What Evangelicals Are Saying
It was just a matter of time before someone got a group of evangelical pastors after the Saddleback Forum to talk about who won, who lost and why. This article posts answers given by evangelical leaders. Two comments stood out for me. Here’s one statement that jumped off the page at me:
The group next tackled Obama’s stance on marriage. During the Saddleback Forum, both candidates agreed that marriage is between a man and a woman, however, Obama clarified that he is still for civil unions for same sex couples.
Michael Foust with Bandiss Press asked, “[Obama] says he supports marriage between a man and a woman, but of course, he says he opposed the marriage amendment in California…do you see some conflict there?”
Minnery responded that there is conflict in Obama’s position. “You cannot square the circle as he is trying to do. Either you support marriage or you do not. He says one thing. By his actions, he indicates another thing. And that answer…shows up the hypocrisy in his position on that issue.”
“I think it would be more refreshing for him if he would just be honest about it and say he favors gay marriage,” Minnery continued. “He cannot do that, because the American people do not favor gay marriage. And so, he needs to keep twisting and turning, diving on that issue. And it is hypocritical.”
I suspect that these leaders would’ve disagreed with Sen. Obama had he stated his true beliefs right from the start. What gets Obama in the deepest hot water is that he tried pandering to the audience instead of just being straightforward. He wasn’t going to win them over because his views are opposed to their’s but at least he would’ve earned a little respect for standing on his beliefs.
Here’s another reaction that jumped out at me:
Janet Folger, president and founder of Faith2Action noted that “John McCain, without hesitation, bang, life begins at conception, he gets it. The judges that he would appoint, he made it very, very clear. I think he also resonated with beyond the base, to those who are pro-life even within the Democratic Party. I think it was exactly what needed to be done. He said it exactly the way it needed to be said.”
This winter, pundits rightfully worried whether Sen. McCain would sufficiently fire up evangelical conservatives. While it’s wrong to say he’s winning their support at the level that President Bush was winning them in 2004, it’s true that he’s making a strong impression with evangelical voters.
This is important for a couple reasons. First, he’s winning their votes, which is the important first step. More importantly, if Sen. McCain convinces evangelicals that “he’s one of us”, he’ll energize the foot soldiers that every campaign needs to win.
At the end of the day, Sen. McCain must be happy with his performance last night. i suspect that Sen. Obama felt like they spent the night treading water, which is about the best they could hope for.
Technorati Tags: Rick Warren, Obama, John McCain, Focus On The Family, Christians, Gay Marriage, Abortion, Election 2008
Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog
August 17th, 2008 at 5:07 pm
I’m not a McCain supporter but I’m going to vote for him. He is at best selfish in his ambition to become prez, at worst a socialist who understands he cannot win with socialism.
But the Obamessiah scares me because he’s an outright lying communist and socialist who dresses his pig up in the prettiest lipstick he can think of and conjure up in his speeches. He would have us all praying to the guvmint for every morsel we ever get in life, and it’s satisfaction to him to know his minions would have the power to deny for any reason any request for the bounty of the government, where everything is owned and supplied by it and we, the people have nothing. He is truly the pig in “Animal Farm” where everyone is equal, but some are more equal than others.