Likely GOP Presidential Candidates Team Up With Anti-Gay Hate Group To Get Christians To Polls

The GOP’s top, likely presidential candidates have teamed up with one of America’s top anti-gay hate groups to get Christians to the polls in November.

Senator Ted Cruz, Governors Bobby Jindal and Rick Perry, and former Gov. Mike Huckabee have teamed up with the American Family Association to be the voice of a Bible-based project designed to get conservative Christians to the polls. The American Family Association is perhaps best known for Bryan Fischer, its active spokesperson who hosts one of its daily radio shows, who regularly propagates lies and hate against gay people. It is listed on the Southern Poverty Law Center’s page of active anti-gay hate groups.

Cruz, Jindal, Huckabee, and Perry, are all Republicans sympathetic to the Tea Party who draw their power from their uber-conservative Christian religious right base.

David Lane, whose American Renewal Project is funded by the American Family Association, is a low-profile, behind-the-scenes Christian kingmaker who works to get like-minded anti-gay Christians elected to national political office.

The four GOP presidential hopefuls have been recording radio ads to motivate the Christian right to go to the polls in November.

Calling their actions “a smart play to record these spots in front of a pro-family conservative Christian audience,” televangelist Pat Robertson’s Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) senior national correspondent David Brody reports the radio spots will “be on close to 300 radio stations across the country in more than 35 states and reaching over nearly 70 million people.”

In one, Ted Cruz says:

“The Bible is full of stories of men and women whose faith in God led them to take action during difficult times, trusting in Him for His glory. Today God’s people are once again being called to action as we seek to restore the values our nation was founded upon and to honor the legacy of those who have given their lives in defense of our freedom.”

In another, Bobby Jindal says:

“Throughout the Bible, God’s people are driven to action by their faith in difficult times. Today we’re being called to action to restore the values our nation was founded.” 

Brody reports that the radio spots “are part of the American Renewal Project’s, ‘Get Out The Vote’ effort. The American Family Association political arm called AFA Action funds it.”

Part of their stated goal is to, “inform, equip, and activate individuals to strengthen the moral foundations of American culture.” David Lane, the influential evangelical organizer behind this effort also holds his popular, “Pastors and Pews” events around the country in multiple states including the early GOP Primary states of Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada. Those events are geared for pastors to get energized and mobilized so they can get more of their parishioners excited about voting their values.

David Lane, who also has ties to Rand Paul, made headlines last year for an anti-gay op-ed he wrote for World Net Daily, calling for a “war to restore a Christian America.” Lane also has called for war against “the pagan onslaught imposing homosexual marriage.”

You can listen to the audio at CBN.

 

Image by Gage Skidmore via Flickr
Hat tip: Right Wing Watch

 

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