Rick Perry'S Campaign Has Been Playing The Anti-Mormon Card For Real

[CQUIRK]

This article is the smoking gun; Rick Perry is anti-Mormon to the core-

Texas Gov. Rick Perry has publicly distanced himself from theanti-Mormon rhetoric of a prominent Baptist minister who has endorsed his presidential campaign. But new evidence suggests that Perry’s team may be quietly advancing the notion that Mitt Romney’s faith should disqualify him from the White House.

The Daily Beast has obtained a series of e-mails that show an influential evangelical activist with close ties to the Perry campaign stressing the political importance of “juxtaposing traditional Christianity to the false God of Mormonism,” and calling for a “clarion call to Evangelical pastors and pews” that will be “the key to the primary” for Perry.

The activist in question is David Lane, a conservative Christian power broker who directed fundraising for Perry’s August prayer rally and was reportedly among the leading voices in the evangelical community lobbying for the Texas governor to jump into the 2012 race. The e-mail thread—which took place over the past two weeks and includes discussion of both campaign strategy and Christian theology—was between Lane and **** Bott, who heads Bott Radio Network, a self-described “leader in the development of Christian talk radio.”

On Oct. 12, Bott sent an email to Lane informing him that he would soon be recording an interview with the Rev. Robert Jeffress, the Perry backer and Baptist minister who had made headlines at the Value Voters Summit in early October for calling Mormonism a non-Christian “cult.” Jeffress also argued that Republican frontrunner Mitt Romney wasn’t deserving of the presidency because of his faith.

Bott indicated that the interview would be sympathetic to Jeffress, and defended the pastor for raising the Mormon issue: “What would anyone think if a candidate were a Scientologist?” Bott wrote. “Shouldn’t they want to know what the implications were that may flow therefrom? [sic]”

Lane responded the next day with a lengthy email that began, “Thank you for what you are doing and for your leadership. Getting out Dr. Jeffress [sic] message, juxtaposing traditional Christianity to the false god of Mormonism, is very important in the larger scheme of things.”

Publicly, the Perry campaign has insisted that Jeffress was not speaking at their behest when he attacked Romney’s religion, and Perry himself has said he does not personally believe that Mormonism is a cult. As recently as Friday, Perry attempted to dismiss the controversy, calling it a “sideshow” that voters were uninterested in, and reiterating, “We clearly said we didn’t agree with that statement.”

But in the emails, Lane—on whom Perry is reportedly relying to rally evangelical voters to his candidacy—struck a different tone.

“We owe Dr. Jeffress a big thank you,” he wrote to Bott, adding that the media criticism that has called attention to the pastor’s comments was “a stroke of luck.”

Lane and Bott did not respond to multiple requests for comment by The Daily Beast.

The e-mails raise questions about whether Jeffress’s anti-Mormon rhetoric was a deliberate strategic move by the campaign, or simply the prerogative of an independent pastor expressing a widely held view among evangelical Christians.

Mark Miner, a spokesman for the Perry campaign, declined to answer questions about the nature of Lane’s relationship with the campaign. When The Daily Beast shared quotes from the emails, Miner responded, “Based on what you’ve provided this appears to be a private conversation that has nothing to do with our campaign.” According to the campaign’s most recent FEC report, Lane doesn’t appear to be on the candidate’s payroll.

But Lane’s involvement with Perry’s nomination efforts has been widely reported, and he is seen as the linchpin to the candidate’s outreach to evangelicals. In August, when the Texas governor held a large prayer rally for evangelical Christians shortly before entering the race, the Los Angeles Times reported that Lane was one of the masterminds behind the event. And a Religion News Services article listed Lane as one of several prominent evangelical figures who is “lin[ing] up behind Perry.”

Perhaps even more telling, Lane reportedly arranged a conference call last June for conservative Christian heavyweights that was designed to identify an ideal presidential candidate. The consensus was that if Perry entered the race, they would get behind him—a message that Lane, who has been organizing evangelical voters in key states ahead of 2012, took seriously. Lane’s influence in that community is well documented. Doug Wead, a leading historian of the Christian right, has describedLane as “the mysterious, behind the scenes, evangelical kingmaker who stormed into Iowa in 2008 and tilted the whole thing from Romney to Huckabee.”

Lane made clear in his e-mails that he has similar plans to derail Romney’s candidacy this time around. In fact, he told Bott that he would rather sit the race out than vote for a Mormon or President Obama.

“Let me go on the record, I won’t vote for Mitt Romney as Republican nominee in 2012.” He followed the statement with a link to a news article describing Romney’s various ecclesiastical positions in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. He also cited Romney’s past positions advocating for abortion and gay rights before adding, “The Soul of America is at stake, where is the Church? Will a Gideon or Rahab the Harlot please stand?” (The last question refers to Biblical characters whom God called to save the Israelites in the Old Testament—an apparent plea for a candidate who will bring America in line with conservative Christian values.)

The emails refer to Lane strategizing with the Perry campaign to mobilize evangelical voters. In an earlier email to Bott that makes no mention of Romney specifically, Lane described a conversation he had with an unnamed “key Perry aide” in which he argued that “the creation of a clarion call to Evangelical pastors and pews is critical and from my perspective is the key to the Primary.”

He also told the aide that Perry needs to be praying and reading the Bible daily; “otherwise he has nothing to say” on the campaign trail. There is no mention in the e-mails of how the aide responded to this counsel, but the messages do indicate that Romney isn’t alone on Lane’s list of unacceptable nominees.

At the height of speculation that New Jersey Governor Chris Christie would enter the presidential race, Lane wrote to Bott that “Christie is not a strong social conservative—says homosexuality not a sin, was for cap-n-trade, for civil unions and more.”

That email concluded, “If RP [Rick Perry] can sound the trumpet to Evangelicals, a spiritual call to war for the Soul of America, Christie is weak on our issues.”

The Romney campaign declined to comment for this article.

[Storm Rider]

You know, I might have to eat crow and reverse my position. I am not sure I could vote for an EV in the coming election regardless of their stand on other things. I could just see them trying to bring in school prayer lead by students; all students except for Mormon students because they are not Christian. This was my experience during school some 30 years ago; only Baptist children could lead the school in morning prayer, no Mormons and no Catholics, just Baptists.

[Bill “Papa” Lee]

You know, I might have to eat crow and reverse my position. I am not sure I could vote for an EV in the coming election regardless of their stand on other things. I could just see them trying to bring in school prayer lead by students; all students except for Mormon students because they are not Christian. This was my experience during school some 30 years ago; only Baptist children could lead the school in morning prayer, no Mormons and no Catholics, just Baptists.

Not sure you should paint with such a broad brush?

[Zakuska]

Wow, the Perry Camp is going to have a hard time denying that one. Thats an all out media blitz. His publicist is probably having a terrible Monday!?

http://www.google.co...earchBox&ie==

You know... Maybe Cain will be to Perry what Huckabee was to Romney last time around.

http://www.google.co...f64f00e07e71e6d

[Sandy Petersen]

A few years ago, the "only Baptists" can pray thing was an honest-to-goodness reality here in Texas (my beloved home). Prayer was permitted at school games and similar outside activities (though not in the school itself of course). The rule was that only EVs ever said the prayers. It took a lawsuit of Mormons and Catholics who combined their forces to stop the prayers. In interviews with kids from the targeted schools, the students said both (a) "the prayers should continue" and (b) "they would disapprove of having a non-Christian give a prayer at such a function". Non-Christian of course being defined as loosely as usual.

Here in Texas, Rick Perry has publicly stated that he does NOT think Romney is a cultist or non-Christian. I think Rick Perry has been a pretty good governor. Nonetheless he has permanently lost all my support for his campaign. If he becomes the Republican candidate I will either vote for Obama or simply not vote for president. I won't stay home because I care about the congressional elections.

In the Dallas Morning News this week, there was a column lambasting Jeffries for his pointy-headed views. Not only does he think Mormons are a cult, but Catholics aren't Christian, and Islam is the religion of hate. In the last paragraph, the columnist pointed out that the Mormon church is growing rapidly, and the Southern Baptists are shrinking. He also made the excellent point that, if you were a Catholic or a Mormon, would Jeffries' rhetoric make you more or less likely to become an EV. My Catholic friend says "NO!!" I say NO too.

[Zakuska]

So I wonder if Rick Perry condones... Book of Moromon and Quran burnings too?

On August 6th, 2011 Texas governor Rick Perry appeared onstage at a nationally broadcast prayer rally teeming with apostles from C. Peter Wagner's New Apostolic Reformation, a radically sectarian religious tendency whose top leaders encourage their followers to burn books and scripture (including Books of Mormon), religious relics (such as statues of Catholic saints), and native art (such as Hopi Kachina dolls, and totem polls), and whose political initiatives (such as the Oak Initiative) demonize Muslim-Americans and promote the claim that, through fine-print clauses in Barack Obama's health care reform legislation, President Obama is secretly gathering a left-wing brownshirt army to impose Marxism on America.

This is the movement that pundits, from the op-ed pages of the New York Times and Washington Post, are trying to pretend does not exist, despite the flood of publicly available books by movement leaders and hundreds (possibly even thousands) of hours of conference video churned out every year by the apostles of C. Peter Wagner's New Apostolic Reformation.

http://www.talk2action.org/story/2011/10/3/18532/9147

[Storm Rider]

Not sure you should paint with such a broad brush?

It is difficult for me to be objective with this group. I have many family members and friends who are EV/Southern Baptists and continue to be open to individuals. However, I remain very cautious with this group as a whole. As a group they cannot be trusted to be tolerant of the beliefs of others. To the contrary, they can be expected to be highly intolerant and very unChristian in their behavior.

[CQUIRK]

Not only that, but judging by the emails, they'd be willing to work with, or in secret combinations and behind the scenes to get, or even advance their bigotry.

[frankenstein]

Not only that, but judging by the emails, they'd be willing to work with, or in secret combinations and behind the scenes to get, or even advance their bigotry.

Since this is a dirty laundry thread let's not forget or ignore that romney attended secret meetings in 2008 which secrecy was bound by oath.....so who is the real gadianton?

[Storm Rider]

Since this is a dirty laundry thread let's not forget or ignore that romney attended secret meetings in 2008 which secrecy was bound by oath.....so who is the real gadianton?

Did he eat dead babies at this secret meetings? What is the context of a meeting before it becomes significance? Is there difference between secret and confidential? Can you identify the intent of such meetings?

Frankly I still think Mormons must have horns on their head that they only show in secret temple meetings and they must sacrifice babies. It is just so obvious; afterall they are not Christians.

[Zakuska]

Well if there ever was any doubt...

Romney Adviser: Perry Campaign Encouraging Anti-Mormon Message

WASHINGTON -- A top evangelical Christian adviser to former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney said on Monday he believes Texas Gov. Rick Perry's campaign may be intentionally injecting the issue of Romney's Mormon faith into the Republican presidential primary.

"A week ago I would have said there's no way, I can't conceive of a major candidate's campaign intentionally using such tactics," said Mark DeMoss, an Atlanta-based public relations executive who works primarily with evangelical leaders and is an unpaid adviser to Romney. "It was inconceivable to me that that could be the case, just because I think it's not smart politically."

But Demoss told The Huffington Post that the actions of Texan Baptist Pastor Robert Jefress -- who first thrust the Mormonism issue into the campaign 10 days ago -- have given him "doubt" about whether the Perry campaign is as removed from attacks on Romney's faith as it has tried to appear.

"I would have bet money when Robert Jeffress surfaced there in Washington and then started going on TV programs that somebody would have gotten him to stop doing interviews. And he did them for a couple days," DeMoss said. "That's what made me question it whether they wanted him doing it or not. If they didn't want him doing it, I think they could have stopped him from doing it. I think they would have asked him and said, 'This isn't helping us.'"

In addition, new information came to light Sunday that suggests the Perry campaign has at least been in touch with operatives who are actively promoting the anti-Mormon narrative among voters. David Lane, a Perry backer and political organizer who moves in evangelical circles, wrote an associate in an email that was published by The Daily Beast that "getting out Dr. Jeffress [sic] message, juxtaposing traditional Christianity to the false god of Mormonism, is very important in the larger scheme of things."

Lane also wrote that he had spoken with "a key Perry aide" about the need for "a clarion call to Evangelical pastors and pews."

Perry spokesman Mark Miner said the charge that their campaign has encouraged anti-Mormon sentiment "is not true and the governor has been very clear on this issue."

Even the EV side of the camp is starting to see through the sheep skin facade.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/17/rick-perry-mormonism-mitt-romney_n_1016544.html

[CQUIRK]

Since this is a dirty laundry thread let's not forget or ignore that romney attended secret meetings in 2008 which secrecy was bound by oath.....so who is the real gadianton?

Yet I don't recall there being any bashing of a particular religious faith or denomination in such a meeting, nor was such a meeting a planned smear campaign on a particular candidate's faith- you are comparing apples and bananas here.

[thesometimesaint]

Take away the "fruits", and all we are left with is a bunch of nuts.

[ERayR]

Well if there ever was any doubt...

Even the EV side of the camp is starting to see through the sheep skin facade.

http://www.huffingto..._n_1016544.html

They should its not that hard to see. Even a country kid like me saw it from the very first.