The Brody File tries to stay away from controversy. The Brody File tries to stay out of quarrels. The Brody File is really just a sweet, sweet Brody File.
Yesterday, I put up an email from Tony Perkins, the head of the pro-family conservative FRC Action group. He took issue with The Compassion Forum. Read his email here.
Well, the folks over at Faith and Public Life who sponsored the Forum are taking issue with Perkins email. Read part of it below. You can read the whole response here.
Perkins claimed that he was not invited to the Forum. In fact, Perkins was invited to attend the Forum AND the VIP reception for faith leaders held beforehand. He never responded to the invitation.
Perkins called the Compassion Forum's board "radical." In fact, The Compassion Forum Board of religious leaders includes numerous conservative leaders: the president of the Southern Baptist Convention, the vice president of the National Association of Evangelicals, the president of the Palmetto Family Council, and the president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, just to name a few. Moreover, as Perkins acknowledged, The Compassion Forum was endorsed by Gov. Mike Huckabee and Sen. Rick Santorum. Perkins ignored that the Forum took place at Messiah College, an evangelical college in rural Pennsylvania, and will be broadcast on the Church Communication Network to more than 1,000 churches next Sunday.
Perkins claimed that "the bulk of last night's program was taken directly from the playbook of the Religious Left, focusing not on the issues closest to Christians' hearts but on climate change, AIDS, and global poverty." Poll after poll shows that climate change, AIDS and global poverty are moral priorities for evangelical Christians. Moreover, Perkins' claim ignored the Forum's extensive and thoughtful discussion of abortion. Both candidates were asked f they believed life begins at conception and Senator Obama was asked two additional questions related to abortion.
Look, there are good people on both sides here. I think what we're seeing is a shifting dynamic in the way the faith issues are being presented and let's face it; it's a threat to many conservative Evangelicals. More air time for issues like poverty, Darfur, the environment, etc means less attention devoted to some of the core conservative values like the life of the unborn and traditional marriage.
Faith and Public Life did bring in conservative Evangelicals for their event. They should be given credit for that. They also touched on abortion. So the next step is trying to mesh the "old guard" with the "new guard". It's not easy.
And so I leave you with the famous words and video of the great philosopher Rodney King. Remember him from the L.A. Riots? Click here.