Ex-senator shows anti-evangelical animus, Bauer says

by Jim Brown
February 21, 2007

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(OneNewsNow.com) - - A former Republican senator has raised eyebrows with his remarks about evangelicals' alleged role in President Bush's Mideast policy. Conservative activist and Israel supporter Gary Bauer says he only wishes Lincoln Chafee's comments were on the mark.

Former Rhode Island Senator Lincoln Chafee says President Bush's handling of the Middle East peace process is controlled by evangelical Christians who oppose a Palestinian state. In a speech last week at Brown University, Chafee said, "The religious thing is driving the foreign policy here." The president, he said, has "embraced the concept of land for peace in word, but so far not in deed" -- adding: "I sometimes wonder which group has the president's ear."

Bauer, who heads the group American Values, says he wishes Chafee's comments about evangelicals' role in shaping the president's Mideast policy were true. "I would love it if the president was taking his directions from evangelical Christians," says Bauer. "Unfortunately, as we know, the president has proposed a Palestinian state and has put down fairly modest qualifications for when that state could be established. It only requires the Palestinians to recognize Israel's right to exist."

Bauer says supporting the Palestinian movement has long been a cause celeb for academia and the political left. And he contends there is hostility toward Christian evangelicals among far-left Democrats and the handful of far-left politicians in the Republican Party. He has some advice for the ousted senator, whom he considers among the latter group.

"Former Senator Chafee ought to be worried a lot more about the bizarre and murderous religious views of al Qaeda, Hezbollah, Hamas, and [Iranian President Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad than the Baptist church that may be down the road," says the American Values spokesman.

Chafee, who served on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, lost his seat in November. He served just more than one term in the U.S. House, having been appointed in 1999 to complete the term of his father, Senator John Chafee, who died while in office. By his comments, Bauer says, Chafee is demonstrating why he is a former U.S. senator.