Christians Can Make a Difference on Super Tuesday

Why have I endorsed Santorum? It’s easy: Not only is he right on the issues,
but he’s someone I consider “squeaky clean.” I was interviewed on the PBS
program Religion & Ethics and they wanted to know why I didn’t endorse the
other candidates. For Mitt Romney I’m concerned about how he’s flip-flopped. And
I’m wary of the fact that he’s Mormon (although that doesn’t prevent me from
voting for him—it only makes it more difficult). And with Newt Gingrich I’m
concerned his many moral failures (which he says he has repented of and I don’t
doubt that’s true) shows a deep character flaw. But Rick Santorum has a good
record, projects the image of a leader and has strong Christian values.

My endorsement was widely circulated and the PBS program has a large
following, but I doubt my support did much good. Santorum came in third in
Florida. To me, I was mainly making a point that I wanted to back someone my
friend Florida representative Scott Plakon says is “as clean as a Boy
Scout.”

What a difference a month makes in politics. Since then Santorum has won
several primaries and is now ahead in some polls. As I talk to other Christians,
it’s as if a lot of people feel as I do—we want a leader with conservative
values, voting records and strong moral values. The biggest difference is that
people are beginning to believe he can win! And people are increasingly
skeptical about Romney once they see where he stands on major moral issues, as
noted below.

So if you are turned off to politics, don’t read any farther. But if you want
to be part of a grass-roots movement, this blog is my attempt to use whatever
influence I have to rally my readers to vote for Santorum, to influence your
friends to support him, and to put your money where your mouth is and support
him financially. But it’s mainly to influence you to vote on Super Tuesday if
you live in a state with a primary, or to put this on Facebook or send it to
your email list.

It’s well known Romney has a money-machine backing him. Yet his place in the
polls has stayed about the same as one contender after another has become the
“not Mitt” candidate of choice. This is a very odd election and maybe Romney
will emerge as the one who wins the Republican nomination. He certainly won my
state’s primary in a big way on Jan. 31.

But many Republicans are having second thoughts about Romney. This press
release says it better than I can. Read it and judge for yourself.

OHIO ROBO CALLS HIT ROMNEY ON THE ISSUES

Columbus, OH (MMD Newswire) March 5, 2012 — One day before Ohio’s
delegate-rich GOP presidential primary election, Super Tuesday’s biggest prize,
national frontrunner Mitt Romney is getting hit hard on his gay rights record
with millions of robo-calls, emails and videos. Aiming for Republicans as well
as registered Democrats, who are free to cross over to vote in the GOP contest,
an ecumenical group of Jews and Christians supporting Romney’s rival, Rick
Santorum, released the robo-call script this morning. It reads:

“Hi, my name is Brian Camenker; I’m a Jew from Massachusetts.

“And, this is Darcy Brandon; I’m a Christian from California. If you believe
as we do that marriage and sexuality should only be between a man and a woman,
please help us stop Mitt Romney.

“As Governor, Romney signed ‘Gay Youth Pride Day’ proclamations, promoted
homosexuality in our elementary schools, and unconstitutionally ordered state
officals to make Massachusetts America’s first same-sex marriage state. Romney
supports open homosexuality in the military, the appointment of homosexual
judges, and the ENDA law, making it illegal to fire a man who wears a dress and
high heels to work, even if he’s your kid’s teacher. When you vote tomorrow,
please vote for social sanity and Rick Santorum, NOT for homosexuality and Mitt
Romney.

“Rick Santorum is the ONLY candidate who can be trusted to uphold traditional
marriage, a straight military, and the rights of American children to have both
a mother and a father. This message paid for by Jews and Christians Together.org
and not authorized by any candidate. To get the facts before you vote, visit
Jews and Christians Together.org.”

That website, urging Ohio voters to “get the shocking facts on Mitt Romney,”
links to a page called “The Romney Files”. That page, identical to email content
blasted to over a million Ohio residents on Sunday, documents Romney’s
progressive record on gay issues, a record that may be problematic for the
former Massachusetts governor in more conservative Super Tuesday states like
Ohio, Georgia and Tennessee. “The Romney Files”, assembled by the Boston-based
group Mass Resistance, show a gubernatorial proclamation Romney signed declaring
“Gay Youth Pride Week”; a video comparison of RomneyCare to ObamaCare, two
similar approaches to socialized medicine; a Planned Parenthood questionnaire
Romney signed in favor of publicly-subsidized abortion, abortion drugs and
contraceptives; and a claim that “Romney’s wife Ann personally donated to
Planned Parenthood!” That page links to a more in-depth “Mitt Romney Report”
full of details that trouble GOP conservatives trying to select their
presidential nominee.

Brian Camenker, president of Mass Resistance and compiler of much of that
Romney research and one of the robo-call voices said, “Mitt Romney would be the
most liberal Republican ever nominated for the Presidency. Romney is so far
left, he spoke against the right of the Boy Scouts to screen-out homosexuals.
Mitt Romney proved during the January 8 Meet the Press debate that he’s still as
far left on the gay agenda as always. He proudly announced, ‘a member of my
cabinet was gay. I appointed people to the bench regardless of their sexual
orientation.’ Asked when he last stood up and spoke out for increasing gay
rights, Romney said ‘Right now.'”

Dr. Gary Cass, president of DefendChristians.org and a member of Jews &
Christians Together.org said, “We believe Rick Santorum is the only viable
alternative to Romney. All Jews and Christians are aware that the Bible, from
the Jewish Books of Moses to the Christian Gospels to the epistles of Saint
Paul, commands God’s faithful to love the sinner but hate the sin, and indeed to
recognize homosexuality as sin. Romney, on the other hand, endorses
homosexuality as a good choice for young people.”

Cass said that he supports Santorum, the former Pennsylvania Senator, because
last year Santorum signed The Marriage Vow, a political pledge document from
Iowa also embraced by Texas Gov. Rick Perry and U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann
(R-MN) last year. That eventually earned Santorum a narrow victory in Iowa and
the endorsement of conservative radio personality Dr. James Dobson and other
evangelicals. Santorum, said Cass, “courageously put his name to some very bold,
very Judeo-Christian, and extremely politically-incorrect statements about
marriage and sexuality.” Santorum’s pro-marriage vow:

– Recognizes “the overwhelming statistical evidence that married people enjoy
better health, better sex, longer lives, greater financial stability, and that
children raised by a mother and a father together experience better learning,
less addiction, less legal trouble, and less extramarital pregnancy;”

– Rejects “anti-scientific bias which holds, in complete absence of empirical
proof, that non-heterosexual inclinations are genetically determined,
irresistible and akin to innate traits like race, gender and eye color;”

– Rejects “anti-scientific bias which holds, against all empirical evidence,
that homosexual behavior in particular, and sexual promiscuity in general,
optimizes individual or public health;”

– Contains a pledge of “Personal fidelity to my spouse” and “Respect for the
marital bonds of others” which Gingrich, Cain, Romney and Ron Paul declined to
sign, but which Bachmann and Perry joined Santorum in signing.

Cass, an ordained Presbyterian minister, said, “Rick Santorum signed the Iowa
vow last summer while Romney was calling for more gay hiring.” Another link at
Jews & Christians Together.org connects to a voter guide from Family
Research Council that shows Romney in support of ENDA, the proposed federal
Employment Non-Discrimination Act “that adds sexual orientation as a protected
class.” Camenker, the Jewish Romney opponent from Massachusetts, said ENDA
“would forbid the firing of transvestite elementary school teachers, open
bisexuals, and other bad examples to America’s young people.”