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Another Rick Perry Endorser tells Voters to Reject Romney over Mormonism

Submitted by Brian Tashman on December 21, 2011 - 2:15pm

We frequently hear from conservative commentators that Religious Right voters have no problem with supporting a Mormon politician and any anti-Mormon sentiments actually come from the left and the media. But today on American Family Radio’s The Matt Friedman Show, Rick Scarborough of Vision America said he refuses to support Mitt Romney in the primary because he is a Mormon. Scarborough is a prominent endorser and ally of Texas Gov. Rick Perry, whose campaign earlier this year promoted the fiercely anti-Mormon pastor Robert Jeffress, and is best known for organizing “patriot pastors.” Scarborough previously signed a letter with other Religious Right activists opposing Romney, and told Friedeman that he disagreed with Chuck Colson and Franklin Graham for saying that voters should not reject Romney outright because of his faith.

Like Jeffress, Scarborough said he would ultimately vote for a Mormon over Barack Obama but would certainly not support Romney “as long as there is another candidate” because Mormonism is “so outside the realm of normal, theological boundaries.”

Watch:

Friedeman: I’m asking you here, with Franklin Graham and Chuck Colson coming out and saying Mormonism isn’t that big of a deal in this presidential election, do you agree?

Scarborough: I do not agree. I respect profoundly both of those men for a myriad of reasons, but I do not agree with that statement. Right now, the most prominent spokesperson for our values in the radio field is Glenn Beck, who is an avowed Mormon, and now the leading presidential candidate is an avowed Mormon. Because of the state of the spiritual life of our country right now, I just think that’s a place I don’t want to go. And the other side of that is, what is not spoken are some of the details of Mormonism, which will be aired completely in a presidential race and I think it will make it difficult if this man secures the nomination for him to be elected just because there are some aspects of the doctrines of Mormonism that are so outside the realm of normal, theological boundaries, that I think it will be a real issue if he got the nomination. Now if the choice comes down for me between a Mormon and Barack Obama, I’d vote for the Mormon every time, but I’m certainly not going to support him as long as there is another candidate.

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The Governor and The Christocrat: A Match Made In Texas

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on August 30, 2011 - 1:01pm

As we noted last week, Rick Perry spent some time this weekend at James Leininger's ranch in Texas meeting with a bevy of Religious Right leaders and activists.

According to Time, there was some 300 such leaders in attendance and Rick Scarborough, though he refuses to confirm that he was actually in attendance, appears quite smitten with the Texas Governor:

Last weekend, Rick Perry privately met some 300 conservative evangelical leaders at long-time supporter Jim Leininger’s home near Fredricksburg, Texas. And on Monday afternoon, reported-attendee and evangelical leader Rick Scarborough told TIME he is endorsing Perry: “I was holding judgment,” says Scarborough, who in 1998 founded the group Vision America to mobilize pastors and their congregations to vote on social issues, “but the more I’ve studied and listened, the more I have liked what I have heard.”

Perry first charmed Scarborough, who supported former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee for President in 2008, over a decade ago when Perry gave an impromptu personal testimony of his evangelical faith at a 1998 Republican convention. “It was obvious to me as a preacher that it was real, it was undoctored, it was unprepared, it was off the cuff. It really resonated with me.”

The governor had help in winning over the evangelical leader. Scarborough cited Perry’s wife Anita as a major factor in his decision. “I’ve had a chance here recently to hear Anita, much more close and personal,” Scarborough said. “Unlike [previous Presidents’ wives], I find that she holds the same values that he holds.”

...

The pastor’s endorsement has real sway. Vision America’s “Patriot Pastor” coalition has 20,000 members, and American Family Association founder Don Wildmon and Left Behind author Tim LaHaye are on the group’s advisory board. Scarborough says he’s already begun making his case to other influential social conservatives. “That’s not to say Rick Perry is Jesus because he is not,” he says. “But when you look at his full body of work, he’s been the best governor we’ve ever had.”

As we noted before, Scarborough is a self-proclaimed "Christocrat" who believes that it is his duty to "mix church and state God's way" in order to stop the country's "slide further into Communism/Socialism [and] sexual anarchy led by sodomites" and fight President Obama's efforts to "de-Christianize" this country.

Oh yeah, and he is also a Birther who stated, just a few months ago, that AIDS is God's judgment for engaging in an immoral act:

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Scarborough: Objective History Shows God Gave Us America

Submitted by Brian Tashman on July 19, 2011 - 2:02pm

Vision America’s Rick Scarborough is continuing his campaign to link the Tea Party with the Religious Right, telling a Texas tea party group that God is responsible for the creation of America. According to Scarborough, who Politico reports is being actively courted by leading Republican presidential candidates, an unbiased study of history indisputably reveals that only God’s supernatural intervention led the colonies to win the War of Independence.

Watch:

I do know that even those who are not passionate about Christ are passionate their understanding that God gave us this country. Anyone who studies this history closely and fairly, without bias, has to come to this conclusion that the only way a country like the colonies of America can defeat the strongest military power on the face of the earth was by God’s intervention.

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Religious Right Activists Warn GOP Not To Nominate Mitt Romney

Submitted by Brian Tashman on July 13, 2011 - 12:39pm

Right-wing activist and former California legislator Steve Baldwin has organized an open letter to “Conservative, Catholic and Evangelical Leaders” asking them to refuse support for Mitt Romney’s campaign for president. Already a number of activists including failed US Senate candidate and Tea Party hero Joe Miller; Rick Scarborough of Vision America; Brian Camenker of MassResistance; Linda Harvey of Mission America; Michael Farris of the Home School Legal Defense Association; Ted Beahr of WND and Movieguide; Gary Glenn of American Family Association-Michigan, Kelly Shackleford of the Liberty Institute; Gary Kreep of the United States Justice Foundation; Floyd Brown of WND; Dick and Richard Bott of Bott Family Radio, and the leaders of a number of anti-choice groups have signed the letter.

The letter says that “a Romney candidacy would be disastrous for the conservative movement and for the country,” writing that he is insincere in his conservative beliefs and “continues to support many aspects of the homosexual agenda even today.” The activists claim that “the flatly illegal charade of ‘gay’ marriage exists solely in Massachusetts due to Governor Romney’s illegal actions,” and lists numerous other issues including abortion rights and health care reform where Romney has reversed himself: “Romney has also been both in favor and against minimum wage legislation, capital gains taxes, gun control, amnesty for illegal aliens, campaign finance reform, the Kyoto agreement, gambling, gun control, and many other issues.”

They conclude by warning that nominating Romney “would be a disastrous mistake”:

Most disturbing is the key role Mitt Romney played in accelerating two of the greatest threats to our Judeo-Christian culture and free enterprise system: Homosexual marriage and government control of health care. In both instances, the actions Romney took – or didn’t take – on homosexual marriage and RomneyCare have done lasting damage to our country. Romney’s aggressive efforts to implement the unconstitutional Goodridge decision set a precedent which inspired pro-homosexual marriage activity nationwide, and his RomneyCare bill served as the model for ObamaCare, the biggest lurch toward socialism since the New Deal.

As such, Romney has done more damage to America in his four years as Governor than any Democrat officeholder we can think of. But Romney, to this day, defends his actions on both fronts and sincerely believes he has done nothing wrong, an attitude which only raises additional questions about his fitness for national office. We must question his worldview, his sincerity, and his judgment. We believe the election of Mitt Romney would be a disastrous mistake for the conservative movement and for the country.

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David Barton: The 2011 National Hero of Faith

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on May 23, 2011 - 11:45am

Last year, Mike Huckabee received the "National Hero of Faith" award from Rick Scarborough, a self-proclaimed "Christocrat" who believes that AIDS is God's judgment for immoral behavior, and even showed up in person at the Vision America gala to receive it.

This year that honor will go to the man that Huckabee calls the "single best historian in America today" and whom he wishes everyone would be forced to listen to at gunpoint - David Barton [PDF]:

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Rick Scarborough: AIDS Is God's Judgment For An Immoral Act

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on April 11, 2011 - 9:33am

Over the weekend, the Freedom Federation's "Awakening 2011" was held at Liberty University and Saturday was dedicated primarily to smaller break-out sessions featuring a variety of right-wing and Religious Right activists.

One of those sessions was entitled "Confronting the Culture: Engaging People of Faith" and moderated by Vision America's Rick Scarborough who used it as an opportunity to recount how he first became engaged in Religious Right activism. 

As Scarborough explained, he attended a sex ed program at this daughter's high school and was so outraged by what he heard that he was mobilized to action because, as he explained, he knew that AIDS was not just a disease but rather God's judgment for engaging in immoral behavior:

This was right at the front end of the AIDS epidemic and pastors who care were reading everything they could find out because I happened to have believed - and haven't changed by mind - that it was a judgment as a result of an immoral act.

It was interesting, in those days it was still largely called GRIDS: Gay Related Immune Deficiency Syndrome. And to this very day, the overwhelming majority of those who are transmitting that disease are still homosexuals. It is a homosexual disease.

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Scarborough Meets With Bachmann to Discuss How To Advance The Kingdom of Christ

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on March 17, 2011 - 10:15am

For some time now, Rick Scarborough of Vision America has been hosting a daily half-hour radio program on KAVX 91.9 in Lufkin, Texas but we haven't really paid much attention to it because archived programs had never been available. 

But that appears to have changed, as Vision America has started posting the broadcasts on its website. And I am glad they have, otherwise we would never have known that, on Tuesday, Scarborough was in Washington, DC to attend a summit with Congressional leaders like Rep. Michele Bachmann and Rand Paul (whom he mistakenly called "Paul Rand") to discuss how they can work together to "advance the kingdom of our savior, the dear and precious lord Jesus Christ":

Please pray for me. I was invited to attend a summit of national leaders in Washington DC, I'll be in those meetings throughout the day today along with several others that you know well, like Elaine Donnelly who was on our program just yesterday and a host of other leaders of the same caliber. We're discussing how we can best bring the limited resources at our command together so we can advance the kingdom of our savior, the dear and precious lord Jesus Christ. I'll give you a full report when I return. We're going to be listening to about five or six of the key legislators, both on the Senate side as well as the House side.

Paul Rand [sic], the newly elected senator and son of a Texas congressmen, Paul Rand will be speaking to us along with such notables as Michele Bachmann .. and by the way, during these sessions, they're a small enough gathering that while they will be initializing some comments, we'll be interacting and talking back and forth about our concerns. A host of well-known conservative leaders will be in that room and I really covet your prayers for that.

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Gohmert To Receive Vision America's "Guardian of the Family Award"

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on March 8, 2011 - 12:32pm

Rick Scarborough believes it is his job to fight the "sodomites who will not stop demanding more until they have destroyed every semblance of public morality" and maintain public order until Jesus Christ returns ... and the only way that can be done is for Christians to vote for Republican candidates for office.

Candidates like Rep. Louie Gohmert, upon whom Scarborough will bestow a national "Guardian of the Family Award" at Vision America's gala next month:

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Religious Right Channels Reagan to Condemn CPAC

Submitted by Brian Tashman on February 8, 2011 - 11:19am

CPAC boycotters, angered over the upcoming event’s inclusion of the gay conservative group GOProud, have taken out a full page ad in the right-wing Washington Times to ask, “What would Ronald Reagan think of CPAC today?”

Rick Scarborough’s Vision America was behind the ad which accused CPAC of “betraying conservative principles and threatening conservative unity by creating the false impression that gay activism is somehow compatible with conservativism” by allowing GOProud to be a participating organization:

The self-proclaimed gay Republicans support hate crime laws (which will be used to bludgeon the church) and oppose the Federal Defense of Marriage Amendment, without which judges will ultimately legislate homosexual “marriage”—making the natural family an endangered species.

Last year, GOProud advocated for homosexuals serving openly in the military, which will devastate our armed forced and sacrifice unit cohesion on the altar of “inclusiveness.”

Ask yourself: Would CPAC allow participation by the Democratic Socialists of America? Why is the free market an inviolable conservative principle, but not family values?

Would organizers invite George Soros to address the gathering? Then why associate with groups who share his worldview?

What does it profit us to gain tax cuts and lose the family—the foundation of a free society?

…

President Reagan used to say that he didn’t leave the Democratic Party, the Democratic Party left him. Sadly, that’s the way many conservatives increasingly feel about CPAC’s current direction.

…

In the war on the family, Judeo-Christian morality and authentic conservative principles, neutrality is impossible. We call for a return to first principles.

While the boycott movement has had some notable successes by pushing Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) to decline to attend the conference, other Religious Right luminaries like Rick Santorum, Timothy Goeglein, Tom Minnery, and Phyllis Schlafly are still slated to address CPAC. In fact, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) is giving the conference’s keynote address.

Notably, some of the most prominent groups boycotting CPAC have not signed on to Scarborough’s letter, including the Heritage Foundation, the Family Research Council, Concerned Women For America, and the Media Research Center. The signatories include:

Mark Andrews, (Casino Watch)
Pastor Paul Blair, (Reclaiming America for Christ)
Susan Carleson, (American Civil Rights Union)
Brian Camenker, (MassResistance)
Mandi Campbell, (Liberty Center for Law and Policy)
Frank Cannon, (American Principles Project)
Chris Carmouche, (GrassTopsUSA)
Joseph Farah, (WorldNetDaily.com)
Don Feder, (Don Feder Associates)
Diane Gramley, (American Family Association of Pennsylvania)
Bishop EW Jackson Sr., (STAND America PAC)
Phillip Jauregui, (Judicial Action Group)
Gordon James Klingenschmitt, (Pray In Jesus Name)
Robert Knight, (American Civil Rights Union)
Mike and Cris Kurtz, (The USA Patriots)
Peter LaBarbera, (Americans For Truth About Homosexuality)
Shelli and David Manuel, (Resurrect America Project)
William J. Murray, (Religious Freedom Coalition)
Rev. Rick Scarborough, (Vision America)
Rev. Louis P. Sheldon, (Traditional Values Coalition)
Sharon Slater, (Family Watch International)
Mat Staver, (Liberty Counsel)
Mike Valerio and Helen Valerio, Americans
Tim Wildmon, (American Family Association)

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Barton and Scarborough Lament DeLay's Conviction

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on December 20, 2010 - 4:14pm

Today's eipsode of WallBuilders Live radio program was dedicated to lamenting the tragedy of Tom DeLay's conviction for money laundering with DeLay's BFF Rick Scarobough, who says that he takes solace in knowing that this nation will one day be called to judgment by God: 

Scarborough: Tom DeLay is a very close personal friend of mine. I got to know Congressman DeLay when I was pastoring for twelve years in his district. I found him to be a genuine, Godly man and consequently when this indictment came down and subsequent trial began back on November the first I determined that I was going to sit at his side, minister to her and his wife. And consequently I made trips every week for three straight weeks to Austin to monitor the trial and prayed with the family. And I must confess, at least from my perspective, we've had a grave injustice carried forth that I pray God will intervene and correct.

Rick Green: You know I ask you first, Pastor, before we get into the details, you're someone who loves this country like we do - when you see this sort of travesty of justice and abuse of the judicial system, how do you maintain hope?

Scarborough: Well, I keep my eyes focused on Jesus. I know biblically there comes a day when a nation that tramples under foot the word of God finally is called to judgment.

Later, David Barton rails against the fact that DeLay was not allowed to choose his own jury so that he could be judged by a bunch of consevative Christians who could have then ignored the law and found him not guilty, just as the Founding Fathers intended:

Green: I'll ask you the same question I asked Rick: how do you get peace when you look at these kinds of abuses of what should be the best system in the world.

Barton: Well, it's a problem and one of the things that has happened is there is a check and balance here that did not get used, and that check and balance was the jury system.

And the judges have so corrupted the jury system ... let me give you an example: we have all these cases from the Founding Era of jurors and you always here this thing, a "jury of your peers." Do you know what that literally meant? It meant that the guy who was on trial got to pick the people who sat on the jury ... But now we say "we've got to get somebody who doesn't know you personally, we've got to get somebody who has only read the news account story of you - what [George] Soros and Media Matters and everything else" - and so that's a corruption of the jury system.

We used to allow jurors, under the Constitution, they decided both law and fact and we don't allow them to decide law any more. And that used to be a check and balance upon judges but in 1895 the US Supreme Court said "oh, juries can't look at the law anymore, they can only look at the fact."

Green: Only our high and might judges can decide that ... so what we do is basically we give the juries, they're basically boxed in, you can answer yes or no to this question and that's it.

I mean, it never should have gone to trial in the first place and then on the other end you ended up with a jury that wasn't a jury of his peers and was only allowed to answer the one question.

Barton: That's right, so that's the abuse that happened. this is a pretty good example of what happens when you get away from that Constitutional guarantee of due process. The Constitutional guarantee would have made this really easy, but under that way the courts have reinterpreted the Fourth through the Eighth Amendments, all that Due Process stuff, this is where DeLay had so much trouble.

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