Bob Jones and Romney

Dr. Bob Jones, III, chancellor of Bob Jones University, and Dr. Robert Taylor, Dean of the university's College of Arts and Sciences, received much criticism for their recent personal endorsement of Mitt Romney. Political conservatives criticized their endorsement because of Romney's recent (and politically expedient) conversion to conservatism. Some Fundamental Christians criticized their endorsement because of Romney's Mormon faith.

As a conservative Christian, a politically-involved pro-life activist, and a recent graduate of Bob Jones University, I understand their endorsement of Romney, but I think their trust is misplaced.

Dr. Jones and Dr. Taylor understand that nominating Rudy Giuliani would compromise the Republican Party's commitment to its core principles—especially its opposition to abortion—and would guarantee the election of Hillary Clinton. Many Republicans would feel compelled to support the Republican candidate, whoever he was, and whatever he believed. It would be the worst kind of defeat for Republicans. It would be a defeat from within, an abandonment of the reason that many of us are Republicans.

Just as some Republicans would vote for anyone to defeat Hillary, Dr. Jones and Dr. Taylor appear willing to support anyone remotely conservative who could defeat Giuliani. So these men no doubt looked at the polls, the campaign machinery, and the money of the other candidates, and decided Romney had the best chance to defeat Giuliani. They must think they can trust him, though I don't know why.

I'm sure they considered his Mormon faith. I would prefer to vote for a Christian as would they, but in an increasingly unchristian culture, we don't always have practicing Christians running (this time we do), and I would rather vote for an unbeliever who shares Christian values than an ignorant or incompetent Christian who doesn't understand how Christian values should impact government policy. In short, supporting a Mormon for a particular job, including the Presidency, is not an abandonment of Christianity, as some have claimed.

I am, however, surprised that Dr. Jones and Dr. Taylor trust Romney. His recent support of abortion as governor is well-known. His pledged support for the political goals of homosexual radicals, including the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), during his senate campaign is also well-documented. He now says he has changed his mind. Will he change his mind on these issues when the political winds blow a different way?

Say what you will about President Bush, but he has never backed down on the right to life or the war on terror. I don't always agree with him—especially on illegal immigration and American sovereignty—but when he has a firm conviction on a matter, he doesn't waver. A president must be ready to stand on principle when even his own party opposes him. Romney is not that kind of man.

Dr. Jones and Dr. Taylor have watched politics long enough that they should know to watch a politician's record more than his rhetoric. Dr. Dobson understands that. Perhaps they think it better to be lied to or betrayed than for the GOP to betray its own principles.

It is better still to support a real conservative. 51% of voters who attended the Values Voters' Summit last weekend thought Mike Huckabee was such a candidate. And for those willing to support conservative candidates with lower poll rankings who best fit their views, men like Wayne Wilson and Duncan Hunter are hard to surpass.

In the primary season, the best candidate to defeat a liberal like Giuliani (and eventually Hillary) is one that conservatives can trust, not Mitt Romney.

Wesley Wilson

Wesley Wilson is the President of Let Her Live, a nonprofit dedicated to saving babies by showing the beauty and value of life to women considering abortion. Please learn more about the Let Her Live pro-life billboard campaign. Donations are tax deductible.

Disclaimer: Let Her Live does not endorse or oppose any political candidates, and political views expressed on this blog represent only the personal views of their authors.

New Pro-Life Presidential Candidate Wayne Wilson

As a pro-life American, the first issue I look at when deciding on a candidate to support is the issue of life. Then I look at many other issues to decide between pro-life candidates. Right now, I'm very concerned about illegal immigration, the war on terror, free speech, and gun rights, to name a few. After those, I'm concerned about taxes, social security reform, and other fiscal issues.

In my last post, I listed the announced Republican presidential candidates that I believe hold a strong, consistent position on protecting life from conception to natural death. I need to add Republican candidate for President Wayne Wilson, who has just joined the race, to that list. From his issues page under the Abortion heading:

Even though our Declaration insures our God-given inalienable right to life, it is obvious we need a Human Life Amendment in the Constitution. I will nominate only pro-life judges and we’ll need to elect a pro-life Senate to ratify those nominees, but political power and Supreme Court Justices come and go. The Constitution is much harder to change. Therefore, my long-term commitment is to an amendment.

In the meantime, as soon as I take office I’ll turn loose the full weight of the federal bureaucracies against all those who take innocent life. I’ll direct OSHA, the FBI, the EPA, and any other agency I can think of to inhibit, regulate, and burden the abortion industry. If the bureaucrats there refuse, I’ll fire them and replace them with those who will. They are to serve at the pleasure of the administration.

I will sign any restriction of abortion that crosses my desk.

Wilson is not a career politician. In fact, he's never held public office, but in our climate of entrenched corruption in Washington, perhaps we are ready for an outsider with conservative Christian values that represent American values, not Washington values. Wilson isn't the only candidate counting on that.

It is easy for us to complain about many of our elected officials, and we have that right. It is harder to pick a good candidate, donate to his campaign, and support him all the way. That requires some personal sacrifice. Perhaps that's the reason many of our favorite candidates don't win--we'd rather complain about the bad ones than put good ones in their place.

No matter which of the solidly pro-life candidates you support, let me challenge you to give the largest donation you can afford before the end of the month. On October 15 we will find out how much money the candidates have raised through September 30, and that will be a measure of which candidates are viable. As pro-life people, let's make our voice heard financially.


Wesley Wilson

Wesley Wilson is the President of Let Her Live, a nonprofit dedicated to saving babies by showing the beauty and value of life to women considering abortion. Please learn more about the Let Her Live targeted pro-life billboard campaign. Donations are tax deductible.

Disclaimer: Let Her Live does not endorse or oppose any political candidates, and political views expressed on this blog represent only the personal views of their authors.

Ron Paul Views License as Liberty. Life Loses.

Although I've never agreed with Ron Paul's isolationist foreign policy, some of his answers at the Values Voter Debate on Monday evening should cause great alarm among pro-life and pro-family supporters. He showed a lack of understanding of true liberty, which explained his "No" answer on these two questions:

Bobby Schindler: My beloved sister Terri Schiavo was starved and dehydrated to death in the land of abundance while the world watched – because she was disabled and unable to speak for herself. Would you pursue or support legislation that would protect the cognitively disabled and vulnerable people from being dehydrated to death by having their food and water taken away?

Dr. Rick Scarborough: Will you agree to prosecute the broad range of illegal adult pornography rather that just the most extreme material, and prosecute all violators of federal obscenity law, including the new, so-called "white collar pornographers"?

(For a transcript of questions, see http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=57685)

How could Ron Paul--widely hailed as a pro-life candidate--refuse to support legislation to protect innocent life? He explained his reasoning (libertarian more than conservative) in his closing statement:

We cannot go to Washington to dictate to us how we improve our personal behavior. You don't dictate--you don't legislate virtue.... You do that from your family, your friends, and your neighbors, but not from the federal government.

We come back to a fundamental question: What is the role of government? I agree with Rep. Paul that our federal government has greatly exceeded its proper role. But the Bible teaches that God established government to restrain and punish evil. (See Genesis 9, Romans 13, and I Peter 2:13-14.)

Moreover, the liberty that Rep. Paul prizes was given to man by God at creation. God gave us the ability to decide our own actions. But God placed limits on those actions. True liberty exists only within the boundaries of morality. No porn addict can legitimately claim he is exercising freedom. He is a slave to his own sinful desires. Although governments cannot break that slavery--only the blood of Jesus does that--governments have the responsibility to curtail it as much as possible to restrain evil, promote good, and protect the innocent victims of pornography.

As Alan Keyes has said, "No one has the right to do wrong."

We don't want to take this idea to the extreme of having government dictating our faith, but we must understand that every law is an attempt to dictate someone's idea of virtue. It is wrong for Mexicans to flood our southern border to take advantage of our benefits without putting back into the system, so we made it illegal. It is wrong for other nations (or terrorists) to attack us, so we have a strong national defense. It is wrong to murder, so we have laws against it--unless you are not yet born or are disabled.

Before Monday, I thought Ron Paul was firmly pro-life, but now I know better.

Monday night he made it clear that he doesn't believe the government has any business protecting the disabled from "being dehydrated to death by having their food and water taken away."

So the list of announced presidential candidates with a clear and consistent pro-life record includes: Mike Huckabee, Duncan Hunter, Sam Brownback, Tom Tancredo, John Cox, Alan Keyes, and Hugh Cort.

Wesley Wilson

Wesley Wilson is the President of Let Her Live, a nonprofit dedicated to saving babies by showing the beauty and value of life to women considering abortion. Please learn more about the Let Her Live targeted pro-life billboard campaign. Donations are tax deductible.

Disclaimer: Let Her Live does not endorse or oppose any political candidates, and political views expressed on this blog represent only the personal views of their authors.

Romney and Abortion

Those who trust Mitt Romney's current statements on his abortion position would do well to read Warner Todd Huston's article, Mitt Romney's Abortion Flip-Flop Not Like Ronald Reagan's.

Even if he is telling the truth that he was "personally pro-life" while going along with the pro-abortion agenda, he seems to lack the strength of conviction on this issue. I don't see how pro-life people can support Romney in the primary when candidates with clear pro-life records such as Mike Huckabee are strong contenders in this race.

Disclaimer: Let Her Live does not endorse or oppose any political candidates, and political views expressed on this blog represent only the personal views of their authors.

Wesley Wilson

Wesley Wilson is the President of Let Her Live, a nonprofit dedicated to saving babies by showing the beauty and value of life to women considering abortion. Please learn more about the Let Her Live targeted pro-life billboard campaign. Donations are tax deductible.

McCain, Giuliani Run, Can't Hide from Abortion Record

Senator John McCain recently made headlines by announcing that he believes Roe vs. Wade should be overturned. That's only a story because we didn't know which side of his mouth the Republican presidential candidate was going to speak from. But he was speaking in South Carolina, and he is on the campaign trail, so we can expect him to sound conservative.

McCain's voting record has been mixed on the abortion issue. He usually votes against abortion, but last year he voted to require taxpayer funding of embryonic stem cell research. And of course he led the "gang of 14" (including Republican Senators DeWine, Snow, Collins, Chafee, Warner, and South Carolina's own "Flimsy" Lindsey Graham) in a compromise with the Democrats to throw a few conservative judicial nominees under the bus in exchange for a chance to vote on other nominees.

Then there was the blatantly unconstitutional McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform bill that curtailed some forms of political speech close to an election.

The anti-Roe statement contradicted a statement to the San Francisco Chronicle in 1999. "I would not support repeal of Roe v. Wade, which would then force X number of women in America to [undergo] illegal and dangerous operations."

Meanwhile, Rudolph Giuliani equivocates about his long-standing support for abortion.

Both of these men hope we pay more attention to their rhetoric than their records.

Mitt Romney has at least been open about his past support of abortion and his recent conversion to a pro-life viewpoint. He currently takes a very clear position on abortion. But some pro-life people wonder if we can trust him.

Daniel mentioned pro-life candidates Brownback, Tancredo, and Cox in his presidential musings last week. Representative Duncan Hunter and former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee are also solid pro-life candidates.

I think we have some good choices. Let's try to unite around the best and never let the rhetoric of McCain and Giuliani obscure their inexcusable records.

Wesley Wilson

Presidential Musings

I'm going to start off my comments here making use of Wesley's disclaimer. These comments do not represent the official views of Let Her Live. They are my personal ideas.

As a committed pro-lifer I am looking for a Presidential candidate who will lead on that issue. Other issues are important to me as well, but this one is non-negotiable.

So, I'm passing over Hillary, Obama, and Guliani without a second thought. McCain has not shone on the issue either.

Few Senators excel Sam Brownback on his record for life. He's disappointed many of us on other issues like illegal immigration. I haven't passed over him completely, but am looking for better options.

Tom Tancredo has lead on illegal immigration. That tells me he's willing to be a leader. Many in Washington aren't. I has a 0% rating from NARAL, which pleases me greatly. I haven't seen leadership on this issue from him yet, but he's one to keep watching.

John Cox speaks convincingly about committment to life, but I know nothing about him besides what he's said. I met him at the Stand Up for Life March in Columbia last month.

We will win this fight within a generation regardless of who wins the Presidency in 2008. But if we can elect a pro-life leader, we will win all the sooner.

Keep fighting! Keep praying!