Posted on 04/21/2015 7:43:46 AM PDT by wagglebee
WASHINGTON, D.C., April 20, 2015 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Are you now, or were you ever, willing to attend a same-sex “wedding”? That seems to be the question lighting up the Republican presidential field, as GOP hopefuls who may one day have their finger on the nuclear button are asked the query over and over again.
So far, the Republican hopefuls' answers are yes, no, I have (sort of), and...unclear.
The media began by asking Florida's U.S. senator, Marco Rubio, if he would attend a homosexual 'wedding' ceremony, especially if he were invited by a relative or close friend.
“If there’s somebody that I love that’s in my life, I don’t necessarily have to agree with their decisions or the decisions they’ve made to continue to love them and participate in important events,” Rubio told Jorge Ramos of Fusion TV's America program.
Rubio, who became the third Republican to throw his hat in the ring last week, likened attending a same-sex “marriage” to attending the second marriage of a divorced friend. “If someone gets divorced, I’m not going to stop loving them or having them a part of our lives,” he said.
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker – who has not yet formally announced his candidacy yet is considered a front-runner – said that he attended a same-sex reception, but not a ceremony. “I haven’t been to a [homosexual] 'wedding,' that’s true,” he said, “even though my position on marriage is still that’s defined between a man and a woman, and I support the Constitution of the state.”
“But for someone I love, we’ve been at a reception,” he added.
A series of candidates and potential candidates have faced similar hypotheticals.
Radio talk show host Hugh Hewitt, a libertarian-leaning Republican who strongly supported Mitt Romney in previous primaries, asked two contenders “a meta-question.” Is it more important to know whether a candidate would attend a homosexual wedding or whether a president will “destroy the Islamic State before it throws hundreds of thousands of gay men to their deaths”?
Former Pennsylvania senator and 2012 presidential candidate Rick Santorum, who has said he is considering another presidential run, said it was “amazing that the Left has not risen up” against Islamic Shari'a law. “They don't focus their energy on anything except the attempt to gather more power in this country by using this issue of same-sex 'marriage' as a tool to do that.”
Then he addressed the direct question: Would he attend a gay “marriage” ceremony?
“No, I would not,” he replied curtly. When asked why not, he said, “As a person of my faith, that would be something that would be a violation of my faith. I would love them and support them, but I would not participate in that ceremony.”
Ted Cruz, the first Republican to say he will seek the GOP's presidential nomination next year, gave a more roundabout reply.
“That's part of the 'gotcha' game that the mainstream media plays, where they come after Republicans on every front, and it's designed to caricature Republicans to make them look stupid or evil or crazy or extreme,” he said. “Sadly, most media players are not actual, objective journalists. They're active partisan players.”
He called reporters “the praetorian guard protecting the Obama administration” now gearing up to campaign for Hillary Clinton.
Cruz said he had not attended a gay “marriage” ceremony but made no commitments about the future.
“Well, I will tell you, I haven’t faced that circumstance,” he said. “I have not had a loved one have a gay wedding. 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. So they say, 'Gosh, any conservative must hate gays.'”
The Texas senator said that he is a conservative Christian and also “a constitutionalist.”
“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,” he said.
Lol, Cruz is the best wordsmith conservatives have. keep the hits coming Ted.
He did - he took a stand on the only part of the question that would be affected by him being elected president.
The media is focusing on whether the candidates would attend a homosexual "wedding" because if they say they will, it allows the media to portray them as hypocrites for opposing same-sex marriages in general; or if they say they won't, it allows the media to portray them as being heartless ideologues who care less about their friends and family than they do about their "extremist" political or religious policies.
Cruz is focusing on the issue truly at stake in regard to this question: who gets to decide what constitutes a legal marriage? Is it the states, as has been the case in this country since its founding? Or do unelected federal judges have the right to ignore the Constitution and overthrow the decisions made by the states and the people?
Who cares?
If Walker hasn’t attended a gay wedding, why does this Christian site say that he has, when they know it isn’t the truth?
Voters who are trying decide on candidates care.
He said not the ceremony, but the reception. (As if there were any meaningful difference.)
Cruz is the adult in a room full of children. He keeps hitting on these issues using this approach and he’s going to win.
When should a Christian participate in a gay wedding?
If a candidate avoids all contact with the media, they end up preaching to the choir. There are too many voters in the US that do not do any research, instead relying on the media for information.
The fact that the media is only too delighted to take advantage of the fact is secondary. They do serve the purpose of exposing some voters to candidates and information they would otherwise never encounter.
To reach voters who are unwilling to do their own investigations, candidates have to use the media. But they do not have to do so within the narrow rules preferred by the media itself.
Have a great day, FRiend!
If he took a stand, he’d be like every other sucker the GOP has put up in the last 40 years. Reagan was the only other one who wasn’t a sucker, and he did exactly what Cruz is doing.
The short audio clip contains only the two questions and Cruz's responses that are mentioned in the article at top.
The voter respects that against the media types as well.
No-one has to answer those gotcha questions. Ever.
/johnny
Personally I’d put attending a homosex wedding ceremony about on the same level as attending a Satanic black mass. An active participant in a pretty darned unholy ceremony, which celebrates perversion and deviancy.
Any candidate that is comfortable with that sort of thing shows he isn’t going to be the kind of individual I’d support under any circumstances.
You too, FRiend. Now you know why I will never be elected president, or anything else. LOL!
Did I miss Hillary’s answer to the question?
A: Dunno. Open bar?
(Everyone chuckles)
A: ...but thanks for asking... OK, anyone with a policy question?
No point asking Hillary. I think everybody assumes she’s been there.
I can think of no issue more important to myself and this great country than who is willing to attend, or not attend, a fake wedding.
My response would be: THIS is the question you’ve chosen to ask me? Look around you and look around the world. Then tell me that THIS is the most important issue you can ask about. There are people dying in foreign countries. There are terrorists seeking our destruction. Government is full of bureaucrats wasting tax dollars confiscated from our citizens. Unemployment is rampant, despite the statistics. You could have even asked about so-called Global Warming. But you ask about attending a gay “wedding”? I’ll answer that question if and when the issue ever arises in my personal life, but I am too busy trying to figure out the issues that truly threaten and concern Americans. Next question.
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