Posted on 10/05/2007 4:24:54 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Conservative evangelical leaders have long openly expressed dismay over the prospect of being forced to choose between two pro-choice presidential candidates. But now, a coalition of evangelicals has gone as far as to threaten to pull their support for the Republican Party if such a candidate is selected for the last stretch of the White House race.
Dr. James C. Dobson of Focus on the Family – who recently emerged from a controversy over a private email he sent criticizing Republican presidential hopeful Fred Thompson – says he and others in the social conservative coalition will not support Rudy Giuliani or any pro-choice candidate that the Republican Party picks for its presidential nominee.
“Polls don’t measure right and wrong; voting according to the possibility of winning or losing can lead directly to the compromise of one’s principles,” Dobson wrote in an Op-Ed in The New York Times on Thursday.
“In the present political climate, it could result in the abandonment of cherished beliefs that conservative Christians have promoted and defended for decades.”
Dobson said a candidate should support the “the sanctity of human life, the institution of marriage, and other inviolable pro-family principles.”
Giuliani, on the other hand, supports abortion and gay rights.
Some Roman Catholic leaders have also opposed Giuliani’s stance on abortion. An archbishop from St. Louis this week said he would withhold communion from Giuliani, a Roman Catholic.
Giuliani’s personal life is also another red flag for some conservative Christians. The former New York mayor has been through three marriages, two divorces and is estranged from his two children.
Yet despite these moral obstacles, Giuliani is said to have reached out, with some positive response, to more than a dozen pastors of large evangelical churches and Christian leaders including Jonathan Falwell, the son of the late Rev. Jerry Falwell, and Pat Robertson, according to the New York Times.
A recent Gallup Poll also found that the former New York City mayor had an overall favorable rating from churchgoing Protestants. Among the top tier Republican candidates, Giuliani rates third after Fred Thompson and John McCain among religious Protestants.
As the frontrunner for the GOP presidential nomination, Giuliani has repeatedly stated he can beat Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton – an appealing statement for those who see Clinton as a larger threat.
But to Dobson and others in the coalition, “Winning the presidential election is vitally important, but not at the expense of what we hold most dear.”
The coalition met Saturday in Salt Lake City after a larger meeting of the Council for National Policy – an exclusive conservative networking group. The smaller group included Dobson, Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, and dozens of other politically concerned conservative Christians.
seems like another good article for your ping list
And whatever, pray tell, could be their reasoning???
Is it that they know that Hillary could beat Rudi hands down?
He wouldn’t even face her in the New York Senate race, why should we think he’ll beat her for the highest office in the land?
It appears that Dobson would rather see Hillary as president...and witness retreat in the jihad, a nuclear Iran, National Healthcare and no less than 3 Hillary appointed USSC Justices...than to vote for Rudy.
That's a man of principal, yessiree.
Gee... who could have predicted THAT?!
I mean, besides anyone who could rub two neurons together.
Republicans don’t want the evangelical vote unless evangelicals will shut up and have no opinion about anything.
You seem to have no values...
Why? Because if it came down to voting for Rudy or Hillary I’d gladly place a vote for Rudy?
I expect evangelicals to not sell the country down the river either.
hear, hear!
“Giuliani, Evangelical Rift Grows Over Abortion”
Under no circumstances do I vote for that liberal.
I’ve been saying that for years.
When her highness ran in 06, I was all for Rudy to jump in and kick some serious ass.
After all, all of his supporters keep saying that the only reason that he surrendered NY to the liberal trash is that he had prostrate cancer.
Well, there was his chance to redeem himself and prove his supporters right, once and for all, and receive the highest praise for knocking ms clinton into the footnotes of political history, but no.
Instead, he did nothing. - I believe that he read the tea leaves and feared that it might be him knocked into the footnotes, and therefore would not face her in his own state.
Now if Rudy cannot deliver NY for the GOP, then I am left with the assumption that he felt that he had a better chance on the National stage than in NY itself.
A poor omen indeed for those who want to actually win and not join the list of political has beens cluttering up the ranks of defeated politicians.
I lost all faith in Rudy in 06 and I will have to prepare to have to say "President Clinton" for another 8 years, if he is nominated.
“It appears that Dobson would rather see Hillary as president”
Or his values are just more important than which liberal occupies the oval office in 2008.
That works both ways.
Regarding the WOT, She would probably be the toughest. Reason be, she would be trying to prove that she had testicles. Otherwise (and you can bet she realizes it), she would be the LAST women elected president for the next 200 years.
That said, neither of them are suitable candidates. The primaries are important... Get behind the most suitable conservative candidate you can and squash Rudy.
You are so right, he handed her the Senate and it wouldn't surprise if he and his liberal wife were in this to assure a Hillary victory.
“Under no circumstances do I vote for that liberal.”
You probably won’t have to. Rudy isn’t a done deal.
Actually, I can not see anyone that has any true conservative values ever being able to vote for any democrat, much less to the lineup of criminals, prima donnas and nut jobs the democratic party is fielding for their current Presidential offerings.
Hillary or Obama vs who? I do care who, but I will be damned before I will vote for anyone that has aligned themselves with America's flourishing communist party, the democrats.
I do not see any "republican crossover vote." It isn't happening. And that is a demonstration of personal values.
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