More Signs of Social Conservatives Selecting Fred Thompson

This is more good news - its a solid bloc to start with, and it chokes Romney out of that part of the race.

Some of the nation's most influential social conservatives say their movement is quickly coalescing around Fred Thompson, the former senator from Tennessee, for the Republican presidential nomination, a decision that would bolster his expected campaign with money and grass-roots support

"It's almost as if the man and the moment met," said Richard Land, who speaks for more than 16 million people as head of public policy for the nation's Southern Baptists.

Land said he will not endorse a candidate in the primary, but his boosterish comments about Thompson -- like those of other conservative leaders -- leave little doubt about his excitement about the former senator. He said support for Thompson was spreading "almost like a prairie fire" and predicted that some conservative leaders would endorse the 64-year-old [Senator] actor and lawyer in coming weeks.

Courtesy of The Boston Globe

If Focus and Dobson join up, then Fred will be able to secure the base, and go hunting further afield. Plus it keeps Newt on the bench.

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Fred Thompson's Religious Background

Finally some people are doing some digging due to the Dobson remarks. Unfortunately they don't really clear anything up in terms of him being actively religious, nor as non-religious as pretty much any lapsed Catholic. For me, this isn't a deciding issue - even though I am very much orthodox conservative Roman Catholic, I tend to look more for the real world skills and morals in a President than the spiritual ones. The last really pious guy we got was a disaster (Jimmy Carter).

The 106th Congressional Record listed Thompson’s religious affiliation as "Church of Christ (Stone Campbell)." In an interview with the U.S. News and World Report this week, Thompson spokesman Mark Corallo said: "Thompson is indeed a Christian. He was baptized into the Church of Christ."

Corallo did not immediately return calls from the Chronicle seeking additional information about the politician and Law and Order actor’s religious background.

David Pinckley, treasurer of the Pulaski Street Church of Christ in Thompson’s hometown of Lawrenceburg, Tenn., said the two grew up together.

[The Rest of the Story]

"We went to school together, played football, went to church for many years here in Lawrenceburg," Pinckley told the Chronicle on Friday.

"I don’t know his religious status right now, but we were both baptized around 1951 … 1952 maybe," Pinckley added. "We were either 10 or 11 years old then. He was baptized at the First Street church in Lawrenceburg. It’s a non-institutional church now, but it wasn’t then."

Thompson spoke in 1997 at a fund-raising event at Freed-Hardeman University, a Henderson, Tenn., college associated with Churches of Christ. Thompson used his speaking fee to create an endowed scholarship at Freed-Hardeman for history and political science students, said Stephen Morris, assistant professor of political science and university counsel.

The Robert and Ruth Thompson academic scholarship – named after Thompson’s parents – offers freshman scholarships worth between $2,500 and $5,000. His father is deceased, but Ruth Thompson lives in Franklin, Tenn., and remains a member of the Church of Christ, Pinckley said.

Thompson’s faith became an issue in the national media when Focus on the Family founder James Dobson appeared to throw cold water on a Thompson candidacy in an interview with U.S. News.

Courtesy of Tammie Ross and Bobby Ross Jr of the Christian Chronicle

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Fred Thompson on Islamist Death Threats

Again, Fred thompson knocks it out of the park. This one is about the repeated death threats - and murders - committed by Islamist fundamentalist terrorists against anyone that dares to speak out against them, and against those who speak for freedom. How can anyone, anyone who is paying attention, fail to see the seriousness of the hate and reach of people who have made themsleves our enemies?

Ayaan Hirsi Ali can’t leave her Washington D.C. home without guards.

Born a Muslim in the African nation of Somalia, she was treated as property. Hirsi Ali, though, escaped a marriage, arranged by her father, to a cousin in Canada she’d never met.

Granted exile in the Netherlands, Hirsi Ali rose like cream and was elected to the Dutch parliament. She also wrote a script based on her experience volunteering in battered women’s shelters. There, she learned that her fellow Somali immigrants were maintaining the feudal ways she thought she had left behind.

But why does she need guards? Read on...

Filmmaker Theo Van Gogh, the great-grand-nephew of the famous painter, made her movie — but paid for it with his life. His Islamist murderer used a dagger to pin a note, promising Hirsi Ali’s death, to the director’s chest. Unsafe, and unwelcome to many, Hirsi Ali came to America last year and was able to live pretty much like a normal person.

But her new autobiography, Infidel, is out now and the usual suspects are furious that she would argue for the liberation of Muslim women. Due to serious and credible threats, she is once again surrounded by guards.

There were many Germans and other Europeans who came to America and warned of the Nazi threat in the 1930s, including writers and filmmakers. Can you imagine that any of them would have ever needed bodyguards?

Hirsi Ali does — right here in America. Yet too many people still don’t understand what our country is up against. They might if they read her book.

Courtesy of Fred Thompson on Paul Harvey, by way of National Review
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Dobson says "Not a Christian" (Article of the Day 3/29)

This article addresses the rather odd "Fred Thompson isn't a Christian" remarks by Mr Dobson from Focus on the Family. By the way, as a very orthodox, conservative Catholic (says so in the About me of this blog), this issue - and the response below - are very important to me as both a Catholic and a "Ronald Reagan" Republican.

I Guess I'm Not a "Christian" Either

March 28, 2007, 1:04 pm

Posted by Eduardo Peñalver

This discussion from US News, is interesting for any number of reasons, not least because of the suggestion by the spokesman for Focus on the Family that anyone who is not an "evangelical" Christian, no matter how reliably conservative on issues that matter to evangelicals, will have a hard time "connect[ing] with the Republican Party's conservative Christian base." In other words, he is applying a very narrowly defined religious litmus test (presumably on top of a fairly rigid ideological test) for "conservative Christian" support in the Republican presidential primary.

Also interesting, particuarly for those who continue to support a conservative political alliance between Catholics and evangelicals, is how Catholics are clearly excluded by the aforementioned religious litmus test. Now, it's possible that Dobson does not speak for most "conservative Christians" on this, but he is certainly an influential figure in that community and we should probably take him as reflecting (or affecting) the sentiment of a significant portion of those voters.

I also remind readers of Mr Dobson's comments on the "homosexuality" of cartoon character Spongebob SquarePants a couple of years ago, as an indication of the moral calculations that dominate Mr Dobson's wordly concerns.

Perhaps Fred Thompson is like me - he doesn't wear his religion on his sleeve - but he lets his actions (voting record) speak for him, letting his faith shine through in his works (See James Chapter 2 for faith and works being intertwined). I feel that a man's relationship to God is personal and none of anyone else's business in terms of anything beyond generalities. God treats us each as individuals, created in his likelness, and in keeping with this, He commanded us to do unto others...

In this respect, Mr Dobson has assumed the role of Pharisee. In my opinion, perhaps Mr Dobson should reread Matthew Ch 6 Verse 1. Chapter 7 verse 1 is pretty good as well. Perhaps a Mea Culpa is in order, or is that "Papist Claptrap" to you Mr. Dobson?

Read More at Commonweal Editorial Blog

Courtesy of Commonweal Online Magazine

HatTip to Google News

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National Right to Life on Fred Thompson

Someone in the Romney booster blogs was apparently floating a rumor that Fred Thompson was pro-choice during his senate years. Well... lets see what the National Right To Life folks have to say:

This morning, I cited reports being promoted by the pro-Romney blog Evangelicals for Mitt suggesting that Fred Thompson ran his two campaigns for Senate in Tennessee as a pro-choicer. Not so, National Right to Life executive co-director Darla St. Martin just told me.

St. Martin said that she went down to Tennessee in 1994 to speak with Thompson personally when he first ran for Senate, and that she determined he was against abortion.

"I interviewed him and on all of the questions I asked him, he opposed abortion," St. Martin said. She told me that the group went on to support him in that election, and his record reinforced for her that their determination was correct.

"He has a consistent voting record that is pro-life," she said.

Looks like Fred Thompson is getting some folks worried - he hasn't even declared yet and someone is already trying to distort his positions.

(UPDATE: turns out the distortion comes from a known anti-Thompson blogger in Nashville who apparently hates Fred Thompson and isnt above using disingenuous statements. I guess Fred's famous red pickup ran over that guy's cat or something).

What odd things you find in another region's politics. Then again we don't have much room to talk here in Colorado with the People's Republic of Boulder, Tom Tancredo, and all that.

Courtesy of Philip Klein of AmSpecBlog on The American Spectator

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