A typical reaction from close-minded evangelical Christians; if they can’t have their religious radical of choice in office, they simply won’t vote for anyone else unless, as the chairman of the Iowa Family Policy Center claims, one or both of the candidates illustrates a fundamental transformation. Don’t you just love it? If Thomas Jefferson, along with the rest of the Founding Fathers could hear these comments they would be flabbergasted! The founders of this nation fled Europe for the most part to avoid religious persecution and founded a nation based on the principles of a clear and distinct separation between Church and State.
Jefferson wrote: Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legislative powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should “make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,” thus building a wall of separation between church and State.
Yet here we are in the 21st century, and instead of moving further and further away from ignorance and superstition, this county is regressing to 16th century European thought. TGO
Refer to story below. Source: Associated Press
DES MOINES, Iowa – An influential group of religious conservatives plans to sit out the fall gubernatorial election after candidates it favored lost in the recent Republican primary.
The Iowa Family Policy Center’s decision Monday was a blow to Republican Terry Branstad, who had banked on support from religious conservatives in his race against Democratic Gov. Chet Culver. The religious group said neither major party candidate met its standards.
“After nearly a week of calls for blind partisan unity from Republican loyalists, the Iowa Family PAC today reaffirmed their intention to withhold support from either major party candidate for governor in 2010 unless one or both of them illustrates a fundamental transformation,” said Danny Carroll, chairman of the Iowa Family Policy Center. “Our commitment to biblical principles and the constitutional rule of law is not the result of any political affiliation, nor is it something that changes depending on the names on the ballot.”
Religious conservatives are a key group in Iowa. Polling during the 2008 presidential caucuses found that six out of 10 who attended Republican caucuses described themselves as evangelical Christians.
Branstad spokesman Tim Albrecht said the former governor would still work hard for the votes of religious conservatives. The campaign noted that during Branstad is a longtime opponent of abortion and signed a state law outlawing same-sex marriage, which the Iowa Supreme Court later overturned.
