Another Rick Perry Endorser tells Voters to Reject Romney over Mormonism

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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"Commemorating" World AIDS Day With The Religious Right

Today is World AIDS Day, a day for "people worldwide to unite in the fight against HIV, show their support for people living with HIV and to commemorate people who have died."

Which, of course, means anti-gay activists like Peter LaBarbera decided to "commemorate" it with press releases calling for cutting AIDS funding while promoting efforts to "re-stigmatize" homosexuality.

So, in this vein, let us "commemorate" World AIDS Day by highlighting a few of the Religious Right's more outrageous AIDS-related statements from recent years:

You know if you just look at it in practical terms, which has destroyed and ended the life of more people? Terrorism attack here in America or HIV/AIDS? In the last twenty years, fifteen to twenty years, we’ve had maybe three terrorist attacks on our soil with a little over 5,000 people regrettably losing their lives. In the same time frame, there have been hundreds of thousands who have died because of having AIDS. So which one’s the biggest threat? And you know, every day our young people, adults too, but especially our young people, are bombarded at school, in movies, in music, on TV, in the mall, in magazines, they’re bombarded with ‘homosexuality is normal and natural.’ It’s something they have to deal with every day. Fortunately we don’t have to deal with a terrorist attack every day, and that’s what I mean.

  • A quote from former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop from the book "Faith in the Halls of Power: How Evangelicals Joined the American Elite" claiming that Gary Bauer fought his efforts to inform President Reagan about the AIDS crisis:

[In 1986] President Reagan asked the surgeon general to prepare a report on AIDS as the United States confirmed its ten-thousandth case. Leaders of the evangelical movement did not want Koop to write the report, nor did senior White House staffers who shared Koop's evangelical convictions. As Dr. Koop related to me, "Gary Bauer [Reagan's chief advisor on domestic policy] ... was my nemesis in Washington because he kept me from the president. He kept me from the cabinet and he set up a wall of enmity between me and most of the people that surrounded Reagan because he believed that anybody who had AIDS ought to die with it. That was God's punishment for them."

  • And who can ever forget Mike Huckabee standing by his 1992 remarks calling for "carriers of this plague" to be removed from society and placed in quarantine:

"It is the first time in the history of civilization in which the carriers of a genuine plague have not been isolated from the general population," he said. "This deadly disease, for which there is no cure, is being treated as a civil rights issue instead of the true health crisis it represents.

"If the federal government is truly serious about doing something with the AIDS virus, we need to take steps that would isolate the carriers of this plague."

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Porter Bringing In The Prophets To Pray For Passage Of Heartbeat Bill

Janet Porter has, in many ways, been at the center of the merger between the "mainstream" Religious Right and the Dominionist prophets and apostles of the New Apostolic Reformation.  In fact, it was through Porter's participation in the "Convergence 2010" event, where she prayed that Christians would take control of the media, that we first became aware of the likes of Cindy Jacobs. 

Since then, Porter has gotten progressively more involved with the movement - so much so that she lost her radio program due to her embrace of Seven Mountains Dominionism.

But now Porter is back, pushing her radically anti-choice "Heartbeat Bill" in Ohio and her effort has won the support of everyone from Rick Perry to Michele Bachmann.  And next week Porter will once again be bringing self-proclaimed "prophets" like Lou Engle and Rick Joyner togetheer with Religious Right activists like Wendy Wright and Rick Scarborough, this time to press for passage of her bill

Come to the event that will signal the beginning of the end of abortion in America! We've reserved the Ohio Statehouse Atrium (downtown Columbus, Ohio) on Tuesday, Sept. 20, to greet the Ohio senators as they come back from their summer recess. This is an event you will tell your children and grandchildren about! We will begin the day with prayer from 7 a.m. to 11 a.m. with Pastor Dutch Sheets, author of "Intercessory Prayer," and Lou Engle of the Call. The rally begins at 11 a.m.



Several of the senators will be speaking, along with the who's who of the pro-life movement, beginning with the founder of both Ohio and National Right to Life, Dr. Jack Willke. Also speaking will be Joe Scheidler of the Pro-Life Action League, Wendy Wright of Concerned Women for America, Troy Newman from Operation Rescue, Dr. Rick Scarborough of Vision America, Dr. Jim Garlow of Renewing American Leadership, Rick Joyner of the Oak Initiative, Phil Burress of Citizens for Community Values and Timothy Johnson of the Frederick Douglass Foundation.


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The Governor and The Christocrat: A Match Made In Texas

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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Rick Perry To Spend The Weekend With A Pseudo-Historian, A Christocrat, And God's Sugar Daddy

Wayne Slater of the Dallas Morning News reports that Rick Perry is heading to a weekend retreat to meet with a group of Religious Right leaders and donors:

When Rick Perry heads this weekend to Jim Leininger's ranch for a confab of Christian conservatives, he'll be on hallowed ground. Leininger has long been one of Perry's financial angels. He's been a leading proponent of school vouchers. And he's given large sums to Perry campaigns over the years. In some quarters, he's seen as saving Perry's political career with a last-minute infusion of $1.1 million to fuel Perry's 1998 victory as lieutenant governor.

...

Perry is scheduled to attend and to talk politics with leading evangelical leaders including retired judge Paul Pressler, a Southern Baptist leader, Christian historian David Barton, East Texas evangelist Rick Scarborough and others who supported Perry's Christian prayer rally in Houston. The event isn't about fundraising, but about motivating true believers.

Leininger has been called "God's Sugar Daddy" due to his willingness to dump large sums of money onto right-wing groups and candidates that share and promote his views.

David Barton is already well-known to readers of this blog – he's the Religious Right's favorite pseudo-historian who thinks that Jesus supports employment discrimination and opposes and the minimum wage, that the Founding Father's were against the teaching of evolution and that gay sex ought to be regulated by the federal government.

And Rick 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 who stated, just a few months ago, that AIDS is God's judgment for engaging in an immoral act:

We can now add these activists to the ever-growing list of extremist Religious Right activists with whom Rick Perry is associating himself.

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Porter Keeps Up Pressure For Passage Of "Heartbeat Bill"

In June, Janet Porter's radical anti-choice "Heartbeat Bill" passed the Ohio State House but then stalled when the state legislature recessed without the bill being taken up by the Senate.

But the Legislature will return in September and Porter is already planning a rally to welcome them back that will continue her efforts to join together Religious Right leaders with prophetic dominionists by mixing the likes of Wendy Wright [formerly] of Concerned Women for America and Rick Scarborough from Vision America in with Porter's prophetic pal Rick Joyner of The Oak Initiative:

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Scarborough: Objective History Shows God Gave Us America

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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David Barton: The 2011 National Hero of Faith

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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Porter's Israel Coalition Launching Television Advertising Campaign

Last week we noted that Janet Porter had pulled together a coalition consisting of Mike Huckabee, dozens of Religious Right activists and various self-proclaimed prophets for a new effort called Israel: You Are Not Alone.

Initially, the group just ran a full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal, but now Porter is launching an television advertising campaign as well and will be hosting a press briefing at the National Press Club today to announce it:

A Press Conference to respond to President Obama's attack on Israel is scheduled for tomorrow (May 23rd) at 1:00 P.M. in the Zenger Room at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. with national Christian and Jewish leaders representing millions of Americans. The next phase of the "Israel: You're Not Alone" campaign will be announced -- with television ads to stand with Israel.

Among those present will be General "Jerry" Boykin, Mike Gottfried (former ESPN commentator), Janet Porter of Faith2Action (who sent Prime Minister Netanyahu 30,000 yellow "friendship" roses last year in a show of support), Rabbi Aryeh Spero, William Murray of the Religious Freedom Coalition, Pastor Paul Blair of Reclaiming America for Christ, Andrea Lafferty of the Traditional Values Coalition, Pastor Aaron Fruh of Knollwood Church, and Dr. Rick Scarborough of Vision America among others.

Here is the ad that Porter's group will be running:

VO: "THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS IN ISRAEL WHEN THEY GIVE AWAY LAND FOR "PEACE."

The video shows children running for shelter as the rockets explode around them.

"DON'T LET HAMAS MOVE THEIR ROCKETS ANY CLOSER TO INNOCENT ISRAELI FAMILIES."

Graphic shows the words, "Trading land for Peace?" Israel, We Stand With You. www.IsraelYoureNotAlone.com "

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Porter Brings Religious Right Leaders, Dominionists And Prophets Together For Israel

Janet Porter of Faith2Action has started a new website, IsraelYoureNotAlone.com, and has managed to gather a whole host of names for a Wall Street Journal ad condemning President Obama’s handling of the Israeli-Palestinian crisis.

Porter, who last week blamed the deadly tornadoes in the South on Obama’s approach to Israel and legal abortion, garnered signatures from Religious Right luminaries like Mike Huckabee, James Dobson, Lou Sheldon, Mat Staver, Tim Wildmon, and Roy Moore, along with dominionists like herself such as Jerry Boykin and Rick Scarborough, and New Apostolic Reformation ‘prophets’ like Rick Joyner, Che Ahn, Mike Bickle, and Chuck Pierce. Other prominent Religious Right signatories include Gordon Klingenschmitt, Don Feder, Rob Shenck and Paul Blair.

Many Christian Right leaders believe that Israel must refuse territorial compromise and a two-state solution in order to accelerate the End Times. The ad warns, “We believe Israel's ancient prophets who warned of dire consequences to any nation who would divide your land.”

Porter sent Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu 10,000 yellow roses to protest Obama’s “horrendous treatment” of Netanyahu, and Glenn Beck recently announced that he will hold a rally in Jerusalem to fight against the two-state solution.

View the ad here [pdf]:

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