Pro-Terrorist Horde Invades New York City to Disrupt Biden's Swanky Fundraiser
Occupied Gaza
PolitiFact Fact-Shifting for Biden, the Press Loses With a DeSantis Win, and MSNBC...
Go Touch Some Grass
Biden Administration Locking Up Public Lands from West to East
Jon Stewart, the Tribeca Trickster of Real Estate
Only Democrats Get to Lie on NBC News
Donald Trump: The Non-PC Candidate
Ronald Reagan: The Man Who Cut Taxes From 70 to 28 Percent
Republicans Thwart Democrat Scheme to Raise Gas Prices
The Future Looks...Old?
Not Exactly Something Normal
Senate Judiciary Committee Should Prioritize Main Street Over Wall Street with Free Market...
Some Unpleasant Truths About Islam and the West
DNC Holds 'Emergency Call' As Dems Panic Over RFK Jr.'s VP Pick
OPINION

A Word from The Word for the Presidential Hopefuls

The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Townhall.com.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement

Contrary to what your local leftist magical thinker/post-modern pundit claims, the Word of God has something to say to everybody on every aspect of human existence.

Advertisement

Politicians would be no exception.

The Bible has some wisdom for each of the Republican presidential candidates, and its advice they would be wise to heed. Each of the GOP candidates would be far better off following Biblical consult than the consultants on which many of them are wasting their money. If you’re trying to inspire people to support you, why not consult with their Creator’s owner’s manual?

Newt Gingrich

Above else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.

Proverbs 4:23

There has never been any doubt that Gingrich is brilliant enough to make a great president. I have met and interviewed many politicians in my career, and Gingrich is one of the few whose intellect I actually respect. So far in this campaign no one has done a more effective job of demonstrating they have what it takes to take the fight to President Obama in a national debate. However, there is more to being a righteous leader then just being really smart or having bravado. Human history is replete with smart or brash leaders who were despots, tyrants, or disappointments—and they all had one thing in common. Each of them lacked the moral center necessary to base their decisions on.

Without that moral center they used their giftedness in a way that indulged themselves or their self-interests, as opposed to modeling the true servant leadership of Christ. Gingrich is definitely smart enough to know better than to make some of the decisions he’s made in his life that’s responsible for the baggage he must now overcome. Therefore, one must question the moral filter through which Gingrich was making those decisions.

Advertisement

Moving forward, if Gingrich wants to convince us he’s the leader we’re looking for, he must show us he now has the moral center to provide a plumb line for his sheer brilliance. Some ways Gingrich could show that is by exhibiting discipline, transparency, and humility.

Mitt Romney

A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.

James 1:8

Much has been made the past few years about whether Christians will vote for a Mormon for President of the United States, but the reality is that entire argument is moot because Romney has many more problems as a candidate beyond his religion.

Perhaps if Romney were consistent in applying the Constitutional principles espoused by a fellow Mormon like Cleon Skousen, who’s had an impact on my worldview, the discussion of Romney’s religion would be more problematic. However, the sad truth is that most Christians can’t even defend their own belief system, let alone articulate the differences between Mormonism and Christian orthodoxy. I would guess that most Christians know far more about BYU football and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir than they do Joseph Smith.

For his entire political career prior to running for president in 2008, Romney was a Rockefeller Republican. He was Rudy Giuliani, without the personal baggage and with the quintessential American family. He opposed Reagan-Bush, was an ardent defender of sodomy, was pro-infanticide, favored socialized medicine, amnesty for illegals, and gun control. Then as he was running for president he attempted to re-create himself, and the majority of Republican primary voters didn’t buy it four years ago and still don’t.

Advertisement

Romney’s religion isn’t so much a problem as it is his lack of sincerity as a candidate. People just don’t trust him, and if they don’t trust you it doesn’t matter what your religion is. Whichever consultants Romney hired to tell him to so cynically take every side of every issue should’ve been fired long ago. He would’ve gotten further just being a Giuliani whose wife and kids still talk to him.

Ron Paul

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty.

2 Corinthians 3:17

On about 60% of the issues you don’t get more correct than Ron Paul. This time around he’s doing better as a candidate primarily because he’s correctly phrasing the economic woes facing the nation in moral language, and many of us are more educated on things like monetary policy than we were four years ago.

However, Paul still struggles to expand his base into the ranks of those that believe neither the Bible nor the Constitution are living, breathing documents. That’s because of the other 40% Paul gets wrong. And he gets that other 40% wrong because Paul confuses liberty with libertine at times. He’s stuck at the crossroads between the Bible and Ayn Rand, and those two moral enterprises each express a different morality.

For example, many of Paul’s most ardent supporters are from National Right to Work, which is an issue I am in favor of and have promoted in the past. Right to Work would like to one day see a federal Right to Work law, which is fine by me. However, how come we can have a federal law mandating right to work, but if we ask the federal government to defend the inalienable right to life and uphold the 5th and 14th Amendments we’re somehow violating states’ rights?

Advertisement

When the day comes that either Paul, or someone who shares his philosophy (Rand?), marries the message of liberty with Judeo-Christian morality, they will create the successor to the Reagan coalition as the next era’s dominant American political movement. Until that day, Paul unfortunately compels Christians to choose between freedom and morality, as opposed to promoting the traditional American premise that you can’t have one without the other.

Rick Perry

Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and the power of His might

Ephesians 6:10

Last year Texas Governor Rick Perry published a book called Fed Up, which correctly summarized the frustration many of us have with the direction our country is headed. Almost immediately upon entering the presidential race, his spokesman was back-peddling from the stirring words of his own candidate’s book.

Perry attempted to confront Romney for his flip-flops, but did so clumsily and actually helped Romney to come across even stronger. Perry has allowed his entire 11-year record in Texas to be defined by Gardasil vaccinations and college tuition for illegal aliens. Surely he must have done something other than those two missteps for the past 11 years. However, from the moment he was put on a national stage Perry has struggled to consistently project the confident leadership voters were expecting from him before he entered the race.

He comes across as unsure of himself, and it’s gotten to the point that we start to get nervous for him in these debates as he’s about to start talking. Perry should shed the consultants, start from scratch, and go right back to his book. He can certainly be charming, now he needs to show leadership.

Advertisement

Michele Bachmann

But He turned to Peter and said, “Get behind Me, Satan. You are a stumbling block to Me. You are merely seeing things from a human point of view, not from God’s.”

Matthew 16:23

The most impressive presidential candidate I have seen this election cycle was Michele Bachmann at an invite-only roundtable of conservative activists/voters in Iowa back in March. She was scary good, sort of an American evangelical version of Margaret Thatcher.

In private the woman blows you away with her command of the issues and core of conviction. Unfortunately, too often in public on the campaign trail she has been a cliché machine, and left voters with the impression she’s not a person of substance. In recent weeks she’s come out swinging again, and giving voters a public glimpse of the woman I have seen in private.

This begs the question as to why it has taken so long. As someone that covers these campaigns closely, I believe it’s because there is a tug-of-war within the brain trust of outspoken conservative candidates like Bachmann. Some in her inner circle want her to turn it loose. Others want her to tone it down afraid she may out-kick her coverage.

Bachmann is at her best when she shoots from the hip. Those that have been advising her to reel it in may think they’re doing her a favor, but like Peter promising to protect Jesus they don’t see the bigger picture, and they don’t realize they’re actually harming her cause. They may mean well, but they’re actually hurting her. In an election where undecided voters are looking for a champion, trying to tame Bachmann’s fierce courage of conviction hinders her chance to make the case that champion is her.

Advertisement

Rick Santorum

Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but not with God. With God all things are possible.”

Mark 10:27

Rick Santorum’s political career has been all about defying the odds, which is how he was elected to Congress and the U.S. Senate to begin with. Few are bolder about communicating a moral viewpoint in public, regardless of fear of reprisal.

Yet despite that boldness, Santorum has struggled to gain traction as a presidential candidate, and I believe it’s because voters see a troubling tendency in his mostly solid conservative record. They see that when they heat is on Santorum has a tendency to take the best deal he can get, when they want to see him fight to the death. His endorsements of RINOs Arlen Specter and Christie Todd Whitman still pain conservatives as reminders of this troubling trend, and earlier this year he thought it was irresponsible to not make a deal on the debt ceiling.

Legislators make deals but presidents cast a vision and see it through.

Legislator Santorum negotiates when we want him to fight, because the mantra of the legislator is “something must be done.” Most of the worst legislation in human history begins with that mantra. President Santorum is the one that stands up for babies conceived in rape and incest, and to a homosexual soldier who wants permission to turn the military into a politically correct parade of depravity.

Like many of us as people of faith, Santorum is at his best when he puts the focus on what’s right regardless of the consequences, and not what he thinks is possible.

Advertisement

Join the conversation as a VIP Member

Recommended

Trending on Townhall Videos