AT THE CENTER
Faith in the 2008 Election
Quotes (286)
Religion played a significant role in the 2008 presidential campaign. Barack Obama, John McCain, Joe Biden, Sarah Palin and the participants in both the Democratic and Republican primary races spoke out on their beliefs and their understanding of religion in public life during the race for the White House. Controversial topics included social questions such as abortion and same-sex marriage, the role of Islam in America, and the direction of US foreign policy towards Israel and the Muslim world. This site gathers together the most important statements by the candidates in both the primary and general election campaigns.
The consistent message of the Gospels calls us to recognize that all life is sacred because all human beings are created in the image of God, a truth recognized as central in the founding documents of our nation. We have gone to war to defend our security and our values, and that is an enterprise that always involves morally hazardous actions. It is a just war and like all wars it requires the sacrifice and taking of human life. But let us not abandon our humility in its prosecution. War is a...
Many American generations have been called to confront evil. My father and grandfather fought fascism. My generation fought communism. Now we are summoned to confront the evil of radical Islamic extremism. There is no denying it is evil. How more evident could it be than in the means our enemies choose to confront us. Their terrorism is not only an assault on our political and economic interests. It is an act of war against our defining ideals. Sacrificing Muslim children in car bombs....
The many complex challenges we face require more than a military response. This is a contest of ideas and values as much as it is one of bullets and bombs. We must gain the active support of modernizers across the Muslim world, who want to share in the benefits of the global system and its economic success, and who aspire to the political freedom that is, I truly believe, the natural desire of the human heart. No matter how much attention their ruthless tactics receive, terrorists are not the...
The mullahs of Iran and the leaders of Al-Qaeda and Hezbollah want to cleanse the Muslim world of modernity and the ideals of the Enlightenment, and return it to an imagined past of theological purity. They state their goal plainly: a universal Islamic theocracy, a new Caliphate across all the lands once dominated by Islam, including the lands held in Europe centuries ago. Meanwhile, Mideast autocracies fuel this radicalism by denying their people political expression, economic opportunity or...
In the last few years, I have been all over the country going to Community Action centers, faith-based local organizations who are providing help to the poor because of my work on the issue of poverty. And there are a lot of places in America that without faith-based groups there is no support for the poor. It's just that simple. And [the poor] would not survive without the existence of good, effective faith-based organizations. […] In an Edwards presidency faith-based groups, I believe,...
BRODY: How did your faith get you through some of those marital difficulties?
CLINTON: I believe that there is a purpose to everything that happens. You may not know it. You may not like it. And it is through that foundation of faith being so firm for me that I was able to sort of work my way to a resolution that was right for me. I was well aware of everyone else's opinion and everyone else's second guessing, but my faith protected me and gave me the space and the time to really come to an...
CLINTON: I believe that there is a purpose to everything that happens. You may not know it. You may not like it. And it is through that foundation of faith being so firm for me that I was able to sort of work my way to a resolution that was right for me. I was well aware of everyone else's opinion and everyone else's second guessing, but my faith protected me and gave me the space and the time to really come to an...
The pundits, the pundits like to slice and dice our country into red states and blue States: red states for Republicans, blue States for Democrats. But I've got news for them, too. We worship an awesome God in the blue states, and we don't like federal agents poking around our libraries in the red states. We coach little league in the blue states and, yes, we've got some gay friends in the red states. There are patriots who opposed the war in Iraq, and there are patriots who supported the war...
How Mormon am I? You know, the principles and values taught to me by faith are values I aspire to live by and are as American as motherhood and apple pie. My faith believes in family, believes in Jesus Christ. It believes in serving one's neighbor and one's community. It believes in military service. It believes in patriotism; it actually believes this nation had an inspired founding. It is in some respects a quintessentially American faith, and those values are values I aspire to live by....
And I thank you so much, Reverend Armstrong, for welcoming me to this historic church. And I thank the First Baptist Church family for opening your hearts and your home to me and to so many visitors today. I have to confess that I did seek dispensation from Reverend Armstrong to come because you know, I'm a Methodist. And I'm in one of those mixed marriages. And my husband, who sends greetings to all of you today, felt it necessary to call the Reverend to make sure that was all right. And...
American foreign policy exists to maintain our security and serve our national interests. And in an increasingly interdependent world, it is in our interests to stand for human rights, to promote religious freedom, democracy, womens rights, social justice, and economic empowerment. But reality informs us we cannot force other nations and peoples to accept those values. We have to support those who embrace them and lead by example.
The defeat of this radical and violent faction of Islam must be achieved through a combination of American resolve, international effort, and the rejection of violence by moderate, modern, mainstream Muslims. An effective strategy will involve both military and diplomatic actions to support modern Muslim nations. America must help lead a broad-based international coalition that promotes secular education, modern financial and economic policies, international trade, and human rights.
ZAHN: You had an enormous tragedy strike your life when you lost your first wife and your daughter in a tragic accident. Did you blame God for your loss?
BIDEN: [...] See, I have been [...] born and raised a Catholic. [...] And I found I was [...] really angry. And [...] I couldn't understand how that could happen. But my mom has an expression. Out of everything terrible, something good will happen, [...] and God sends no cross that you cannot bear. And it took a while, but, with a lot of help...
BIDEN: [...] See, I have been [...] born and raised a Catholic. [...] And I found I was [...] really angry. And [...] I couldn't understand how that could happen. But my mom has an expression. Out of everything terrible, something good will happen, [...] and God sends no cross that you cannot bear. And it took a while, but, with a lot of help...
STEPHANOPOULOS: In your faith, if I understand it correctly, it teaches that Jesus will return probably to the United States and reign on earth for 1,000 years. [...] Have you thought about how the Muslim world will react to that and whether it would make it more difficult, if you were president, to build alliances with the Muslim world?
ROMNEY: Well, I'm not a spokesman for my church. I'm not running for pastor in chief. I'm running for commander in chief. So the best place to go for my...
ROMNEY: Well, I'm not a spokesman for my church. I'm not running for pastor in chief. I'm running for commander in chief. So the best place to go for my...
People who live in freedom always prevail over people who live in oppression. That's the story of the Old Testament. That's the story of World War II and the Cold War. That's the story of the firefighters and police officers and rescue workers who courageously saved thousands of lives on September 11, 2001.
Those who attacked us believed that we didn't have the same resolve to defend ourselves as past generations of Americans. But they were wrong. In the very first moments after the attacks -- and in the struggle aboard United Airlines Flight 93 -- Americans spontaneously demonstrated that, when put to the test, we are just as brave, just as dedicated and just as willing as our ancestors to give our lives to defend political freedom, economic freedom, religious freedom and all the other values...
All through high school (at Bishop Loughlin in Brooklyn), I would discuss religion and notions of service with one of my teachers, Brother Kevin, and with my friend Alan Placa. At the end of my time there, I signed up to enter for Montfort Fathers (in Bay Shore, Long Island), a religious order devoted to serving in the poorest countries. Alan was going to join the Christian Brothers. I wasn't going to do anything halfway: if I was going to become a priest, I was going to help out the most...
My [Mormon] faith has a different doctrine than do many of the Evangelical Christian faiths or the Catholic faith and so forth. But we don't debate doctrines. We talk about values and where should America go on the values that Americans care about. And on those issues, my faith is like theirs and like almost every other faith I've encountered in the world. It believes in the nature of the human family. It believes that we should serve one another. It believes that we should reach out and make...
And for goodness sakes, the last thing we need in America is to take God out of our public lives and institutions! We need to embrace our nation's motto "In God We Trust," not be ashamed of it. Search the record of history. To walk away from the almighty is to embrace decline for a nation. To embrace him leads to renewal, for individuals and for nations.
I was raised in a very Christian home and a Southern Baptist church, and baptized in the Southern Baptist church. [...] But when I went away to college, I drifted away from my faith. Even after Elizabeth and I got married, I had drifted away. It isn't that we didn't exercise faith. We would go to church, but it was not the sort of dominant day-to-day living faith that it is for me today. And in 1996, on a day I'll never forget, my 16 year old son died. And the days after that, when I was...
I do believe in the separation of church and state. But I don't think separation of church and state means you have to be free from your faith. My faith informs everything I think and do. It's part of my value system. And to suggest that I can somehow separate and divorce that from the rest of me is not possible. I would not, under any circumstances, try to impose my personal faith and belief on the rest of the country. I don't think that's right. [...] But freedom of religion doesn't mean...
There's a lot of America that's Christian. I would not describe us, though, on the whole, as a Christian nation. I guess the word "Christian" is what bothers me, even though I'm a Christian. I think that America is a nation of faith. I do believe that. Certainly by way of heritage -- there's a powerful Christian thread through all of American history.
Indeed, the single biggest "gap" in party affiliation among white Americans today is [...] between those who attend church regularly and those who don't. Conservative leaders have been all too happy to exploit this gap, consistently reminding evangelical Christians that Democrats disrespect their values and dislike their Church [...]. Democrats [...] have taken the bait. At best, we may try to avoid the conversation about religious values altogether [...]. At worst, there are some liberals...
Well, I think the first thing we have to do is to bear witness and speak out, and not pretend that [abuse of religious freedom] not taking place. You know, our relationship with China, for example, is a very complicated one. [...] and so having an administration that is speaking out, joining in international forums, where we can point out human rights abuses, and the absence of religious freedom, that, I think, is absolutely critical. Over time, what we are doing is setting up new norms and...
It wasn't until after college, when I went to Chicago to work as a community organizer for a group of Christian churches, that I confronted my own spiritual dilemma. I was working with churches, and the Christians who I worked with [...] saw that I knew their Book and that I shared their values and sang their songs. But they sensed that a part of me that remained removed, detached, that I was an observer in their midst. And in time, I came to realize that something was missing as well -- that...
WARREN: Does evil exist and, if so, should ignore it, negotiate it with it, contain it or defeat it?
OBAMA: Evil does exist. I mean, I think we see evil all the time. We see evil in Darfur. We see evil, sadly, on the streets of our cities. We see evil in parents who viciously abuse their children. I think it has to be confronted. It has to be confronted squarely, and one of the things that I strongly believe is that, now, we are not going to, as individuals, be able to erase evil from the...
OBAMA: Evil does exist. I mean, I think we see evil all the time. We see evil in Darfur. We see evil, sadly, on the streets of our cities. We see evil in parents who viciously abuse their children. I think it has to be confronted. It has to be confronted squarely, and one of the things that I strongly believe is that, now, we are not going to, as individuals, be able to erase evil from the...
[A baby is entitled to human rights] at the moment of conception. I have a 25-year pro-life record in the Congress, in the Senate. And as president of the United States, I will be a pro-life president. […] That’s my commitment to you. […] For those of us in the pro-life community, [federal funding of embryonic stem cell research] has been a great struggle and a terrible dilemma because we’re also taught other obligations that we have as well. I’ve come down on the side of stem cell research,...
Secularists are wrong when they ask believers to leave their religion at the door before entering into the public square. Frederick Douglas, Abraham Lincoln, Williams Jennings Bryan, Dorothy Day, Martin Luther King -- indeed, the majority of great reformers in American history -- were not only motivated by faith, but repeatedly used religious language to argue for their cause. [...] Our law is by definition a codification of morality, much of it grounded in the Judeo-Christian tradition....
I'm very saddened to be with you and talk about a Russian reemergence in the centuries old ambition of the Russian Empire to dominate that part of the world. Killings, murder, villages are being burned [in Georgia]. The latest figure from human rights organizations is 118,000 people [ejected] from that small country. It was one of the earliest Christian nations. The King of Georgia in the 3rd Century converted to Christianity. You go to Georgia and you see these old churches that go back to...
WARREN: What's been your greatest moral failure, and what do you think is the greatest moral failure of America?
McCAIN: My greatest moral failing -- and I have been a very imperfect person -- is the failure of my first marriage. It's my greatest moral failure. I think America's greatest moral failure has been [that] throughout our existence, perhaps we have not devoted ourselves to causes greater than our self-interest, although we've been at the best at it of everybody in the world. I think...
McCAIN: My greatest moral failing -- and I have been a very imperfect person -- is the failure of my first marriage. It's my greatest moral failure. I think America's greatest moral failure has been [that] throughout our existence, perhaps we have not devoted ourselves to causes greater than our self-interest, although we've been at the best at it of everybody in the world. I think...
Democracy demands that the religiously motivated translate their concerns into universal, rather than religion-specific, values. It requires that their proposals be subject to argument, and amenable to reason. I may be opposed to abortion for religious reasons, but if I seek to pass a law banning the practice, I cannot simply point to the teachings of my church or evoke God's will. I have to explain why abortion violates some principle that is accessible to people of all faiths, including...
WARREN: Does evil exist, and if so, should we ignore it, negotiate with it, contain it or defeat it?
McCAIN: Defeat it. […] If I’m President of the United States, my friends, if I have to follow him to the gates of Hell I will get Osama bin Laden and bring him to justice. […] We are facing the transcendent challenge of the 21st Century - radical Islamic extremists. Not long ago in Baghdad, Al-Qaeda took two young women who were mentally disabled and put suicide vests on them, sent them into...
McCAIN: Defeat it. […] If I’m President of the United States, my friends, if I have to follow him to the gates of Hell I will get Osama bin Laden and bring him to justice. […] We are facing the transcendent challenge of the 21st Century - radical Islamic extremists. Not long ago in Baghdad, Al-Qaeda took two young women who were mentally disabled and put suicide vests on them, sent them into...
I received an email from a doctor at the University of Chicago Medical School [who wrote]: “I do not ask at this point that you oppose abortion, only that you speak about this issue in fair-minded words.” […] It is people like him who are looking for a deeper, fuller conversation about religion in this country. They may not change their positions, but they are willing to listen and learn from those who are willing to speak in reasonable terms - those who know of the central and awesome place...
The strength of America's response [to 9/11], please understand, flows from the principles upon which we stand. Americans are not a single ethnic group. Americans are not of one race or one religion. Americans emerged from all of your nations. We're defined as Americans by our beliefs, not by our ethnic origins, our race or our religion. Our belief in religious freedom, political freedom, economic freedom, that's what makes an American. Our belief in democracy, the rule of law, and respect...
All religions, all decent people, are united in their desire to achieve peace, and understand that we have to eliminate terrorism. [...] There have been many days in New York when I was running for Mayor, and then since I've been Mayor, when I would have a weekend in which I would go to a mosque on Friday, and a synagogue on Saturday, and a church - sometimes two churches - on a Sunday. And by the time I finished, I would say to myself, "I know that we're through to God." [...] I know that...
In the Gospel of John it is written, "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." Such was the love that Mark and his comrades possessed, as they laid down their lives for others. A love so sublime that only God's love surpasses it... To all of you who loved Mark, and were loved by him, he will never be so far from you that you cannot feel his love. As our faith informs us, you will see him again, when our loving God reunites us all with the loved ones...
We are at war, a new kind of war as the President has rightly called it. It might not involve nations clashing in conventional sea, land and air battles, although it is possible that it could come to that. I should add that I don't consider the operations in Afghanistan that commenced on Sunday to be a war against a nation, much less a war against the Muslim world. The Taliban and Al-Qaeda are not legitimate representatives of that country; they are terrorists, period, who represent evil, not...
It's a big thing, this war. It's a fight between a just regard for human dignity and a malevolent force that defiles an honorable religion by disputing God's love for every soul on earth. It's a fight between right and wrong, good and evil.
Withdrawing coalition forces from Iraq in the absence of a secure, representative government there is likely to result in terrible violence, warlordism, and a failed state that would inevitably become a terrorist sanctuary. Failure in Iraq would embolden and further radicalize extremists throughout the Muslim world, including in Western Europe's Muslim communities, and strengthen the hand of Al-Qaeda. None of us can afford failure, and the only acceptable exit strategy is victory.
The IRA has long enjoyed the support, in Ireland as well as in my country, of people who might have regretted their tactics, but appreciated their service in the republican cause and their defense of Catholics persecuted in the North. Whatever your views about the historic cause they claimed to have served or the methods they employed, which were, in my opinion, indefensible, no one can honestly claim today that the IRA is anything better than an organized crime syndicate that steals and...
China's astonishing economic growth over the past two decades has improved the lives of more people, faster, than perhaps ever in history. And yet the human rights abuses continue. The Chinese people today are not permitted to practice the religion of their choice, and churches are either registered or shuttered. Public criticism of the government is swiftly punished, the media is state controlled, and the government has stepped up its efforts to block internet sites at which free discussion...
I know that there are some in Europe who resent our strong support for Turkish membership in the EU. But I hope these skeptics would see that the benefits of Turkish integration into Euro-Atlantic institutions far outweigh the alternative. Our vision is one of a democratic, secular Turkey, a westward looking member of both NATO and the European Union. That vision the vast majority of Turks share. But there is another possible outcome -- a Turkey turned away from Europe, rejected by and...
It is not a clash of civilizations. I believe, as I hope all Americans would believe, that no matter where people live, no matter their history or religious beliefs or the size of their GDP, all people share the desire to be free; to make by their own choices and industry better lives for themselves and their children. Human rights exist above the state and beyond history - they are God-given. They cannot be rescinded by one government any more than they can be granted by another. They...
As you know all too well, we confront a new enemy and a new kind of warfare. It’s really the warfare of cowards. It’s people who sneak around and blow themselves up or place bombs in cars, who have a philosophy of nihilism. You know, they may dress it up in a kind of perverse version of religion, but it’s really about destruction and death. And it is imperative that we stand against them.
Our nation benefits greatly from our strong relationship with Ireland. Ireland's "Celtic Tiger" economy is a model for economic success through lower taxes, greater competition, and free enterprise. Ireland has made dramatic contributions to music, entertainment, and the arts worldwide, led by my good friend Bono of U2. Ireland is also to be commended for its Judeo-Christian heritage and Ireland's recognition of the right to life of all of its citizens, including the unborn.
I listened closely as the Minister recited the statistics about the drop in Catholic and Protestant travel. Well, I think we should do something about that, Mr. Minister, and I am making this offer to you: my office and I will work with the leaders - the religious and secular leaders - of Catholic and Protestant churches and organizations to try to send the word out to come visit Israel. Because otherwise the leaders of organizations such as all of yours represented tonight, who are...
I don't think I could identify one person that I consider to be my moral leader. My Lord is important to me. I go to him in prayer every day and ask for both forgiveness and counsel. My wife, who I think is the finest human being I've ever known, is a source of great conscience for me. My father, who raised me to believe that every human being on the planet, no matter who they are or where they live or what's the color of their skin or what family they were born into, has exactly the same...
I can remember vividly my dad after church one Sunday when I was about 10 years old taking us, just our whole family, into a restaurant -- I was dressed up; I was very proud to be there -- and we sat, got our menus, looked at the menus. And the waitress came over, and my father said, "I'm sorry we have to leave." I didn't understand why. Why did we have to leave? I was embarrassed. I found out when we got out the reason we had to leave is he couldn't pay the prices that were on the menu. The...
I could [support a nominee of your party who is not pro-life] because I believe in the Ronald Reagan principle that somebody that’s with you 80 percent of the time is not your enemy; that’s your friend and that’s our ally. And this is a big coalition party, and it’s a coalition party that’s governed for a number of years in this country. And it governs because it governs with a coalition of economic and social conservatives and people that want to be strong for the United States. But I want...
MATTHEWS: Governor Romney, what do you say to Roman Catholic bishops who would deny communion to elected officials who support abortion rights?
ROMNEY: I don't say anything to Roman Catholic bishops. They can do whatever the heck they want. (LAUGHTER) Roman Catholic bishops are in a private institution, a religion, and they can do whatever they want in a religion. [...] I can't imagine a government telling a church who can have communion in their church. I can't -- we have a separation of...
ROMNEY: I don't say anything to Roman Catholic bishops. They can do whatever the heck they want. (LAUGHTER) Roman Catholic bishops are in a private institution, a religion, and they can do whatever they want in a religion. [...] I can't imagine a government telling a church who can have communion in their church. I can't -- we have a separation of...
[W]e've had 40 or 50 years now of trying to run faith out of the public square. And we're a nation of faith, as my colleague Senator Lieberman, a Jew, says. America's a faith-based experiment as a country. We should celebrate and invite faith. And our motto is, "In God We Trust." This isn't something that divides, this is something that pulls together and lifts us up. And it's key. And it's important. We shouldn't be trying to run it out of the public square, we should invite it in and...
A recent report detailed Al-Qaeda's progress in recruiting a new generation of leaders to replace the ones we have captured or killed. The new recruits come from a broader range of countries than the old leadership – from Afghanistan to Chechnya, from Britain to Germany, from Algeria to Pakistan. Most of these recruits are in their early thirties. They operate freely in the disaffected communities and disconnected corners of our interconnected world – the impoverished, weak and...
In today's globalized world, the security of the American people is inextricably linked to the security of all people. When narco-trafficking and corruption threaten democracy in Latin America, it's America's problem too. When poor villagers in Indonesia have no choice but to send chickens to market infected with avian flu, it cannot be seen as a distant concern. When religious schools in Pakistan teach hatred to young children, our children are threatened as well.
I can tell you that I've looked at this [issue of abortion] long and hard. I've always been personally pro-life. I've taught that to others, it's been part of my faith. The question for me was: What should government do in this kind of setting? And the Supreme Court stepped in and took a decision, and I said I'd support that decision. And then I watched the impact of that decision as I was governor of Massachusetts. And when we came to debating cloning and embryo farming and we saw human...
MATTHEWS: Mayor Giuliani, I have to ask you the next question. Has the increased influence of Christian conservatives in your party been good for it?
GIULIANI: Sure, the increased influence of large numbers of people are always good for us. I'd like to go back to the earlier question that you asked, because I think it really is important that we, you know, define the Republican party to fit today. And neither party has a monopoly on virtue or vice. That's just a fallacy that we sometimes fall...
GIULIANI: Sure, the increased influence of large numbers of people are always good for us. I'd like to go back to the earlier question that you asked, because I think it really is important that we, you know, define the Republican party to fit today. And neither party has a monopoly on virtue or vice. That's just a fallacy that we sometimes fall...
If we fail to make federalism work, there will be no political accommodation at the center. Violent resistance will increase. [...] The neighbors will not sit on the sidelines. Already, Iraq has aggravated a deep Sunni-Shiite divide that runs from Lebanon through Afghanistan, Pakistan and India. This fault-line intersects with other cultural and political rifts [...] to create the conditions for a cataclysmic explosion. Iran and the Arab states will back Shia and Sunni extremists as part of a...
She believes bravery lives in every heart, and her expectation is that it will be summoned. Failure at some point in everyone's life is inevitable, but giving up is unforgivable. As a child I stuttered, and she lovingly told me it was because I was so bright I couldn't get the thoughts out quickly enough. When I was not as well-dressed as others, she told me how handsome she thought I was. When I got knocked down by guys bigger than me, she sent me back out and demanded that I bloody their...
In his second inaugural address, the President spoke eloquently about the need to advance democracy. Today, we are paying the price for a shortsighted policy that equates democracy with elections. In the Middle East, Islamist groups have made huge strides -- Hamas in the Palestinian territories, the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, religious parties in Iraq, Hezbollah in Lebanon. Holding elections without doing the hard work of building democratic institutions may leave us less, not more, secure....
The major powers also have a stake [in establishing peace in Iraq]. Europe has un-integrated Muslim populations that are vulnerable to Middle East extremism.
At every step, we've had to struggle against those who saw the Constitution as frozen in time. But time and again, we have overcome, and the Constitution has remained relevant and dynamic thanks to a proper interpretation of the ennobling phrases purposefully placed in our great “civic Bible.”And once again […] as we look around the world and see thousands persecuted for their faith, women unable to show their faces in public, and children maimed and killed for no other reason than which...
But hundreds of millions of hearts and minds around the world are open to America's ideas and ideals. I once reminded President Bush, a very religious man, that it was not the armies that toppled the walls of Jericho, it was Joshua's trumpet. I would argue the same analogy could be made to the Berlin Wall. Our overwhelming military force was necessary, but not sufficient. It was our ideas and our ideals permeating that part of the world that ultimately brought the wall down without a shot...
The burning of oil and other fossil fuels is contributing to the dangerous accumulation of greenhouse gases in the earth's atmosphere, altering our climate with the potential for major social, economic and political upheaval. The world is already feeling the powerful effects of global warming, and far more dire consequences are predicted if we let the growing deluge of greenhouse gas emissions continue, and wreak havoc with God's creation. A group of senior retired military officers recently...
In the intervening years [since 9/11], we have learned the complexity of the struggle against radical Islamic ideology. The extremists – a tiny percentage of the hundreds of millions of peaceful Muslims – are flexible, intelligent, determined and unconstrained by international borders. They wish to return the world to the 7th century, and they will use any means, no matter how inhumane, to eliminate anyone who stands in the way. But the vast majority of Muslims are trying to...
And then one more slide along the slippery slope. The Catholic Church was forced to end its adoption service, which was crucial in helping the state find some homes for some of our most difficult to place children. Why? Because the Church favors placements in homes with a mother and a father. And now, even religious freedom was being trumped by the new-found right of gay marriage. So you know why I immediately drafted and introduced legislation to grant religious liberty protection, but the...
Violent, radical jihadists want to replace all the governments of the moderate Islamic states, replace them with a caliphate. And to do that, they also want to bring down the West, in particular us. And they've come together as Shia and Sunni and Hezbollah and Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood and Al-Qaeda with that intent. We have to recognize that what we're doing in Iraq has enormous impact on what's going to happen in this global struggle, and that's why it's important for us to understand...
And we know that in many African and Muslim countries today, extreme poverty and civil wars have gutted government educational systems. So what's taking their place? The answer is troubling – but filled with opportunity if we have the courage to seize it. A great portion of a generation is being educated in madrassas run by militant extremists rather than in public schools. And as a result, thousands and thousands of young people who might once have aspired to be educated in America are...
WALLACE: ...Let me ask you another question about Governor Romney. Do you think that a Mormon is a true Christian?
BROWNBACK: Oh, I'm not going to get into theological issues, and we don't have religious tests for public office in this country, and we shouldn't have them. I think people bring their set of values into the public arena and they debate them based them on the set of issues and ideas, not on their faith.
BROWNBACK: Oh, I'm not going to get into theological issues, and we don't have religious tests for public office in this country, and we shouldn't have them. I think people bring their set of values into the public arena and they debate them based them on the set of issues and ideas, not on their faith.
But I ask you, who is more likely to go out onto a street to save some poor, at-risk child than . . . someone who believes in the divinity of every person, who sees God at work in the lives of even the most hopeless and left-behind of our children? And that's why we need to not have a false division or debate about the role of faith-based institutions; we need to just do it and provide the support that is needed on an ongoing basis.
Whether it's Hamas or Hezbollah; Al-Qaeda or Shia and Sunni extremists, there is an overarching goal among the violent Jihadists - and it transcends borders and boundaries. That goal is to replace all modern Islamic states with a religious caliphate, to destroy Israel, to cause the collapse of the West and the United States, and to conquer the entire world. Jihadism - violent, radical, fundamental Jihadism - is this century's nightmare. It follows the same dark path as last century's...
It is another attribute of evil to call itself good and to label the good as evil. It is stupefying to most Americans that bin Laden and Ahmadinejad and Chavez call us, America, evil. But millennia ago, Isaiah, a prophet of the Old Testament, said this: "Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!" And so, we should not be terribly surprised when we are so widely scorned by these...
What are we to make of what happened at Virginia Tech? [...] I picked up my Bible yesterday to re-read the account of the senseless murder of Abel by his brother. It's only one page after the Fall of Adam and Eve from the garden, where they were told by God that He would place what he called "enmity" on the earth. There is a lesson being taught: evil and good have been here from the beginning. Cain murdered his younger brother Abel because he was jealous of him, angry that he was more...
The Shi'a and Sunni extremists are different faces of the same totalitarian threat. Whatever slogans they chant when they slaughter the innocent, they have the same wicked purposes. They want to kill Americans, kill democracy in the Middle East, and gain the weapons to kill on an even more horrific scale.
I believe that life begins at conception and ends at a natural death. Life is a gift from God. Every child deserves a quality education, first-rate health care, decent housing in a safe neighborhood, and clean air and drinking water. Every child deserves the opportunity to discover and use his God-given gifts and talents. What I accomplished as Governor proves that there is a lot more that a pro-life President can do than wait for a Supreme Court vacancy, and I will do everything I can to...
I think it’s dangerous to say that we are a nation that ought to be pushed into a Christian faith by its leaders. However, I make no apology for my faith. My faith explains me. It means that I believe that we’re all frail, it means that we’re all fragile, that all of us have faults, none of us are perfect, that all of us need redemption. We are a nation of faith. It doesn’t necessarily have to be mine. But we are a nation that believes that faith is an important part of describing who we are,...
At the end of the day, it comes back to the basics: faith, family, and freedom. America is great because she is good. That goodness is not based in Washington, or New York, or even Topeka. It is based in the hearts of the American people. This is a goodness whose Author is the Divine. A goodness that doesn't let us rest until our neighbor is at peace. A goodness that feels the chains of another rub on our own skin. A goodness from God that demands our vigilant action. How much better we will...
We know that we lost a great force for religious tolerance and understanding with the passing of the pope. I think the outpouring and affection and appreciation for John Paul II is a reflection of the yearning people have to be connected, to believe, to have some greater purpose and meaning in their lives. And I know that one of his most important insights came in his understanding, during his years in Poland, that religious freedom is often the bellwether for respecting human rights. When...
From my perspective, religious liberty is one of the most important issues on the world’s agenda today. It’s our responsibility to think of ways each of us can further religious liberty and freedom. It’s up to each of us, in the roles that we individually play, to ensure that our nation, which has been the exemplar of religious freedom and tolerance amongst a diverse population, continues to be so.
Those of us who are people of faith are so aware of what that means in our lives that it is sometimes a challenge for us to understand our obligation to create a space for non-believers. Someone asked me some years ago if I were a praying person, and I said I was fortunate to have been raised by parents who prayed, and grew up in a church that from the earliest years emphasized the importance of prayer. [...] So I think that as we hold up the importance of religious liberty we have to take...
If more nations understand that part of America’s strength, its progress and its success is because we’ve not just a great free-market system, not just a government created by our founders who understood as much about human nature as they did about setting up governments (which is why they put in checks and balances) but because we’ve always cherished that space between economic activity, public governmental activity—that space where most of life takes place, the space of family, the space of...
As part of this effort, America should lead the world in spearheading a Middle East, North Africa, and Asian multi-national Marshall Plan that includes support for public education in the Muslim world which is the best way to mitigate the role of Salafist madrasas that foment extremism. We must help those Arabs and Muslims who promote a vision of peace, prosperity, tolerance and respect for human dignity, who form the overwhelming majority of the Arab and Muslim world, as opposed to the...
Of course everyone who's a person of faith has values that are deeply held in their heart, and they include the value of the relationship they have with their spouse and their children, the value that they place with their country and with their community. That's what makes America such a powerful land. Look at us. We're a land that's the envy of the entire world. We are the hope of the world, not because of our hearts. And that comes from being a people of faith, but not people of a...
I think personal beliefs of everybody shape everybody. I think we all have values. And that is taken in and that's taken forward. I've served on the International Relations Committee. I have worked on these issues. I've carried bills concerning Sudan. I've carried bills concerning Congo. I've carried bills concerning North Korea and Iran and Iraq. I wouldn't say it dominates it, but I would say it influences it as it does for everybody. And I've got a consistent record here of an aggressive,...
I feel that through my Roman Catholic beliefs, I care about social justice, I care about improving the lives of those who are destitute, those who are poor. OK, I make no bones about it: I was influenced to pursue the minimum wage issue recently after a conversation with my local monsignor, my local priest, Monsignor (Jerome Martinez y) Alire. I was talking to him and I said, "Well, what if we increased it with an index?" He said, "Come on, Bill. Five dollars fifteen cents for a family. You...
We must also open an ideological front in the war against jihadism. There is a civil war between Islam, within Islam, between extremists and moderates, and we need to stop helping our enemies in that civil war. We need to start showing, both through our words and our deeds that this is not, as the jihadists claim, a clash of civilizations; rather it is a clash between civilization and barbarity. We need to present the Arab and Muslim worlds with a better vision than the apocalyptic fantasy of...
Here's what I would do with Iraq: I would get out this calendar year, but I would couple that with three other steps: one, diplomacy, American leadership; bring together a reconciliation conference among the ethnic groups – the Shi'a, the Sunni; find a way that that reconciliation conference, using the leverage of a withdrawal, brings forth a coalition government, a sharing of oil revenues, a sharing of Cabinet ministries, and a Dayton-type accord similar to Dayton – not a...
People of faith should be rational, using the gift of reason that God has given us. At the same time, reason itself cannot answer every question. Faith seeks to purify reason so that we might be able to see more clearly, not less. Faith supplements the scientific method by providing an understanding of values, meaning and purpose. [...] Faith and science should go together, not be driven apart. The question of evolution goes to the heart of this issue. If belief in evolution means simply...
We should promote greater Asian representation in key global institutions. India and Japan should become permanent members of the UN Security Council and the G-8. In India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and elsewhere, large Muslim populations mean that political relations will be affected for years to come by the war against Jihadism. East and South Asia Muslims have been less responsive to the Jihadists than have Arabs, Afghans and Pakistanis. An intelligent US foreign policy can help keep it that...
And then came 9/11. Our enemy was not a uniformed army, not a rogue nation, not even a failed state. It was an army of terrorists who, as John Kerry has said, “use terror as a sword and religion as a shield.” Their enemy is civilization; but it is also a battle of Islam vs. Islam and it will require a fundamental change in our thinking.
Strom Thurmond's soul is free today. His soul is free. The Bible says, Learn to do well, seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow, come now and let us reason together, though your sins may be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Strom, today there are no longer any issues to debate, there's only peace, a patch of common ground and the many memories that you've left behind.
There are periods in our country's history when Americans re-examine the essence of our social contract. They have occurred half a dozen times. These periods invariably include debate over the meaning of our "civil bible" -- the Constitution -- because we have relied so much on that document to articulate how we see ourselves as a people and how we see ourselves as a nation. And let me say at the outset that honest people, bright people, decent and patriotic people have very, very different...
I don't think the federal government has a role in telling either states or religious institutions, churches, what marriages they can bless and can't bless. I think the state of New Hampshire ought to be able to make that decision for itself, like every other state in the country. I think every church ought to be able to make that decision for itself. And I think it's very important that we stand up against intolerance and against discrimination.
ZAHN: [...] Do you pray every day?
BIDEN: Well, I do. I actually say the rosary every day. But, you know, the thing is, I was raised in a tradition, eight years with the nuns, four years with the priests. We learned a lot about the Pharisees. And we -- we worried about those people who -- we were taught about the people who only talk to God, and they're the only ones that know God, and the ones who talk about talking to God. It's always been as part of my sort of Irish Catholic culture that --...
BIDEN: Well, I do. I actually say the rosary every day. But, you know, the thing is, I was raised in a tradition, eight years with the nuns, four years with the priests. We learned a lot about the Pharisees. And we -- we worried about those people who -- we were taught about the people who only talk to God, and they're the only ones that know God, and the ones who talk about talking to God. It's always been as part of my sort of Irish Catholic culture that --...
ZAHN: Let's move on to the concept of forgiveness, which is key in your religion.
BIDEN: Yes.
ZAHN: When it comes to the 9/11 hijackers, will you ever be capable of forgiving them for what they did?
BIDEN: You know, I wish I were a better Catholic. The answer to -- the God's honest truth is, I have not been able to come to that conclusion yet. I have forgiven things that have happened to me, but it's -- in a sense, it's harder to forgive these major, major, major impositions of brutality on...
BIDEN: Yes.
ZAHN: When it comes to the 9/11 hijackers, will you ever be capable of forgiving them for what they did?
BIDEN: You know, I wish I were a better Catholic. The answer to -- the God's honest truth is, I have not been able to come to that conclusion yet. I have forgiven things that have happened to me, but it's -- in a sense, it's harder to forgive these major, major, major impositions of brutality on...
ZAHN: Do you think God takes sides [...]? [...]
BIDEN: No, I [...] don't think God takes sides. But I do think there is -- it's not moral relativism. I think there's good and there's bad. There's evil and there's not. Those engaging in the brutal elimination of women and children, suicide bombers, I think God -- I think there's a royal -- I think there's a place in hell for them. But those who believe that the Sharia should be the law of the land, that -- that is, the Qur'an, you know, their...
BIDEN: No, I [...] don't think God takes sides. But I do think there is -- it's not moral relativism. I think there's good and there's bad. There's evil and there's not. Those engaging in the brutal elimination of women and children, suicide bombers, I think God -- I think there's a royal -- I think there's a place in hell for them. But those who believe that the Sharia should be the law of the land, that -- that is, the Qur'an, you know, their...
Mainstream Protestants and Catholics, up until very recently, have overwhelmingly voted for [the Democratic] party. […] My dad used to have an expression: Don't tell me what your values are. Show me your budget. Show me your deeds. And I think that one of the problems we Democrats have had is, we have not come off as not being people of faith. We have come off as being almost agnostic. And we are a spiritual nation. We are […] the only nation I can think that was founded upon the notion […]...
ZAHN: [...] The one big area of division [between your politics and Catholic faith] is where you stand on abortion. You are pro-choice. Do you ever worry that, when you meet your maker, you're going to have to defend yourself?
RICHARDSON: Well, I am comfortable with that decision. I -- I don't like abortions. If I'm president, I will have a national goal to reduce abortions. I believe very strongly that we have got to promote initiatives to reduce abortions, to promote adoptions, to find ways...
RICHARDSON: Well, I am comfortable with that decision. I -- I don't like abortions. If I'm president, I will have a national goal to reduce abortions. I believe very strongly that we have got to promote initiatives to reduce abortions, to promote adoptions, to find ways...
ZAHN: [...] As a Catholic, do you personally think homosexuality is a sin?
RICHARDSON: No. It isn't a sin. And, actually, when you look at many gay couples, they're families. They're individuals that shouldn't be discriminated because of sexuality [sic] orientation. They love each other. [...] And my view is that I believe in civil unions [...]
ZAHN: The pope is not comfortable with that position, Governor Richardson.
RICHARDSON: Well, I know that. And I -- I respect the pope very much. And I'm...
RICHARDSON: No. It isn't a sin. And, actually, when you look at many gay couples, they're families. They're individuals that shouldn't be discriminated because of sexuality [sic] orientation. They love each other. [...] And my view is that I believe in civil unions [...]
ZAHN: The pope is not comfortable with that position, Governor Richardson.
RICHARDSON: Well, I know that. And I -- I respect the pope very much. And I'm...
I'm somebody that believes very strongly in communion. I try to take communion. You know, my grandmother, my abuelita, used to give me a little Crucifix when I was playing baseball. And she'd put it in my pocket of my baseball uniform. And I used to play with it and thinking it would bring me good luck. And she said it will bring you good luck. And so I just remember that she very strongly instilled in me the fact that having a special communication with God, having him near you, is something...
But the reality is, I respect, you know, the opinion of Catholic — (off mike) — religious leaders of all kinds. Religion is very important to me, it’s a very important part of my life. But ultimately, as a — (off mike) — I’ve been in public life most of my life and taken oaths of office to enforce the law, I’ve got to make the decisions that I think are the right ones in a country like ours.
And my view on abortion is that it’s wrong, but that ultimately government should not be enforcing that decision on a woman. That’s - that is my view that I - I consult my religion, I consult my reading of the Constitution, I consult my views of what I think are important in a pluralistic society, and the reality that we have to respect the fact that there are people that are equally as religious, equally as moral that make a different decision about this. And should government put them in...
[...] I believe that we are created in the image of God for a particular purpose. And I believe that with all my heart. And I’m somebody - I’ve had cancer in the past. I’ve had a season to really look at this and study it and think about the end of life. And I am fully convinced there’s a God of the universe that loves us very much and was involved in the process. How he did it, I don’t know. One of the problems we have with our society today is that we put faith and science at odds with each...
Well, President Kennedy some time ago said he was not a Catholic running for president; he was an American running for president. And I’m happy — a proud member of my faith. You know, I think it’s a fair question for people to ask, “What do you believe?” And I think, as you want to understand what I believe, you could recognize that the values that I have are the same values you’ll find in faiths across this country. I believe in God, believe in the Bible,...
O'BRIEN: What do you say to all the people -- and there are millions of people who go to church every Sunday and who are told very clearly by their pastors that, in fact, the Earth was created in six days, that it's about creationism? Are those people wrong? Are their pastors wrong?
EDWARDS: No. First of all, I grew up in the church and I grew up as a Southern Baptist, was baptized in the Baptist Church when I was very young, a teenager at the time. And I was taught many of the same things....
EDWARDS: No. First of all, I grew up in the church and I grew up as a Southern Baptist, was baptized in the Baptist Church when I was very young, a teenager at the time. And I was taught many of the same things....
O'BRIEN: Do you think this is a Christian nation?
EDWARDS: No, I think this is a nation -- I mean I'm a Christian; there are lots of Christians in United States of America. I mean, I have a deep and abiding love for my Lord, Jesus Christ, but that doesn't mean that those who come from the Jewish faith, those who come from the Muslim faith, those who come from -- those who don't believe in the existence of God at all, that they don't -- that they're not entitled to have their beliefs respected....
EDWARDS: No, I think this is a nation -- I mean I'm a Christian; there are lots of Christians in United States of America. I mean, I have a deep and abiding love for my Lord, Jesus Christ, but that doesn't mean that those who come from the Jewish faith, those who come from the Muslim faith, those who come from -- those who don't believe in the existence of God at all, that they don't -- that they're not entitled to have their beliefs respected....
I was baptized in the Baptist church, personal strong faith when I was young. I strayed away from the Lord for a period of time, and then came back, in my adulthood, and my faith came roaring back during some crises that my own family was faced with. And I can tell you, it is prayer that played a huge role in my survival through that. You know, when Elizabeth and I lost our son, we were nonfunctional for some period of time. And it was the Lord that got me through that. And the same thing is...
O'BRIEN: But I'm going to ask you a delicate question. Infidelity in your marriage was very public. And I have to imagine it was incredibly difficult to deal with. And I would like to know how your faith helped you get through it.
CLINTON: Well, I'm not sure I would have gotten through it without my faith. And, you know, I take my faith very seriously and very personally. And I come from a tradition that is perhaps a little too suspicious of people who wear their faith on their sleeves, so,...
CLINTON: Well, I'm not sure I would have gotten through it without my faith. And, you know, I take my faith very seriously and very personally. And I come from a tradition that is perhaps a little too suspicious of people who wear their faith on their sleeves, so,...
And when it comes to faith, we've been told that all that matters is what divides us - Evangelicals from Mainline Protestants, the Black church from the White church, Catholics from Protestants from Muslims from Jews. And when we try to have an honest debate about the crises we face, whether it's from the pulpit or the campaign trail, the pundits don't want us to find common ground, they want us to find someone to blame. They want to divide us into Red States and Blue States, and tell us to...
As president, I will do more to strengthen support to state correctional systems so that ex-offenders can meet their parole requirements without worrying about losing their jobs. I will create a prison-to-work incentive program, modeled on the successful Welfare-to-Work program. It would create strong ties with employers, job training agencies and ex-offenders to improve job retention rates. And I will reach out to all the Reverends and engage faith-based organizations to provide support for...
There is a verse from the Bible that is sometimes read or recited during rites of passage like this. Corinthians 13:11: "When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I felt as a child, I thought as a child. Now that I have become a man, I have put away childish things." I bring this up because there's often an assumption on days like today that growing up is purely a function of age; that becoming an adult is an inevitable progression that can be measured by a series of milestones [...]....
I will be that kind of President - a President who believes again in America that can. A President who believes that when it comes to energy, the challenge may be great and the road may be long, but the time to act is now; who knows that we have the technology, we have the resources, and we are at a rare moment of growing consensus among Democrats and Republicans, unions and CEOs, evangelical Christians and military experts who understand that this must be our generation's next great task.
I think the Judeo-Christian background of this country is one that respects people not only of faith, but it respects people who don't have faith. The, the key issue of real faith is that it never can be forced on someone. And never would I want to use the government institutions to impose mine or anybody else's faith or to restrict. I think the First Amendment [...] is explicitly clear. Government should be restricted, not faith, government. And government's restriction is on two fronts:...
What I found during the course of this work [community organizing] was, one, that ordinary people can do extraordinary things when they come together and find common ground. The other thing I discovered was that values of honesty, hard work, empathy, compassion were values that were spoken about in church ... I realized that Scripture and the words of God fit into the values I was raised in. [...] During this holiday season and during this political season I'm continually reminded that the...
I believe that we are currently engaged in a world war. Radical Islamic fascists have declared war on our country and our way of life. They have sworn to annihilate each of us who believes in a free society, all in the name of a perversion of religion and an impersonal god.
It has meant the world to me to be brought up in a faith tradition. [….] As a Methodist, which I am, we look at the roots of our faith, our personal relationship with God, obviously through Jesus Christ which gives us a sense that we're not only saved and that we're called and that we are given much and therefore much is required. […] It is the person, it's the scriptural, it's the traditional and it is also very much in keeping with my understanding how faith can be based in reason as well...
I'm very proud of my faith, and it's the faith of my fathers. […] And I'm not going to distance myself in any way from my faith. But you can see what I believed and what my family believed by looking at, at our lives. […] So my dad's reputation, my mom's and my own has always been one of reaching out to people and not discriminating based upon race or anything else. […] I can remember when, when I heard about the change being made [about the first time black males could fully participate in...
[...] No, I don’t believe [homosexuality is] sinful. My, my moral views on this come from the, you know, from the Catholic Church, and I believe that homosexuality, heterosexuality as a, as a way that somebody leads their life is not—isn’t sinful. It’s the acts, it’s the various acts that people perform that are sinful, not the—not the orientation that they have.
Well, people have differing views about faith [...and] there are competing faiths in this nation. But the, the great thing, of course, is that our values are the same. We have Christians and Jews for instance. They don't have the same faith, but we certainly have the same Judeo-Christian foundation, and it's those common values that allow us to select people regardless of their faith for, for positions of secular leadership. […] Each of us has their own approach to how we're going to describe...
Well, the decision about running for president was one that I made entirely by myself, and I got a lot of advice. […] But I, I [have] also pointed out […] that I would accept no guidance or, or input of an inappropriate nature from anyone in any religion. The, the leaders of a faith have their responsibility and authority in the sphere of their faith, but in the sphere of public, of the public domain, they have, they have no authority. [….] I would have listened to a lot of people on a lot of...
RUSSERT: But this is what concerns people. This, this is what you did say about homosexuality: “I feel homosexuality is an aberrant, unnatural and sinful lifestyle.” That's millions of Americans.
HUCKABEE: Tim, understand, when a Christian speaks of sin, a Christian says all of us are sinners. I'm a sinner, everybody's a sinner. What one's sin is, means it's missing the mark. It's missing the bull's eye, the perfect point. I miss it every day; we all do. The perfection of God is seen in a...
HUCKABEE: Tim, understand, when a Christian speaks of sin, a Christian says all of us are sinners. I'm a sinner, everybody's a sinner. What one's sin is, means it's missing the mark. It's missing the bull's eye, the perfect point. I miss it every day; we all do. The perfection of God is seen in a...
We cherish these sacred rights, and secure them in our Constitutional order. Foremost do we protect religious liberty, not as a matter of policy but as a matter of right. There will be no established church, and we are guaranteed the free exercise of our religion. […]The establishment of state religions in Europe did no favor to Europe's churches. And though you will find many people of strong faith there, the churches themselves seem to be withering away. Infinitely worse is the other...
I think attacking someone's religion is really going too far. It's just not the American way, and I think people will reject that. [...] I don't believe that the people of this country are going to choose a person based on their faith and what church they go to.
Moreover, given the increasing diversity of America's population, the dangers of sectarianism have never been greater. Whatever we once were, we are no longer just a Christian nation; we are also a Jewish nation, a Muslim nation, a Buddhist nation, a Hindu nation, and a nation of nonbelievers. And even if we did have only Christians in our midst, if we expelled every non-Christian from the United States of America, whose Christianity would we teach in the schools? [...] Which passages of...
We are blessed to receive a visit from His Holiness, Pope Benedict, to the United States this week. Not only is he the spiritual leader of America’s great Catholic community, he is a strong and effective voice for the cause of peace, freedom and justice as well as the fight against poverty and disease. [...] I particularly appreciate his going to ground zero with some of the families who lost loved ones there. I hope that his message about economic justice and global development will get an...
On behalf of our family, Michelle and I want to extend our warmest welcome to His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI as he arrives for his historic apostolic journey to the United States. As committed Christians, we join millions of Americans - Catholics and members of all faith communities - in offering our prayers for the success of the Holy Father's visit. At a time when American families face rising costs at home and a range of worries abroad, the theme of Pope Benedict's journey, "Christ Our...
I'm a person of deep faith, and my religion has sustained me through a lot in my life. I even gave a speech on faith before I ever started running for President where I said that Democrats, "make a mistake when we fail to acknowledge the power of faith in people's lives." [...] And, contrary to what my poor word choices may have implied or my opponents have suggested, I've never believed that these traditions or people's faith has anything to do with how much money they have.
What I believe is that all of us come to the public square with our own values and our ideals and our ethics, what we believe. And people of religious faith have the same right to come to that public square with values and ideals that are rooted in their faith. And they have the right to describe them in religious terms, which has been part of our history. […] And it is important for us not to try to kill the debate by saying, “Well, God tells me I'm right, and so I'm not going to listen to...
[T]he brand of Islam that was being practiced in Indonesia at the time was a very tolerant Islam. The country itself was explicitly secular in its constitution. And so you didn't have the oppressive state that was trying to impose people's religious beliefs. And Christians and people of other faiths lived very comfortably there. And women were working, and out, and were not wearing the traditional coverings that we see in the Middle East. And so what it taught me [...] is that Islam can be...
One of the things I draw from the Genesis story is the importance of us being good stewards of the land, of this incredible gift... And where I think potentially religious faith and the science of global warming converge is precisely because it's going to be hard to deal with. We have to find resources in ourselves that allow us to make those sacrifices where we say, you know what? We're not going to leave it to the next generation. We're not going to wait. And having faith, believing that...
I believe that God created the universe and that the six days in the Bible may not be six days as we understand it. [...] I know there's always a debate between those who read the Bible literally and those who don't. And, you know, that, I think, is a legitimate debate within the Christian community of which I am a part. [...] I do believe in evolution. I don't think that is incompatible with Christian faith. Just as I don't think science generally is incompatible with Christian faith. [...]...
The world's chief state sponsor of international terrorism, Iran defines itself by hostility to Israel and the United States. It is simply tragic that millennia of proud Persian history have culminated in a government today that cannot be counted among those of the world’s civilized nations. When the president of Iran calls for Israel to be wiped off of the map, or asks for a world without Zionism, or suggests that Israel’s Jewish population return to Europe, or calls the Holocaust a myth, it...
Violent Islamic extremists would have us believe that there is only one acceptable religious practice, and that those who diverge from it are not entitled to life or liberty. They are wrong, very, very wrong.
If America stands for anything, it stands for the freedom to follow our own minds and hearts, to determine our own relationship with God. I did not realize just how precious this freedom is until it was taken away. As some in this audience may know, I spent several years as a prisoner of war, a time when all my freedoms were rescinded. And yet it was my very faith in a Supreme Being that sustained me and strengthened me while at the hands of my captors.
I would like to believe that Israel's success has been aided by America, Israel's natural partner and ally, and by its supporters here and the world over - several thousand of which are here today. But the tests continue - with Hamas and Hezbollah, in the anti-Semitism so pervasive in the Arab press, in the restive violence in Iraq and elsewhere, and in the vile threats issued routinely by the Iranian president. [...] We are two democracies whose alliance is forged in our common values. To be...
This Long War is not with Islam but within Islam - a small minority of extremists against the majority of moderates. My administration would pour far more resources into helping moderate Muslims - women's rights campaigners, labor leaders, tolerant imams, lawyers, journalists, and many others - resist a well-financed campaign of extremism that is tearing their societies apart.
I think Reverend Longcrier [Pastor of Exodus Mission and Outreach Church, Hickory, North Carolina] asks a very important question, which is whether fundamentally -- whether it’s right for any of our faith beliefs to be imposed on the American people when we’re president of the United States. I do not believe that’s right. I feel enormous personal conflict about this issue [of gay marriage]. I want to end discrimination. I want to do some of the things that I just heard Bill Richardson talking...
I've been asked a personal question [...] and that personal question is, do I believe and do I personally support gay marriage? The honest answer to that is I don't. But I think it is absolutely wrong, as president of the United States, for me to have used that faith basis as a basis for denying anybody their rights, and I will not do that when I'm president of the United States.
You know, when I was first lady, I was privileged to represent our country in 82 countries. I have met with many officials in Arabic and Muslim countries. I have met with kings and presidents and prime ministers and sheiks and tribal leaders. And certainly, in the last years during my time in the Senate, I have had many high-level meetings with presidents and prime ministers in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait, Pakistan and many other countries. I believe that there isn't much doubt in anyone's mind...
You know, what I believe is that God intervenes, but that his plans are a little too mysterious for me to grasp. And so what I try to do is, as best I can, be an instrument of his will. [...] And, you know, if I'm acting in an ethical way, if I am working to make sure that I am applying what I consider to be a core value of Christianity, but also a core value of all great religions, and that is that I am my brother's keeper and I am my sister's keeper, then I will be doing my part to move his...
Religion is a bulwark, a foundation when other things aren't going well. […] When economic hardship hits in these communities, what people have is they've got family, they've got their faith, they've got the traditions that have been passed onto them from generation to generation. Those aren't bad things. […] So I think it is very important […] to understand that, you know, I am a devout Christian, that I started my work working with churches in the shadow of steel plants that had closed on...
[...] I wouldn't presume to even imagine that God is going to tell me what I should do. I think that he has given me enough guidance [...] through how I have been raised and how I have been, thankfully, given access to the Bible over so many years [...]. So I just get up and try to do the best I can. [...] I don't believe that any of us know it all and can with any confidence say that we are going to [...] be doing God's will unless [...] we are just out there doing our very best, hoping that...
[...] [I]n the face of suffering, there is no doubt in my mind that God calls us to respond. [...] For whatever reason it exists, its very existence is a call to action. Certainly you know, in my Judeo-Christian faith tradition, in both the Old and the New Testament, the incredible demands that God places on us and that the prophets ask of us, and that Christ called us to respond to on behalf of the poor are unavoidable. And it's always been curious to me how our debate about religion in...
I believe that the potential for life begins at conception. I am a Methodist, as you know. My church has struggled with this issue. In fact, you can look at the Methodist Book of Discipline and see the contradiction and the challenge of trying to sort that very profound question out. But for me, it is also not only about a potential life; it is about the other lives involved. And, therefore, I have concluded, after great, you know, concern and searching my own mind and heart over many years,...
[...] [E]ver since I was a child, I have felt the enveloping support and love of God and I have had the experiences on many, many occasions where I felt like the holy spirit was there with me as I made a journey. [...] I don't think that I could have made my life's journey without being anchored in God's grace and without having that, you know, sense of forgiveness and unconditional love. [...] I mean, some of my struggles and challenges have been extremely public. And I have talked about how...
I dont think its worse than in the white community. I think that the difference has to do with the fact that the African-American community is more churched and most African-American churches are still fairly traditional in their interpretations of Scripture. And so from the pulpit or in sermons you still hear homophobic attitudes expressed. And since African-American ministers are often the most prominent figures in the African-American community those attitudes get magnified or amplified a...
Americans conceive of freedom in many ways: the freedom to be left alone or to join with others in a common purpose; the freedom to prosper or to waste; the freedom to worship God in whatever way we choose or not to worship at all; the freedom to say whatever we like or to remain silent; the freedom to succeed or to fail; the freedom to be brave or cowardly; the freedom to be generous or selfish; to be prideful or humble; to be good or not.
Here was a preacher who endured beatings, survived bombings, suffered knifings, abuse, and ridicule, and still placed his trust in the Prince of Peace. Here was a husband and father who will stand to children in every generation as a model of Christian manhood, but never got to raise his own sons and daughters, or to share in the gift of years with his good wife.
Success in Iraq and Afghanistan is the establishment of peaceful, stable, prosperous, democratic states that pose no threat to neighbors and contribute to the defeat of terrorists. It is the triumph of religious tolerance over violent radicalism.
Prevailing in this struggle will require far more than military force. It will require the use of all elements of our national power: public diplomacy; development assistance; law enforcement training; expansion of economic opportunity; and robust intelligence capabilities. I have called for major changes in how our government faces the challenge of radical Islamic extremism by much greater resources for and integration of civilian efforts to prevent conflict and to address post-conflict...
Let us remember and return to the Well Springs of faith from which he drew. One should re-read Dr. King's last speech, just as we ask children to memorize the "I have a dream" speech. One should re-read that last speech. Be reminded of the prophet Amos who did shout and commend us to let justice run down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream. One can remember the sacrifice and suffering of Jesus Christ, who taught us to love our enemies. What an absurd teaching. At the time it was...
And, certainly, Reverend Hagee, Pastor Hagee, is entitled to his views [about Catholicism and Israel]. But we've reached a point where that kind of statement simply -- I would reject the endorsement of the expression of those kinds of views. [...] My church that I attend is the North Phoenix Baptist Church. My pastor and spiritual guide is Pastor Dan Yeary. I've never been in Pastor Hagee's church or Pastor Parsley's church. I didn't attend their church for 20 years.
My faith informs my values. Part of the reason I believe it's important to help those in need is because of my faith. But I am a strong believer that the founding fathers put separation of church and state in place for a reason. ... Not only to prevent the state from being taken over by one church and forcing people to worship in a particular way, but also to protect the church — or synagogue or mosque or temple — from undue influence by the government. And I think there have been times...
Our Constitution is not antagonistic to religion or faith or God. It has two principles, both of them entirely consistent with one nation under God. A prohibition against the establishment of religion and an equally strong prohibition against government interference in the free exercise of religion. When you read those two together, these guarantees make clear that our Founding Fathers wanted to have a nation where people of faith could freely practice their faith as openly as they wanted to,...
We significantly reduced pornography throughout the city of New York and we took on other institutions like the Brooklyn Museum of Art which was using taxpayers’ funds to display an exhibit that showed the Virgin Mary covered in elephant dung. It was just another example of the double standard that exists for people of faith. There’s just no outrage among the politically correct crowd when Christian icons are desecrated. We stood up and we said enough. And I led the effort. [...] Of course...
If America stands for anything, it stands for the freedom to follow our own hearts, to determine our own relationship with God. Our constitution did not establish a national religion but neither did it banish any worship. Religious freedom does not require Americans to hide their faith from public view or that communities must refrain from publicly acknowledging the importance to them of faith. We are only abjured from using the law to make those who do not wish to adhere to the creed that we...
[... ] I think from my perspective [same-sex marriage] is wrong -- because we have seen a president in the last six-plus years who tries to impose his faith on the American people. And I think it is a mistake and I will not impose my faith belief on the American people. I don't believe any president of the United States should do that. I believe in the separation of church and state. And these things that we have talked about, all these substantive issues of equality, which is really what the...
Well, I think [my favorite Bible verse] would have to be the Sermon on the Mount, because it expresses a basic principle that I think we've lost over the last six years. [...] Part of what we've lost is a sense of empathy towards each other. We have been governed in fear and division, and you know, we talk about the federal deficit, but we don't talk enough about the empathy deficit, a sense that I stand in somebody else's shoes, I see through their eyes. People who are struggling trying to...
The Iranian regime under President Ahmadinejad has spoken openly about wiping Israel off the map, has fueled Hezbollah's terror campaign in the region and around the world and defied the world community in its pursuit of nuclear weapons - capabilities that make these threats even more ominous
That being said, there is a good deal that our nation can do to assist and validate parents in their vital role. As C.S. Lewis said, parenthood is the ultimate career "for which all others exist." That rings true, doesn't it? That may be because of our Judeo-Christian heritage. We have been taught from our youth that marriage is ordained of God and that "children are a heritage of the Lord; happy is he who hath his quiver full of them." But there is another reason, a societal reason, for the...
By the way - a few of you may have heard that I'm a Mormon. I understand that some people think they couldn't support someone of my faith. That may be because they've listened to Harry Reid. Actually, I'm pleased that so many people of so many faiths have come to endorse my candidacy and my message. My campaign is about changing Washington to strengthen America: I want to build a stronger military, a stronger economy, and stronger families. I call these the three legs of the Republican stool....
Our strategy should be integrated with an expansive approach to the entire world of Islam. The United States, our allies and friends must support progressive Muslim communities and leaders battling radical jihadists. I have called for the creation of a Partnership for Prosperity and Progress that would help provide the tools and funding to provide secular public schools, micro credit and banking, the rule of law, adequate health care, human rights, and competitive economic policies. We must...
If we learned anything from the 20th century from dealing with Nazis, Communists, and Islamic terrorists, if you haven’t learned this lesson, I don’t think you lived through the 20th century, you have to stand up to dictators, to tyrants, to terrorists. [...] But these people are attacking us not for the things that are wrong about us that we have to correct. They're attacking us for the things that are right about us. […] My wife and the wives of the other candidates addressed a women’s...
People of faith should not be marginalized in our civic debates. Believers have every right to participate in the political process. Theres no exception in the First Amendment that says we have the right of free speech except for people of faith or people of religion or people of strong religious views. I believe America is stronger and better for you expressing your views. I encourage your participation. It makes our country better. It makes our country more charitable. It makes our country...
Christians and Christianity is all about inclusiveness. It's built around the most profound act of love in human history, isn't it? It grew from a persecuted few people in the Roman Empire to the most widespread religion in the world by spreading a message of love, of hope, of faith, profound optimism, and with its hands out to everyone. […] It was the love those early Christians displayed that drew first thousands and then millions to Christianity. Non-believers saw the display of love of...
Most of you know that Moses was called by God to lead his people to the Promised Land. […] And yet, it was not in God's plan to have Moses cross the river. Instead He would call on Joshua […] to take his people that final distance. Everyone in this room stands on the shoulders of many Moses. They are the courageous men and women who marched and fought and bled for the rights and freedoms we enjoy today. [...] But you are members of the Joshua Generation. And it is now up to you to finish the...
Well, I think [anti-Hispanic, anti-Latino sentiment] is a very serious problem, and […] I think it's very destructive. It undermines our unity as a country. It is unfair to so many of the millions -- hardworking Latinos that I know, that work for me. My campaign manager is a Latina. And I will do everything I can to stand against this. I'll speak out against it, as I have as a senator. I will speak out against, as I have running for the presidency. There was a particularly egregious example...
Well, […] this is a nation that recognizes the equality of all individuals. We welcome people from all nations to come here. We also want to make sure that our nation is kept safe. And we're going to pursue any avenue we have to to assure that people who might be preaching or teaching doctrines of hate or terror are going to be followed into a church or into a school or a mosque or wherever they might be. But we welcome people of all backgrounds and faiths, and we don't discriminate against...
The reality is, I believe [in the Bible], but I don't believe it's necessarily literally true in every single respect. I think there are parts of the Bible that are interpretive. I think there are parts of the Bible that are allegorical. I think there are parts of the Bible that are meant to be interpreted in a modern context. So, yes, I believe it. I think it's the great book ever written. I read it frequently. I read it very frequently when I've gone through the bigger crises in my life,...
Well, the most important thing to do is to make certain we remain on offense against Islamic terrorism. And then make it clear that what that means is this is a small group of people, Islamic terrorists, who have defiled a great religion, that the vast majority of people who are Islamic […] are good people. […] The night of September 11th, 2001, […] one of the first things I said was I said to the people of my city and then probably to the people of America that we should not engage in group...
SOLOMONESE: Senator, you have said in previous debates that it is up to individual religious denominations to decide whether or not to recognize same-sex marriage. And so my question is, what place does the church have in government-sanctioned civil marriages?
OBAMA: I don't think that the church should be making these determinations when it comes to legal rights conferred by the state. I do think that individual denominations have the right to make their own decisions as to whether they...
OBAMA: I don't think that the church should be making these determinations when it comes to legal rights conferred by the state. I do think that individual denominations have the right to make their own decisions as to whether they...
I [have] specifically raised the homophobia in [the African-American] community as an impediment to dealing with AIDS issues. […] I [have] specifically talked about the degree to which the notion of gay marriage in black churches has been used to divide, has been used to distract. […] If you think that issue is more important to the black family, […] than the fact that black men don't have any jobs and are struggling in the inner cities, then I profoundly disagree with you. […] There are...
I think it's a good thing and healthy for all of us for people to discuss faith in the public square. I have nothing but respect for his coming forth and sharing what he did. I've been very clear about my own personal views. I think all of us who seek the office of president should be candid with the American people. […] I think I've probably been asked far more questions about my faith than Mitt Romney's been asked about his. Maybe I ought to be doing the 'God speech' out there. I might even...
First of all, I don't think it's appropriate for me to start evaluating other religions. If I answer that question, I'm going to be asked about every religion out there, and then I am playing to the very thing that I am seeking to avoid. The more I answer these questions, the more people want to say, “Ah, you describe yourself as a theologian,” or “Oh, you're the one who is setting yourself up as a judge of religions.” I am damned if I do; I am damned if I don't. I am happy to talk about my...
I think [Mormonism is] a religion. I really don't know much about it. [...] Don't Mormons believe that Jesus and the devil are brothers?
I’ve said in general, and I would say this tonight to any of us, when a person says my faith doesn’t affect my decision-making, I would say that the person’s saying their faith is not significant enough to impact their decision process. I tell people up front my faith does affect my decision process. It explains me. No apology for that. My faith says, “Do unto others as you’d have them do unto you.” [...] I want to state very clearly: a person’s faith shouldn’t qualify or disqualify for...
I'm pro-life because I believe life begins at conception, and I believe that we should do everything possible to protect that life because it is the centerpiece of what makes us unique as an American people. We value the life of one as if it's the life of all, and that's why we go out for the 12-year-old Boy Scout in North Carolina when he's lost; that's why we look for the 13 miners in Sago, West Virginia, when the mine explodes; that's why we go looking for the hikers in Mount Hood, because...
I really believe that [most pressing moral issue in this country] is our respect, our sanctity and our understanding of the value of every single human life, because that is what makes America a unique place on this planet. We value every life of an individual as if it represents the life of us all. Many of us who are pro-life, quite frankly, I think, have made the mistake of giving people the impression that pro-life means we care intensely about people as long as that child is in the womb,...
I cannot believe Columbia University would host this terrorist and financier of terror. [Ahmadinejad] is an international criminal and sponsor of terrorism. It's appalling to me that a man who denies the Holocaust and supports radical Islam would be offered such a platform. In the strongest words possible, I condemn Ahmadinejad's actions, which include violating basic human rights in his own country; his unmasked efforts to build a nuclear weapon; his support for terrorist groups such as...
In biblical terms, it is like the salt losing its flavor; it’s sand. Some of them have spent too long in Washington. . . . I think they are going to have a hard time going out into the pews and saying tax policy is what Jesus is about, that he said, "Come unto me all you who are overtaxed and I will give you rest."
I'm not going to evaluate someone else's [faith]. In fact, if people will look through the entire record of my comments, they'll see me defending Hillary Clinton and her faith in this campaign. […] I said I have no reason to doubt her sincerity. In fact, I said that, you know, her faith may be practiced a little different in the Methodist church than mine is in a more almost charismatic Baptist church where I attend. But I said just because some people eat their soup louder than other people...
The fact is when there is a serious threat to this country, it is not a threat because we happen to be peace-loving people. It's a threat because in the heart of the radical Islamic faith -- not all Islam, and that's what's very important. This isn't an Islamic problem. This is a jihadist problem. This is an Islamo-fascism problem. And if you read the writings of those who most influenced -- and Governor Romney mentioned Sayyid Qutb, executed in Egypt in 1966. He is one of the major...
It seems to me, if you don't face this squarely -- there's an Islamic, terrorism threat against us. It's an existential threat. It has nothing to do with our foreign policy. It has to do with their ideas, their theories, the things that they have done and the way they've perverted their religion into a hatred of us. And what's at stake are the things that are best about us: our freedom of religion, our freedom for women, our right to vote, our free economic system. Our foreign policy is...
We're going to have to move our strategy from simply being a respond to military threat with military action to an effort that says we're going to use our military and nonmilitary resources […] combined with other nations who are our friends to help move the world of Islam toward modernity and moderation. […] The new mission for NATO and for other nations is to help provide the rule of law, education that's not through madrassas, agricultural and economic policies that can be instilled in...
RUSSERT: But you said you would ban all abortions.
HUCKABEE: Well, that's not just because I'm a Christian, that's because I'm an American. Our founding fathers said that we're all created equal. I think every person has intrinsic worth and value. […] It's not a faith belief. It's deeper than that. It's a human belief. It goes to the heart of who we are as a civilization. If I believe that your intrinsic worth is not changed by your ancestry, your last name, by your IQ, by your abilities or...
HUCKABEE: Well, that's not just because I'm a Christian, that's because I'm an American. Our founding fathers said that we're all created equal. I think every person has intrinsic worth and value. […] It's not a faith belief. It's deeper than that. It's a human belief. It goes to the heart of who we are as a civilization. If I believe that your intrinsic worth is not changed by your ancestry, your last name, by your IQ, by your abilities or...
I’ve said that […] as Christians and particularly even as Republicans, we needed to address issues that touched the broader perspective, and that included disease, hunger, poverty, homelessness, the environment. […] And it’s not about having a government program, it’s about simply reminding each of us as individual citizens that this is an area of our own responsibility. At my own church […] our church is very, very engaged in everything from dealing with hunger, poverty, and we reach out to...
Are you about worn out of all the television commercials you've been seeing? Mostly about politics. I don't blame you. At this time of year sometimes it's nice to pull aside from all of that and just remember that what really matters is the celebration of the birth of Christ and being with our family and our friends. I hope that you and your family have a magnificent Christmas season. And on behalf of all of us, God bless and Merry Christmas.
People sometimes say we shouldn’t have a human life amendment or a marriage amendment because the Constitution is far too sacred to change, and my point is, the Constitution was created as a document that could be changed. […] If we have a definition of marriage, that we don’t change that definition, that we affirm that definition. And that the sanctity of human life is not just a religious issue. It’s an issue that goes to the very heart of our civilization of all people being equal, endowed...
I'm talking about a moral deficit. I'm talking about an empathy deficit. I'm taking about an inability to recognize ourselves in one another; to understand that we are our brother's keeper; we are our sister's keeper; that, in the words of Dr. King, we are all tied together in a single garment of destiny. [...] And we have a deficit when it takes a breach in our levees to reveal a breach in our compassion; when it takes a terrible storm to reveal the hungry that God calls on us to feed; the...
The Scripture tells us that when Joshua and the Israelites arrived at the gates of Jericho, they could not enter. […] And so they sat for days, unable to pass on through. But God had a plan for his people. He told them to stand together and march together around the city, and on the seventh day he told them that when they heard the sound of the ram's horn, they should speak with one voice. And at the chosen hour, when the horn sounded and a chorus of voices cried out together, the mighty...
And if you were a Muslim overseas listening to […] the tenor of many of the speeches that are delivered by the Republican candidates, you would get an impression that they are not interested in talking and resolving issues peacefully. Now, what we need to do is we need to close Guantanamo. We need to restore habeas corpus. We need to send a strong signal that we are going to talk directly to not just our friends but also to our enemies. […] When I brought this up early on in this campaign, I...
SIEGEL: […] How would you, Senator Edwards, how would you as president, Senator Edwards, answer the complaint that the U.S., in its support of Israel, is so pro-Israeli, it can't be an evenhanded, honest broker of matters and is anti-Muslim?
EDWARDS: Well, first of all, I think that what's driving this belief about America and the Muslim community around the world is the bullying, selfish, abusive behavior of George Bush and this administration. [...] Now, as to the Muslim community, I think...
EDWARDS: Well, first of all, I think that what's driving this belief about America and the Muslim community around the world is the bullying, selfish, abusive behavior of George Bush and this administration. [...] Now, as to the Muslim community, I think...
The prayer that I tell myself every night is a fairly simple one: I ask in the name of Jesus Christ that my sins are forgiven, that my family is protected and that I am an instrument of God's will. I'm constantly trying to align myself to what I think he calls on me to do. And sometimes you hear it strongly and sometimes that voice is more muted.
It's a tricky thing, anybody's relationship with their pastor. […] Our church, Trinity United Church of Christ, even though it is part of a 95-, 97-percent white denomination, very much draws on the historical black church tradition and Reverend Wright's sermons do as well. And that means that sometimes he's provocative in ways that I'm not always comfortable with and in ways that I deeply disagree with occasionally. On the other hand, there are times where when he's talking about scripture...
You know, I was raised basically by my mother, who came from a Christian background - small town, white, Midwesterner. But, she was not particularly religious. My father, who I did not know […] was raised in a household where his father had converted to Islam. But my father, for all practical purposes, was agnostic. My mother remarried an Indonesian and we moved to Indonesia. But for two years I went to a Catholic school in Indonesia, and then for two years went to a secular school in...
My general criteria is that if a congregation or a church or synagogue or a mosque or a temple wants to provide social services and use government funds, then they should be able to structure it in a way that all people are able to access those services and that we're not seeing government dollars used to proselytize. […] I want the church protected from the state. And I don't think that we promote the incredible richness of our religious life and our religious institutions when the...
Basically the e-mail falsely states that I'm Muslim, that I pledged my oath of office on a Koran instead of a Bible, that I don't Pledge Allegiance to the flag. Scurrilous stuff. I want to make sure that your viewers understand that I am a Christian who has belonged to the same church for almost 20 years now. It's where Michelle and I got married. It's where our kids were dedicated. I took my oath of office on my family Bible. […] I think that those who are of the Muslim faith are deserving...
You know, I am a proud Christian. And I think there have been times where our Democratic Party did not reach out as aggressively as we could to evangelicals, for example, because the assumption was, well, they don't agree with us on choice, or they don't agree with us on gay rights, and so we just shouldn't show up. And when you don't show up, if you're not going to church, then you're not talking to church folk. And that means that people have a very right-wing perspective in terms of what...
I think it is important for us to encourage churches and congregations all across the country to involve themselves in rebuilding communities. One of the things I have consistently argued is that we can structure faith-based programs that prove to be successful […] without violating church and state. We should make sure they are rebuilding the lives of people even if they're not members of a particular congregation. […] One of the things that I think churches have to be mindful of is that if...
I don't know anybody who is pro-abortion. […] Our goal should be to make abortion less common, that we should be discouraging unwanted pregnancies, that we should encourage adoption wherever possible. There is a range of ways that we can educate our young people about the sacredness of sex and we should not be promoting the sort of casual activities that end up resulting in so many unwanted pregnancies. […] For example, I think we can legitimately say - the state can legitimately say - that...
I am a devout Christian. I believe in the redemptive death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. I believe that that faith gives me a path to be cleansed of sin and have eternal life. But most importantly, I believe in the example that Jesus set by feeding the hungry and healing the sick and always prioritizing the least of these over the powerful. […] Accepting Jesus Christ in my life has been a powerful guide for my conduct and my values and my ideals. […] I have been a member of the same...
You know, it's interesting, everybody says religion is off limits, except we always can ask me the religious questions. So let me try to do my best to answer it. […] [Ephesians chapter five] was spoken to believers, to Christian believers. I'm not the least bit ashamed of my faith or the doctrines of it. I don't try to impose that as a governor and I wouldn't impose it as a president. But I certainly am going to practice it unashamedly, whether I'm a president or whether I'm not a president....
I don't think for a minute the American people are going to say, you know what, we're not going to vote for this guy for a secular position because of his church. I just don't believe it. I think when the Constitution and the founders said no religious test shall ever be required for qualification for office or public trust in these United States that the founders meant just that. And I don't believe for a minute that Republicans, or Americans for that matter, are going to impose a religious...
What was once seen primarily as the cradle of the great monotheistic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, is now seen also as a crucifix of great conflicts of our time, including the terror which has spread across the world. Simply put, none of us is a bystander to the historical forces sweeping the landscape of the Eastern Mediterranean. We are all, willingly or not, participants; and we all have a stake in the outcome of the great conflicts occurring. In fact, the United States...
He was filled with the teachings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Reinhold Niebuhr. Bonhoeffer stressed that the role of a Christian was a moral one of total engagement in the world with the promotion of human development. Niebuhr struck a persuasive balance between a clear-eyed realism about human nature and an unrelenting passion for justice and social reform.
WARREN: [...] at what point does a baby get human rights in your view?
OBAMA: Well, you know, I think that whether you're looking at it from a theological perspective or a scientific perspective, answering that question with specificity, you know, is above my pay grade. [...] One thing that I'm absolutely convinced of is that there is a moral and ethical element to this issue. And so I think anybody who tries to deny the moral difficulties and gravity of the abortion issue, I think, is not...
OBAMA: Well, you know, I think that whether you're looking at it from a theological perspective or a scientific perspective, answering that question with specificity, you know, is above my pay grade. [...] One thing that I'm absolutely convinced of is that there is a moral and ethical element to this issue. And so I think anybody who tries to deny the moral difficulties and gravity of the abortion issue, I think, is not...
WARREN: What would be [...] the greatest moral failure in your life? And what would be the greatest moral failure of America?
OBAMA: Well, in my own life I'd break it up in stages. I had a difficult youth. My father wasn't in the house [...] there were times where I experimented with drugs. I drank in my teenage years. And what I traced this to is a certain selfishness on my part. I was so obsessed with me and, you know, the reasons that I might be dissatisfied that I couldn't focus on other...
OBAMA: Well, in my own life I'd break it up in stages. I had a difficult youth. My father wasn't in the house [...] there were times where I experimented with drugs. I drank in my teenage years. And what I traced this to is a certain selfishness on my part. I was so obsessed with me and, you know, the reasons that I might be dissatisfied that I couldn't focus on other...
I really believe the majority of our religious conservatives are more concerned than anybody else about the threat of radical Islamic extremism. They know what an evil this is. They know what a threat it is to everything we stand for and believe in. So I believe I can appeal to those large numbers of conservatives who I think I can prove am best able to confront that evil.
And I have the vision and the knowledge and the background to take on the transcendent issue of the 21st century, which is radical Islamic extremism.
BELIEFNET: It doesn't seem like a Muslim candidate would do very well, according to that standard.
McCAIN: I admire the Islam. There's a lot of good principles in it. I think one of the great tragedies of the 21st century is that these forces of evil have perverted what's basically an honorable religion. But, no, I just have to say in all candor that since this nation was founded primarily on Christian principles...personally, I prefer someone who I know who has a solid grounding in my...
McCAIN: I admire the Islam. There's a lot of good principles in it. I think one of the great tragedies of the 21st century is that these forces of evil have perverted what's basically an honorable religion. But, no, I just have to say in all candor that since this nation was founded primarily on Christian principles...personally, I prefer someone who I know who has a solid grounding in my...
BELIEFNET: Many prominent pro-life activists have objected to your campaigns even though you have a more staunchly pro-life record than any of the Republican presidential frontrunners: Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, or Fred Thompson.
McCAIN: I find it a bit ironic. Part of it may have had to do with campaign finance reform. [...] But I continue to establish relationships with people like [televangelist] Pastor John Hagee, Pastor Richard Land [president of the Southern Baptist Convention's...
McCAIN: I find it a bit ironic. Part of it may have had to do with campaign finance reform. [...] But I continue to establish relationships with people like [televangelist] Pastor John Hagee, Pastor Richard Land [president of the Southern Baptist Convention's...
BELIEFNET: But the mistakes that the President made in Iraq were not born of “theological perspective” ?
McCAIN: There were serious mistakes that were made by-speaking of religions, I think the Greek god hubris played a role in Mr. Rumsfeld's decisions that he made. It was just terribly mishandled. But I don't think it had a lot to do with Christian principle as much as it had to do with terrible mismanagement.
McCAIN: There were serious mistakes that were made by-speaking of religions, I think the Greek god hubris played a role in Mr. Rumsfeld's decisions that he made. It was just terribly mishandled. But I don't think it had a lot to do with Christian principle as much as it had to do with terrible mismanagement.
We need to marshal all elements of American power: our military, economy, investment, trade and technology and our moral credibility to win the war against Islamic extremists and help the majority of Muslims, who believe in progress and peace, win the struggle for the soul of Islam.
I've been going to the same church for 20 years, praising Jesus. [...] We've heard the usual sort of smear campaigns. [...] They send out these e-mails saying, "You know Obama, he's a Muslim and he doesn't pledge allegiance to the flag." [...] Don't try to just insult not just me but people of the Islamic faith by playing on people's fears. I know who I am.
RUSSERT: South Dakota had some proposed legislation to outlaw all abortion except saving the life of a mother, no exceptions for rape or incest. You said you’d sign that. Why?
HUCKABEE: I always am going to err on the side of life. I believe life is precious. [...] This is not something that I’ve been all over the board on, it’s consistent. It’s because of my view that God is the creator and instigator of life. But I think those of us in the pro-life movement, we have to do also some growing...
HUCKABEE: I always am going to err on the side of life. I believe life is precious. [...] This is not something that I’ve been all over the board on, it’s consistent. It’s because of my view that God is the creator and instigator of life. But I think those of us in the pro-life movement, we have to do also some growing...
It's been fascinating to me that people have tried to marginalize me as a candidate of the fringe. [...] How many other candidates are most depicted by what they were 20 years ago? Last time I was a Baptist minister was 1991. . . . The attempt to ghettoize me into a small, arcane part of my biography has been remarkable.
BELIEFNET: In your previous book, “Faith of My Fathers,” you say that your mother was the daughter of an Episcopal minister and that she saw to your religious instruction. Your father seemed a lot more private about his faith. Who is your model for religious life now?
McCAIN: I've sort of evolved in my religious faith. And I think probably because of my failings and mistakes in life I'm a much bigger believer in redemption. I really believe that redemption is a very important part of our...
McCAIN: I've sort of evolved in my religious faith. And I think probably because of my failings and mistakes in life I'm a much bigger believer in redemption. I really believe that redemption is a very important part of our...
If I should be so fortunate to be president, I hope that I would never forget that the essence of my faith is real simple: you do unto others as you would have others do unto you. And that's helped me as I've been a governor, asking myself, if somebody were creating a tax policy that affected me, how would I want it to affect me? If somebody were going to deal with me if I were the victim of a hurricane, how would I want to be treated? It gets a lot easier when you just ask “How would I want...
There are some who may feel that religion is not a matter to be seriously considered in the context of the weighty threats that face us. If so, they are at odds with the nation's founders, for they [...] discovered the essential connection between the survival of a free land and the protection of religious freedom. [...] Freedom and religion endure together, or perish alone. [...] We separate church and state affairs in this country, and for good reason. No religion should dictate to the...
I'd like to begin with a prayer. It comes to us from Jeremiah 29, when the prophet sent out a letter to those exiled from Jerusalem to Babylon. It was a time of uncertainty, and a time of despair. But the prophet Jeremiah told them to banish their fear - that though they were scattered, and though they felt lost, God had not left them. "For I know the plans I have for you," the Lord revealed to Jeremiah, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." God had...
I first joined Trinity United Church of Christ nearly twenty years ago. I knew Rev. Wright as someone who served this nation with honor as a United States Marine, as a respected biblical scholar, and as someone who taught or lectured at seminaries across the country, from Union Theological Seminary to the University of Chicago. He also led a diverse congregation that was and still is a pillar of the South Side and the entire city of Chicago. It's a congregation that does not merely preach...
The statements that Rev. Wright made that are the cause of this controversy were not statements I personally heard him preach while I sat in the pews of Trinity or heard him utter in private conversation. When these statements first came to my attention, it was at the beginning of my presidential campaign. I made it clear at the time that I strongly condemned his comments. But because Rev. Wright was on the verge of retirement, and because of my strong links to the Trinity faith community,...
But the remarks that have caused this recent firestorm weren't simply controversial. They weren't simply a religious leader's effort to speak out against perceived injustice. Instead, they expressed a profoundly distorted view of this country - a view that sees white racism as endemic, and that elevates what is wrong with America above all that we know is right with America; a view that sees the conflicts in the Middle East as rooted primarily in the actions of stalwart allies like Israel,...
The man I met more than twenty years ago is a man who helped introduce me to my Christian faith, a man who spoke to me about our obligations to love one another; to care for the sick and lift up the poor. He is a man who served his country as a U.S. Marine; who has studied and lectured at some of the finest universities and seminaries in the country, and who for over thirty years led a church that serves the community by doing God's work here on Earth – by housing the homeless,...
Like other predominantly black churches across the country, Trinity embodies the black community in its entirety - the doctor and the welfare mom, the model student and the former gang-banger. Like other black churches, Trinity's services are full of raucous laughter and sometimes bawdy humor. They are full of dancing, clapping, screaming and shouting that may seem jarring to the untrained ear. The church contains in full the kindness and cruelty, the fierce intelligence and the shocking...
I am outraged by the comments that were made and saddened over the spectacle that we saw yesterday. [...] I have known Reverend Wright for almost 20 years. The person I saw yesterday was not the person that I met 20 years ago. His comments were not only divisive and destructive, but I believe that they end up giving comfort to those who prey on hate and I believe that they do not portray accurately the perspective of the black church. [...] [W]hen he states and then amplifies such ridiculous...
Well, you know, the new pastor -- the young pastor, Reverend Otis Moss, is a wonderful young pastor. And as I said, I still very much value the Trinity community. This -- I'll be honest, this obviously has put strains on that relationship, not because of the members or because of Reverend Moss but because this has become such a spectacle. And, you know, when I go to church it's not for spectacle. It's to pray and to find -- to find a stronger sense of faith. It's not to posture politically....
REPORTER: Reverend Wright said it was not an attack on him, but an attack on the black church. Do you agree with that?
OBAMA: I did not view the initial round of soundbites, that triggered this controversy, as an attack on the black church. I viewed it as a simplification of who he was, a caricature of who he was and, you know, more than anything, something that piqued a lot of political interest. [...] I mean, [...] the only aspect of it that probably had to do with specifically the black...
REPORTER: How important a strain is liberation theology in the black church? And why did you choose to attend a church that preached that?
OBAMA: Well, first of all, in terms of liberation theology, I'm not a theologian. [...] I went to church and listened to sermons. And in the sermons that I heard, and this is true, I do think, across the board in many black churches, there is an emphasis on the importance of social struggle, the importance of striving for equality and justice and fairness...
PANELIST: When you stand before God, what might a question be that you'll ask Him?
CLINTON: I have so many questions... I would ask how could a loving God have let so much despair, suffering and pain be part of the human experience? What were you teaching us? What were you modeling for us? We know that you had your son suffer excruciatingly and he died for us and I can't thank you enough for that gift but so many people who seem so innocent have also suffered so much. Was there any point at...
I first became familiar with the story of Israel when I was eleven years old. I learned of the long journey and steady determination of the Jewish people to preserve their identity through faith, family and culture. Year after year, century after century, Jews carried on their traditions, and their dream of a homeland, in the face of impossible odds.
The people of Israel reserve a special respect for courage, because so much courage has been required of them. In the record of history, sheer survival in the face of Israel's many trials would have been impressive enough. But Israel has achieved much more than that these past sixty years. Israel has endured, and thrived, and her people have built a nation that is an inspiration to free nations everywhere.
As the turmoil in Zimbabwe continues after a seriously tainted election process, President Mugabe is employing brutal tactics against dissenters in an attempt to retain power... [T]here are increasing reports that the police are interrogating, arresting, and beating Anglican parishioners and preventing them from attending Church. I join with people of all faiths...in calling for an end to the religious persecution taking place in Zimbabwe. These offenses are an affront to everyone......
I had a camp counselor when I was in sixth grade who was Jewish-American but who had spent time in Israel, and during the course of this two-week camp he shared with me the idea of returning to a homeland and what that meant for people who had suffered from the Holocaust, and he talked about the idea of preserving a culture when a people had been uprooted with the view of eventually returning home. There was something so powerful and compelling for me, maybe because I was a kid who never...
William Wilberforce had struggled for years in the British parliament to strike the lethal blow against the abominable institution that had scarred Western civilization for centuries. He was a humble Christian man, powerfully motivated by his faith, whose example instructs every person born in freedom that we have a moral obligation not to turn a blind eye to assaults on the collective dignity of humanity wherever they occur... Ours is a nation with a conscience, and thank God we are. As...
Behind walls of prisons and persecuted before our very eyes in places like China, Iran, Burma, Sudan, North Korea and Saudi Arabia are tens-of-thousands of people whose only crime is to worship God in their own way. No society that denies religious freedom can ever rightly claim to be good in some other way. And no person can ever be true to any faith that believes in the dignity of all human life if they do not act out of concern for those whose dignity is assailed because of their faith. As...
We can't do it just by wishing for it. We can't do it just by hoping for it... Prayer helps, but hard work also is something we gotta do together. You know, I'm a Methodist, and we believe in doing all the good that you can every day that you can. And that means we come together and we set some goals and we go about achieving them.
Today, millions of Americans will come together for the 57th Annual National Day of Prayer. I joined this morning with a group of ministers. Our prayers were for our nation and for strength and wisdom to be good leaders. It is important that we all recognize that praying for our country, praying for people in positions of authority is what people of faith are called upon to do. This is a day about unity and common ground as our prayers in all their diversity of faiths can bring us together in...
As I have traveled this country, I've been impressed not by what divides us, but by all that that unites us. That is why I am deeply disappointed in Father Pfleger's divisive, backward-looking rhetoric, which doesn't reflect the country I see or the desire of people across America to come together in common cause.
We are writing to make official our decision to end our membership at Trinity. We make this decision with sadness. Trinity was where I found Christ, where we were married and where our children were baptized... But as you know, our relations with Trinity have been strained by the divisive statements of Rev. Wright, which sharply conflict with our own views. Our larger concern is that because of my candidacy and membership at Trinity, these controversies have served as an unfortunate...
Being here today, I am reminded of a passage in Isaiah: "Upon your walls, O Jerusalem, I have posted sentinels; all day and all night, they shall never be silent." Just like the sentinels of old, you are never silent, you never grow weary and you never stop standing up for and fighting for Israel.
At the end of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus closes by saying, "Whoever hears these words of mine, and does them, shall be likened to a wise man who built his house upon a rock: and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and it fell not, for it was founded upon a rock." [Matthew 7: 24-25] Here at Apostolic, you are blessed to worship in a house that has been founded on the rock of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. But it is also built on...
Take, for example, the awful human catastrophe under way in the Darfur region of the Sudan. [...] Osama bin Laden and his followers, ready, as always, to sacrifice anything and anyone to their hatred of the West and our ideals, have called on Muslims to rise up against any Westerner who dares intervene to stop the genocide, even though Muslims, hundreds of thousands of Muslims, are its victims. Now that, my friends, is a difference, a cause, worth taking up arms against.
I take deepest offense to and will continue to fight against discrimination against people of any religious group or background. Our campaign is about bringing people together, and I'm grateful that Ms. Abdelfadeel accepted our apology and I hope Ms. Aref and any who were offended accept my apology as well.
Now I'm a Christian, and I praise Jesus every Sunday... I hear people saying things that I don't think are very Christian with respect to people who are gay and lesbian.
And President Bush came into office with a promise to "rally the armies of compassion," establishing a new Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives.
But what we saw instead was that the Office never fulfilled its promise. Support for social services to the poor and the needy have been consistently underfunded... But it has to be a real partnership – not a photo-op. That's what it will be when I'm President. I'll establish a new Council for Faith-Based and Neighborhood...
But what we saw instead was that the Office never fulfilled its promise. Support for social services to the poor and the needy have been consistently underfunded... But it has to be a real partnership – not a photo-op. That's what it will be when I'm President. I'll establish a new Council for Faith-Based and Neighborhood...
I don't believe this partnership will endanger [the separation of church and state] - so long as we follow a few basic principles. First, if you get a federal grant, you can't use that grant money to proselytize to the people you help and you can't discriminate against them - or against the people you hire - on the basis of their religion. Second, federal dollars that go directly to churches, temples, and mosques can only be used on secular programs. And we'll also ensure that taxpayer...
There's a lot of evidence that these kinds of partnerships [between education-related non-profits and churches] work. Take Youth Education for Tomorrow, an innovative program that's being run by churches, faith-based schools, and others in Philadelphia. To help narrow the summer learning gap, the YET program hires qualified teachers who help students with reading using proven learning techniques. They hold classes four days a week after school and during the summer. And they monitor progress...
And my Council for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships will also have a broader role - it will help set our national agenda. Because if we are going to do something about the injustice of millions of children living in extreme poverty, we need interfaith coalitions like the Let Justice Roll campaign standing up for the powerless. If we're going to end genocide and stop the scourge of HIV/AIDS, we need people of faith on Capitol Hill talking about how these challenges don't just...
I let Jesus Christ into my life. I learned that my sins could be redeemed and if I placed my trust in Jesus, that he could set me on a path to eternal life. When I submitted myself to His will and I dedicated myself to discovering His truth and carrying out His works, it was that newfound faith that fortified my commitment to the work I was doing in the community. Because it taught me that I could sit in church and pray all I want but I won't be fulfilling the Lord's will unless I am doing...
[O]ur faith cannot be an idle faith. It requires more of us than Sundays at church, it requires more than just our daily prayer. It must be an active faith rooted in that most fundamental of all truths; That I am my brother's keeper. That I am my sister's keeper. That we must live that truth not only with the words but [with] good deeds.
I did discuss [religious freedom for a Greek Orthodox minority living in Istanbul, Turkey] with His Eminence and we will continue to have these discussions and obviously I am in favor of religious freedom all over the world, especially those places where there seems to be challenges to them. We’ll continue our dialogue and discussions and will try to do what we can to see that all religions are protected and honored.
One of the things I’ve always said is that abortion is a deeply moral issue, and those who would deny that there is a moral component to it are wrong. The reason that I make a decision to support the choice position is that – not because I don’t think it’s a moral issue but because I trust women to make a prayerful decision.
I just want to be very clear and this obviously in no way an insult to the Muslim community who I respect deeply but I want people to know who I am. I am a Christian. I am a member of Trinity United Church of Christ. I have been for 15 years. I have never practiced Islam and I think it’s important for people not to buy into these sorts of fear tactics that people also often use during political games. People need to know the facts. These are the facts as I have presented them and I hope that...
I think you really have to have an attitude that [the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives] is a program designed to help all comers, not just those who supported you politically. The second thing is that there has to be some very clear criteria and accountability in these programs. I don’t think taxpayers want their money wasted, whether it’s a faith-based or a secular program, so we’ve got to be able to document success in whatever programs are funded. We also want to train more...
I’m going to have my Council on Faith-Based Partnerships review all our policies, review relevant law and regulations, executive orders and court cases. But the simple principle is that we should not discriminate against faith-based organizations in being able to carry out terrific programs [funded] by the federal government, but we want to make sure that those programs are run in a nondiscriminatory manner. And that’s not going to encroach on the ability of those faith-based organizations to...
It wasn't an epiphany. […] It was a more gradual process that traced back to those times that I had spent in New York wandering the streets or reading books, where I decided that the meaning I found in my life, the values that were most important to me, the sense of wonder that I had, the sense of tragedy that I had—all these things were captured in the Christian story. […] What was intellectual and what was emotional joined, and the belief in the redemptive power of Jesus Christ, that he...
It is a precept of my Christian faith that my redemption comes through Christ, but I am also a big believer in the Golden Rule, which I think is an essential pillar not only of my faith but of my values and my ideals and my experience here on Earth. I've said this before, and I know this raises questions in the minds of some evangelicals. I do not believe that my mother, who never formally embraced Christianity as far as I know … I do not believe she went to hell.
Race is a central test of our belief that we're our brother's keeper, our sister's keeper … There's a sense that if we are to get beyond our racial divides, that it should be neat and pretty, whereas part of my argument was that it's going to be hard and messy—and that's where faith comes in.
I have gotten frustrated at times in observing the public debate, seeing the degree to which the conservative right has been able to dominate the conversation about religion and politics, and to determine what it means to be a good Christian. […] Let me describe it this way: there is a group that is of fundamentalist Christians who are not going to vote for Democrats or progressives, no matter what, and we can guess whatever that number is. Then there's an enormous group of people who...
NY TIMES: Do you consider yourself an evangelical Christian?
McCAIN: I consider myself a Christian. I attend church, my faith has sustained me in very difficult times. But I think it depends on what you call a quote evangelical Christian. Because there are some people who may not share my views on - I mean, that covers a lot of ground. But I certainly consider myself a Christian.
McCAIN: I consider myself a Christian. I attend church, my faith has sustained me in very difficult times. But I think it depends on what you call a quote evangelical Christian. Because there are some people who may not share my views on - I mean, that covers a lot of ground. But I certainly consider myself a Christian.
Um, [I don’t attend church] as often as I should. When Cindy and I are in Phoenix, we attend. We’ve been fortunate enough the last few weeks to be in Phoenix. During the primary before that we were not back in Phoenix much so - again, not as frequently as I would like. I do appreciate the pastor of the North Phoenix Baptist Church, his name is Dan Neary (SP), and I talk to him frequently on the phone and I appreciate his spiritual guidance. He’s a great believer in redemption.
We should be going after al Qaeda and those networks fiercely and effectively. But what we also want to do is to shrink the pool of potential recruits. And that involves engaging the Islamic world rather than vilifying it, and making sure that we understand that not only are those in Islam who would resort to violence a tiny fraction of the Islamic world, but that also, the Islamic world itself is diverse. And that lumping together Shia extremists with Sunni extremists, assuming that Persian...
Latinos are among the hardest working most productive people in our country. The strength of your religious faith and the strength and closeness of your families are a great force for social stability and individual happiness. In my recent visit to Mexico, I visited the Shrine of the Virgin of Guadalupe, and was greatly moved by the experience, and came to appreciate all the more your deep devotion to the God who created us and loves us all equally. I will honor your contributions to America...
We have to start by remembering the role that values play in addressing some of our most urgent social problems. As I've said many times, the problems of poverty and war, the uninsured and the unemployed aren't simply technical problems in search of a 10-point plan. They're rooted in societal indifference and individual callousness -- in the imperfections of man. For example, I believe in tough law enforcement and commonsense gun laws to keep our children safe from an epidemic of violence....
I can do my job there in developing our natural resources and doing things like getting the roads paved and making sure our troopers have their cop cars and their uniforms and their guns, and making sure our public schools are funded. But really, all of that stuff doesn't do any good if the people of Alaska's heart isn't right with God.
Pray for our military men and women who are striving to do what is right. Also, for this country, that our leaders, our national leaders, are sending [U.S. soldiers] out on a task that is from God. That's what we have to make sure that we're praying for, that there is a plan and that that plan is God's plan."
BROKAW: You're a lifetime communicant in the Catholic Church. You've talked often about your faith and the, and the strength of your feelings about your faith.
BIDEN: Actually, I haven't talked often about my faith. I seldom talk about my faith. Other people talk about my faith.
BIDEN: Actually, I haven't talked often about my faith. I seldom talk about my faith. Other people talk about my faith.
For me, as a Roman Catholic, I'm prepared to accept the teachings of my church [on abortion, but…] there are an awful lot of people of great confessional faiths -- Protestants, Jews, Muslims and others -- who have a different view. […] They believe in their faith and they believe in human life, and they have differing views. […] I'm prepared as a matter of faith to accept that life begins at the moment of conception. But that is my judgment. For me to impose that judgment on everyone else who...
I voted against [...] criminalizing abortion. I voted against telling everyone else in the country that they have to accept my religiously based view that it's a moment of conception. There is a debate in our church, as Cardinal Egan would acknowledge, that's existed. Back […] when Thomas Aquinas wrote “Summa Theologia,” [...] it didn't occur until quickening, 40 days after conception. How am I going out and tell you, if you or anyone else that you must insist upon my view that is based on a...
I think that we should have an all hands on deck approach when it comes to issues like poverty and substance abuse [...] I know the power of faith-based institutions to get stuff done. What I have said is that when it comes, first of all, to funding faith-based organizations, they are always free to hire whoever they want, when it comes to their own mission [...] When it comes to the programs that are federally funded, then we do have to be careful to make sure that we are not creating a...
I went to New Orleans after Katrina. The Resurrection Baptist church was doing tremendous work with thousands of volunteers. I'm sure probably from here at Saddleback, coordinating efforts of thousands of volunteers, including my own church, the North Phoenix Baptist church, who came from all over America. And various authorities, off the record, told me, off the record, that they were doing so much more good than the government organizations, that it was incredible. And New Orleans could not...
As I was mayor and Pastor Muthee was here and he was praying over me, and you know how he speaks and he’s so bold. And he was praying “Lord make a way, Lord make a way." And I’m thinking, this guy’s really bold, he doesn’t even know what I’m going to do, he doesn’t know what my plans are. And he’s praying not “oh Lord if it be your will may she become governor,” no, he just prayed for it. He said “Lord make a way and let her do this next step." And that’s exactly what happened.
PELLEY: You know, you've written this about your father: “My father didn't talk about God or the importance of religious devotion. But, he did pray aloud on his knees twice a day.” Is that you?
McCAIN: Yeah, but, I'm not sure as good a man as my father. My father struggled with alcohol all his life. And he really used his religion as a valuable tool in combating this disease. And it is a disease. And it was so tough on him when I was gone. […] But, I do believe that when you look back at my...
McCAIN: Yeah, but, I'm not sure as good a man as my father. My father struggled with alcohol all his life. And he really used his religion as a valuable tool in combating this disease. And it is a disease. And it was so tough on him when I was gone. […] But, I do believe that when you look back at my...
What I intended to say is that, as a Christian, I have a lot of humility about understanding when does the soul enter into... It's a pretty tough question. And so, all I meant to communicate was that I don't presume to be able to answer these kinds of theological questions[...] What I do know is that abortion is a moral issue, that it's one that families struggle with all the time. And that in wrestling with those issues, I don't think that the government criminalizing the choices that...
COURIC: Do you believe evolution should be taught as an accepted scientific principle or as one of several theories?
PALIN: Oh, I think it should be taught as an accepted principle. And, as you know, I say that also as the daughter of a school teacher, a science teacher, who has really instilled in me a respect for science. It should be taught in our schools. And I won't deny that I see the hand of God in this beautiful creation that is Earth. But that is not part of the state policy or a...
PALIN: Oh, I think it should be taught as an accepted principle. And, as you know, I say that also as the daughter of a school teacher, a science teacher, who has really instilled in me a respect for science. It should be taught in our schools. And I won't deny that I see the hand of God in this beautiful creation that is Earth. But that is not part of the state policy or a...
I think that there's a lot of mocking of my personal faith, and my personal faith is very, very simple. I don't belong to any church. I do have a strong belief in God, and I believe that I'm a heck of a lot better off putting my life in God's hands, and saying, “Hey, you know, guide me.” What else do we have but guidance that we would seek from a Creator? That's about as simple as it gets with my faith, and I think that there is a lot of mocking of that. […] I do have respect for those who...
TIME: Where do you see yourself going? Staying on in Alaska? Washington?
PALIN: You know, I don't know. I knew early on that the smartest thing for me to do was to work hard, do the best that I can, make wise decisions based on good information in front of me. And then put my life, get myself on a path that could be dedicated to God and ask Him what I should next. That will be the position I will be in as long as I'm on earth — that is, seeking the right path that God would have laid out...
PALIN: You know, I don't know. I knew early on that the smartest thing for me to do was to work hard, do the best that I can, make wise decisions based on good information in front of me. And then put my life, get myself on a path that could be dedicated to God and ask Him what I should next. That will be the position I will be in as long as I'm on earth — that is, seeking the right path that God would have laid out...
[F]aith in God in general has been mocked through this campaign, and that breaks my heart and that is unfair for others who share a faith in God and choose to worship our Lord in whatever private manner that they deem fit and my faith has always been pretty personal. I haven't really worn it on my sleeve. I haven't been out there preaching it. I've always been of the mind that you can walk the walk. [...] I won't whine or complain about [public criticism of her faith], but nobody is going to...
I am somebody who believes that Roe versus Wade was rightly decided. I think that abortion is a very difficult issue and it is a moral issue and one that I think good people on both sides can disagree on. But what ultimately I believe is that women in consultation with their families, their doctors, their religious advisers, are in the best position to make this decision.
[Abortion] is an issue that -- look, it divides us. And in some ways, it may be difficult to -- to reconcile the two views. But there surely is some common ground when both those who believe in choice and those who are opposed to abortion can come together and say, “We should try to prevent unintended pregnancies by providing appropriate education to our youth, communicating that sexuality is sacred and that they should not be engaged in cavalier activity, and providing options for adoption,...
[I] pray of course about my family, that my kids will not be adversely affected by some of the political shots of course that, that we've been taking the last couple of months. I pray for my son's safety over in Iraq [...] and for all of our troops. And I pray too for, in the grander, greater scheme of things, also that God's hand of protection would be over our country and that we as individuals would be endowed with strength to do all that we can to protect our nation and protect our...
I was baptized with my family, all my siblings, and we all got baptized together in Little Beaver Lake in Big Lake, Alaska by Pastor Riley. It was significant to me because I knew even at [that age …] that I wouldn't be able to handle all that was laid out in front of me in life if I did not have strong faith in my Creator, [... so it was time to take] that public step to be baptized and the principle behind that too is as you're raised up out of the water it's like, “Hey world, this is my...
Well, it is that intercession that is so needed and so greatly appreciated. And I can feel it too, Dr. Dobson. I can feel the power of prayer and that strength is provided through our prayer warriors across this nation and I so appreciate it [...] and that is what allows us to continue to be inspired and strengthened. And it's just a great reminder also when we hear along the rope lines that people are interceding for us and praying for us; it's our reminder to do the same, to put this all in...
You can't pick a fight with those who buy ink by the barrel full... This is where my faith becomes even more important to me. I have to have faith that our message will get out to the American people minus the filter of the mainstream media.... We can't get that message through the mainstream media... I have to have that faith that God's going to help us get that message out there.
I was about 13 weeks along when I found out that Trig would be born with Down Syndrome. To be honest with you, it scared me though, and I knew it would be a challenge and I had to really be on my knees for the entire rest of the pregnancy asking that God would prepare my heart. And just the second he was born it was absolute confirmation that that prayer was answered.
[…] When victory needed to be reached in order to meet this greater good, it's always worked out just perfectly fine despite the fact that over and over again I've been, and I know John McCain has been, in underdog positions. To me, it [...] strengthens my faith because I'm going to know at the end of the day, putting this in God's hands, that the right thing for America will be done, the end of the day on November 4th. […] Collectively, we can do all that we have within us to strengthen our...
I’m appalled [...] when someone says, “Tell me about your faith,”and they say, “Oh, my faith doesn’t influence my public policy.” Because when someone says that, it’s as if they’re saying, “My faith isn’t significant, it’s not authentic, it’s not so consequential that it affects me.” Well, truthfully my faith does affect me. But it doesn’t make me think I’m better than someone, it makes me know that I’m not as good as I really need to be.
My faith also tells me that -- as Pastor Rick [Warren] has said -- it is not a sin to be sick. My Bible tells me that when God sent his only Son to Earth, it was to heal the sick and comfort the weary; to feed the hungry and clothe the naked; to befriend the outcast and redeem those who strayed from righteousness. Living His example is the hardest kind of faith -- but it is surely the most rewarding. It is a way of life that can not only light our way as people of faith, but guide us to a new...