Birmingham, AL (MMD Newswire) March 12, 2012 -- To deny Mitt Romney any southern state victories, drive a stake into Newt Gingrich's candidacy, and test whether greater numbers of churchgoing African-American voters may walk away from President Obama over gay rights issues this fall, an ecumenical group of Jews and Christians which supports Rick Santorum is aiming religious robo-calls at registered voters from both parties in Tuesday's Alabama and Mississippi GOP Presidential primaries. Starting a week ago in Ohio, millions of such robo-calls and emails began hitting Republican frontrunner Mitt Romney on his gay rights record. The robo-message:
"Hi, my name is Brian Camenker; I'm a Jew from Massachusetts.
"And, this is Darcy Brandon; I'm a Christian from California. If you believe as we do that marriage and sexuality should only be between a man and a woman, please help us stop Mitt Romney.
"As Governor, Romney signed 'Gay Youth Pride Day' proclamations, promoted homosexuality in our elementary schools, and unconstitutionally ordered state officials to make Massachusetts America's first same-sex marriage state. Romney supports open homosexuality in the military, the appointment of homosexual judges, and the ENDA law, making it illegal to fire a man who wears a dress and high heels to work, even if he's your kid's teacher. When you vote tomorrow, please vote for social sanity and Rick Santorum, NOT for homosexuality and Mitt Romney.
"Rick Santorum is the ONLY candidate who can be trusted to uphold traditional marriage, a straight military, and the rights of American children to have both a mother and a father. This message paid for by Jews and Christians Together.org and not authorized by any candidate. To get the facts before you vote, visit Jews and Christians Together.org."
That website, urging Alabama and Mississippi voters to "get the shocking facts on Mitt Romney," links to a page called "The Romney Files" . That page, identical to email content blasted to over a million Ohio residents a week ago, documents Romney's progressive record on gay issues, a record that matches up closely with Obama's and which may be problematic for both men among black, evangelical, Catholic and southern voters.
"The Romney Files" , assembled by the Boston-based group Mass Resistance, show a gubernatorial proclamation Romney signed declaring "Gay Youth Pride Day"; a video comparison of RomneyCare to ObamaCare, two similar approaches to socialized medicine; a Planned Parenthood questionnaire Romney signed in favor of publicly-subsidized abortion, abortion drugs and contraceptives; and a claim that "Romney's wife Ann personally donated to Planned Parenthood."
That page links to a video by Rabbi Yehuda Levin of Brooklyn, NY, director of the Rabbinical Alliance of America, a 70 year old organization of over 850 Orthodox Jewish Rabbis in the United States and Canada, serving approximately one half-million religious Jews, in which Rabbi Levin challenges Romney's pro-gay record. "By all measuring sticks, Gov. Romney is not at all socially conservative... not Biblically conservative. I don't think his positions are in accord with his Mormon faith."
Rabbi Levin appeals to evangelicals, Catholics and church leaders to join Jewish leaders in spreading the word on Romney's "atrocious homosexualist agenda." It also links to a more in-depth "Mitt Romney Report" full of details that trouble GOP conservatives, and which may move Democratic voters, including traditionalist African-Americans, to cross over for Santorum in southern GOP primaries. Should Santorum face Obama next fall as the GOP nominee, both will be coveting those voters.
Brian Camenker, one of the robo-call voices, president of Mass Resistance and compiler of much of that Romney research, recently said, "Mitt Romney would be the most liberal Republican ever nominated for the Presidency. Romney is so far left, he spoke against the right of the Boy Scouts to screen-out homosexuals. Mitt Romney proved during the January 8 Meet the Press debate that he's still as far left on the gay agenda as always. He proudly announced, 'a member of my cabinet was gay. I appointed people to the bench regardless of their sexual orientation.' Asked when he last stood up and spoke out for increasing gay rights, Romney said 'Right now.'"
Dr. Gary Cass, president of DefendChristians.org and a member of Jews & Christians Together.org said, "Santorum is the only viable alternative to Romney. All Jews and Christians are aware that the Bible, from the Jewish Books of Moses to the Christian Gospels to the epistles of Saint Paul, commands God's faithful to love the sinner but hate the sin, and indeed to recognize homosexuality as sin. Romney, on the other hand, endorses homosexuality as a good choice for young people."
Cass said that he supports Santorum, the former Pennsylvania Senator, because last year Santorum signed The Marriage Vow, a political pledge document from Iowa also embraced by Texas Gov. Rick Perry and U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN). That eventually earned Santorum a narrow victory in Iowa and the endorsement of conservative radio personality Dr. James Dobson and other evangelicals. Santorum, said Cass, "courageously put his name to some very bold, very Judeo-Christian, and extremely politically-incorrect statements about marriage and sexuality." Santorum's pro-marriage vow:
- Recognizes "the overwhelming statistical evidence that married people enjoy better health, better sex, longer lives, greater financial stability, and that children raised by a mother and a father together experience better learning, less addiction, less legal trouble, and less extramarital pregnancy;"
- Rejects "anti-scientific bias which holds, in complete absence of empirical proof, that non-heterosexual inclinations are genetically determined, irresistible and akin to innate traits like race, gender and eye color;"
· Rejects "anti-scientific bias which holds, against all empirical evidence, that homosexual behavior in particular, and sexual promiscuity in general, optimizes individual or public health;"
- Contains a pledge of "Personal fidelity to my spouse" and "Respect for the marital bonds of others" which Gingrich, Cain, Romney and Ron Paul declined to sign, but which Bachmann and Perry joined Santorum in signing.
Cass, an ordained Presbyterian minister, said, "Rick Santorum signed the Iowa vow last summer while Romney was calling for more gay hiring." Another link at Jews & Christians Together.org connects to a voter guide from Family Research Council that shows Romney in support of ENDA, the proposed federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act "that adds sexual orientation as a protected class." Camenker, the Jewish Romney opponent from Massachusetts, said ENDA "would forbid the firing of transvestite elementary school teachers, open bisexuals, and other bad examples to America's young people."
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