Evangelicals discuss what Mitt won't

TAMPA, Fla. — Hundreds of evangelicals gathered in downtown Tampa, Fla., on Sunday afternoon to talk about exactly the things that Mitt Romney wants to avoid this week: abortion, birth control, gay marriage and religion.

The Faith and Freedom Coalition rally drew the expected rock stars of the evangelical movement — Mike Huckabee, Ralph Reed and even Newt Gingrich. Yet few of the speakers talked about Romney himself — the rally was designed to fire up the most red meat, anti-Obama crowd here in Tampa just a few days before Romney accepts the nomination.


Gingrich repeated his line that President Barack Obama is “the most extreme pro-abortion president in history.” He said people shouldn’t be concerned about Romney’s Mormon faith either, because unlike “the secular left,” he has a religion.

Texas Senate candidate Ted Cruz talked about holding on to traditional marriage as between “one man and one woman.” Florida’s attorney general, Pam Bondi, said it was “unbelievable” that religious employers would have to provide birth control in health plans.

“Let me make it very clear, this fight that we’re taking on is not just about the church. It is about whether people of government can force people of faith to violate their conscience,” she said. “We understand that in this country, under our Constitution, the answer is no way.”

Reed, chairman of the coalition, opened the two-hour event by calling the election “the most important election of our lifetime,” and he railed against the Obama administration for supporting gay marriage and issuing a mandate under the health care law that all employers must provide birth control in their health care plans.

“This is an injustice that we are not going to let stand,” he said. “And either in the courts or on Election Day, we are going to end it once and for all.”

“We are not here to elect a messiah,” he said. “We already have a messiah.”

Reed said that millions of evangelical voters stayed home or didn’t register to vote in 2008 and implored the crowd to not let the election go this time. Reed said “the church allowed” Obama to come into office in 2008 by staying home.

“We’re going to see an election night that’s going to remind you of the night of the Wisconsin recall election,” he said to cheers.

Huckabee, a hero among the conservative base, did not mention Romney’s name during his brief remarks but called Obama’s birth control mandate “an assault” on people of faith.

“The day that the government believes that it can define the limits of conscience for a person of faith — and you tell us how broad, how wide, how deep our faith can be — is a day that America best wake up,” Huckabee said.

He joked that he was disappointed the “faith community” didn’t pray away the hurricane, but “we will make sure that the hurricane of this administration is way, way away from us come January of next year. “

The event was briefly interrupted by protesters when Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker took the stage, but the crowd drowned them out with chants of “U.S.A!” Around six protesters were escorted out.