October 2007 Archives

God-o-Meter joked earlier about Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton trying to out-church one another, but now that actually appears to be happening. Just as Obama is winding down his "40 days of Faith and Family" tour of South Carolina, the Clinton campaign is announcing a "For Such a Time as This Faith Tour" of the Palmetto State.

Featuring the prominent black pastors and authors Dr. Suzan Johnson-Cook and Rev. Marcia Dyson, the one-day tour happens tomorrow, with seven "ministers events" in Charleston, Columbia, Greenville, and Rock Hill, all focused on women's issues. From the media advisory:

“If at this time you say nothing, then help and salvation will come from some other place, but you and your father's family will come to destruction: and who is to say that you have not come to the kingdom even for such a time as this?” Book of Esther 4:14

Senator Clinton's "For Such a Time as This" faith and values campaign in South Carolina is a reflection of her personal faith and how she embodies her faith in her public life and work. Her values are South Carolina values.

As it nudges Clinton's meter up God-o-Meter asks: why aren't the Republican candidates ever this public about their church outreach efforts?

Culture warrior Gary Bauer seems to throw down the gauntlet on Rudy Giuliani in this morning's Politico, claiming that A) Giuliani's rightward shift on abortion is a flip-flop and B) he needs to do a lot more to improve his standing among religious conservatives (remember his 8th-place finish in the recent Values Voter straw poll?).

Bauer doesn't mind Giuliani's conservative evolution on issues like parental consent and the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act, he just thinks the supposedly honest-at-all-costs ex-Mayor should own up to it:

Anti-abortion voters are anxious to believe politicians who say they have had a change of heart on abortion. But it is disingenuous for Giuliani to call out his opponents’ flip-flops while ignoring his own.

But Bauer hits Giuliani where it hurts in calling him out on the position that Giuliani has held up as the single best reason for Christian conservatives to support him: his promise to appoint strict constructionist judges to the Supreme Court. Bauer notes that "strict constructionist" doesn't necessarily translate into anti-Roe and insist that Giuliani clarify his intentions once and for all:

To assuage the doubts of leery anti-abortion voters, Giuliani needs to specify that the “strict constructionists” he would appoint do not see a right to abortion in the Constitution and do not view Roe as so benign that it should be upheld as precedent.

Doing so would make Giuliani into an anti-abortion candidate, a flip-flop so huge it's nearly impossible to imagine. And yet God-o-Meter can't help but think that Bauer knows this. So is Bauer extending a hand for negotiation rather than throwing that gauntlet down? If so, it's good news for Giuliani--and reveals even more nervousness in the Christian Right. Consider the headline of the piece: Right can win with President Giuliani.

Rudy Giuliani may not be courting conservative evangelical activists like James Dobson or Tony Perkins, but he is reaching out to the religious conservatives in the GOP presidential pack. Days after sitting down for a long talk with ex-candidate Sam Brownback, Rudy Giuliani told Fox News that he's a big fan of Mike Huckabee:

"I don't know about running mates, but I sure like having him at the debates, because he makes me laugh," Giuliani said in an interview being broadcast this afternoon on "Your World with Neil Cavuto" on Fox News Channel.

"And he has got a nice approach to life," the former New York mayor continued, according to excerpts provided by Fox. "You know, he is a man that is -- he has got a happy approach and he has got an optimistic approach to life. And then I -- you know, I have great respect for him."

Makes God-o-Meter's heart flutter. It won't adjust Giuliani's rating, but it does make GOM wonder: How would the Christian Right respond to a Giuliani-Huckabee ticket? Would it put an end to the movement's third-party candidate threat?

Bloomberg today does Mitt Romney the service of inventorying the various and sundry advice he's being offered how to handle his Mormonism so as to maximize support from wary evangelical voters. The weightiest quote--and the reason his God-o-Meter rating is slipping--is this jab from Ralph Reed for not yet delivering a Kennedyesque speech about his religion:

"It would have been infinitely better had he been able to go to the Values Voters Summit with the speech already given,'' said Ralph Reed, the former executive director of the Christian Coalition.

God-o-Meter gives special weight to Reed's critique because he masterminded George W. Bush's unprecedented evangelical outreach in 2004; this is his sweet spot. The other bit of advice that Bloomberg delivers is that Romney shouldn't claim to be a Christian:

``I told him, you cannot equate Mormonism with Christianity; you cannot say, `I am a Christian just like you,''' said Representative Bob Inglis of South Carolina, which is scheduled to hold the first primary among the Southern states. ``If he does that, every Baptist preacher in the South is going to have to go to the pulpit on Sunday and explain the differences.''

Of course, these two conflicting lines of advice put Romney in a pickle. How does he candidly discuss his religion and its role in his life and prospective administration while denying such a fundamental Mormon belief as the view that Mormons are Christians? If you, dear reader, would like to share your advice, God-o-Meter is all ears.

In a speech delivered today from St. Anselm's College in New Hampshire, John Edwards laid into Hillary Clinton and claimed the moral high ground--literally. By refusing to decline corporate contributions like he has, Edwards said that Clinton as president would perpetuate the same culture of corruption that Democrats had been claiming was the special province of the GOP. Titled "The Moral Test of Our Generation," the speech lacked outright references to God or religion but decried such ungodly activities as soul-selling. The Edwards campaign emailed it to supporters. Excerpts:

I am not holier than thou. I am not perfect by any means. But there are events in life that you learn from, and which remind you what this is really all about. Maybe I have been freed from the system and the fear that holds back politicians because I have learned there are much more important things in life than winning elections at the cost of selling your soul....

Because Washington may not see it, but we are facing a moral crisis as great as any that has ever challenged us. And, it is this test -- this moral test -- that I have come to understand is at the heart of this campaign....

America lives because 20 generations have honored the one moral commandment that makes us Americans. To give our children a better future than we received....

I am not perfect -- far from it -- but I do understand that this is not a political issue -- it is the moral test of our generation.