Potential GOP national candidates speak at forum

By BROOKS TAYLOR

Mt. Pleasant News

Religious liberty was the focus of a seminar Thursday night that attracted some political heavyweights and over 600 area residents to the Iowa Wesleyan College Chapel.

Bob Vander Plaats, president and CEO of The FAMiLY LEADER, organized the forum ? one of four the organization will be having in Iowa during the upcoming months.

Political candidates speaking generally represented the right wing of the Republican Party and included former Arkansas Governor and Fox News Contributor Mike Huckabee, former Texas Governor Rick Perry, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal and former Senator Rick Santorum.

The theme of the speeches was similar ? religious liberty is under attack in the country and action is needed.

?Leadership is an option that is necessary,? said Vander Plaats, a former Iowa gubernatorial candidate. ?We live in extraordinary times and when you live in extraordinary times, it requires extraordinary action?The republic hangs on two rungs ? religion and morality. Religious liberty allows you to act out your beliefs.?

He also predicted that religious liberty may be the key issue in the 2016 presidential election. ?The road begins with protection of religious liberty in the nation and if you don?t have religious liberty, nothing really matters.

?You will never be right when you do what?s wrong,? Vander Plaats noted. ?However, you will never be wrong when you do what?s right.?

Huckabee said it is important for the next presidential candidates to walk in the shoes of the common man. ?I think it is important that everyone who runs for president should sit down with an unemployed factory worker and learn how tough it is.?

The former presidential candidate, who won the Iowa Republican caucus in 2008, said that while we live in a country that gives its people more opportunities than we could ever have imagined, there are danger signs on the horizon.

?We have a government that has gone insane by spending money they don?t have?The values that so many of us hold are the ones under assault?Today, religious liberty is under assault like never before. We have a God-ordained life to believe as we wish. If we have that taken away, we are done. We are living in times when it is okay to believe, but the government is setting parameters of what and how much we can believe.?

He issued a call to action, saying it never has been more important to become involved. ?If we don?t get ourselves immersed and involved, it is not their fault, but our fault. Talking about what we can do is the easy thing but can you do something and make it happen? We have to get in the game and get this country back.?

One of the greatest threats to freedom, Huckabee concluded, is judicial supremacy, or the judicial system extending its power beyond that of the legislative and executive branches of government.

Former Texas Governor Rick Perry talked about second chances. ?I?m probably not different than a lot of you. From 1977 until now, God has given be an extraordinary second chance. All of these flawed people are used by God to affect the world. God chooses flawed people and gives us second chances. We live in a land of second chances.?

Although direct criticism of the current presidential administration was fairly much non-existent, Perry did take a shot. ?I believe that American people are looking for a second chances after what we?ve seen the last six years in the White House.?

He also said, ?We need a leader in this country who will call radical Islam exactly what it is.?

Perry said he felt America?s best days were ahead of us, if we work diligently to preserve our religious freedom.

?Religious freedom goes to the soul of the country,? he assessed. ?Without religious freedom, there would not be this country. Freedom of religion is our foundation.?

Thursday night?s summit was the first for The FAMiLY LEADER. Others are planned for Cedar Falls (May 18), Council Bluffs (June 15) and Sioux Center (Sept. 1).