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Evangelicals investigating GOP candidates on gay marriage, abortion
Washington Examiner ^ | 04/20/2015 | Paul Bedard

Posted on 04/20/2015 8:59:19 AM PDT by GIdget2004

Tired of being duped by conservative-sounding Republican presidential candidates who secretly harbored support for gay marriage, abortion and other socially liberal issues, evangelical pastors plan to investigate the backgrounds of White House hopefuls and their top aides.

"Personnel is policy," said David Lane, whose American Renewal Project is working with 100,000 pastors to push 80 million evangelicals and 40 million Catholics who typically don't vote to the polls in 2016 to elect a conservative Republican.

"We need to bring these things up on the table," he told Secrets. "Evangelical pastors aren't as much interested in budget issues as they are social issues," he added.

Lane's group, influential in conservative presidential politics and early primary and caucus states, will vet the positions of the candidates and their top aides. He already has dispatched reports about Jeb Bush's aides supporting same-sex marriage.

He also wants to uncover the potential first ladies' positions on social issues since they can hold great sway with their spouses.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonexaminer.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS:

1 posted on 04/20/2015 8:59:19 AM PDT by GIdget2004
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To: GIdget2004

Ted Cruz seems fine to me.

I’m could not care less about the rest of them if I tried.


2 posted on 04/20/2015 9:01:17 AM PDT by chris37 (Heartless)
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To: chris37

It’s starting to look more and more that Cruz is the only conservative in the race.


3 posted on 04/20/2015 9:03:40 AM PDT by circlecity
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To: GIdget2004

hmmm, lemme’ see. Walker attends a fudger reception and Rubio is Ok attending too. No need to investigate as these two will lie to the teeth.


4 posted on 04/20/2015 9:13:52 AM PDT by max americana (fired liberals in our company last election, and I laughed while they cried (true story))
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To: max americana

Would Cruz attend?

He didn’t say whether or not he would.


5 posted on 04/20/2015 9:17:03 AM PDT by Balding_Eagle (The Gruber Revelations are proof that God is still smiling on America.)
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To: GIdget2004

I haven’t done much investigating of presidential candidates, but we are about to have a special election to replace Congressman Alan Nunnelee. So far I have talked to three of the GOP candidates and I have asked each one the same question: Do you support John Boehner? The one who was the most forceful in his denunciation of Boehner has my support. Of course I already knew they supported the 2nd Amendment and opposed ObamaCare, abortion, and gay marriage. Anyone with the liberals on even one of those four things can’t win this district anyway.


6 posted on 04/20/2015 9:29:27 AM PDT by .45 Long Colt
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To: GIdget2004

Rand Paul wants us to “evolve” on social issues.

“”Evolve, adapt or die. That is the fate of our current Republican party. We must evolve as a party and find a way to attract millennials to the conservative movement or we will never succeed in realizing our ideals of individual freedom and freedom from government interference.””

“I think that the Republican Party, in order to get bigger, will have to agree to disagree on social issues,” Paul advised. “The Republican Party is not going to give up on having quite a few people who do believe in traditional marriage. But the Republican Party also has to find a place for young people and others who don’t want to be festooned by those issues.”


7 posted on 04/20/2015 9:37:05 AM PDT by ansel12 (libertarianism's social liberalism, makes conservative limited government, & low taxes impossible.)
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To: Balding_Eagle

His general position is that gay marriage should be left to states to decide, and that is a position that I can support.

If citizens of a state decide they want to do that, then I suppose they are free to make that decision. Conversely, if citizens of another state decide they don’t want to do this, then they should also be free to make that decision.

I’m really not a fan of the federal government dictating to me what I must do.

Cruz’s answer to the specific question of would he attend a gay wedding is this-

“If it’s somebody in my life that I care for, of course I would. I’m not going to hurt them simply because I disagree with a choice they’ve made or because I disagree with a decision they’ve made or whatever it may be. Ultimately, if someone that you care for and is part of your family has decided to move in one direction or another or feels that way because of who they love, you respect that because you love them.”

People are saying he dodged the question, but I don’t think he did. I think he answered it honestly. He said if it was someone in his life that he cared for, he would go, because he doesn’t want to hurt them by disagreeing.

So he says he disagrees, but doesn’t want to hurt someone who he loves, he answered honestly which is why I like him, even though this particular answer could hurt him with Catholic voters.


8 posted on 04/20/2015 9:38:07 AM PDT by chris37 (Heartless)
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To: ansel12
Do you think God will 'evolve' on social issues, Rand? Hmmm...?

Stand with Rand? Uh...no.

9 posted on 04/20/2015 9:40:06 AM PDT by who knows what evil? (Yehovah saved more animals than people on the ark...www.siameserescue.com)
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To: GIdget2004
"Personnel is policy," said David Lane, whose American Renewal Project is working with 100,000 pastors to push 80 million evangelicals and 40 million Catholics who typically don't vote to the polls in 2016 to elect a conservative Republican.

You really ought to have a 'come to Jesus' meeting with the "evangelicals" and "catholics" that continue to vote for democrats, Mr. Lane.

10 posted on 04/20/2015 9:43:11 AM PDT by who knows what evil? (Yehovah saved more animals than people on the ark...www.siameserescue.com)
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To: chris37

Thanks for your reply.

There are a lot of die hard Cruz guys here who I think would vehemently disagree with your conclusion.

Myself, I tend to think he would not go.

But we don’t know, because Cruz didn’t say, and left the specific answer open to speculation.


11 posted on 04/20/2015 10:14:46 AM PDT by Balding_Eagle (The Gruber Revelations are proof that God is still smiling on America.)
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To: chris37

That quote is Rubio’s, not Cruz’s. Cruz DID dodge the question, as it was posed. He said he hadn’t been in the position to have to make that decision.


12 posted on 04/20/2015 10:33:15 AM PDT by GIdget2004
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To: GIdget2004; Balding_Eagle

Hmmm.

Apparently I misquoted Rubio’s response thinking it was Cruz’s.

I’m a have to go back and reread that...I coulda sworn.

Thank you for the heads up, sorry for that, I’m not sure how I made this mistake. ><;


13 posted on 04/20/2015 10:42:43 AM PDT by chris37 (Heartless)
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To: Balding_Eagle

Yeah, it’s possible that he wouldn’t. Looks like I misquoted Cruz anyway.

I look at it like this. I am against gay marriage. I don’t support it or think it’s legit in any way.

But what if my brother invited me to his gay wedding? (he’s not gay, but just hypothetical).

Would I turn him down and chastise him and bring my political beliefs into this? I don’t know, I don’t think I would, I mean, I’m not sure that’s the right thing to do, it’s a really tough question.

Do I go to the gay wedding graciously despite my opposition to it? maybe I do, I haven’t been presented with this situation yet either, so it’s hard to say. I do know one thing for sure, I love my brother very much. He is, however, married with two beautiful children.


14 posted on 04/20/2015 10:47:26 AM PDT by chris37 (Heartless)
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To: chris37; Balding_Eagle; GIdget2004
The following is how Ted Cruz answered the question in an interview with Hugh Hewitt last Thursday, on April 16, 2015:
Republican presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz gave an honest answer to a gay-themed question Thursday.

“Well, I will tell you, I haven’t faced that circumstance. I have not had a loved one go to a, have a gay wedding,” Cruz told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt, who asked the senator if he would go to a gay wedding (Marco Rubio said yesterday that he would go to one).

“You know, at the end of the day, what the media tries to twist the question of marriage into is they try to twist it into a battle of emotions and personalities,” Cruz continued.

“And they try to make it say, so for example, you know, they routinely say well, gosh, any conservative must hate people who are gay. And as you know, that has nothing to do with the operative legal question. And listen, I’m a Christian, and the Scripture commands us to love everyone, and to love everyone, and all of us are sinners,” the Texas senator stated. “But the legal question, I’m a Constitutionalist. And under the Constitution, from the beginning of this country, marriage has been a question for the states. It has been a question for elected legislatures in each of the 50 states. And what we’ve seen in recent years from the left is the federal government and unelected federal judges imposing their own policy preferences to tear down the marriage laws of the states.”

“And so if someone is running for public office, it is perfectly legitimate to ask them their views on whether they’re willing to defend the Constitution, which leaves marriage to the states, or whether they want to impose their own extreme policy views like so many on the left are doing, like Barack Obama does, like Hillary Clinton does. That’s what we would be doing.”

Source: Ted Cruz: I Have Never Been To A Gay Wedding, Daily Caller, 4/16/2015

Posting at FR: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3280017/posts


15 posted on 04/20/2015 10:49:26 AM PDT by Unmarked Package (Cruz to Victory 2016)
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To: Unmarked Package

Thank you for clarifying that answer. Let me see if I can understand what he said.

So it looks like he supports it being a issue of the states, which I also support.

He hasn’t faced the circumstance. I haven’t either, and I’m not 100% sure how I would respond to it.

He views the question as a gotcha question, which it is.

He is a Christian, so he believes in Scripture, and that Scripture commands us to love everyone, even sinners which we all are. I personally do not think I am a Christian, even though I do believe in Jesus Christ. I’m just not big on organized religion personally.

I can’t see anything in his answer that would cause me not to support him. As long as he answers honestly, which I believe he did, then I’m cool with it.


16 posted on 04/20/2015 11:28:34 AM PDT by chris37 (Heartless)
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To: Unmarked Package

I’m well aware of his answer. I think it was a good answer.

What he didn’t answer though, is the specific question whether or not he would go.

He left it unanswered.

There is a Cruz following here who evidently think he said he wouldn’t go, thus my original question on this thread.


17 posted on 04/20/2015 11:46:40 AM PDT by Balding_Eagle (The Gruber Revelations are proof that God is still smiling on America.)
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To: chris37
I had not listened to the audio from the Hewitt interview until just now.

A question from Hugh Hewitt, and Ted Cruz's response, immediately preceding his question about attending a gay wedding set the proper context to judge the low priority both men place on the gay wedding question. I'm comfortable if Cruz decides to deflect the specific question about attending a gay wedding and redirects it to Constitutional law. I likewise put it near the bottom of my list of questions I want or need a POTUS candidate to answer.

Hewitt's preceding question to Cruz is, "What matters more...knowing if a candidate for the presidency will attend a gay wedding, or whether he or she will destroy the Islamic State before it throws hundreds, if not thousands, of more gay men to their deaths from towers? What matters more knowing?"

Cruz punches hard at members of the media in his answer to the first question.

Give a listen to the two questions and responses back-to-back here >>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfXxGd2c5zg

18 posted on 04/20/2015 12:33:23 PM PDT by Unmarked Package (Cruz to Victory 2016)
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To: Unmarked Package

“Hewitt’s preceding question to Cruz is, “What matters more...knowing if a candidate for the presidency will attend a gay wedding, or whether he or she will destroy the Islamic State before it throws hundreds, if not thousands, of more gay men to their deaths from towers? What matters more knowing?”

That is an infinitely more important question. I agree with you that the gay wedding question is not a high priority question of a candidate.

Frankly, the answer doesn’t matter to me much. If a person says they don’t want to go at all, I’m fine with that. If a person says they would attend if it was a loved one, I’m probably okay with that too, tough spot to be in. If a person says I support federal judges imposing gay marriage on us all, I’m not okay with that.

Thanks for the link to the questions, I am going to listen, but I’ve got to make some lunch first or I’ll pass out.


19 posted on 04/20/2015 12:58:59 PM PDT by chris37 (Heartless)
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