BETHESDA, Md. (RNS)—With voters focused intently on pocketbook issues, both Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama are framing their faith-outreach efforts around the economy as the presidential campaign enters its final days.

That marks a shift from previous election cycles, campaign advisers say.

Mark DeMoss, adviser to the Mitt Romney presidential campaign, speaks on a panel about faith outreach by both campaigns during the Religion Newswriters Conference in Bethesda, Md.

"That's a major difference between this election and the last. The economy is the single issue that transcends every demographic, every coalition, every interest group," said Mark DeMoss, an evangelical who has led Romney's efforts to rally conservative Christians—a key Republican voting bloc—around the GOP nominee, who is a Mormon.

"Evangelicals are no less interested in the unemployment rate and the cost of living than non-evangelicals," DeMoss added.

Those concerns are reflected in voter outreach efforts by religious conservatives, who often are associated almost exclusively with hot-button social issues related to sexual morality.

For example, the Faith and Freedom Coalition, led by longtime evangelical activist Ralph Reed, has a voter guide that lists tax cuts and a balanced budget amendment ahead of same-sex marriage and abortion.

Reed's group, a successor to his Christian Coalition, planned to distribute 40 million voter guides, knock on a million doors and make 15 million get-out-the-vote phone calls. The Faith and Freedom Coalition also is building a database of more than 17 million conservative religious voters.

On the Demo-cratic side, the top issues listed on Obama's faith platform are "economic recovery," followed by "tax fairness" and "Wall Street reform."

Citing the Apostle Paul, the platform states, "President Obama's belief that we are all connected—that, as Corinthians says, 'if one part suffers, every part suffers with it'—has anchored him as he has worked tirelessly to lead with values." The platform then lists "basic economic security for everyone who is willing and able to work," as well as retirement security and affordable health care.

In mid-September, the campaign launched People of Faith for Obama, which includes a three-minute video of the president framing key decisions in his first term, including the bailout of auto companies and revamping the health care system, as driven by moral concerns.

"I'm standing on the side of human dignity," Obama says in the video, "and a belief in the inherent worth of all human beings."

Couching the economic message in faith terms makes sense, experts say. Surveys consistently have shown the economy, jobs, the budget deficit and other issues easily outstrip abortion and other social issues as voter priorities.

"Some of the usual issues may not be percolating in this election," Michael Wear, the Obama campaign's national faith vote coordinator, told journalists at the annual Religion Newswriters Association conference.

"We are seeing a broadening of issues that are related to faith," said Wear, who was joined on the panel by DeMoss as well as Broderick Johnson, head of Obama's Catholic outreach campaign.

LOS ANGELES (RNS)—On Oct. 7, some 1,400 American pastors planned to break the law.

And they're likely to get away with it.

As part of "Pulpit Freedom Sunday," religious leaders across the country endorsed political candidates—an act that flies in the face of Internal Revenue Service rules about what tax-exempt organizations, such as churches, can and cannot do.

Jim Garlow, senior pastor at Skyline Wesleyan Church in La Mesa, Calif., says the IRS prohibition has caused religious leaders to shy away from speaking about what they see as theological truth, such as the belief that homosexuality is biblically unacceptable. (RNS PHOTO/Courtesy Skyline Church)

The IRS says tax-exempt organizations, or what they refer to as a 501(c)(3), are prohibited from participating in partisan campaigning for or against political candidates. Yet, despite what's in the rules, the agency continues to struggle to do anything about those who defy the law.

Although the regulation has been in place since 1954, in 2009, the U.S. District Court of Minnesota ruled the IRS no longer had the appropriate staff to investigate places of worship after a reorganization changed who in the agency had the authority to launch investigations.

New procedures for conducting church audits have been pending since 2009, which has left the IRS virtually impotent in conducting any kind of new investigations. The IRS did not respond to questions seeking comment.

Despite the lack of manpower, organizations such as Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian legal ministry that first launched "Pulpit Freedom Sunday" in 2008, say they take the IRS restriction seriously—even as they disagree with it.

"Every pastor and every church has the right to decide what their pastor preaches from the pulpit and to not have that dictated to them by the IRS," said Erik Stanley, senior legal counsel for the Arizona-based Alliance Defending Freedom, formerly the Alliance Defense Fund.

Jim Garlow, senior pastor at Skyline Wesleyan Church in La Mesa, Calif., asserted the prohibition has caused religious leaders to shy away from speaking about what they see as theological truth, such as the belief that homosexuality is biblically unacceptable.

"The line is being slid so fast, so far, that people no longer recognize authentic biblical preaching, and they're calling it political," he said.

Today's parishioners, he said, are starving for religious leaders to act as "the moral compass of society." Garlow said he's witnessed pastors who boldly speak on political issues receive standing ovations.

But Susan Russell, an associate pastor at All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena, Calif., which the IRS investigated several years ago over a 2004 antiwar sermon it claimed was illegal, said churches should dedicate themselves to being robustly political without being partisan.

All Saints, for example, always has taken a stance on social justice issues such as war or the death penalty, but they do so, Russell said, without endorsing specific candidates.

Russell insisted pastors who participate in "Pulpit Freedom Sunday" may claim the movement is about freedom of religion and freedom of speech, but it's really an excuse to "jam theocracy down throats."

In response, the IRS has taken action in recent years, albeit sporadically.

In 1995, it revoked the tax-exempt status of the Church at Pierce Creek in New York, which had bought full-page newspaper ads opposing then-Democratic presidential nominee Bill Clinton.

In 2004, the IRS created the Political Activities Compliance Initiative, which investigated dozens of churches during the 2004, 2006 and 2008 election cycles.

According to recent surveys, most of the public—even most clergy—agree churches are not the place for politics.

A survey conducted last summer by the Pew Research Center found two in three Americans said churches and other houses of worship should not endorse one candidate over another; 27 percent said they should.

And nearly 90 percent of Protestant pastors believe they should not endorse candidates for public office from the pulpit, according to a recent survey conducted by Southern Baptist-affiliated LifeWay Research.

Nina Crimm and Laurence Winer, authors of the 2011 book Politics, Taxes, and the Pulpit, say most clergy don't know where the rule came from in the first place.

Lyndon B. Johnson, who was running for a U.S. Senate seat in Texas in 1954, introduced the rule as an attempt to silence nonprofit groups who opposed him; churches had nothing to do with it but were caught up with other tax-exempt groups.

One solution, Crimm and Winer say, is to make a slight accommodation to the existing rule, so that pastors are free to communicate any political idea internally with congregants but prohibited from broadcasting that message publicly, say on television.

For now, pastors participating in "Pulpit Freedom Sunday," some of whom sent their taped sermons to the IRS, know they are unlikely to get what they want—a reaction from the agency that leads to a lawsuit and a court ruling that the restriction is unconstitutional.

Either way, Stanley, of the Alliance Defending Freedom, says his side will win. Even if there is no lawsuit, the message is clear.

"There should be a separation between church and state," he said. "The government does not control what happens inside a church."

HOUSTON—East Texas Baptist University and Houston Baptist University have filed a lawsuit challenging the preventative services mandate in the Affordable Care Act.

The two Texas Baptist schools filed suit Oct. 9 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas. Defendants named in the suit are the secretaries of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, U.S. Department of Labor and U.S. Department of the Treasury.

East Texas Baptist University President Dub Oliver testified before the Oversight and Government Reform Committee in Washington, D.C., in February.

It marks the 32nd legal challenge to the Health and Human Services mandate of the Affordable Care Act , popularly known as “Obamacare.”

At issue is a mandate that would require the faith-based universities to provide female employees all Food and Drug Administration-approved preventative birth-control methods—including “emergency contraception drugs” such as levonorgestral, known as  “Plan B” or the “morning-after pill,” and ulipristal, sometimes called “Ella” or the “week-after pill.”

Some medical experts differ regarding whether the FDA-approved drugs prevent fertilized eggs from implanting in the womb, or whether they simply delay ovulation. But the suit filed by ETBU and HBU takes the position the pills are “abortion-causing drugs” they cannot offer in good conscience.

“The mandate requires that the universities provide coverage or access to coverage for abortion-causing drugs and related education and counseling against their consciences in a manner that is contrary to law,” the lawsuit states.

The legal challenge asserts the Health and Human Services mandate violates the universities’ freedom of religion as secured in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993, and it also violates their First Amendment rights to free speech.

The suit maintains the government mandate unconstitutionally coerces the universities to violate deeply held religious beliefs under threat of heavy fines and penalty—reportedly more than $10 million per year per school if they fail to comply.

“Having to pay a fine to the taxing authorities for the privilege of practicing one’s religion or controlling one’s own speech is un-American, unprecedented and flagrantly unconstitutional,” the lawsuit states.

The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty is representing ETBU and HBU in the suit.

“Baptists in America, by virtue of their history, are particularly sensitive to coercive government actions that infringe on religious liberty. America’s first Baptist leader, Roger Williams, had to flee Massachusetts and found a colony in Providence, Rhode Island, because his religious beliefs were not tolerated by the laws of Massachusetts. We shouldn’t have to fight for that same right today,” said Eric Rassbach, deputy general counsel for the Becket Fund in a public statement.

ETBU President Dub Oliver, who testified against the Health and Human Services mandate before the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform in February, insisted the lawsuit seeks to preserve religious liberty and the freedom of faith-based schools to carry out their mission free from coercion.

“Baptists have always advocated religious liberty, and religious liberty is what is at stake in this situation,” Oliver said. “As the famous Baptist preacher George W. Truett once remarked, ‘A Baptist would rise at midnight to plead for absolute religious liberty for his Catholic neighbor, and for his Jewish neighbor and for everybody else.’ We are rising today to ensure that religious liberty, the first freedom guaranteed in the First Amendment of the United States Constitution, is protected and preserved.”

Robert Sloan, president of Houston Baptist University, echoed the sentiment.

“While we are always reluctant to enter into lawsuits, the government has given us no choice,” Sloan said. “Either we violate our conscience or give in to the administration’s heavy-handed attack on our religious freedom. We will not comply with this unconstitutional mandate, and we plead with our government to respect the liberties given by God and enunciated in the Bill of Rights.”

Hollyn Hollman, general counsel for the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty , noted the ETBU and HBU suit is “one of many” legal challenges brought by groups opposed to the Affordable Care Act—some of which already have been dismissed.  

“The issues presented in these cases are the subject of ongoing rule-making,” she added.

WILMINGTON, N.C. (RNS)—UNICEF reports girls enter the commercial sex trade in the United States at age 13. And while many Americans might think of sex trafficking as an international problem, it often starts in the United States.

Prosecutor Lindsey Roberson has seen it happen. One of her first cases involved a 17-year-old girl who met a guy at a downtown club. He wooed her, and then "took her out of town on a trip, and let her know what she would have to do to pay her way," Roberson said.

"She had no ID, no cell phone; no way to contact her mother. And the guy ended up advertising her for sex on Backpage.com and trafficking her all the way out to California and back to Virginia."

The difference between sex trafficking and freelance prostitution is who has the control and who is keeping the money, said Roberson, an assistant district attorney in New Hanover County. If a girl or a woman is being forced or coerced by a pimp to perform sex acts without monetary gain, that's trafficking.

The North Carolina Coalition to Combat Human Trafficking ranks the state among the top 10 states for the problem. North Carolina's three major highways connect much of the East Coast, and the state has a large transient military and farmworker population, and international seaports in the Cape Fear region.

In May, Roberson helped start a deferred prosecution pilot program for first-time offenders with prostitution charges, partnering with a local rape crisis center.

Roberson also is on the board of a new faith-based effort called the Centre of Redemption, scheduled to open in December to help pregnant teens and teen moms who are also trafficking victims.

Law enforcement increasingly is teaming up with faith groups to combat sex trafficking around the country. Some are calling the faith-based push against human trafficking the newest "Christian abolitionist movement."

In California, an Underground Church Network has formed to help U.S. trafficking victims. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has developed a human trafficking curriculum. And the National Association of Evangelicals' humanitarian arm, World Relief, told CNN in February that its North Carolina offices had seen a 700 percent rise in reports of human trafficking last year.

Eighteen Texas Baptist ministries and organizations have joined in an effort to help freedom ring through a new coalition to stop human trafficking. Woman's Missionary Union of Texas and the Texas Baptist Christian Life Commission convened the Freedom Ring alliance. It brings together groups such as Traffick911 in Fort Worth, TraffickStop, Buckner International, Baptist Child & Family Services, Cornerstone Children's Ranch in Quemado, Texas Baptists' Go Now Missions and Refuge of Life in East Texas in an effort to network and coordinate efforts to end human trafficking.

Religious groups have also rallied against Backpage.com, which is owned by Village Voice Media, which they say is a haven for pimps and traffickers.

The issue drew the attention of President Obama at former President Bill Clinton's Clinton Global Initiative recently, where Obama said the estimated 20 million victims of human trafficking would become a major focus of his Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships.

"Like that Good Samaritan on the road to Jericho, we can't just pass by, indifferent," Obama said. "We've got to be moved by compassion. We've got to bind up the wounds."

The Centre of Redemption, founded in Wilmington, N. C., by former local banker MaLisa Johnson, will be funded by grants and local churches as the first boarding school of its kind in the state. It will start small, accepting two teens and their children and will expand, Johnson said.

"Traffickers will actually purposefully impregnate a girl to control her and will sometimes sell the child on the black market," Johnson said.

Girls will be referred to the center from other parts of the country where they left the sex trade because the center can't admit local teens for safety reasons, Johnson said.

"You don't want to ever house a girl where she was trafficked because she might see her pimp or be tempted to go back into the life or even see a previous buyer," she added. The home's location also will be kept secret for the girls' protection.

The Centre of Redemption will contract with local faith-based educators and pregnancy centers for trauma counseling and motherhood options. Female volunteers are being trained from 14 local churches to teach life skills.

As the girls age, Johnson plans to open a home for adult women to offer continuous care with the hope of keeping them on a healing path into adulthood.

The Centre is working with local law enforcement, setting up a toll free human trafficking hotline and will collect clothing and personal items for women who are rescued. It also plans to start a sex trafficking community outreach campaign in local hotels and motels to help business owners spot and report it to police.

Johnson, an evangelical, began the effort to organize the center after being laid off last year. Her boyfriend was donating to a faith-based organization that helped sex trafficking victims, and she became curious about the problem.

"I couldn't believe that something like that could be happening here," Johnson said. "But once I started researching it I became obsessed, and I felt like I should do this. God has just continued to put the right people in my life to make it happen."

WASHINGTON (ABP)—An expert in church-state issues says recent remarks by vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan show even after 50 years, many Americans misunderstand a landmark Supreme Court ruling that banned mandatory prayer recitations in public schools.

Asked at a campaign stop in Utah if states should have the right to allow a "prayer or pledge" in schools, the Wisconsin congressman said, "That's a constitutional issue of the states." He added, however, that in Utah such a measure "would have a pretty good chance" of passage.

Rob Boston, senior policy analyst at Americans United for Separation of Church and State, wrote in a recent blog that Ryan is just plain wrong.

"State legislators can, of course, pass school prayer laws if they want, but it's a waste of time," Boston wrote. "If a law mandates or compels young people to take part in prayer or religious worship, the courts will strike it down."

Boston wrote a feature article in the June 2012 issue of Church and State magazine marking the 50th anniversary of Engel v. Vitale, the 1962 Supreme Court decision that declared recitation of state-written prayers in public schools a violation of the First Amendment's ban on establishment of religion.

Two cases in 1963 resulted in similar rulings against Bible reading and reciting the Lord's Prayer in schools, setting up a cultural divide that resonates in current-day controversies such as whether high-school graduation ceremonies can be held in churches or government bodies can open public meetings with ceremonial prayer.

Roots of the debate go back to the earliest days of America's founding.

The Puritans were the first to point out the need for some system of public education, establishing schools to teach not only how to read and write, but also to pass on the fundamentals of their faith.

After disestablishment of the Anglican Church during the Revolutionary War, Thomas Jefferson suggested the new nation needed an educational system and tax dollars should pay for it.

The idea didn't take root until the 1840s. Horace Mann, a pioneer in public education and a Unitarian, thought Bible reading useful for moral instruction and promoted its use in public schools as long as it was done without comment.

Bible reading and devotions were prevalent in communities that viewed Protestant Christianity as the norm and had little contact with outsiders. Religion became a bigger political issue following World War II, when heightened fears over communist influence in American institutions prompted laws like adding "under God" to the Pledge of Allegiance to differentiate between loyal Americans and a godless enemy.

In 1951, New York's state board of education approved a 22-word "nondenominational prayer" to be said aloud at the beginning of each school day: "Almighty God, we acknowledge our dependence upon thee, and we beg thy blessings upon us, our parents, our teachers and our country."

The parents of 10 pupils in New Hyde Park, N.Y., filed a lawsuit claiming use of the prayer was contrary to their own religious beliefs and practices. The local court found the prayer constitutional as long as students whose parents objected were not forced to participate. The decision was upheld by the New York Court of Appeals.

The U.S. Supreme Court disagreed, finding the practice "wholly inconsistent with the Establishment Clause."

The decision was controversial, but Baptists, historically supportive of the separation of church and state, supported it by and large.

Herschel Hobbs, president of the Southern Baptist Convention at the time, pronounced it "one of the most powerful blows in our lifetime, maybe since the Constitution was adopted, for the freedom of religion in our nation."

The ensuing years witnessed a series of efforts by lawmakers to amend the Constitution to re-establish the practice of school prayer.

The Southern Baptist Convention passed a resolution in 1971 supporting only "prayer experiences that are voluntary and uncoerced by governmental or ecclesiastical authorities."

The SBC reversed course in 1982 with a resolution supporting a constitutional amendment proposed by President Ronald Reagan.

In 1991, the SBC Christian Life Commission—now called the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission—filed a brief asking the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse its 1971 decision in Lemon v. Kurtzman that established a three-prong test to determine whether a law passes constitutional muster: It must have some secular, or nonreligious legal purpose; neither promote or inhibit the practice of religion; and not create "an excessive government entanglement with religion."

The Supreme Court disagreed, ruling June 24, 1992, in Lee v. Weisman that principals of middle and high schools in Providence, R.I., could not invite members of the clergy to give invocations and benedictions at their schools' graduation ceremonies.

Many of the parents in the 1962 case argued the government had no business instructing children about when, whether or how to pray, Boston said, noting he's always been puzzled why more conservatives don't support the ruling.

Boston said he agreed with Ryan about one thing: If put to a vote, school prayer would easily pass in Utah.

"He's right about that, and most likely the prayer recited would reflect the majority faith of Mormonism," Boston said.

"The faiths and philosophies of everyone else would be relegated to second-class status. Compulsion, not choice, would become the operating principle for religious liberty as a type of religious mob rule carried the day. And all of this would be imposed on children, some of whom would be too young to even figure out what was going on."

"You can call that a lot of things," Boston observed. "'Conservative' isn't one of them."

LAKE FOREST, Calif. (ABP)—Saddleback Church pastor and Purpose-Driven Life author Rick Warren announced Aug. 22 that a civil forum planned with President Obama and presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney has been canceled. Warren, who held a similar event in 2008 featuring then-candidate Barack Obama and Republican John McCain, said he pulled the plug this year because he believes discourse between the two campaigns has become so uncivil that a polite exchange for two hours would seem hypocritical.

Rick Warren

"The forums are meant to be a place where people of goodwill can seriously disagree on significant issues without being disagreeable or resorting to personal attack and name-calling, but that is not the climate of today's campaign.” Warren said, according to the Orange County Register. “I've never seen more irresponsible personal attacks, mean-spirited slander, and flat-out dishonest attack ads, and I don't expect that tone to change before the election.”

Warren announced plans for the forum in a conference call with reporters July 16. He said he had been in touch with senior officials from both campaigns who expressed their interest in participating, though no formal agreement had taken place.

The following day Politico quoted unnamed campaign officials as saying there would be no joint appearances by Obama and Romney before presidential debates that begin Oct. 3.

Warren, who said in July that 5,000 tickets would be available and distributed by lottery, announced alternate plans this week for an interfaith civil forum on religious freedom in September.

“I have invited the leading Catholic voice in America, the leading Jewish voice in America, and the leading Muslim voice in America to join me,” Warren said in an interview with the Register. “We obviously have different beliefs, but we are all ‘neighbors’ in the national sense and the scriptures command us to ‘love your neighbor as yourself.’”

Warren said one thing they all have in common is “mutual concern for protecting religious freedom for everyone.”

“We intend to speak out for each other,” he said. “If the government suddenly decreed that all Jewish delis must now offer pork, you'd find me opposing that with my rabbi friends. I don't have a problem with pork, but I support your right to follow your faith.”

The 2008 civil forum on the presidency produced one of the most memorable moments of that campaign. Asked for his perspective about when life begins, Obama said answering the question definitively was “above my pay grade.” McCain, who did not hear Obama’s answer because he was sequestered in another room during that part of the program, answered unequivocally “at the moment of conception,” solidifying his support among pro-life conservatives.
 

WASHINGTON  (RNS)—President Obama says it's not his job to defend his Christian faith against doubters who suspect he's Muslim. His GOP challenger, Mitt Romney, says religion is "integral" to his life, even as often he avoids mentioning his Mormon faith by name.
   
In interviews published Aug. 21 by Cathedral Age, the magazine of the Washington National Cathedral, the candidates responded in writing to nine questions about their faith.

Religion has been a tricky political issue thus far for both men. A recent Pew Research Center poll found that only 49 percent of Americans can correctly identify Obama as a Christian. More Americans know that Romney is Mormon, but a significant minority (30 percent) does not believe that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is Christian.

Asked about people who question the sincerity of his faith, Obama responded: "You know, there's not much I can do about it. I have a job to do as president, and that does not involve convincing folks that my faith in Jesus is legitimate and real."

Answering the same question, Romney said: "I am often asked about my faith and my beliefs about Jesus Christ. I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the Savior of mankind. Every religion has its own unique doctrines and history. These should not be bases for criticism but rather a test of our tolerance."

Both men said  political candidates should be judged by their works, not faith.

"A political leader's faith can tell us a great deal or nothing," Romney said. "So much depends on what lies behind that faith. And so much depends on deeds, not words."

 Both also men said that religion is central to their lives.

"My Christian faith gives me a perspective and security that I don't think I would have otherwise: That I am loved. That, at the end of the day, God is in control," Obama said.

Romney said that "faith is integral to my life. I have served as a lay pastor in my church. I faithfully follow its precepts."

The men differed on the role of faith in public life.

Obama highlighted religion's contributions to the suffrage, abolition and civil rights movements. He also said that faith provides a "moral framework and vocabulary" for the country in times of crisis.

Romney said the country should "acknowledge the Creator, as did the Founders — in ceremony and word." God should remain present in American currency, the Pledge of Allegiance and history lessons, as well as nativity scenes and menorahs in public places, he added.

"In recent years, the notion of the separation of church and state has been taken by some well beyond its original meaning," Romney said. "They seek to remove from the public domain any acknowledgment of God."

WACO— A new political ad by presidential candidate Mitt Romney, in which he accuses President Obama of “waging war on religion,” is an opening salvo in religious rhetoric that likely will escalate as the November election approaches, said a Baylor University political expert and author.

“Here we go,” said Andy Hogue, a lecturer in Baylor’s department of political science and author of the new book Stumping God: Reagan, Carter, and the Invention of a Political Faith .

“What we’ve seen up until now was a bit of a truce between the two candidates because in the eyes of a lot of religious voters, both men have religious skeletons in the closet—Romney with his Mormonism and Obama with the Jeremiah Wright flap that was so prominent in the last election, as well as the rampant misunderstandings about his faith,” Hogue said.

The new ad poses the question, “Who shares your values?” It declares Obama’s health care plan forces religious institutions to go against their faith.

In the ad, Romney is shifting away from what has been a major focus—the economy—to appeal to religious voters, said Hogue, noting religion as a political issue has slipped beneath the radar since the primaries, when attention was focused on Romney’s Mormonism.

The ad shows color video of Romney last month on his visit to Poland, including an excerpt from a speech he gave there.

“In 1979, a son of Poland, Pope John Paul II, spoke words that would bring down an empire. Be not afraid,” Romney said.

The ad shows the pope speaking with ex-Polish President Lech Walesa, former leader of the labor movement that helped end Communist rule, and a video of Walesa and Romney shaking hands. The screen’s text says the ad is endorsed by Walesa, and a voice asks, “When religious freedom is threatened, who do you want to stand with?”

Hogue noted the subtle way the ad compares Pope John Paul II’s fight against Soviet Communism and its hostility to religion with American voters’ fight against Obama.

Andy Hogue

“The Obama administration becomes, in effect, the new ‘evil empire.’  Given many religious voters’ skepticism about Romney’s Mormonism, this is a smart way for him to deflect that skepticism and turn the focus to Obama,” Hogue observed.

“If the voters who cared most about a candidate’s faith were skeptical of Romney’s faith, it’s no surprise that his Mormonism became a big issue in the primaries,” Hogue said. “But Romney won, and given the alternative of Obama, a lot of evangelicals have decided it better to coalesce around a Mormon than a Democrat.

“Neither candidate has seemed eager to play up religion. But that truce wasn’t likely to last long, not with so much outside spending in this campaign.”

Hogue said voters should “move beyond the haze of rhetorical appeals that cloud the political process.”

“We have to keep in mind what presidential elections are really all about,” he said. “I don’t discount the symbolic nature of presidential elections. This is the one and only time that we all vote for someone or something. We Americans are a religious people, and it makes good sense that that’s reflected.  … But we have to keep in mind exactly what it is we’re voting for, which is a person to fill an office that is constrained by what the Constitution allows.”

Hogue noted that sparring over religion’s role in government became commonplace beginning in the 1980 election, when Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter and John Anderson charted new territory by appealing overtly to voters’ religious sensibilities and making public their religious commitments.

“We’ve seen that question posed, in one way or another, in every election since.  To listen to some candidates—of either party—you’d think that ending abortion or poverty or putting America back on the right moral plane is as simple as awarding them your vote,” Hogue said. “That’s a gross misreading of how our political system works, and it’s incumbent upon us as voters to see through that.”

AURORA, Colo. (ABP)—The impact of last week’s shooting rampage at a Colorado movie theater was felt as far away as Texas, where a Baptist family mourned the loss of a brother and son.

Gordon Cowden

Texas native Gordon Cowden, 51, the oldest of 12 people killed during a July 20 midnight showing of The Dark Knight Rises in Aurora, Colo., attended Riverbend Church, an Austin megachurch affiliated with the Baptist General Convention of Texas, before moving to Colorado 12 years ago. A memorial service for him is scheduled at 11 a.m., Friday, July 27, at the church on North Capital of Texas Highway in west Austin.

Cowden’s father, George Cowden, is a well-known Texas lawyer and former state legislator who has served as a trustee at Baylor University and as a director of the Baptist Foundation of Texas. Gordon Cowden’s brother, George Cowden III, also an attorney, is member of Woodland Baptist Church in San Antonio and a leader in Baylor’s alumni association. His sister, Gaylynn Cowden Kendall, lives in Lakeway, and before moving away from Austin served on staff at Riverbend Church.

In Colorado, Gordon Cowden reportedly attended Aurora's Colorado Community Church with his two teenage daughters. Last Friday night, he took the girls to a midnight showing of The Dark Knight Rises, the new Batman movie, at the Century 16 movie complex. A few minutes into the film a suspect now identified as a 24-year-old former doctoral student named James Holmes lit gas canisters and opened fire in the crowded theater, killing Cowden and 11 others and wounding 58. Cowden’s daughters were unharmed.

Cowden’s family released a statement describing Gordon, a self-employed real-estate appraiser, as “a true Texas gentleman that loved life and his family.”

"A quick-witted world traveler with a keen sense of humor, he will be remembered for his devotion to his children and for always trying his best to do the right thing, no matter the obstacle," the family said.

“The family of Gordon Cowden wishes to express appreciation for the concern and prayers offered to us during this very difficult time,” the statement said. “Our hearts go out to everyone that has been harmed by this senseless tragedy.”

Roger Paynter, pastor of First Baptist Church in Austin, said Cowden spent some of his teenage years in the youth group at First Baptist before the family moved its membership to Riverbend, but he knew him mainly from several summers he spent with him at youth camp during Paynter’s years as a youth minister.

Although he hasn’t spoken to Cowden in several years, Paynter said he was not surprised that he would be doing something fun like seeing a Batman movie with his teenagers.

“The children of George and Mollie Cowden are all extraordinary adults, each of them a respected person of integrity and leadership and deeply devoted to family,” Paynter said. “Though I mainly knew Gordon as a teenager, he was the kind of young man whose intelligence, kindness and honesty led you to believe that great things were in store for him. I understand that Gordon grew to be the kind of courageous leader all of us expected him to become. Though only 51, I am confident that Gordon had lived every minute to the fullest. I grieve enormously for his wonderful family.”

A 1984 graduate of Howard Payne University in Brownwood, Gordon Cowden is survived by his parents, two brothers, one sister and four children. A memorial service is scheduled for him in Colorado today at Pathways Church in Denver.

AURORA, Colo.—From his hospital bed, one of the 58 people injured in a July 20 shooting rampage in an Aurora, Colo., movie theater that claimed 12 lives has become a spokesman for Christian forgiveness.

Ryan Heller (right), pastor of The Edge Church in Aurora, Colo., offers comfort and support to church member Pierce O’Farrill, who received multiple injuries in the July 20 shooting rampage in a movie theater.

Pierce O’Farrill, a member of the The Edge Church, a Baptist congregation in Aurora started by a core group from Dallas, suffered bullet wounds to his right humerus and left foot. Shrapnel remains lodged in his chest.

His experience brought the tragedy home to his church, and it also gave O’Farrill, the Denver Rescue Mission’s vehicle distribution coordinator, a platform to share his faith.

As the world watched the continuous television coverage searching seeking some reason in the midst of confusing calamity, O’Farrill recounted his horrific experience with prominent media outlets including CBS, ABC and CNN, emphasizing Christ’s power over darkness.

“There is evil in this world, and there is a darkness,” O’Farrill responded to CBS reporter Erin Moriarty’s question about the shooter’s motivation. “There is an enemy, but the wonderful news is there is a Light, and there is a Light that shines brighter than the darkness ever imaginable.”

O’Farrill surprised some reporters and viewers because he did not speak of resentment toward the gunman.

“This is going to be hard for people to understand, but I feel sorry for him,” he said. “When I think what that soul must be like to have that much hatred and that much anger in his heart—what every day must be like. I can’t imagine getting out of bed every morning and having that much anger and hatred for people that he undoubtedly has. I’m not angry at him. I’ll pray for him.”

His pastor believes O’Farrill has prompted a national debate on forgiveness.

“Some of the other survivors have said that they can’t or won’t forgive [the shooter]. Reporters are contrasting him against other survivors, so it is important to understand what Jesus says about forgiving,” said Ryan Heller, pastor of The Edge Church.

The Sunday following the shooting, Heller spoke words of encouragement to his congregation that deeply loves O’Farrill and is hurting for their city.

“Pierce has already forgiven him. I think that is exactly what we need to talk about this morning is forgiveness,” he said, preaching from Matthew 18:21-22. “God wants us to live lives of continual forgiveness. Forgiving brings strength and vitality. The reason that Pierce is able to forgive is because Jesus is in him.”

Heller described O’Farrill as “Mr. Friendly” and the most consistent “bringer” of non-Christian friends to The Edge Church. Perhaps one reason O’Farrill invites many friends to church is that he first attended as a result of invitation from his former co-worker and close friend John Fruend.

“Pierce and I first met working at a car dealership three or four years ago. We immediately hit if off as friends. He is a big sports fan, and so am I,” Fruend explained.  

Shortly after they formed a friendship, O’Farrill moved to Florida to be with his then-girlfriend. One day, Fruend received a call from a distressed O’Farrill. His dating relationship was not going well. In addition, O’Farrill had recently lost his mother to cancer and was struggling to cope.

Fruend promised O’Farrill he would help him find a job if he needed to return to Colorado.

O’Farrill was getting back on his feet at the car dealership, he went to Fruend to say that he felt a call from God and wanted to do something with his life. Fruend asked if he had found a church home. O’Farrill had not.

“I encouraged him to come to The Edge. I told him we were a small church that met in a middle school, and that it was the kind of relaxed, informal environment that might be for him,” said Fruend.

After O’Farrill came to The Edge Church the first time, Fruend said, “He was all in. I think he instantly connected with Ryan’s word.”

O’Farrill began attending The Edge Church every week. Before long, he made a profession of faith n Christ, and Heller baptized him.

“Pierce is a beacon of Christianity and what it is supposed to be about—forgiveness and making the most of every day,” Fruend said. “Pierce believes God had him in the theater for a reason— to tell God’s message and use this as a forum. For him to say that (he forgives the shooter) with all his wounds and pain is amazing. It moves me every time I think about it.”

Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper quoted O’Farrill in the prayer vigil held in Aurora on the Sunday evening following the shooting saying, “The outpouring of light and love is so much more powerful than any darkness.”

The Edge Church has focused on ministering to O’Farrill. In early morning hours after the shooting, O’Farrill called Heller to talk. The church continues to support his recovery.

“Our whole staff has been really involved in encouraging him,” said Heller. “Lots of our people are visiting and loving on him. Kids from our children’s ministry made him get well cards. We visited him in the hospital and joined hands in prayer over him and his family.”

Heller noted the church’s heart for others affected in Aurora. “In times of tragedy, we have a great chance to minister when we otherwise may not have had an opportunity. We are committed to sharing the light and evangelizing in our city,” he said.

A group of church members participated in the prayer vigil held in Aurora on July 22. Heller noted O’Farrill reflects this outward focus. O’Farrill sees encouraging and sharing truth with other victims and their families as significant aspects of his mission, and he hopes to be able to minister to those families in the near future.

 “Pierce is a total inspiration to our church and to the community,” Heller said. “While so many people are questioning God in this time, Pierce is a light in the darkness. His faith is increasing, growing and maturing while many are in doubt. Pierce is like a rock.”

Amber Cassady is the missional correspondent for Colorado Baptists and is a senior communication and journalism student at Texas A&M University. Claudean Boatman also contributed to this report.

Two Texas Baptist leaders and other prominent Baptists are among about 140 evangelical Christians who endorsed a statement of principles for immigration reform, which includes the call for a path to citizenship or legal status for qualified undocumented immigrants.

Suzii Paynter, director of the Texas Baptist Christian Life Commission , and Jesse Rincones, president of the Hispanic Baptist Convention of Texas, signed the statement, along with Bryant Wright, president of the Southern Baptist Convention, and numerous other Baptist denominational leaders.

Richard Land, president of the SBC Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission , is among the leaders of the Evangelical Immigration Table, the coalition that drafted the statement of principles released at a news conference in Washington, D.C.

“Our national immigration laws have created a moral, economic and political crisis in America,” the statement said. “Initiatives to remedy this crisis have led to polarization and name calling in which opponents have misrepresented each other’s positions as order borders and amnesty versus deportations of millions. This false choice has led to an unacceptable political stalemate at the federal level at a tragic human cost.”

As evangelical Christian leaders, the signers of the statement called for a bipartisan solution on immigrant that meets six criteria:

• Respects the God-given dignity of every person.

• Protects the unity of the immediate family.

• Respects the rule of law.

• Guarantees secure national borders. 

• Ensures fairness to taxpayers.

• Establishes a path toward legal status and/or citizenship for those who qualify and who wish to become permanent residents.

“We urge our nation’s leaders to work together with the American people to pass immigration reform that embodies these key principles and that will make our nation  proud,” the statement concluded.

Two Baptist pastors from Texas—David Fleming of Champion Forest Baptist Church in Houston and David Galvan of Iglesia Bautista Nueva Vida in Dallas—signed the evangelical statement of principles on immigration reform.

Baptist educators who endorsed the statement included Danny Akin, president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary; Timothy George, dean of Beeson Divinity School at Samford University; Robin Hadaway, interim president of Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary; Russell Moore, dean at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary; Malcolm Yarnell, Daniel Sanchez and William Dembski, professors at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary; Lamar Cooper, professor at Criswell College; David Gushee, director of the Center for Theology and Public Life at Mercer University; Dan Heimbach, professor at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary; Steve Lemke, provost at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary; Ben Mitchell, professor at Union University; and Phil Roberts, former president of Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Other Baptists who signed the statement of principles included Rob McCleland, executive director of the North American Baptist Conference; Ed Stetzer, president of LifeWay Research; Jonathan Merritt, author; Robert Mills, executive director of the Kansas-Nebraska Convention of Southern Baptists; Jim Wideman, executive director of the Baptist Convention of New England; and James Merritt, former SBC president and pastor of Cross Pointe Church in Duluth, Ga.

In addition to Land, other leaders of the Evangelical Immigration Table are Leith Anderson, president of the National Association of Evangelicals; Stephen Bauman, president of World Relief; David Beckman, president of Bread for the World; Noel Catellanos, chief executive officer of Christian Community Development Association; Luis Cortés, president of Esperanza; Samuel Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference; Gabriel Salguero, president of the National Latino Evangelical Coaltion; and Jim Wallis, president of Sojourners.

WASHINGTON (RNS) An appeal over Christmas sweets turned bitter June 11 when the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the so-called “Christian candy cane” case. 

The case out of Texas has become a rallying point for conservative Christians concerned about free religious expression in public schools and students' ability to distribute religious literature.

The case, Morgan v. Swanson, kicked off nine years ago in the Plano Independent School District as principals prevented self-described evangelical students from distributing religious literature on school grounds.

In one instance, principal Lynn Swanson stopped third-grader Jonathan Morgan from distributing a Christian-themed bookmark at a winter break party. The boy wanted to hand out candy-cane shaped pens along with a card purporting to explain the holiday treat’s Christian roots.

The card read in part: “So, every time you see a candy cane, remember the message of the candy maker: Jesus is the Christ!”

In other instances, principal Jackie Bomchill prevented second-grader Stephanie Versher from passing out Passion play tickets and pencils with the message, “Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so” on school grounds.

Last year, the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found the principals were within their rights in stopping the candy canes, but also found restrictions on student speech unconstitutional.

The principals were exempt under “qualified immunity,” which protects government officials from violating a law that is not “clearly established.” The Supreme Court's decision not to intervene means that ruling stands.

Hiram Sasser, who represented the families on behalf of the Texas-based Liberty Institute law firm, was disappointed in the latest decision.

“We were hoping to finally put this issue to rest: that government school officials should be held accountable when they violate the law and students’ First Amendment rights. No student should be subjected to religious discrimination by the government,” he said in a press release.

Dallas attorney Tom Brandt, who represented the two principals, said the case was never about First Amendment speech but rather protection for teachers. "Educators must be allowed to make decisions that are in the best interest of an entire school without fear of individual retribution when the law is unclear," he said.

While the educators' immunity question is settled, other parts of the case continue to work their way through the district and circuit court levels, and Sasser said there's still a possibility to win on students' rights.

“I’m concerned that some government school officials received the wrong message, which is that if they violate the law, no court is going to hold them accountable,” Sasser said in a telephone interview. “Hopefully the message is that from now on, government officials (teachers) will be held accountable.”