Minnesota

If you are thinking that you might like to be the Republican presidential nominee in 2012 and Jerry Falwell's Liberty University invites you to come and speak, you say "of course, I would love to do so" ... which is why Rick Perry and Michele Bachmann will both be speaking there in September:

Two Republican presidential prospects, Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, will speak at Liberty University this fall, LU Chancellor Jerry Falwell Jr. said today.

Bachmann, founder of the Tea Party Caucus in the House of Representatives, is an announced candidate for the Republican Party's presidential nomination.

Perry, in his 10th year as governor of Texas, has said publicly that he's thinking about running for the GOP nomination for president. He, too, is popular with tea party followers.

"Since Liberty is the world's largest Christian university, we think it is important to expose the students to as many candidates as possible," Falwell said.

Candidates should be able to take some cues from the students, as well, Falwell said.

"How well they are received at Liberty will be a good indicator for how they will be received in Christian circles nationwide," Falwell said.

Perry will speak at one of LU's thrice-weekly convocations on Sept 14.

Bachmann is scheduled to speak at a convocation Sept. 28.

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A candidate running against Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison says that Ellison, who is one of two Muslim House members, is a “radical Islamist” who doesn’t uphold the Constitution. Lynne Torgerson unsuccessfully challenged Ellison as an Independent in 2010, but her floundering campaign received immense support from the Tea Party Nation and its vehemently anti-Muslim president Judson Phillips. That year, Torgerson said that Ellison “has no business being in our federal government” and that Muslims are subverting the Constitution. In a post on Tea Party Nation that was sent to TPN members, Torgerson accused the Congressman of failing “to support that the United States Constitution should be supreme over Islamic Sharia law.”

Islamic Sharia law must be banned throughout our state and federal governments.

We have duly enacted state laws and statutes throughout our 50 states in this, our United States of America. We also have duly enacted, by our elected officials, federal laws and statutes. Everyone who is a citizen of, and who lives in or visits the United States of America, is subject to the laws of our states and federal government. No one gets to come to the United States and bring their own laws here and expect them to apply in our states or federal government, or our courts. Islamic Sharia has no place in America. We must enact legislation barring the implementation of this foreign, non-representative sect of law. Islamic Sharia law must be banned throughout the United States.

I, Lynne Torgerson, am running for Congress in Minnesota, against radical Islamist Keith Ellison. Keith Ellison fails to oppose banning Islamic Sharia law in the United States. He accuses people of trying to ban it as "conspiratorilists." Keith Ellison also fails to support that the United States Constitution should be supreme over Islamic Sharia law.

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Ralph Reed’s Faith and Freedom Coalition gathering in Washington, D.C. this past weekend was essentially a relentless repetition of the GOP’s 2012 attack themes on the Obama administration, mixed with Religious Right leaders’ demands that the Tea Party not abandon social conservatives’ priorities and conservative politicos’ appeals for unity behind whichever candidate emerges from the presidential crowd.  Just about everyone running, or thinking about running, for the presidency on the Republican side was in attendance with the exception of Newt Gingrich.

Ralph Reed's "Faith and Freedom Conference & Summit" kicks off on Friday and, as today's New York Times reports, it serves as proof that Reed has been able to shrug off his deep ties to Jack Abramoff and regain his prominence and prestige as a leading Religious Right organizer:

As with the Christian Coalition, this group’s conference roster includes nearly all the likely contenders for the presidential nomination, including former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts, former Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota, Herman Cain, a retired businessman, and Representative Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, as well as a famous almost-candidate, Donald Trump. There will also be evangelical leaders like Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, and establishment Republicans like Speaker John A. Boehner and Reince Priebus, the Republican National Committee chairman.

...

Many of the retirees gathered here could not even recall who Ralph Reed was, let alone ponder his past. But they loved his message. Weaving together themes of the Tea Party and evangelical Christians, he called the debt crisis a sign that the country has lost sight of its founding moral principles. He said that by working together, fiscal and cultural conservatives can “begin the process of turning the country around.”

Yesterday Reed appeared on The Jordan Sekulow Show to discuss the upcoming conference, during which he predicted that Michele Bachmann and Herman Cain would be the Religious Right's candidates of choice:

Sekulow: Ralph, let me ask you about the field. Has anyone caught your attention that maybe is a name that people aren't talking about enough or that is really exciting social conservative voters?

Reed: It's awfully early, but there are two that I'm hearing on the ground that are really getting a close look. One is Herman Cain, who is a terrific speaker and has a compelling personal testimony in addition to his conservative credentials. And the other is Michele Bachmann.

I think if they both go - and Cain's in and Bachmann looks like she's going to get in - they're both going to do extremely well among this constituency.

Reed then went on the predict that this event was not only going to change the lives of those in attendance, but the life of the nation as well ... which is the same thing he said last year:

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Andy Birkey of the Minnesota Independent reports that House Republicans invited ultra-right wing anti-gay, anti-Islam activist Bradlee Dean to deliver the morning prayer ... and it went about as well as one would expect:

Minnesota House Republicans invited anti-gay preacher Bradlee Dean of You Can Run But You Cannot Hide to give the morning prayer. The prayer was so offensive to many legislators that House leadership brought in the chaplain to redo the prayer.

Dean has made many controversial statements as pastor of You Can Run, including advocating the incarceration of gays and lesbians, that the LGBT community is trying to usher in Sharia law in Minnesota, that gay men molest an average of 117 children “before they get caught,” and that Muslim nations that execute gays are more moral than American Christians. His prayer on Friday touched off a firestorm at the Capitol as the LGBT community was rallying outside the House chambers against a proposed anti-gay marriage amendment.

Dean said during his prayer, “I know this is a nondenominational chamber,” he said listing off a litany of Christian denominations and leaving off any mention of Judaism.

Then he took a dig at President Obama, insinuating that he is not a Christian. “The head of the denomination is Jesus as every president up until 2008 has acknowledged, in Jesus name.”

Dean and his You Can Run But You Cannot Hide ministry has the support of Rep. Michele Bachmann and Religious Right leaders like Harry Jackson and Bryan Fischer.

UPDATE: Here is Dean's opening prayer:

The first announced Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Minnesota doesn’t believe in the separation of church and state. According to the Associated Press, former state representative Dan Severson will announce later today that he is challenging Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar in the state Capitol after running unsuccessfully for Secretary of State in 2010. During his race for Secretary of State, Severson told religious broadcaster Brad Brandon of Word of Truth Radio that the separation of church and state “just does not exist.”

Andy Birkey of The Minnesota Independent reports:

“Quite often you hear people say, ‘What about separation of church and state?’ There is no such thing,” Severson told Brandon. “I mean it just does not exist, and it does not exist in America for a purpose, because we are a Christian nation.”

He continued, “We are a nation based on Christian principles and ideals, and those are the things that guarantee our liberties. It is one of those things that is so fundamental to the freedoms that we have that when you begin to restrict our belief and our attestation to our Christian values you begin to restrict our liberties.”

He added, “You simply cannot continue a nation as America without that Christian base of liberty.”

Severson says voters must know his position on the matter.

“Look, this is what I stand for. If you don’t like that, don’t vote for me, and then the majority of the people will have their voice heard,” he said. “It’s wrong for politicians to do one thing on the campaign trail to get the vote and do exactly the opposite once they get to office. To me that is an impeachable offense.”