Strategy for Reaching Evangelical Christians Voters: Updated

[tfelice]

Now that the fundraising numbers have come out we can confidently say that Ron Paul is in the top tier and that tier is made up of four candidates (I'll give Romney a pass on his insolvency since he can bankroll himself). That being said here is the approach that I feel Christians should use when presenting other Christians with Ron Paul and his message.

First, Ron Paul is the only Evangelical Christian in the top tier.

Rudy is a Roman Catholic (and a bad one at that)
Romney is a Mormon
Thompson is a member of a Church of Christ (a church that has heterodoxal teachings regarding baptism (http://www.equip.org/site/c.muI1LaMNJrE/b.2820087/k.BF26/CP0604.htm)) and according to an article (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601070&refer=politics&sid=a23DX3a8OUfE) in Bloomberg from September he doesn't attend church

Then simply point them to Paul's statement of faith (http://www.ronpaullibrary.org/document.php?id=916) where he gives a credible profession of faith in Christ alone as his Savior.

Second, Ron Paul is the only top tier candidate that is 100% pro-life.

Rudy is vocally pro-abortion
Romney has flip-flopped on the issue several times, choosing a position that best helps to get him or keep him elected
Thompson claims to be pro-life, but worked as a lobbyist for a pro-abortion group. So he is pro-life unless someone pays him to be otherwise

Then of course, you can point to Paul's outstanding record of protecting the unborn, and of course mention the fact that he is an OB/GYN that has delivered over 4000 babies.

Those two points alone should be enough to win over a sizeable majority of the Evangelicals that you meet with in your church life.

[gracemonger]

I will use those talking points.
Send evangelicals tohttp://www.chirstiansforronpaul.com

We have a brochure on the sight that can be passed out. It targets Christians.
We are in the process of re-designing it to a slim jim card. More cost effective for printing mass amounts. Blanket the cars at the church parking lots!

Peace
Craig

[runderwo]

I will use those talking points.
Send evangelicals tohttp://www.chirstiansforronpaul.com (http://www.christiansforronpaul.com)

corrected url

[tfelice]

Blanket the cars at the church parking lots!



Be careful with that. Church parking lots are usually private property. It's hypocritical of us to violate a church's private property rights when Dr Paul speaks so often about defence of private property rights. You would be much better off calling the church and asking what their policy is beforehand.

[Bison]

CBN posted another good article today. http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/251348.aspx

and this one

http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/251462.aspx

[justinc.1089]

I will use those talking points.
Send evangelicals tohttp://www.chirstiansforronpaul.com

We have a brochure on the sight that can be passed out. It targets Christians.
We are in the process of re-designing it to a slim jim card. More cost effective for printing mass amounts. Blanket the cars at the church parking lots!

Peace
Craig

No! Please don't do that lol. Especially if the church is a church of real religious people and not just like people that go to church on a regular basis because they feel its right.

What it will cause is people talking about seperation of church and state and how religion and politics shouldn't be put together etc. etc. etc..
It will look bad for Ron Paul, and church members will talk negatively about him if you pass out or put anything for him at church.

If you want to target Church members there are a couple of ways I can think of to do so:

1. Politely ask the Church's pastor if you could have access to a list of member's addresses, or if he would give you a list of people's addresses that don't mind receiving something in the mail from you about the 2008 Presidential election. People won't mind being mailed something through their listing as a church member probably, especially if their pastor asks people (not during church services though) if they're ok with that.

2. Talk to them personally at church. If you don't go to church, or you want to get more than one church, then say you're looking around for a church to go to or something like that, and no one will mind you being there. Then you can politely talk to some people after church about Paul. You could use that approach at several different churches probably.

But the main way we can get the Christian vote is from people like Pat Robertson or James Dobson endorsing or talking positively about Paul. If they mention Paul in a good way, say they're voting for him, or even go as far as endorsing him that would gain Ron Paul a LOT of votes since they're influencial.

(I might have mispelled their names lol)

[kylejack]

Those guys aren't a threat. Only Huckabee is a threat to the evangelical vote. Need talking points for that.

[Bradley in DC]

CBN posted another good article today. http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/251348.aspx

and this one

http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/251462.aspx

CBN had a cameraman videoing the press conference this morning.

[M.Bellmore]

We really need a candidate comparison chart geared towards Christian voters that you can leave in church atriums. Of course for Michigan I am would like to emphasize 2nd amendment stuff, tax stuff, and highlight Romney flip-flopping. :D

[SwooshOU]

As a conservative Christian and a donating Ron Paul supporter, I decided to write Brody at CBN and thank him for his articles.


Hi,

I wanted to write to tell you how appreciative I am of your coverage of Ron Paul on CBN's web site.

As a graduate of Focus on the Family Institute and a Bible believing Christian, I could not endorse any candidate more than Ron Paul. Smaller government, less taxes, more freedom... this is what all the Republicans promise. But, Dr. Paul's voting record actually backs up what he says!

By far the most exciting notion of a Ron Paul presidency is how much more influence Christianity could gain! That is why I am voting for him.

Hear me out. For so long it seems that the way Christians have wanted to gain influence in our culture is by force feeding legitimately Christian values onto the culture via public officials like representatives, senators, congressmen, governors and presidents. Unfortunately, our culture has continued to decline. When views (no matter what they are) are forced upon a group, resentment follows.

As always, THE CHURCH should be the entity responsible for provoking positive change in our culture, not a few elected leaders. The elimination of the welfare state under a Ron Paul presidency would put the onus BACK on the Church to be the one to provide for the needy, the poor, the widows and the orphans. Instead of depending on the government to force Christianity on our culture, the Body of Christ would impact our culture by being Christ to the needy among us.

Imagine what happens when our culture sees the Church leading by example! We are relevant once again. Relevant Christianity brings Christ back into the culture!

RON PAUL 2008!
Luke Barrett
Oklahoma City

[justinc.1089]

I'm telling you guys if you try to pass out stuff for Paul at church, leave fliers on cars at church, or leave stuff in churches it is not going to help Paul's Christian vote it is going to hurt it. Christians find that disrespectful to the Church.

[tfelice]

Those guys aren't a threat. Only Huckabee is a threat to the evangelical vote. Need talking points for that.


Here's how I would spin it: Huckabee has around 600K cash on hand. As we know it takes money to run a presidential campaign and Huckabee doesn't have it. So Paul, is the only credible candidate that is Evangelical and pro-life.

No need to get into Huckabees positions, because his lack of funding is reason enough to write him off.

[tfelice]

I'm telling you guys if you try to pass out stuff for Paul at church, leave fliers on cars at church, or leave stuff in churches it is not going to help Paul's Christian vote it is going to hurt it. Christians find that disrespectful to the Church.


Agreed. As an elder, I would not want someone coming onto my church's property to leave flyers in car windows.

[kylejack]

Here's how I would spin it: Huckabee has around 600K cash on hand. As we know it takes money to run a presidential campaign and Huckabee doesn't have it. So Paul, is the only credible candidate that is Evangelical and pro-life.

No need to get into Huckabees positions, because his lack of funding is reason enough to write him off.

Devil's advocate.

If he's having financial difficulties, shouldn't we as evangelicals send him money? If not, why not?

[M.Bellmore]

Devil's advocate.

If he's having financial difficulties, shouldn't we as evangelicals send him money? If not, why not?

He's having campaign financial difficulties, not personal ones. We already have a solid Christian candidate, Ron Paul!

Also, we need to emphasize the Just War doctorine: From wikipedia:

In modern language, these rules hold that, in order to be just, a war must meet the following criteria before the use of force (jus ad bellum):

Just cause
The reason for going to war needs to be just and can therefore be recapturing things taken or punishing people who have done wrong. A contemporary view of just cause was expressed in 1993 when the US Catholic Conference said: "Force may be used only to correct a grave, public evil, i.e., aggression or massive violation of the basic human rights of whole populations."
Comparative justice
While there may be rights and wrongs on all sides of a conflict, to override the presumption against the use of force, the injustice suffered by one party must significantly outweigh that suffered by the other. Theorists such as Brian Orend omit this term, seeing it as fertile ground for exploitation by bellicose regimes.
Legitimate authority
Only duly constituted public authorities may use deadly force or wage war
Right intention
Force may be used only in a truly just cause and solely for that purpose—correcting a suffered wrong is considered a right intention, while material gain or maintaining economies is not.
Probability of success
Arms may not be used in a futile cause or in a case where disproportionate measures are required to achieve success;
Last resort
Force may be used only after all peaceful and viable alternatives have been seriously tried and exhausted.


Does the current Iraq War match these requirements? I think not.

[unklejman]

He's having campaign financial difficulties, not personal ones. We already have a solid Christian candidate, Ron Paul!

Also, we need to emphasize the Just War doctorine: From wikipedia:


Does the current Iraq War match these requirements? I think not.

Not to you but many people think the war was good because we got rid of Saddam, and it's good to stay so the terrists don't get it.

[lynnf]

Now that the fundraising numbers have come out we can confidently say that Ron Paul is in the top tier and that tier is made up of four candidates (I'll give Romney a pass on his insolvency since he can bankroll himself). That being said here is the approach that I feel Christians should use when presenting other Christians with Ron Paul and his message.

First, Ron Paul is the only Evangelical Christian in the top tier.

Rudy is a Roman Catholic (and a bad one at that)
Romney is a Mormon
Thompson is a member of a Church of Christ (a church that has heterodoxal teachings regarding baptism (http://www.equip.org/site/c.muI1LaMNJrE/b.2820087/k.BF26/CP0604.htm)) and according to an article (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601070&refer=politics&sid=a23DX3a8OUfE) in Bloomberg from September he doesn't attend church

Then simply point them to Paul's statement of faith (http://www.ronpaullibrary.org/document.php?id=916) where he gives a credible profession of faith in Christ alone as his Savior.

Second, Ron Paul is the only top tier candidate that is 100% pro-life.

Rudy is vocally pro-abortion
Romney has flip-flopped on the issue several times, choosing a position that best helps to get him or keep him elected
Thompson claims to be pro-life, but worked as a lobbyist for a pro-abortion group. So he is pro-life unless someone pays him to be otherwise

Then of course, you can point to Paul's outstanding record of protecting the unborn, and of course mention the fact that he is an OB/GYN that has delivered over 4000 babies.

Those two points alone should be enough to win over a sizeable majority of the Evangelicals that you meet with in your church life.


I'd suggest that you might reword the one about Rudy, unless you think it is bad to be a Catholic. Even then, it would be bad for you to say so. You might say it more like "Rudy is an unorthodox Catholic and doesn't follow his chosen faith."

I'll have you know that there are Catholics that rival your "Evangelicals" for righteousness. Of course, Rudy isn't one of them.

lynn

[kylebrotherton]

As a Christian, I will tell you that putting flyers on cars at church is a horrible idea.

[kylejack]

As a Christian, I will tell you that putting flyers on cars at church is a horrible idea.
As not a Christian, I agree.

[kylejack]

I'd suggest that you might reword the one about Rudy, unless you think it is bad to be a Catholic. Even then, it would be bad for you to say so. You might say it more like "Rudy is an unorthodox Catholic and doesn't follow his chosen faith."

I'll have you know that there are Catholics that rival your "Evangelicals" for righteousness. Of course, Rudy isn't one of them.

lynn

No need to bring Rudy's religion in to it at all. His actions throughout his life are very un-Christian. The infidelities are particularly damaging, and his son has all but disowned him.

[Nefertiti]

I'd suggest you change the title to "Strategy for Reaching Protestant voters." You will lose the Catholics and the Mormons off the bat if they read this as is. I'm not even Christian but I know the history of how Catholics were treated in this country with regards to electability and this will be seen as a slur against them.

[Matt Collins]

See this thread on how to best market Ron Paul:
http://ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?t=25536

[tfelice]

I'd suggest you change the title to "Strategy for Reaching Protestant voters." You will lose the Catholics and the Mormons off the bat if they read this as is. I'm not even Christian but I know the history of how Catholics were treated in this country with regards to electability and this will be seen as a slur against them.

Changed it to Evangelical Christians.

Incidentally, the talking points work. I sent out an email this evening and got a lot of positive responses.

Correction: It only changed the title on the first post. Not sure how to change the thread title.

[Corydoras]

you can point to Paul's outstanding record of protecting the unborn, and of course mention the fact that he is an OB/GYN that has delivered over 4000 babies.

Do go further and say that while delivering over 4000 babies, he never once performed an abortion or encountered one case where he thought an abortion was necessary to save the woman's life.

Many pro-lifers know that most ob/gyns are in favor of abortion and have performed abortions at least to "save a woman's life" or in cases of "fetal conditions not compatible with extrauterine survival."

In fact, it's really hard for women in much of the country to find a pro-life ob/gyn, much less one who has never performed an abortion.