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Religious Right to Romney: Safety Net Un-Biblical

Submitted by Peter Montgomery on February 3, 2012 - 11:51am
When Mitt Romney stepped on his Florida primary victory message by declaring that he wasn’t concerned about the very poor – and that he’d patch any holes that just might be in their safety net – most observers thought his mistake was declaring disinterest in the poor. But to right-wing activists, Romney’s bigger problem was his support for any kind of social safety net.
 
The Weekly Standard’s John McCormack called Romney’s comments “unconservative,” saying that “The standard conservative argument is that a conservative economic agenda will help everyone.” 
 
“The safety net contributes to poverty,” declared Rush Limbaugh. “It does not solve it.” Tea Party favorite Sen. Jim DeMint told a reporter, “Those are the programs that are hurting, not just the poor, but our country.” 
 
Religious Right leaders added another touch: the safety net is un-Biblical. Yesterday, Liberty Counsel pushed out a statement promoting the Christian Reconstructionist notion that the Bible gives the government no role in addressing poverty:
Romney wrongly assumes that it is the role of government to provide more entitlements to help the poor. In fact, that is not the role of government. The historical biblical view of helping the poor is that they are best helped by individuals and the faith community. Government programs tend to enslave the poor in an endless cycle of poverty. The biblical model is that both, the giver and the recipient, are blessed. When government steps in between the giver and the recipient, the giver loses the blessing of giving and the recipient is often left in a worse, rather than better, position. Romney's statement that he would rely on government programs to help the poor indicates his intent to continue the same failed big government programs and policies….it is the duty of the church, the faith community, to look after the poor, the orphans, and the widows.

Longtime Religoius Right activist Gary Bauer made the same point in a USA Today column in January, arguing that “nowhere in the Bible are we told that government should take one man's money by force of law and give it to another man. Jesus' admonition was a personal command to share, not a command for Caesar to "spread the wealth around." 
 
There are, of course, alternative views about what the Bible has to say. President Obama, speaking at the National Prayer Breakfast this week, cited the Biblical principal that much will be expected of the person who has been given much. (Laughably, Obama has been criticized by Ralph Reed for discussing how his faith influenced his approach to policy-making.) Writing recently for Sojourner’s, an economically liberal evangelical group, Tim King called Bauer’s claims about scripture “false,” saying that biblical injunctions related to forgiveness of debts and the release of slaves are “forms of government mandated redistribution of wealth” and “laws concerned with justice not encouragements to charity.”
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DeMint Suggests America May Not Survive if Obama wins Re-Election

Submitted by Brian Tashman on January 20, 2012 - 2:00pm

Last time Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) appeared on The Janet Mefferd Show, the tea party leader called the Obama administration the most “anti-American administration in my lifetime.” Yesterday, DeMint joined Mefferd once again to attack President Obama while promoting his book Now or Never: Saving America from Economic Collapse, warning listeners that if the President wins his re-election bid, America may be doomed. Last year on CNN, DeMint also claimed that the country may not survive if the Tea Party doesn’t get its way in government.

Mefferd:  We have to do some drastic things if we do not get the opportunity with conservatives on Capitol Hill to turn this thing around.  Can we survive a second term of Barack Obama?

DeMint:  I’m not sure that we can, at least not in a form that any of us would like.  That’s why it’s so important — I don’t like to exaggerate and I’m not out here crying wolf with Now or Never — but I believe this is now or never.  It may be our last chance to pull this country away from a cliff.

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DeMint: Obama Administration The Most "Anti-American Administration In My Lifetime"

Submitted by Brian Tashman on August 11, 2011 - 9:45am

Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) appeared on The Janet Mefferd Show yesterday to discuss his new book and his goals to elect more like-minded conservatives to the Senate. DeMint told Mefferd that President Obama is promoting “socialist-style, collectivist policies” that in his mind made his administration “the most anti-business and I consider anti-American administration in my lifetime.”

Listen:

DeMint: We saw within a few days that this President was going to be heavy-handed, he was going to implement his agenda and pay back his political allies, and it just went on from there to ObamaCare and then to Dodd-Frank. It has been the most anti-business and I consider anti-American administration in my lifetime. Things that are just so anathema to the principles of freedom, and everything he has come up with centralizes more power in Washington, creates more socialist-style, collectivist policies. This president is doing something that’s so far out of the realm of anything Republicans ever did wrong, it’s hard to even imagine.

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DeMint, Akin Join Coral Ridge Ministries To Stop The "Secularization" Of America

Submitted by Brian Tashman on July 5, 2011 - 1:43pm

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) and Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO) appeared in a Coral Ridge Ministries documentary about the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center, which they claim is covertly trying to weed faith out of public life. Coral Ridge Ministries is one of the leading proponents of Christian Reconstructionism and frequently makes documentaries about creeping socialism and the dangers of Obama’s presidency. Akin, who recently declared that “at the heart of liberalism really is a hatred for God,” argued that the Center's lack of religious content shows that it “will snuff out the light of freedom,” while DeMint argued that “secularization is a forerunner of socialization” and will destroy freedom.

Watch:

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DeMint: We Cannot Compromise or Cooperate With Democrats

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on May 26, 2011 - 3:34pm

Sen. Jim DeMint spoke today at FRC's "Watchmen on the Wall" pastor's conference and afterward joined the AFA's official spokesbigot Bryan Fischer, who was broadcasting his daily radio program live from the conference, for an interview.

During the discussion, DeMint said that the 2012 election is literally the "last chance" they have to save America and that conservatives and Republicans simply cannot cooperate or compromise with Democrats on any level because Democrats are bent on instituting socialism and don't share the same values, visions, or goals:

I think it's out last chance. I really think it's now or never. Just looking at the financial situation of our country and just the polarization of views between the two parties. I mean, we have one that is really pushing toward centralization, collectivization, secularism - and we have some good people in that party; some of them are my best friends - but frankly they do not believe in individualism, they do not believe in the type of moral values that we do and we cannot compromise with them. You cannot cooperate with someone who does not have your values, does not share your vision, and does not have your goals.

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Jim DeMint: A Modern Day Bonhoeffer?

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on February 25, 2011 - 2:11pm

The latest issue of Focus on the Family's "Citizen Magazine" features a cover story on Sen. Jim DeMint and the cost he has had to pay for standing on his Christian/Tea Party principles ... but it is a sacrifice DeMint is willing to make because "our government has never been further from the principles of freedom" and only Christians can save it:

Tea Party icon Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., is just one example of a Christian opting to stand on principle — and his faith — and paying the price in doing so.

While his fiscal conservatism is widely reported, his strong social values and Christian beliefs have proffered him not only perspective, but also courage and perseverance — rare commodities inside the Beltway.

...

DeMint said there’s always a sacrifice involved when people begin to stand for their convictions, but he said one must have courage.

“I’m afraid Christians have been intimidated with this idea of separation of church and state — which is not in our Constitution at all — and that maybe their views aren’t welcomed in the public square; that maybe expressing a value judgment about right or wrong is no longer welcomed,” he said.

“We can’t have that anymore. If a society can’t speak out about what’s right or wrong according to their religious convictions, the culture will continue to decline and those who want lower and lower standards will continue to prevail. Biblical standards have preserved our country to this point.

“People of faith are going to have to stand back up. They’re afraid to go out in the community and say what’s right and wrong and challenge the culture. When I speak to pastors today, I challenge them and say, ‘Don’t let this government make you hide within the walls of your church.’ We need leaders. If we didn’t have pastors to lead this country in the revolution, America would never be free.”

Allow me to just call attention to the title of this piece:

"The Cost of Discipleship" just so happens to be the title of a book written in 1937 by German Theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer who was executed for opposing the Nazis.

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NOM Teams up with Steve King and Republican Presidential Candidates for Iowa Conference

Submitted by Brian Tashman on February 22, 2011 - 10:46am

Rep. Steve King (R-IA), who previously argued that marriage equality will lead to the downfall of civilization, is bringing together right-wing groups and leading Republicans for his Conservative Principles Conference on March 26th in the premier caucus state. Potential presidential candidates, including Michele Bachmann, Rick Santorum, Herman Cain, and John Bolton, will be joining the virulently anti-gay National Organization for Marriage for the conference. King says that Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC), who believes schools should ban gay teachers, will keynote the event. Other participants include the National Rifle Association's Kayne Robinson, anti-labor National Right to Work Committee, anti-immigrant Numbers USA, Arizona SB-1070 architect Russell Pearce, Tea Party Patriots, and Betsy McCaughey, who concocted the “death panels” smear against the health care reform law.

Jason Hancock of The Iowa Independent reports:

The Conservative Principles Conference will be held March 26 at the Downtown Des Moines Marriott. The main topic with be “American exceptionalism.”

“Iowans will be granted access to some of the best, most respected conservative leaders in our nation at my conference,” King said in a statement.

Attendees include:

• Former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum
• U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann
• Herman Cain
• Ambassador John R. Bolton
• Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds
• Matt Strawn, Republican Party of Iowa chairman
• State Sen. Russell Pearce of Arizona
• Betsy McCaughey (Defend Your Healthcare)
• Kayne Robinson (National Rifle Association)
• Jan Mickelson (WHO-AM)
• Dana Loesch (CNN contributor)
• Tea Party Patriots
• FairTax.org
• NumbersUSA
• National Organization for Marriage
• Strong America Now
• National Right to Work

Additional participants are expected and will be announced in the days to come.

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GOProud's Barron Has No Intention of Apologizing to Tony Perkins or Jim DeMint

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on February 14, 2011 - 3:18pm

In an article last week about the conflict at CPAC over the inclusion of the gay conservative group GOProud and the subsequent boycott by various Religious Right leaders and organizations, GOProud's Chris Barron called ACU board member Cleta Mitchell "a nasty bigot" for opposing the organization's participation.

In a piece on FrumForum the very next day, Barron apologized for the remark, apparently in response to news that incoming ACU Chairman Al Cardenas was reconsidering GOProud's continued participation in the conference.

On Friday, Alan Colmes had Barron on his radio program to discuss the controversy and asked him why he had apologized to Mitchell but not Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, whom he called "a nasty, anti-gay bigot," or to Sen. Jim DeMint, Joseph Farah, or Concerned Women for America, whom he accused of living on "the Island of Political Misfit Toys. " And Barron made clear that he had no intention of apologizing to Perkins or anyone else who participated in the boycott, including DeMint, claiming they had all chosen to side with the crazy, conspiracy theorists over at WorldNetDaily rather than stand with the conservatives at CPAC:

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Rand Paul: "My Goal Is To Make DeMint Look Like a Moderate"

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on January 28, 2011 - 11:58am

During the last election, it seemed that just about every Republican running for office was eager to wrap themselves in the mantle of the Tea Party ... but now that the election is over, it doesn't seem that members of Congress are particularly eager to keep on carrying it:

Although dozens of Republicans sailed into office with the help of the tea-party movement last year, finding a self-identified "Tea Party Republican" on Capitol Hill is harder than you'd think.

The first meeting of the Senate Tea Party Caucus on Thursday attracted just four senators - out of a possible 47 GOP members - willing to describe themselves as members. The event was as notable for who wasn't there than who was.

• Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., once a tea-party darling, has for now declined to join the caucus, whose first meeting was organized by Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky.

• Sen. Ron Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican whose campaign sprang from the small-government movement, has passed for now.

• Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., showed up to address the group of activists Thursday, but then hustled out of the room, ignoring reporters' questions about whether he was in or out.

But those who did show up at the meeting seem eager to demonstrate the bona fides as Tea Party activists pressed Sen. Jim DeMint to cut at least $1.4 trillion in spending per year while Rand Paul burnished his reputation for being one of he most extreme members of the Senate:

[Sen. Rand] Paul's approach - bold, specific and unwaveringly conservative - is exactly what the most engaged activists of the tea party have been seeking. One of the biggest applause lines at Thursday's meeting came when staunch conservative Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., quoted Paul as saying, "My goal is to make DeMint look like a moderate."

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Tea Party-Backed Senate Candidate Once Tried to End Scholarships for Minority Students

Submitted by Brian Tashman on January 27, 2011 - 1:54pm

After Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison announced her retirement after she was declared a top target of Tea Party activists, the race for the Republican nomination became even more crowded and contentious. Texas Railroad Commissioner Michael Williams immediately became a Tea Party sensation and last week resigned from the Railroad Commission in order to be a full-time candidate.

The American Spectator today features a glowing profile of Williams, saying that “something about him says ‘Don’t mess with Texas.’”

Williams even won the endorsement of Tea Party leader Sen. Jim DeMint, who’s Senate Conservatives Fund lifted a number of far-right candidates like Sharron Angle and Christine O’Donnell to victory in GOP primary contests.

But Williams first garnered the support of the Party’s far-right when he unsuccessfully tried to block scholarships for minority students when he worked at the Department of Education under President George H. W. Bush. The New York Times reported in 1990 that Williams caused uproar when he tried to prohibit “colleges and universities that receive Federal funds from offering scholarships designated for minority students.”

Michael L. Williams, the Education Department's Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, said yesterday that "race-exclusive" scholarships, or those based on ethnic origin, were discriminatory and therefore illegal.

College administrators and scholarship fund directors reacted with alarm, saying the decision could reverse decades of efforts to increase the enrollment of members of racial and ethnic minorities who have been historically underrepresented in colleges.

"We were shocked by this decision," said Richard F. Rosser, president of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, which represents 815 institutions. "We have been making enormous efforts to increase the numbers of minority students in our colleges and universities, and this has necessarily required a great deal of financial aid."

Neither Rosser nor anyone else contacted yesterday could say how many institutions, or what percentage of total financial aid to minority students, might be affected by the new enforcement policy. But the practice of setting aside money to attract qualified minority students and make college more affordable for them has been widespread for at least 20 years.

Ultimately, then-Secretary Lamar Alexander (now a Republican Senator from Tennessee) stopped Williams from implementing his policy, including his attempt to block the Fiesta Bowl from setting “aside $100,000 for a fund for minority scholarships.” As Williams happily notes in his campaign’s biography, he succeeded Clarence Thomas in his position at the Education Department.

In a Republican primary in Texas where each candidate has to demonstrate their right-wing credentials, Williams may try to use this case to his advantage.

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