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Subscribe to RSSCASTLE ROCK, Colo. -- Less than 48 hours before polls open on Election Day, Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan gave a firm warning to a group of evangelical Christians Sunday night: President Barack Obama’s policies jeopardize Judeo-Christian values.
“And in these critical battleground states, it’s going to make the big difference as to whether or not people are worried about where America’s headed, worried about whether we’re going to reassert our Constitution, or whether or not we’re going to go down the path the president has put us on,” Ryan said speaking on a Faith and Freedom Coalition tele-townhall with thousands of voters across the country.
He continued, “It’s a dangerous path, it’s a path that grows government, restricts freedom and liberty, and compromises those values, those Judeo-Christian, western-civilization values that made us such a great and exceptional nation in the first place.”
A Ryan campaign spokesman told NBC News about Ryan’s comments: "He was talking about issues like religious liberty and ObamaCare - topics he has mentioned frequently during the campaign."
Mitt Romney has also shared similar comments about Judeo-Christian values, such as during his commencement address at Liberty University in May 2012.
The Faith and Freedom Coalition is an influential evangelical grassroots organization headed by Ralph Reed. The tele-townhall tonight was only advised by the group and never by the Romney campaign. It was a call that had been re-scheduled at least once due to scheduling conflicts. Ryan fielded questions from several callers in between campaign rallies in Minnesota and Colorado.
Asked by a caller from Florida about how his faith has helped him as Romney’s running mate, Ryan said it “sustains” and “humbles” him.
“We [Ryan’s family] pray throughout the day. I keep a rosary in my pocket, whatever jacket I've got, and I'm given so many prayers from people,” the Wisconsin congressman said. “I'm one of those people who don't think you can separate your faith from your public life as an official from your private life. It informs you, it guides you, it makes you who you are, and it gives you great peace. First prayer I say every morning is the Serenity prayer.”
Ryan also noted he received an email from his pastor in Janesville, Wis. tonight with the words: “have no fear.” “And that's how the Lord sustains me. No fear,” Ryan added.
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It's sobering to appreciate that Christ was not a "joiner" of any organized religion. In one of his parables he directed the issue of political alliances, in particular with the Roman rule of the day simply by saying give what belongs to Caesar, but give to God what belongs to God. Catholicism has had a long history of misplaced loyalty, and in so many quarters we see the results of its actions. A lot of it is no good. What is considered Judeo-Christian today often can't be supported by the lives of those who claim to live it. Sometimes it's wise for a politician to be silent on the issue of religion in America. The Son of God elegantly stated (paraphrase), You will know my followers by their conduct. Secularism has crept in to the very sanctuary of organized religion that one is hard pressed to find a real genuine follower of Christ. A politician who dares to inspire hope to the less fortunate, and to confidently do what is good rather than expedient seems to adhere more to Christ's teachings. Mostly, what galls me is when pseudo-Christians inflame others with their "I'm a Christian, therefore I'm right and you're not Christian propaganda. It's the slogan of extremists who do nothing but act as victims and they have torn to shreds the very fabric of the Constitution in a pluralistic society. Here's a Christian-based ideology uttered by someone who we will not forget in a long time:"Why can't we all get along." Another guy named King.