Nashville , Tenn. - Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio cast themselves as vigorous champions of religious liberty to more than 13,000 evangelicals here Tuesday at a sold-out arena, pledging to defend the faithful from government intrusion while vowing to protect embattled Christians communities overseas.
Bush's comments, though, were overshadowed by a gaffe he made involving his effort to defund Planned Parenthood.
In a meandering response to a question about the women's health group, the Republican said, "I'm not sure we need half a billion dollars for women's health issues." That drew a sharp rebuke from critics including Democrat Hillary Clinton, who tweeted that he is "unequivocally wrong." Bush's campaign said in a statement that he misspoke.
Bush, who took the stage to applause, otherwise said he would work to "depoliticize" the debate over religious freedom by enshrining those rights without discriminating against gays. And he said he would pursue a more muscular diplomacy to protect Christians in the Middle East facing persecution by the Islamic State and other threatening regimes.
"We need to stand up for people who are under attack like this," said Bush. "Who in the world considers this a value worth fighting for other than the United States?"
Rubio, who spoke in prerecorded video interview, said he would consider committing ground troops to Iraq and Syria to fight the Islamic State's spread. And he said he would combat “extremists” who want to expand abortion rights and a legal system that could punish those who refuse to participate in gay weddings by stocking the judiciary with like-minded conservatives.
“We’ve now entered a very tenuous moment in the relationship between church and state in this country,” Rubio said. “We’re now on the water’s edge of an argument that some have begun that if you do not agree with same-sex marriage or whatever, that you’re actually discriminating against people.”
The back-to-back interviews made for an interesting scene as Russell Moore, who heads the Southern Baptist Convention's policy arm, questioned two Catholic presidential candidates in an arena packed with Protestants. Several other Baptist candidates, including former preacher Mike Huckabee, were either not invited because of their poll numbers or cited scheduling conflicts.
It also came two days ahead of the first Republican presidential debate and three days before Rubio, Bush and eight other GOP candidates head to Atlanta for the RedState Gathering, which is also aimed at the trove of social conservatives in the South.
About one in four Americans identify themselves as evangelical Christians; that number rises to around 40 percent in Georgia. The powerful bloc helped fuel George W. Bush's victories, but many Christian conservatives never warmed the same way to John McCain in 2008 and Mitt Romney during the last contest.
Many of the 17 announced Republican candidates are jockeying to become the favorite of the evangelicals, who play an outsize role in the early-voting states of Iowa and South Carolina. Yet the likelihood of a fractured vote splintering their voice grows with so many political candidates trying to curry their favor.
The interviews came at the tail end of the two-day SEND North America Conference, which focused on evangelism and missionary work. Moore, who faced criticism for inviting presidential candidates to speak at a religious conference, urged the flock not to withdraw this political cycle in the wake of the Supreme Court's ruling to legalize same-sex marriage and failed efforts to outlaw abortion.
"Let's avoid the temptation to retreat into our subculture," he said, adding: "We are America's best when we are not Americans first. We will bear this responsibility with fear and trembling knowing it's hard to wash with scarred hands."
Read more about how evangelicals aim to flex their political muscle in the presidential contest by clicking right here.
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