{"id":3696,"date":"2008-09-10T15:12:00","date_gmt":"2008-09-10T21:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/09\/conservative-group-to-rally-nm-christians-to-vote\/"},"modified":"2012-02-20T06:47:39","modified_gmt":"2012-02-20T13:47:39","slug":"conservative-group-to-rally-nm-christians-to-vote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/09\/conservative-group-to-rally-nm-christians-to-vote\/","title":{"rendered":"Conservative group to rally NM Christians to vote"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>A national group whose goal is to encourage Christians to vote in November plans to hold a rally at an Albuquerque church on Thursday — the seventh anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks — that will be attended by a prominent conservative actor and a controversial conservative military officer. <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Thursday\u2019s is the first of several rallies in Albuquerque, Roswell and Las Cruces that will be held by Vision America<\/a>, whose stated mission is to \u201cinform, encourage and mobilize pastors and their congregations to be proactive in restoring Judeo-Christian values to the moral and civic framework in their communities, states, and our nation.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The Sept. 11 rally is being held at Legacy Church<\/a>, located at 7201 Central Ave. NW<\/a>, and will feature actor Stephen Baldwin<\/a> and retired Three-Star Lieutenant General Jerry Boykin<\/a>. Vision America<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region> is founded by conservative Christian leader Rick Scarborough<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Legacy<\/st1:placename> Church<\/st1:placetype><\/st1:place> Pastor Steve Smothermon, in a news release, encouraged community members to attend the event, register to vote and get informed about the candidates and the issues.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cVision America<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region> is working to register and educate voters who will cast their votes in accordance with their morals and beliefs,\u201d Smothermon said. \u201cWe are looking forward to hearing these great inspirational speakers while helping people of all denominations make their voices heard.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The group\u2019s core principles, according to its Web site, are the sanctity of human life, marriage and family; personal decency and moral integrity; and religious liberty.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Baldwin, who became a born-again Christian after the Sept. 11 attacks, joked with FOX News<\/a> in July that if Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama<\/a> wins the race he will leave America<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region>. Baldwin<\/st1:place> endorsed Republicans Sam Brownback<\/a> and later Mike Huckabee<\/a> in the presidential race.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Boykin, who was an undersecretary for defense in the administration of the current President Bush<\/a>, came under fire after a Pentagon probe concluded in 2004 that his casting of the war on terror in religious terms violated regulations because he failed to state that the comments were not made in his official capacity. Bush distanced himself from Boykin\u2019s characterization of the war as a Christian mission.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Scarborough<\/st1:place> is a close friend of Tom DeLay<\/a> and also endorsed Huckabee for president. One of his books is titled \u201cLiberalism Kills Kids.\u201d<\/a> In a recent news release<\/a> on the Vision America Web site, Scarborough<\/st1:place> expressed sympathy for Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin<\/a> and her family over her daughter\u2019s pregnancy and praised \u201ctheir godly response to this tragic circumstance.\u201d In an earlier release<\/a>, he criticized Obama\u2019s \u201cbreathtaking lack of experience\u201d and his \u201cinveterate liberalism.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The group\u2019s Web site specifically targets two states, New Mexico<\/st1:state> and Kansas<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>. In addition to the Thursday rally in Albuquerque<\/st1:city>, the group plans a rally on Friday at a second Albuquerque<\/st1:city> church, a rally and pastor dinner in Roswell<\/st1:city> on Sept. 24 and a rally on Sept. 25 in Las Cruces<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>. Click here<\/a> for details.<\/p>\n

\n

A prior version of this posting incorrectly stated that Boykin is a brigadier general.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A national group whose goal is to encourage Christians to vote in November plans to hold a rally at an Albuquerque church on Thursday — the seventh anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks — that will be attended by a prominent conservative actor and a controversial conservative military officer. Thursday\u2019s is the first of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[269],"class_list":["post-3696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-steve-smothermon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3696","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3696"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3696\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}