Can Sam Brownback Overcome His Challenges and Win the White House in 2008?

[Rach3]

Brownback in long-shot White House bid

"My family and I are taking the first steps on the yellow brick road to the White House," Brownback said, returning to his home state to declare his intention to seek his party's nomination in 2008.

..."Search the record of history. To walk away from the Almighty is to embrace decline for a nation," Brownback said. "To embrace Him leads to renewal, for individuals and for nations."

Republican pollster Whit Ayres said Brownback faces two major challenges in his bid.

"The first is raising the money necessary to be competitive," Ayres said. "The second is how to expand his base of support beyond the social conservative wing of the party."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070120/ap_on_el_pr/brownback2008

Good luck overcoming that second one. Hehe...

Anyone else vaguely reminded of Le Pen in 2002?

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Rach3, you should probably come up with another title.

 

[Rach3]

I don't have the power to change it you know. But if you want to, may I suggest "Vote Brownback - kick biologists out of our schools" or "Crazy Kansas Creationist Caricature".

 

[Hurkyl]

I don't have the power to change it you know. But if you want to, may I suggest "Vote Brownback - kick biologists out of our schools" or "Crazy Kansas Creationist Caricature".

Huh? Shouldn't the title be related to the article in the OP?

 

[Rach3]

Huh? Shouldn't the title be related to the article in the OP?

Yeah - Sam Brownback.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Thanks.

It used to be that you could edit the title if done soon enough. Is this no longer true?

 

[BobG]

I don't have the power to change it you know. But if you want to, may I suggest "Vote Brownback - kick biologists out of our schools" or "Crazy Kansas Creationist Caricature".

That comment might not be up to date. Brownback was a more or less mainstream Protestant until 1994, when he became an Evangelical Christian. In 2002, he converted to Catholicism, which is more concerned with why the universe and life was created than how. (The creation of the 'soul' is a different matter.)

After converting, he changed his stance on the death penalty to one more consistent with the Catholic Church. There's no particular reason for his beliefs on creation to change, but I don't think denial of evolution is nearly as prevalent among Catholics as Evangelicals.

You might be right, but I wouldn't guarantee it. If his religious conversions have been motivated more by politics than personal reasons, he probably wouldn't abandon a position that could be acceptable in both religions. It's not too hard to see that the overwhelming majority of his views make him the candidate most supportive of the Christian right's desires, including school vouchers that would help religious schools.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I don't think denial of evolution is nearly as prevalent among Catholics as Evangelicals.

TEXT OF POPE'S STATEMENT REGARDING EVOLUTION

...In his encyclical Humani Generis (1950), my predecessor Pius XII has already affirmed that there is no conflict between evolution and the doctrine of the faith regarding man and his vocation, provided that we do not lose sight of certain fixed points. For my part, when I received the participants in the plenary assembly of your Academy on October 31, 1992, I used the occasion-- and the example of Gallileo-- to draw attention to the necessity of using a rigorous hermeneutical approach in seeking a concrete interpretation of the inspired texts. It is important to set proper limits to the understanding of Scripture, excluding any unseasonable interpretations which would make it mean something which it is not intended to mean. In order to mark out the limits of their own proper fields, theologians and those working on the exegesis of the Scripture need to be well informed regarding the results of the latest scientific research. [continued]

http://www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=2784

 

[Manchot]

As a Catholic, I am offended by Brownback's statements on evolution. He clearly knows nothing about the religion he converted to. Maybe if he had gone to Catholic school, he would've known that they universally teach evolution in their science classes.

 

[Gokul43201]

As a Catholic, I am offended by Brownback's statements on evolution. He clearly knows nothing about the religion he converted to. Maybe if he had gone to Catholic school, he would've known that they universally teach evolution in their science classes.

Which specific statements?

Here's something I just dug up (but it's from just before his conversion):

"I would like to take the opportunity of this amendment to clear the record about the controversy in Kansas... Here are the facts about what happened in Kansas. The school board did not ban the teaching of evolution. They did not forbid the mention of Darwin in the classroom. They didn't even remove all mention of evolution from the State assessment test. Rather, the school board voted against including questions on macro- evolution - the theory that new species can evolve from existing species over time - from the State assessment. The assessment did include questions on micro-evolution - the observed change over time within an existing species.

"Why did they do this? Why go so far as to decipher between micro and macro-evolution on the State exam?... In fact, their vote was cast based on the most basic scientific principal that science is about what we observe, not what we assume. The great and bold statement that the Kansas School Board made was... simply that we observe micro-evolution and therefore it is scientific fact; and that it is impossible to observe macro- evolution, it is scientific assumption... The actions and intentions of the school board were routinely misrepresented in the global press. Many in the scientific community, who presumably knew the facts, spread misinformation as to what happened in Kansas... "

http://www.aip.org/fyi/2001/081.html

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Wouldn't the same logic apply to most of cosmology? Have we ever observed the creation of a universe?

 

[Gokul43201]

What logic? That poor excuse for an argument is founded on some definition of Science that only Brownback and the KSB are aware of.