Fidelis: "Giuliani ‘Hunting in Vain’ for Support from Conservative Christians"

From Fidelis:

WASHINGTON — Today’s appearance of Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani at Regent University in Virginia Beach, Virginia, will not convince conservative Christian voters to jettison their pro-life convictions.

Fidelis America PAC spokesman Brian Burch stated: “This is the second appearance of Rudy Giuliani at a Christian university in as many months, and it is becoming clear he is hunting in vain for the support of conservative Christians.”

In May, Giuliani appeared at Houston Baptist University where he contradicted his liberal position on abortion. Since then, a growing chorus of conservative Christian leaders has publicly voiced their staunch opposition to Giuliani’s candidacy including Dr. James Dobson of Focus on the Family and Dr. Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention. In a column yesterday, Tony Perkins and Chuck Donovan, the President and Executive Vice President of the Family Research Council, described Giuliani as a grave threat to the pro-life movement.

Dobson has explained his opposition to Giuliani saying: “My conscience and my moral convictions will allow me to do nothing else.” Land said: “I don’t think I could sell [Giuliani] to most [Southern Baptists and evangelicals], and I wouldn’t try.” Perkins and Donovan suggested in their column yesterday that the Giuliani candidacy threatens one of the foundational principles of the Republican Party, namely its core dedication to moral values.

Earlier this month, Catholic Bishop Michael Tobin of the Diocese of Providence described Giuliani’s proclamations on abortion as “pathetic,” “confusing,” “hypocritical” and “preposterous.” News stories since have suggested that Giuliani’s faces an uphill battle in convincing faithful Catholics to buck their Church and ignore his pro-abortion position.

“Supporting Giuliani is not an option for a vast majority of faithful Catholics, many of whom believe, along with their Church, that any claim to protect the common good begins with a commitment to upholding the dignity of every human person, including life at its earliest stages. Catholics cannot simply overlook his unfettered support for embryo-killing research, abortion rights, partial birth abortion, and taxpayer funding of abortion, not to mention his support of policies that would destroy the traditional family,” Burch stated.

Burch added: “Giuliani is engaged in desperation politics, and as time goes on, even more voters will realize how far outside of the mainstream he is on the issues of abortion and marriage, particularly in the Midwest and South, which could seal the fate of his candidacy.”