GOP candidates slam Supreme Court, support religious freedom in Iowa
Three GOP presidential candidates took their campaigns to a
religious freedom convention in Des Moines, IA late last week, making strong
statements on both the event's theme and Planned Parenthood.
Governors Bobby Jindal and Mike Huckabee and Senator Ted Cruz
appeared at the Freedom 2015 National Religious Liberties Conference on Friday.
The two-day event, presented by the Denver-area-based Generations, a faith- and
liberty-focused ministry, made use of Iowa's first-in-the-nation caucus status
to draw more than 1,700 attendees from across the U.S.
The three presidential contenders have all made strong statements in defense of lifeand religious liberty during their
campaigns, with Jindal and Cruz vowing to
prosecute Planned
Parenthood for its trafficking in human remains and Huckabeeholding a rally for embattled Rowan County, Kentucky clerk Kim
Davis.
The candidates held the line on these messages before the
largely evangelical Christian crowd, each making short appearances among some
30 other religious liberty speakers, before briefly taking questions from the
press.
Cruz listed the first five things he would do as president of
the United States for the crowd.
After first rescinding the "illegal and
unconstitutional executive actions taken by Barack Obama," Cruz said, he
would take on the nation's largest abortion chain, embroiled the last several
months in scandal after having been shown on tape to be trafficking in the
remains of children aborted at its abortion facilities and illegally targeting
abortion procedures for optimal organ harvesting.
"The second thing I intend to do on the first
day in office is instruct the United States Department of Justice to open an
investigation into Planned Parenthood and to prosecute any and all criminal
violations," Cruz said.
This was echoed by Jindal.
"Republicans in Congress need to stand up and
defund Planned Parenthood," he stated. "It is time for Republican
leaders to grow some backbone. Absolutely as president I would defund Planned
Parenthood."
The Louisiana governor also remarked on pushback
from the Obama administration for steps he's taken in his state to defund the
abortion giant.
"Lawyers suing on behalf of the federal
government better get comfortable in Baton Rouge," Jindal stated. "We
will take every chance we can to protect innocent life in the state of
Louisiana."
He also criticized the pro-abortion mentality's
denial of the humanity of the unborn.
"We have a bunch of science deniers on the
left," Jindal said.
Huckabee made a pitch for personhood, saying it was
the one question to be resolved in the pro-life issue.
"We've fought this battle the wrong way,"
Huckabee stated. "Instead, we need to make the left fight to defend the
right to kill a baby."
Regarding religious liberty and the attack on U.S.
Christians who support God's plan for marriage resulting from last June's Supreme
Court legal redefinition of marriage, the candidates minced no words.
"Make no mistake about it: the left is trying
to take away our First Amendment religious liberty rights," Jindal told
the crowd. "When Hillary Clinton tells you she is for your right to
religious freedom, all she means is for a couple of hours a week, you have the
right to say what you want in church. Folks, that's not religious
liberty."
Jindal said religious freedom is living your life
24 hours a day, seven days a week, according to your religious beliefs, and
that no earthly court can change the definition of marriage.
"According to the left, we can't be county
clerks, and we can't bake cakes, and we can't be caterers or musicians,"
Jindal continued. "Because if you have those jobs, according to the left,
you give up your right to follow scripture. I think that is wrong."
He said the founding fathers understood that
America did not create religious liberty; rather, religious liberty created the
United States of America. He warned that the fight for religious liberty with
regard to marriage is not going away – that more and more, it will begin to
affect all Christians, and not just those who provide particular services.
"They're coming after those who want to live
life according to our Christian faith," said Jindal. "It shouldn't
take a government executive order to protect our First Amendment rights."
Huckabee said the courts can't make law. He
condemned judicial tyranny, saying as well that as president, he would
disregard the Obergefell v. Hodges decision.
"On the same-sex marriage decision, I would
simply say, it is not law," the former Arkansas governor stated. "It
is not law because the people's elected representatives have not made it law,
and there's nothing in the constitution that gives the Supreme Court the power
to make a law."
"They are the Supreme Court," Huckabee
continued. "They are not the supreme branch or the Supreme Being. They
can't make law."
He also told the conference crowd that the federal
government cannot redefine marriage, and that if we lose religious liberty, we
lose all liberty.
"It's outrageous to me that there seems to be
a very selective enforcement of the First Amendment rights of Americans by the
Obama administration and by his Justice Department," said Huckabee.
"If we allow government to take away religious liberty, then we have
already begun the process of allowing government to take away every other right
we possess."
Cruz stated that he unequivocally stands with Kim
Davis, and that he'd told her while visiting her in jail that she was an
inspiration to others.
"Kim Davis was an important moment for the
country of focusing the threat that you could be next," said Cruz.
He pledged to instruct the Department of Justice
and the IRS and every agency in the federal government that "the
persecution of religious liberty ends today."
All three wrapped up their messages expressing the
need to move forward as a country and to embrace faith while doing so.
Huckabee remarked that the recent elections showed
how people are fed up with what they see as failed policies of the left, and he
said there is a real problem when terrorists incarcerated at Guantanamo Bay
prison get more allowance for religious liberty than Christians or the soldiers
guarding them.
Jindal said that even more important than who is
elected the next president of the U.S. is the need for a spiritual revival.
"As Christians, we need to be salt and light
in a world that desperately needs salt and light," he said.
Cruz stressed his belief that the country is at a
time of crisis, but also that there is power in people standing for their
faith.
"I think that it's critical that believers
stand up and stand for our values and turn this nation around," he said.
