The Forward Newspaper Online: In Mailing, Falwell Urging Backers To 'Vote Christian'
As part of a bid to revive his Reagan-era conservative powerhouse, the Rev. Jerry Falwell, Moral Majority leader, is urging Americans to "vote Christian" in 2008.
"As national chairman of the Moral Majority Coalition, I am committed to lending my influence to help turn out at least 40 million 'faith and values' voters in 2008 to assure that Sen. Hillary Clinton, or someone of her ultra-liberal ilk, will never be president of this nation," Falwell wrote in a recent mass fund-raising letter.
The letter comes with a car window sticker declaring "I Vote Christian."
Falwell wrote that his goal "is to utilize the momentum of the sweeping conservative mandate of the November 2, 2004, elections to maintain a faith and values 'revolution' of voters who will continue to go to the polls to 'vote Christian' and call America back to God." He added, "Everyone now knows that the stage is set for the church of Jesus Christ to turn this nation back to the faith of our fathers and the Judeo-Christian ethic."
Many Republicans have been happy to accept Falwell's support, and some have echoed his calls. At the 2002 Christian Coalition convention in Washington, D.C., for example, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas urged activists to back candidates who "stand unashamedly for Jesus Christ."
Falwell's initiative, however, comes at a tricky time for the Republican National Committee. Under its chairman, Ken Mehlman, who is Jewish, the RNC has been striving to make the party more inclusive by reaching out to Jews, among others. Mehlman and other Jewish Republicans ridiculed the recent claim of Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean that the GOP is a "white, Christian party," calling the remark divisive.
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