Values Voter Summit

Every fall for the last several years, the Family Research Council and allied groups like Focus on the Family and American Values have hosted the Values Voter Summit to which Republican presidential candidates have come seeking the support of Religious Right activists while right-wing speakers have warned that the Antichrist is gay and exhorted the audience to use words like"faggot" and "sissy" as a statement of principle.

This year things look to be a little different as organizers seek to get in on all the right-wing activism that is the rage at the moment, tweaking what has traditionally been known as the "Values Voter Summit" so that it is now being billed as the "Values Voter Town Hall":

Like the upcoming How To Take Back America Conference, this event is offering a variety of exciting and informative workshops and break-out sessions as well:

I am particularly intrigued by the panel entitled "The New Masculinity" and really look forward to hearing what Senator Tom Coburn's Chief of Staff has to say about it:

THE NEW MASCULINITY
Dr. Pat Fagan, Senior Fellow and Director, Center for Family and Religion, FRC; Michael Schwartz, Chief of Staff, Senator Tom Coburn (R-Okla.); Dr. Matthew Spalding, Director, B. Kenneth Simon Center for Studies, The Heritage Foundation

Feminism has wreaked havoc on marriage, women, children and men. It is time to redress the disorder it has wrought and that must start with getting the principles and ideals for a new "masculinism" right. Such a "masculinism" will have its dovetailing counterpart in a new "feminism" for they mutually define each other and, in nature, are meant to be complimentary. This panel will begin this exploration.

With the Religious Right's influence its lowest levels in several years, Tony Perkins has penned a rallying cry for the movement called "Never give in - Values Voters at the Summit" that, not surprisingly, proclaims his organization's upcoming Values Voter Summit the key to turning it all around:

We believe that in a representative democracy, citizens have not just the ability, but the duty to participate in the political process. For too long decisions about the fate of millions have been made "at the summit" by a handful of leaders and those decisions have too often disregarded deeply held beliefs about the sanctity of human life, the importance of marriage, and the bedrock principles of religious liberty – beliefs held dearly by the very people those leaders are supposed to represent.

That's why we instituted the Values Voters Summits several years ago. These are Washington gatherings at which we invite important national figures to address us, to encourage us, and to share essential information about decisions made in Washington that have a direct bearing on all our lives.

Perkins decries the "'inside-the-Beltway' mindset" whereby those in positions of political authority oppose certain grassroots efforts out of fear that they will undermine their agenda, but declares that such "leaders" have it exactly backwards, as it is the grassroots efforts that will lead to the movement's resurrection. And then, somewhat oddly, Perkins points to their recent string of failures as proof that it is working: 

For example, when pro-life citizens in South Dakota and Colorado sought to put measures on their state ballots to protect unborn children, the smart money here said: "Don't do it. You might fail. And that would be bad for the cause."

Those grassroots pro-lifers could not be restrained. They did put those measures on the ballot. They did fail. But look what we see in the latest Gallup Poll: For the first time in the history of Gallup, more Americans regard themselves as pro-life than those favoring legalized abortion.

More than that, the Gallup organization confirms that all the grassroots agitation over the heinous partial-birth abortion bans moved public opinion in the pro-life direction. Not only did the people strongly reject this cruel and unjust procedure, they began to focus more on all unborn children menaced by every abortion.

How can that be, you might ask -- didn't President Bill Clinton twice veto those bans? And weren't his vetoes sustained in Congress? Yes, he did and they were. But all the talk about partial-birth abortion reached deeper into Americans' hearts than we knew.

Perkins then proceeds to dust off a point that we haven't seen him make in months, namely that the economic problems we face as a nation are really rooted in abortion and the "breakdown in the family":

We know that no nation, especially one with the rich spiritual heritage ours enjoys, can truly prosper if it destroys its own future through abortion-on-demand ... In other words, this recession is in reality a reflection of the government-aided breakdown in the family. When government encourages out-of-wedlock sexual activity through billions of dollars in subsidies to Planned Parenthood and their ilk, that government guarantees economic harm as well as distress to families.

He closes by declaring that it is incumbent upon Christians to come together to save this nation and to "never give in," no matter what:

In order to meet your responsibilities, we must unite for concerted action. We have the right, and in our representative form of government, we have the duty to combine for the sake of the family. No one else can do it for us. That's what we seek to do at the Values Voters Summits ... We have been defeated many times, but we have not given in. When pundits and pols count us down and out, we keep coming back. I pray that we will never forget that the battle is the Lord's; our task is but to remain wise and faithful. And never give in.

It has now been more than two weeks since it was reported that vendors at the Values Voter Summit were selling the offensive "Obama Waffles" and Focus on the Family's Jim Daly, who spoke at the event  which his organization also co-sponsored, is just finally getting around to issuing an apology ... while saying that FOF had nothing to do with it and blaming the Family Research Council:

You should know we were appalled by the product, and embarrassed that it was sold at an event bearing our name. Although we did not have direct responsibility for reviewing or approving vendors for the Values Voter event (that was the duty of the chief sponsor, Family Research Council Action, which has acknowledged its mistake), the truth is we should have done more to ensure the appropriateness of the displays. We apologize for our failure to do so in this instance, and have already taken steps to ensure similar things do not happen again — either in our event sponsorship or in our ministry alliances.

You should also know that Dr. Dobson had absolutely nothing to do with the product, despite some misleading media reports he cited in his radio broadcast. The truth is, Dr. Dobson was 3,000 miles away working on his latest book when the Values Voter Summit was held — and he only heard about “Obama Waffles” when references to them turned up in the news with Focus’ name attached. When he learned of the product, he was outraged by its ugly, racial stereotypes.

Racism is a blight on the American conscience. As Christians, we must also call it what God calls it: sin. Those who speak or act in racist ways, such as those who engage in any form of sin, must seek restoration through prayer and, of course, full repentance.

It is disturbing, even if not surprising, that we have seen an increase in racist public statements coinciding with Sen. Obama becoming the first African-American to win a major party’s presidential nomination. Racism is always deeply hurtful and offensive; but in the midst of a presidential race, it also detracts from the kind of substantive debate needed in the public square. It has no place even at the fringes of our political discourse.

Let me reassure you again that Focus on the Family Action will do everything in its power to prevent another such unacceptable situation in the future.

Sean Hannity entertains the audience at the Values Voter Summit with an extended bit about the relationship between James Carville and Mary Matlin which comes to a screeching halt when he adds Bill Clinton to the mix, forcing him to recognize that his attempt at humor works best when his audience has been drinking: