Friday January 18, 2008

Gerson Chides Thompson

The media is covering the Huckabee-Thompson duel for religious conservatives in South Carolina, God-o-Meter thinks it has glossed over an important distinction in the two candidates' approaches on the stump. Huckabee comes across as a populist "compassionate conservative," while Thompson comes across as what Michael Gerson calls in today's Washington Post a "callous conservative." Gerson beats up Thompson over a recent response he gave to a question on the government's role in combating HIV/AIDS, but God-o-Meter noticed this same seeming insensitivity during a day and half with Thompson on the campaign trail. Elderly voters would complain of expensive prescription drug prices and Thompson basically told them to suck it up.

The meat of Gerson's piece:

At a campaign stop attended by a CBS reporter in Lady's Island, S.C., Thompson was asked if he, "as a Christian, as a conservative," supported President Bush's global AIDS initiative. "Christ didn't tell us to go to the government and pass a bill to get some of these social problems dealt with. He told us to do it," Thompson responded. "The government has its role, but we need to keep firmly in mind the role of the government, and the role of us as individuals and as Christians on the other."

Thompson went on: "I'm not going to go around the state and the country with regards to a serious problem and say that I'm going to prioritize that. With people dying of cancer, and heart disease, and children dying of leukemia still, I got to tell you -- we've got a lot of problems here. . . . " Indeed, there are a lot of problems here -- mainly of Thompson's own making.

While he is not an isolationist, he clearly is playing to isolationist sentiments. His objection, it seems, is not to government spending on public health but to spending on foreigners. But this is badly shortsighted. America is engaged in a high-stakes ideological struggle in Africa, where radicals and terrorists seek to fill the vacuum of failed and hopeless societies. Fighting disease and promoting development are important foreign policy tools in this struggle, which Thompson apparently does not appreciate or even understand.

Thompson's argument reflects an anti-government extremism, which I am sure his defenders would call a belief in limited government. In this case, Thompson is limiting government to a half-full thimble. Its duties apparently do not extend to the treatment of sick people in extreme poverty, which should be "the role of us as individuals and as Christians." One wonders, in his view, if responding to the 2004 tsunami should also have been a private responsibility. Religious groups are essential to fighting AIDS, but they cannot act on a sufficient scale.

Thompson also dives headfirst into the shallow pool of his own theological knowledge. In his interpretation, Jesus seems to be a libertarian activist who taught that compassion is an exclusively private virtue. This ignores centuries of reflection on the words of the Bible that have led to a nearly universal Christian conviction that government has obligations to help the weak and pursue social justice. Religious social reformers fought to end child labor and improve public health. It is hard to imagine they would have used the teachings of Christ to justify cutting off lifesaving drugs for tens of thousands of African children -- an argument both novel and obscene.

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Filed Under: casting stones, conservative, Fred Thompson, Michael Gerson

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Friday January 18, 2008

Courting Evangelicals, Flat on Faith and Values

As his campaign ambles along the back roads of upstate South Carolina, it’s little surprise that many of the voters turning out to hear Fred Thompson are evangelical Christians. In these parts, Baptist churches are more common than any chain restaurant. As Thompson spoke at Yoder’s Dutch Kitchen in Abbeville the other day, the marquee out front was mum on about daily specials but did proclaim “Jesus is Lord.”

The biggest applause line in Thompson’s stump speech at stops like this is that Americans’ rights “come from God, not the government.”

Indeed, Thompson’s aides are the first to admit they view Mike Huckabee, the Baptist preacher whose main base of support in early primary and caucus states has come from evangelical Christians, as their prime competition here. They say Thompson’s modest increases in recent polls here have come at Huckabee’s expense.

But as Thompson continues to bank on strong support from religious conservatives for a top three finish here, he has nonetheless remained reticent about his own faith and is visibly less excited speaking about socially conservative causes like stopping abortion and gay marriage than about terrorism, government spending, or illegal immigration. That reticence and enthusiasm gap could wind up costing him dearly in the Palmetto State.

After offering rambling answers to questions about immigration and economy at Whiteford’s Giant Burger in small-town Laurens on Wednesday, Thompson parried a question about his views on “abortion” and “other moral issues” in 20 second flat. “I’m the candidate on the Republican side that has received the endorsement of the National Right to Life folks and the South Carolina Citizens for Life—I think that says it all,” Thompson said coolly. “I held my record better than anybody. I had a 100-percent pro-life voting record while I was in the Senate.”

The questioner, hungry for more red meat on hot-button social issues, threw Thompson a softball: “And what about keeping 'In God We Trust' on our money and keeping references to God…”

But Thompson just grew chillier. “Absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely,” he interrupted. “Our country was founded on those things and those beliefs. It’s on our monuments and on our currency. That says it all.”

Next question.

Many national Christian Right figures have long expressed skepticism about Thompson after being initially bullish about him, with the drain in support due as much to his apparent lack of passion for social issues as to his actual positions. In an email briefing last night, Family Research Council Action president Tony Perkins wrote that Thompson is “struggling to interest [religious conservative] voters… when his manner suggests his own lack of passion for them.”

If Thompson was hoping to skirt the influence of evangelical power players like Perkins by taking his case directly to religious conservatives, he might run up against the same problems he encountered with their leadership. “I was hoping to get something more personal, more of a testimony,” said Amanda Capps, managing editor of the Laurens County Advertiser, after interviewing Thompson on his campaign bus following his appearance at Whiteford’s Giant Burger. “We want the right person to be in charge, and that starts with Jesus Christ.”

“I asked about his prayer in schools, and he didn’t’ say much,” Capps added.

Thompson, in a brief interview, said the only time faith comes up on the campaign trail is when reporters, not voters, ask him about it. “The only thing I hear about it are because of questions of people such as yourself [reporters] are asking, and otherwise it’s never an issue,” Thompson said. “People have a right to their opinions and a right to express their opinions, and it’s not for me to judge them on that basis and I don’t appreciate it when I’m judged.”

In fact, Thompson’s events are often filled with outspoken evangelicals who ask about “moral issues” and matters as diverse as Israel and keeping “In God We Trust” on currency as an invitation for Thompson to open up about his faith. “We don’t want someone in office who goes to church once a year just to get credit,” said Austin New, a 27-year old forester who attended a Thompson Q&A; in Abbeville this week. “We don’t want separation of church and state.”

Earlier in the campaign, Thompson had made it clear that he’s not a regular churchgoer.

After seeing Thompson, New said he was still deciding between Thompson and Huckabee.

In an interview on Wednesday, Thompson’s wife Jeri defended her husband’s reticence about his personal faith. “Since when is humility a bad thing?” she said. “This is the fist cycle when humility in a leader... how would Abe Lincoln have fared, how would Eisenhower have fared?”

“But if we didn’t have faith, we wouldn’t be here,” she continued. “We have nothing to lose here but our integrity.”

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Filed Under: casting stones, evangelicals, Fred Thompson, South Carolina

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Thursday January 17, 2008

Fred Thompson's God-o-Meter Q&A;

God-o-Meter caught up with Fred Thompson and his wife Jeri at various South Carolina events this week and has cobbled together this Q&A; from a few separate exchanges. God-o-Meter has lots more to say about the Thompsons' answers--and will--but it has to head off to interview Ron Paul at Bob Jones University.

God-o-Meter: Do you think religion is playing too big a role in the presidential race?

Fred Thompson: I don’t have any feelings a long those lines. I think people have a right to express themselves, including people of faith, no question about it, and they’re participating and I’m glad to see it.

GOM: Last year, Focus on the Family’s James Dobson said it was his impression that you weren’t a Christian. Are the faith lives of the candidates playing too big a role in the race, as opposed to the faith of voters?

FT: The only thing I hear about it are because of questions of people such as yourself [reporters] are asking, and otherwise it’s never an issue. People have a right to their opinions and a right to express their opinions, and it’s not for me to judge them on that basis and I don’t appreciate it when I’m judged. As far as I’m concerned, everything’s on track.

GOM: You said in the most recent debate that Huckabee was a “Christian leader” but also a “liberal leader.” Do you think he’s gotten too much Christian support on the basis that he’s a Christian leader?

FT: That’s not for me to judge. I just related the facts. The facts are that he is a Christian leader and the facts are the he has more liberal economic and foreign policies than I think is good for our country and out of the mainstream of the Republican Party.

GOM: In an interview with Beliefnet, Mike Huckabee said that your approach to leaving the question of abortion to the states would be as immoral as leaving the issue of slavery to the states during the Civil War…

FT: You have to go back and check—Governor Huckabee said that it ought to be left up to the states pretty consistently up until he started running for president. You ought to check on that. You ought to do a little research on that and when he says things like that ask him when he changed his mind.

GOM: You’ve staked a lot of your campaign on South Carolina? How well do you have to do here in order to stay in the race?

FT: Pretty doggone well, pretty doggone well. Different [candidates] have won different important states and in every case they probably had to win those states and they did so… we’ll see on election night how well very well is, because rankings and percentage play into it as well as rankings, but there’s no question I have to do very well here.

GOM: Does that mean first or second place?

FT: That’s all I’m saying about that.

GOM: Some conservative Christian leaders I've talked to say that they're more impressed with you than with your husband.

Jeri Thompson: We are really a team, from anything from national security and China and America’s role in the world to family values—using the bully pulpit to the extent that a president can. Fred often talks about the fact that he doesn’t really want to be president but to do those things that only a president can do.

One of those things is use that bully pulpit to talk about the value of being a father and being a father. Fred’s been blessed—I’m his second family, I’m his second wife. He was married at 17. This is not his first rodeo, so looking back and knowing what your values are become a little clearer when you get older. One thing he’s said often is that what goes through a man’s mind from the time our four-year-olds are at the top of the stairs to the bottom is what made him ultimately decide to run for president. If we don’t address these issues… in terms of what we leave our next generation and what we leave our children--that really motivated us. And our faith.

GOM: Conservative Christian leaders have criticized your husband for not talking enough about his faith.

JT: Since when is humility a bad thing? This is the first cycle when humility in a leader... how would Abe Lincoln have fared, how would Eisenhower have fared? But if we didn’t have faith, we wouldn’t be here. We have nothing to lose here but our integrity.

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Filed Under: casting stones, Fred Thompson, interview, Jeri Thompson, South Carolina

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Wednesday January 16, 2008

Another Evangelical Insult to Thompson

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Filed Under: evangelicals, Family Research Council, Fred Thompson, South Carolina

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Monday January 14, 2008

Thompson's Theological View of Government's Role

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Filed Under: Fred Thompson, Reformed Chicks Blabbing, South Carolina

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Thursday January 10, 2008

The Evangelical View from South Carolina

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Filed Under: evangelicals, Fred Thompson, John McCain, Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney, Oran Smith, South Carolina

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Thursday December 27, 2007

Thompson Overstates Methodist Endorsement

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Filed Under: endorsement, Fred Thompson, Methodist, Wesleyan

posted by Dan Gilgoff @ 9:15am Permalink Email This Add to:

Sunday December 16, 2007

Christians Boost Thompson... But Who Are They?

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Filed Under: casting stones, Fred Thompson, Republicans, Wesleyan Center for Strategic Studies

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Thursday December 13, 2007

Thompson Riffs on Huckabee's Mormon Apology

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Filed Under: casting stones, Fred Thompson, Mitt Romney, Mormonism, Republicans

posted by Dan Gilgoff @ 5:10pm Permalink Email This Add to:

Monday December 10, 2007

Fred Thompson Goes to Church

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Filed Under: church, Florida, Fred Thompson, Republicans

posted by Dan Gilgoff @11:09pm Permalink Email This Add to: