Christians Urged to Consider Thompson, Other Presidential Hopefuls

By Ethan Cole, Christian Post Reporter Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Correction appended

WASHINGTON – A well-known evangelical leader is encouraging conservative Christians to give presidential hopeful Fred Thompson and all other candidates a fair chance not long after another prominent conservative leader criticized the former senator for being too weak on key issues.

Although he doesn't endorse Thompson, former Republican presidential candidate Gary Bauer contends that conservative Christians should seriously consider him if they want to avoid a "nightmare scenario" where they are forced to choose between two pro-abortion, pro-gay rights candidates – Hillary Clinton and Rudy Giuliani.

"He (Thompson)'s obviously against same-sex marriage. He doesn't support quite the same constitutional amendment that some of the others of us do, but he's been talking with us about it, and has been moving closer and closer on the amendment," said Bauer, who is president of American Values, according to OneNewsNow.

"So I hope that we can, as a movement, be very wise about this, and not savage candidates that we may very well have to support in 2008 if they're running against Hillary Clinton."

Last week, Dr. James Dobson, founder and chairman of Colo.-based Focus on the Family, wrote in a private e-mail to friends and supporters that he will not support Thompson for president because he is too weak on key issues that concern the Christian right.

In particular, he criticized Thompson for not supporting a constitutional amendment that would prohibit gay "marriage" on a national scale.

Thompson, an actor and former senator from Tennessee, is against same-sex "marriage" but favors a softer stance, calling for each state to decide their own legal definition of marriage and forbidding states from imposing their marriage laws on other states.

"Isn't Thompson the candidate who is opposed to the constitutional amendment to protect marriage, believes there should be 50 different definitions of marriage in the U.S., favors McCain-Feingold, won't talk at all about what he believes and can't speak his way out of a paper bag on the campaign trail?" Dobson wrote, according to The Associated Press.

The prominent Christian conservative also blasted Thompson for his seeming lack of commitment to Christianity, highlighting the candidate's rare expression of faith and for not attending church regularly.

"He (Thompson) has no passion, no zeal, and no apparent 'want to.' And yet he is apparently the Great Hope that burns in the breasts of many conservative Christians?" wrote Dobson.

"Not for me, my brothers. Not for me."

Bauer, on the other hand, highlighted Thompson's conservative views on key issues and noted that Christian voters will likely make "their own judgments" on the candidate after watching debates and observing who can raise campaign funds.

"I think the one thing that almost every conservative Christian agrees about is that we cannot allow Hillary Clinton to be the next President of the United States," concluded Bauer.

According to the latest Associated Press-Ipsos poll, the race for the 2008 GOP nomination is highly fluid, with Rudy Giuliani, the former New York mayor, and Fred Thompson virtually tied at 24 and 19 percent, respectively. Not far behind at 15 percent is Sen. John McCain of Arizona while former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has 7 percent.

In contrast, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York has a clear, across-the-board lead in the Democratic race over Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois by 34 percent to 20 percent, roughly the margin she has enjoyed for months.

Correction: Tuesday, September 25, 2007:

An article on Monday, Sept. 24, 2007, about the criticisms against presidential hopeful Fred Thompson and a call to not reject him incorrectly reported that former Republican presidential candidate Gary Bauer opposed Dr. James Dobson's criticisms of Thompson and that he defended Thompson as an evangelical favorite. The Christian Post confirmed with Bauer's organization, American Values, on Tuesday that Bauer's statements were not made in response to Dobson's e-mail and that he has not yet endorsed Thompson. Bauer does, however, encourage Christian voters to give all presidential candidates a fair hearing.