Wednesday, December 2, 2015

HOT Rand Paul’s Religious Adviser Expresses Doubts About Candidate’s Christian Beliefs In New Book

I have already reported on the new book  The Wilderness: Deep Inside the Republican Party’s Combative, Contentious, Chaotic Quest to Take Back the White House and its coverage of Rand Paul plagiarism charges.

Alex Pappas has more from the book:
The man tapped by Rand Paul to serve as senior adviser and religious liaison to [Rand's] presidential campaign is quoted in a new book on the 2016 race expressing doubts about the candidate’s Christian beliefs.

Journalist McKay Coppins quotes Paul campaign adviser Doug Wead in his new book,“The Wilderness,” saying he is unsure what the candidate actually believes.

“My point is, I don’t know,” Wead says when asked by Coppins if he thinks Paul is a Christian believer. “I don’t think we can know. I don’t know if he knows.”

(The Pauls have long been Presbyterian but Rand recently joined a Methodist church in Kentucky, Coppins explains in the book).

The book goes into detail about how Paul — in Coppins’s words — needed a “crash course in conservative Christianity” in order to appeal to the evangelicals in the early caucus and primary states.

Coppins wrote that “the distinct dialect of right-wing born-agains was as foreign to [Paul] as Swahili.”

“To fix this,” the author continues, “Wead assembled a list of creedal buzzwords that would signal to evangelical voters that Rand was one of them — a sort of Rosetta Stone for Evangelicalese. Soon, with some tutoring, Rand was conversational.”

Coppins continued: “As evidence of Rand’s progress, Wead would later point me to a 2014 interview the senator had given in which he recounted his teenage conversion to Christianity. ‘When [Rand] said, “I accepted Christ as my savior,” an evangelical was hearing that he was born again,’ Wead explained. ‘But that’s not what he’s actually saying… In fact, he didn’t even say Jesus is divine. He didn’t say any of that! But that’s what is heard.’

Yet, another blunder by Rand. Why would he bring Wead in as an advisor, when Wead was already proved untrustworthy. While an adviser to George W. Bush, Wead seceretly taped Bush and other Bush family members and then told a reporter.

 -RW

6 comments:

  1. Maybe Wead promised him Uber Diamond status in Amway if this presidential thing doesn't work out.

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  2. There are several branches of the Presbyterian Church. The largest denomination is the very liberal Presbyterian Church United States of America (PCUSA). You'd have to hunt far and wide to find the gospel clearly preached in the PCUSA. The denomination has descended into more of a social club, emphasizing good works over the need for salvation and repentance from sin. So if Rand Paul grew up in the PCUSA, it would not surprise me in the least if he would neither be unable to articulate the gospel nor be able to speak to conservative evangelicals.

    I know some older missionaries of the PCUSA who are firm Christians. They were around before the denomination went off the deep end. They've stuck around so as to fight for sound theology. Though from their dwindling numbers, I think they've failed.

    I attend the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) which is a pretty conservative denomination. Though they've become squishy on Creation, which always seems to be the door through which liberal theology enters.

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    1. That's interesting, but isnt' Ron pretty conservative in his personal life? That's what I've heard, that he's personally more conservative than probably any of the other candidates who ran. I've heard he doesn't even travel alone with women who he is not married to or related to.
      My guess is that he grew up in a conservative household, but like the typical teenager, didn't really pay much attention and just went his own way once he left home, just barely hanging on to the Christian label.

      And second, I agree with Bob, why in the heck is he hiring people who are not real libertarians who believe in the message? This is the problem with his approach. Instead of attracting people to work for him who are in Washington to spread the message of liberty and thus will be loyal to him, he hires the typical Washington hacks. They don't care about him or liberty, they are in it for the power and prestige.

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    2. According to a statement made by Ron during his last campaign, when he and is wife attended church it was the local Southern Baptist Church. He didn't say if they were actually members.

      I inferred they were searching for something different from whence they came and/or were possibly unhappy with their former church affiliations.

      This suggests to me that the Paul family has experienced some upheaval or doctrinal drift in their church life which may have been brewing for decades. We may be seeing some of the fallout now with Rand.

      Rand is clearly more calculating than Ron. Wead"s words ring true to me.

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  3. "Why would he bring Wead in as an advisor, when Wead was already proved untrustworthy. "

    Same reason his dad had treacherous professionals on his campaign team both times he tried for the nomination, I suppose. Following advice from GOP fatboys in hiring campaign staff is what loyal GOP politicians do.

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