Monday, May 12, 2008
Keyes, Bauer and Forbes proselytize at a pro-Jesus, anti-gay rally in Des Moines.
Jan 24, 2000 | It's ironic that conservative activist Bill Horn professes to hate gays and porn so much, because he looks remarkably like a gay porn star.
Regardless of this disconnect, gays and pornography were two of the main topics at Horn's "Presidential Rally for Family, Faith & Freedom," held on Saturday night and attended by 1,000 activists and GOP presidential hopefuls Alan Keyes, Steve Forbes, and Gary Bauer.
Forbes, whose courtship of the Christian right has struck some as being more about money and votes than about eternal salvation, sought to improve his Christian cred by strutting around with conservative Rep. Bob Barr, R-Ga., and Phyllis Schlafly, president of the Eagle Forum and the Republican National Coalition for Life. In Dubuque, Keyes went on an anti-abortion walk. At Glenwood Cemetery in Des Moines, Bauer and his wife placed roses on the grave of the Unknown Fetus, "Baby Isaiah," a stillborn infant found in a local ditch in 1994.
But later that night, at the First Assembly of God Church, abortion wasn't topic A, or even B. The rally's agenda was far more focused; it fixated on gays, lesbians and pornography. Propelled by Keyes, Bauer and Forbes, the third topic on the agenda was front-runner George W. Bush, a notable no-show, and whether or not he hates gays and lesbians and dirty pictures as much as they do.
It makes sense for the Republican candidates to come to Jesus here in Iowa. (Bush and Sen. Orrin Hatch sent letters, which were read at the conclusion of the event.) It's not just that Iowa Republicans are a conservative lot, which they are (60 percent of them oppose legal abortion, according to a recent Iowa Poll).
Iowa Republicans -- especially those motivated to brave the Iowa winter winds to participate in a caucus -- tend to be Bible-beating Republicans. According to a poll by the Des Moines Register, 43 percent of probable GOP caucus participants consider themselves born-again Christians. Likely Republican caucus participants dig candidates who talk about their "personal relationship with Jesus Christ," Tom Landry-style, by a 6-1 margin.
So Saturday was a special day for them. Not only was the rally on the last weekend before the Iowa caucuses, but Saturday was also the 27th anniversary of the Supreme Court's Roe vs. Wade decision legalizing abortion.
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