Sam Brownback’s curtain call
He enters to big band music. I have no idea what to say about that.
He begins by eulogizing the “giants” of the Religious Right (Falwell, Kennedy, et al), implores us “to pick up the cause and move forward.” Not exactly in tune with his references to helping the poor, the imprisoned and the immigrant.
Earlier Perkins said ‘values voters’ aren’t single issue voters. Brownback – “you’re right, I care about two issues.” [Okay, that's a paraphrase, but he said it. Those issues are abortion and "restoring decency" to America's culture.]
Brownback sure knows how to work a pro-life crowd. He even got applause when he talked about working with Ted Kennedy!
“WHEN we repeal Roe vs. Wade. WHEN we repeal Roe vs. Wade.”
Gay marriage “takes the sacredness out of it.” In northern Europe, where gay marriage (civil unions, I believe) has been allowed, in-wedlock births are falling. Therefore, gay marriage leads to out-of-wedlock births. News to me, but that’s some unassailable logic.
On faith: “it can be misused and abused, and it has been through history.”
“I believe in American exceptionalism. I believe this is a special place.” Quotes Blair saying “It’s your time, and it’s your destiny.”
“We are great because we are good, and if we lose our goodness we will lose our greatness.”
Exits to big band music. I still don’t know what to say about that.
Applause: warm, standing, nonvocal, short.
So far, in these speeches by the Republican Presidential candidates, I don’t see a lot of use of religious right faith language. It’s all policy. Is that because the religious right has so identified their faith with one or two policy priorities (gays and abortion) or is it because these candidates really don’t know how to talk about faith? Their speeches to this entirely religious audience are so generic from how I hear the Democratic Presidential candidates talking about faith these days to both religous and secular audiences. We really are in a new day here.
Such an interesting character…Brownback is his own man in some impressive ways. Willing to work with people like Paul Wellstone to combat human trafficking? Take your religion seriously enough to actually convert (back to the Mother Church, I might add)?
Perkins often says that for evangelicals, picking a presidential candidate is about the issues, not how they talk about their faith. That’s not consistent with what a lot of other evangelical leaders say, but interesting that the candidates speeches seem to be fitting into that mold at his summit. It will be interesting to see what other evangelical leaders say about the lack of talk of faith.