GOP presidential candidates took aim at the increasing anti-Christian bias in the news media and Obama administration policies and promised to put an end to the “war on religion” if conservatives regain the White House.
According to The Daily Caller, the issue was raised by candidates at the New Hampshire debate on Saturday night when liberal news commentators devoted six minutes to trying to goad them into making controversial statements about contraception, same-sex marriage, and same-sex adoption. Candidates were asked what they would say to a gay couple “sitting in their living rooms” about same-sex marriage and adoption.
Gingrich responded by saying: “ . . . (S)ince we just spent this much time on these issues…I just want to raise a point about the news media bias. You don’t hear the opposite question asked: ‘Should the Catholic Church be forced to close its adoption services in Massachusetts because it won’t accept gay couples?’ Which is exactly what the state has done. ‘Should the Catholic Church be driven out of providing charitable services in the District of Columbia because it won’t give in to secular bigotry? Should the Catholic Church find itself discriminated against by the Obama administration in a key delivery of services because of the bias and the bigotry of the administration?’ The bigotry question goes both ways, and there’s a lot more anti-Christian bigotry today than there is concerning the other side, and none of it gets covered by the liberal media.”
At one point in the debate, the Speaker also spoke out about the importance of faith and said he would be worried about any candidate who claimed that his or her religion would not impact the judgments they made in public life. “How can you have judgment if you have no faith? And how can I trust you with power if you don’t pray?”
The audience showed their approval of the statement with a rousing round of applause.
Not long after Gingrich’s statements, Texas Governor Rick Perry used a question about whether or not he would consider a third-party run to launch a similar attack on what he called the Obama administration’s “war on religion.”
“When we see an administration that will not defend the Defense of Marriage Act, that gives their Justice Department clear instructions to go take the ministerial exception away from our churches where that’s never happened before, when we see this administration not giving money to Catholic charities for sexually trafficked individuals because they don’t agree with the Catholic church on abortion, that is a war against religion. And it’s going to stop under a Perry administration.”
In another line of questioning about social issues that matter to Catholics and other values voters, debate moderator George Stephanopoulos asked Gov. Mitt Romney if he believes “that states have the right to ban contraception, or is that trumped by a constitutional right to privacy?”
Romney responded by questioning the logic of the hypothetical question.
You’re asking — given the fact that there’s no state that wants to do so, and I don’t know of any candidate that wants to do so — you’re asking could it constitutionally be done?” Romney asked, with a hint of incredulity.
Stephanopoulos continued to press the question. “I’m asking you, do you believe that states have that right or not?”
At this point, the audience started to “boo” the question.
“George, I don’t know whether a state has a right to ban contraception,” Romney went on to say. “No state wants to. I mean, the idea of you putting forward things that states might want to do that no state wants to do, and asking me whether they could do it or not, is kind of a silly thing, I think.”
Once again, the audience responded with loud applause.
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