(1) Abortion rights at stake in 2016, by Nancy Pelosi and Cecile Richards (CNN)
Lest we ever forget that the pro-abortion side will never stop writing in support of their cause, neither should we. And take note that Pelosi and Richards know exactly what is at stake in the 2016 election. They write:
We believe that every woman should be able to make decisions about her pregnancy, including whether to end it, without shame, judgment, harassment or intimidation — and certainly without interference by politicians.
(2) Marco Rubio’s Crisis of Faith, by Michael Kruse (Politico)
Great profile piece on the faith of Marco Rubio. The opening anecdote comes from an event created for Rubio by David Lane and the American Renewal Project. Lane and the ARP have provided equal opportunity invitations to all the candidates to present themselves to Iowa pastors.
Rubio has perhaps the most unusual personal religious story of anyone on the campaign trail. Given the audience, this might have been an opportunity for evasion, or to cherrypick parts of his “faith journey” that would appeal most to evangelicals. Instead, Rubio launched into a virtuoso, 10-minute-long, let-me-at-it telling of his circuitous faith—Catholicism to Mormonism back to Catholicism to a Southern Baptist Convention-affiliated evangelical megachurch and finally back to Catholicism—as well as passionate and particular evidence of the depth of his knowledge of the Bible. “Now I sound like the preacher,” a smiling Rubio said toward the end.
See also: The Faith of Marco Rubio, by Gary Smith
(3) Cruz, Clinton and Undecided Preferred by Pastors, by LifeWay Research
Ted Cruz is the favorite presidential candidate of Protestant pastors who lean Republican. Hillary Clinton leads among Democratic pastors. And Donald Trump is near the back of the pack.
But “Undecided” is by far the most popular choice of America’s pastors according to a new telephone survey of 1,000 Protestant senior pastors from Nashville-based LifeWay Research. The survey found nearly half of those planning to vote (48 percent) don’t know whom they would vote for if the presidential election were held today.
“One of the most surprising findings of our survey was the poor showing of Donald Trump,” says Ed Stetzer, executive director of LifeWay Research. “When it comes to Mr. Trump, there seems to be a huge gap between the pulpit and the pew.”
(4) On Jerry Falwell Jr.’s Endorsement Mistake, by David French (National Review)
So it is indeed unfortunate to see that Falwell has endorsed Donald Trump. He is asking his admirers to make an enormous gamble that a man who has long stood against life, who’s shown little interest in religious liberty, and is even a recent convert to his core immigration platform is not just an acceptable choice for Christians but the single best choice for Evangelical voters in 2016. Perhaps if the rest of the field featured men and women who’d proven to be weak and faithless and matters of life and religious liberty, the endorsement would be more understandable. But this field features, for example, two of the Senate’s most stalwart defenders of the unborn and the persecuted church. Both Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, moreover, have proven to be articulate defenders of the Christian faith. Trump, by contrast, seems only to dimly understand Christian theology and practice. And while I understand that there are evangelicals — like many other voters — who have deep concerns about immigration, Trump has been no more consistent in his views than Rubio and less consistent than Cruz.
(5) These are the books students at the top US colleges are required to read
Nearly all political philosophy.
- Republic, by Plato
- Leviathan, by Hobbes
- The Prince, by Machiavelli
- The Clash of Civilizations, by Huntington
- The Elements of Style, by Strunk
- Ethics, by Aristotle
- The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, by Kuhn
- Democracy in America, by De Tocqueville
- The Communist Manifest, by Marx
- The Politics, by Aristotle
(6) The problem with Trump’s change of heart on abortion, by Trevin Wax (RNS)
He said: “Friends of mine years ago were going to have a child, and it was going to be aborted. And it wasn’t aborted. And that child today is a total superstar, a great, great child. And I saw that. And I saw other instances.”
Now, I’m one who cheers whenever someone publicly switches from supporting abortion rights to supporting human rights for all — including the unborn. I am glad to see people like Norma McCorvey, the “Jane Roe” of the Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion, or Bernard Nathanson, founder of the National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws, become pro-life activists.
But I find it difficult to cheer Trump’s conversion, because the reason he gives for being pro-life doesn’t correspond to the pro-life ethic.
Trump says he is pro-life because of a “superstar” child who could have been aborted.
(7) Should Religious Leaders ‘Get Political’? Yes, But …, by James Robison
The U.S presidential race is heating up with the Iowa caucus just around the corner, and whenever a preacher, priest or rabbi addresses some issue of national and moral importance that our political leaders are involved in, we hear the cry, “Stay out of politics!” That view is dangerously misguided.
I have often said that religious leaders should champion principles rather than parties and personalities. When pastors rush to jump on board this or that politician’s campaign, it risks making the church appear to be an arm of a party or politician. But the solution isn’t to disengage from politics. That’s deeply dangerous. The answer instead is an energetic championing of foundational principles — including the dignity of all human life, the importance of human freedom and justice for all, the danger of unchecked political power and unlimited government, and the importance of living within our national means so we don’t drown future generations under our public debt. Championing these foundational principles means that even religious leaders sometimes will, and must, “get political.”
(8) Iowa Evangelicals Still Like Mike Huckabee, but See Ted Cruz as Better Bet (Wall Street Journal)
A super PAC backing Mr. Huckabee is waging much more aggressive attacks on the Texas senator, airing television ads here in Iowa to question Mr. Cruz’s conservative convictions.
Despite the increasingly bitter tone of the race, Republicans who turned out Wednesday all expressed favorable opinions about Mr. Huckabee, but they were convinced Mr. Cruz has a better chance to win.
“This cycle, I’m a little bit more pragmatic,” Mike McGuigan, 44, a Republican caucus-goer from Story City supported Mr. Huckabee in 2008, only to watch him fall short in most of the contests that followed. That, he said, is a big reason he is leaning toward Mr. Cruz this time around. “This cycle, I’m a little bit more pragmatic,” he said.
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