sure enough you find Barton listed as scheduled to speak at both services that day:
Presumably, Barton will be enlightening Hagee’s audience with speechifying regarding the importance of electing candidates who will ensure that their Supreme Court nominees deliver decisions that are "right on Biblical values” and delivering his standard presentation about the vital role “values voters” play in electing Republicans.
Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Monday, 10/27/2008 4:13 pm
During the Values Voter Summit, Gary Bauer told his audience that terrorists were poised to detonate a nuclear dirty bomb here in the US and so they had better vote for John McCain.
Now, via Sarah Posner, we see that Bauer issued an even more dire warning when he recently appeared on Rod Parsley’s “Breakthrough”
Religious-right honchos are girding the troops for political apocalypse. Townhall magazine, owned by Salem Communications, one of the largest Christian broadcasters in the country, ran a September feature, "Obamageddon: Could We Survive a Barack Presidency?" This month evangelical publishing giant Stephen Strang, whose magazine Charisma endorsed McCain, predicted that "life as we know it will end if Obama is elected." Last week, the political arm of James Dobson's Focus on the Family sent out a "Letter from 2012 in Obama's America", a 16-page parade of horribles, and talk radio show host Janet Porter imagined that Christians will be imprisoned with Obama in the Oval Office.
Christian right activist and McCain supporter Gary Bauer openly worried to televangelist Rod Parsley that an Obama presidency could mean that "God could take his hand of protection off of America." Further economic woes? A national security or military crisis? Don't blame the morally bankrupt party that the religious right has enabled for the past three decades. Blame Obamageddon.
Here’s the video in which Bauer explains to Parsley that America was founded on the idea that “only a virtuous people could remain free” and that, for the last several decades, we’ve been “throwing the idea of virtue right out the window.” Bauer warns that if the nation does not re-discover the idea that it is to be a nation governed by “ordered liberty under God” we will face disaster because “at some point, God could take his hand of protection off of America”:
Months after rolling out pages for "American Indians for McCain and "Arab Americans for McCain," the McCain camp has added an "Americans of Faith" page to its web site.
Not much to the page, just short explanations--none more than 105 words--of McCain's stances in four areas: "Judicial Philosophy," "Protecting Marriage," "Human Dignity and Life," "Service, Community and Values."
In fact, the page is so rudimentary that GOM has decided to lower McCain's reading.
It tells you just how amazingly ill-planned and poorly executed McCain’s outreach to the Right has been that he is rolling out a new webpage aimed at them at the last minute – so much so that it led Gilgoff to actually lower McCain’s God-O-Meter rating.
Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Monday, 10/27/2008 1:16 pm
Over the weekend, Mike Huckabee attended a fundraiser for a couple of Republican candidates in Louisiana during which he urged those in attendance to get on their knees and thank God if John McCain wins … and get on their knees and pray if Barack Obama wins:
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, a minister, couldn’t resist a reference to prayer as he addressed a Republican crowd here Sunday during a fund-raiser to benefit party nominee U.S. Sen. John McCain.
“If Sen. McCain wins, we should get on our knees and thank the Lord,” said Huckabee, who was hosted by Squire Creek Country Club developer James Davison and 5th District U.S. Rep. Rodney Alexander. “If Sen. Obama wins, we’ll need to get on our knees and pray even harder.”
He was also asked about his future presidential aspirations and said he couldn’t rule it out:
Huckabee didn’t rule out another run at the White House. “It’s hard to say,” he said when asked about his future role in the national party. “I honestly don’t know.”
Want to annoy Barack Obama and the Democrats? Support Huck PAC and our conservative candidates with a contribution of $10 or more and we will send you our new Huck PAC "HUCK" bumper sticker.
It’s rather odd that Huckabee is offering stickers featuring his own name just a week before John McCain appears poised to lose this election. Purely coincidence, I’m sure.
Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Monday, 10/27/2008 11:59 am
For those hoping that a victory by Barack Obama might somehow restrain or moderate the Religious Right … well, you are going to be disappointed since the Right is already looking ahead and planning on reconstituting itself by rallying around Sarah Palin and launching an all-out culture war:
"An Obama victory will galvanize social conservatives for 2010 and 2012 and they will look for a standard bearer they can rally around," said Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, the public policy arm of America's largest evangelical group.
Land told Reuters the candidate most likely to "rally the troops" under an Obama administration looked to be McCain's running mate Sarah Palin.
The Alaska governor has excited the evangelical base but her strident opposition to abortion rights and other hard-core conservative positions have alienated more moderate voters.
William Donohue, president of the conservative Catholic League which opposes abortion rights, said religious conservatives were bracing for a new phase in the "culture wars."
"I've been on the phone the last couple of days with some of my friends ... and we're getting ready for the biggest culture war battles ever," Donohue said.
"There is nobody in the history of the United States who has run for president who is a more enthusiastic supporter of abortion rights than Obama," he said.
Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Monday, 10/27/2008 10:58 am
Last week we noted that the Right was none-too-pleased that the National Republican Campaign Committee had pulled its advertising from the re-election campaigns of both Rep. Michelle Bachmann (MN) and Rep. Marilyn Musgrave (CO) and that the Family Research Council had threatened that they would shut down their own efforts to raise money for NRCC if they didn’t change course.
Well, it looks like some Religious Right leaders aren’t waiting around for the NRCC to change its mind and have decided to raise money for them themselves, which is why David Barton is sending out emails begging donors to support Musgrave because they can’t afford to lose “her voice for our values in Congress”
I want to bring a special need to your attention. We are 10 days out from one of the most critical elections in our nation's history. While great attention has been focused on the Presidential race, numerous pro-family Congressmen are also currently running who desperately need your help!
One of these pro-family champions is Congresswoman Marilyn Musgrave. She is an asset to the pro-family movementand has been instrumental in helping secure many pro-faith and pro-family victories, including being the original sponsorof the Federal Marriage Amendment. But sheneeds your help today!!!
She is in a tight race against a pro-choice, pro-homosexual liberal and is under vicious attack from the secular left. She is the top target of the pro-homosexual movement because of her firm stance on protecting traditional marriage at the federal level.
In the past two elections, Tim Gill, a homosexual activist billionaire, has personally funneled several million dollars through numerous organizations to defeat Marilyn. He recently stated that one of his greatest frustrations in life has been his inability to remove her from office, so in this election he has pulled out all stops and is pouring even more into the race against her. The homosexual movement has made it their goal to take out the most visible leader in the pro-marriage movement. Current polling shows that they are very close in their goal of removing her.
She needs your help today, whether it's $5-$10 or whether it's the maximum of $2300 per person; you can make a difference! Marilyn has stood strong for all of us, and now we need to stand strong for her! We don't want to lose her voice for our values in Congress.
Also, if you have some time available and can travel to her campaign office in Greeley, CO, or to the Victory Centers in Greeley and Ft. Collins, please volunteer to make phone calls or block walk and encourage people to early vote. By Election Day, over 85% of the district will have already voted - so she needs your help TODAY!
...
I have known Marilyn for years and have worked closely with her on a number of faith and family issues in Congress. I personally and heartily endorse her candidacy and ask you to consider making a contribution to her campaign-- either with time or money. (Each individual may contribute up to $2,300, but contributions of any size will be very helpful.) Any contribution you make will definitely be investing money in the future of a healthy America.
Please help make a difference in this race, for she is running for all of us!
Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, a conservative Christian lobby based in Washington, said in an interview, “It’s more important than the presidential election.”
“We’ve picked bad presidents before, and we’ve survived as a nation,” said Mr. Perkins, who has made two trips to California in the last six weeks. “But we will not survive if we lose the institution of marriage.”
So dire is the threat that Lou Engle is gathering his prayer warriors in an effort to call forth divine intervention and save America from the forces of evil:
Preachers from other parts of the country have dropped everything and moved to California in recent months. Lou Engle, who leads TheCall, a charismatic prayer ministry in Washington and Kansas City, Mo., with a large following among youth, moved with his seven children to California in September. He is holding large prayer rallies up and down the state, urging people to pray and fast for the 40 days leading up to the election. Some people are giving up solid foods; others are giving up clothes shopping or their favorite television shows.
“We believe there is a spiritual battle in an unseen realm, and that’s why I’ve called for united prayer for divine intervention,” Mr. Engle said. “It’s a defining moment for the definition of marriage in American history.”
For his part, Perkins begins laying the blame should McCain go down in defeat, saying that he’s failed to make marriage an issue in the campaign and is therefore failing to secure the electoral support of the anti-gay movement:
Mr. Perkins of the Family Research Council said the Proposition 8 forces had not benefited from the Republican presidential campaign of Senator John McCain of Arizona or even by his selection of Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, an outspoken Christian conservative, as his vice-presidential running mate.
“He’s not helping, and he’s not being helped by the support for the marriage amendment,” Mr. Perkins said, in contrast to the campaigns of President Bush.
I expect that we’ll be seeing a lot more of this finger-pointing from the Right if McCain loses next week.
Submitted by Anonymous on Saturday, 10/25/2008 12:08 pm
By now, you’ve probably heard about this segment on Thursday’s NBC Evening News:
Brian Williams asked Sarah Palin if “an abortion clinic bomber [is] a terrorist under this definition” and she answered, “Now others who would to engage in harming innocent Americans or facilities, I don’t know if you’re gonna use the word ‘terrorist’ there, but it’s unacceptable, and it would not be condoned of course on our watch.”
As others have noted, it’s disturbing that after 7 murders, 17 attempted murders, 41 bombings, 175 acts of arson and hundreds of cases of death threats, stalking, assault, and break-ins, Palin doesn’t think it’s appropriate to use the T-word.
But what has been mostly overlooked is the fact that the comments by Palin, a self-described “hardcore pro-lifer,” run contrary to the longstanding position of American law enforcement.
For instance, the FBI has long considered acts of violence by radical anti-abortion activists to be domestic terrorism. In its 2002-2005 Terrorism in the United States report, Eric Rudolph – the man responsible for two abortion clinic bombings, the Olympic Park bombing, multiple deaths and serious injuries to many more – is described as falling into the “FBI’s 'lone offender' category of terrorist for those who engage in terrorist activities free from organizational guidance.”
The FBI defines domestic terrorism, logically enough, as “the unlawful use, or threatened use, of force or violence by a group or individual based and operating entirely within the United States or its territories without foreign direction committed against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives.” In other words, Palin is out of step with the FBI.
But don’t expect John McCain to set his running mate straight on the issue. He opposed the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act – a crucial anti-domestic terrorism bill which led to a considerable reduction in violence – when it came before him in the Senate, so he too is willing to pander to the far right on this issue.
Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Friday, 10/24/2008 10:47 am
Rick Warren is often considered one of the most influential leaders of the so-called "New Evangelical" movement that is working to expand the evangelical agenda beyond its anti-gay, anti-abortion traditions to embrace things like poverty, climate change, and human rights. As we've pointed out before, Warren's reputation of not being part of the old-school Religious Right tends to make people overlook the fact that he does share a great many of their views ... as he says, the only real difference between himself and someone like James Dobson is their tone.
While the media might be fooled by this distinction without a difference, the Religious Right certainly hasn’t been and earlier this week Jan LaRue, formerly of Concerned Women for America, penned a column in which she complained that churches in California were not being active enough in mobilizing support for Prop 8 and called out Rick Warren specifically:
Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church, hosted a Presidential Candidates Forum at the church on Aug. 16. He asked John McCain and Barack Obama if the California Supreme Court got it wrong when it overturned the definition of marriage.
Here’s a question for Rick Warren: Do you think the court got it wrong? If you do, where’s your support for Prop 8? There’s no mention of it on Saddleback’s Web site. Your office isn’t returning calls requesting information. You hosted an AIDS summit. Where’s your Prop 8 summit?
It was a good question, considering that back in 2004, Warren declared the question of where presidential candidates stand on the issue of "homosexual marriage" to be one of the "5 issues that are non-negotiable" to Christians. As such, it was odd that he hadn’t taken a public stand at a time when the issue is on the ballot in his home state.
Pastor Rick Warren is endorsing the effort to protect traditional marriage in California.
The well-known Christian author says people in California need to vote "yes" on Proposition 8 because for "5,000 years, every culture and every religion...not just Christianity...has defined marriage as a contract between men and women."
And Warren says "there is no need to change the universal, historical defintion of marriage to appease 2 percent of our population." As Warren puts it: "This is not a political issue -- it is a moral issue that God has spoken clearly about."
He urges people to vote "yes" on Proposition 8 on November 4 to preserve the biblical definition of marriage.
