CRM discusses GOP nomination, evangelicals in politics with "Jesusland" author David Jeffers

David Jeffers, author of Understanding Evangelicals: A Guide to Jesusland, announced his support for GOP presidential candidate Fred Thompson this week by stating that Thompson is "far and away the best conservative candidate to represent those who live in Jesusland." In our interview with Jeffers, the retired Army Master Sergeant and Liberty U grad elaborates on his support for Thompson, shares reservations about Mike Huckabee's candidacy, and makes his case for a strong evangelical presence in the political arena. David Jeffer's blog, Salt and Light, can be found at http://davidjeffers.thevanguard.org/.

Jeff Wright: Earlier this week you announced your support for Fred Thompson. Why did you decide to support Thompson for President and why should other conservative evangelicals do the same?

David Jeffers: I've been following Fred Thompson for about a year and a half, reading his columns and news commentaries on ABC radio (available on his website http://www.fred08.com/) and immediately I was reminded of Ronald Reagan's messages in the late ‘70s. As I wrote in my news release that although "every GOP candidate is espousing Reagan-like characteristics, but only Thompson has the record to back it up."

Other candidates are making far-flung promises about issues near and dear to evangelicals, but Thompson is the only candidate who is not pandering to evangelicals and telling them straight the right way to take care of issues in our country. While I understand the need for and support the eventual passage of a Federal Marriage Amendment, most Americans, including most evangelicals, do not understand the long and arduous process of passing a constitutional amendment. Senator Thompson is a constitutional scholar as well as a former legislator so he understands the challenges, but more importantly he is a federalist and wants to see the states under the direct power of the people. This is the way our Founding Fathers intended us to govern.

I'll be writing a column about why it is best to allow the citizenry to determine social issues.

So to answer your question, as a conservative evangelical, if you do your homework, you will clearly see that Fred Thompson is the best candidate.

JW: Although conservative evangelicals are supporting various candidates, Mike Huckabee seems to be the candidate of choice for most evangelicals. Why should conservative evangelicals switch their support from Huckabee to Thompson?

DJ: I've outlined my reservations about Governor Huckabee in my latest article on the New Media Journal titled “An Evangelical’s Huckabee Hesitancy” so I encourage your readers to have a look at that, but as I wrote in the article, primarily “my concern with Governor Huckabee is that he will rely too much on government to fix problems facing Americans, when it should be Americans fixing their own problems with a little help from their friends and not Uncle Sam.”

The government is not how evangelicals should try to fix problems; the government usually is the problem. In my book Understanding Evangelicals: A Guide to Jesusland, I have a chapter on Economics and I address what role the government versus the Body of Christ should play in helping the downtrodden. I look at how the Church has over time ceded ground to the government and we need to regain that. Governor Huckabee is a proponent of big government and his record in Arkansas proves as much. I would highly recommend reading the Club for Growth’s Huckabee White Paper as well as the other papers on the GOP candidates. Governor Huckabee responds to CFG’s white paper by name-calling them the Club for Greed. He seems to resort to that a lot when he doesn’t have a definitive answer for an issue raised about his record.

JW: Many conservatives agree that Thompson is the most conservative candidate but say they will vote for someone else because Thompson does not have a chance at winning the nomination. Do you think Thompson has a real shot at winning the nomination? How do you persuade voters who like Thompson but will not vote for him because of concerns over electability?

DJ: If I did not believe Senator Thompson had a chance to win I would not be investing my time and money in him. The only advice I can give to those concerned with Thompson’s electability is:

1) Stop watching the polls and get outside of the media bubble. The media generate polls to make news. Very few give a good feel for what actual voters feel, with the exception of Rasmussen Reports and they have the race a tight five-way race.

2) In the primary process we are supposed to nominate the best candidate, not the most electable. This concern comes from an almost unhinged paranoia of Hillary Clinton becoming the next president; that means we are voting against someone and as Christians we should not be doing anyone harm. Let’s get behind the best candidate, work hard, and trust that the people will get behind a real leader. That was Reagan's magnetism and the more people get to know Thompson the more they will like him. This is already happening in South Carolina.

JW: Religion has been a hot topic throughout the campaign and some criticize evangelicals for the way they have mixed politics and religion in recent years. Have conservative evangelicals crossed the line when it comes to politics today? Are you satisfied with the current nature of evangelical involvement in politics or do we need to re-evaluate our investment in the political arena?

DJ: I did a message at my church a while back titled “Do Religion and Politics Mix” and the answer, based off of Scripture and the words of our Founding Fathers is a resounding yes! I also conducted a four-part study (can be done in a half-day) titled “Our American Christian Heritage” using the Coral Ridge Ministries DVD “One Nation Under God.” Both of these clearly show that we as evangelicals are to be very involved in politics. One quote I always turn to is from our first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and a Founding Father John Jay:

Providence has given our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty, as well as privilege and interest, of a Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers.

We as evangelicals have been literally bludgeoned behind our church wall by the fallacy of separation of church and state.

So I am very unsatisfied with our involvement in politics and that was one of the reasons I wrote my book and am offering my services to churches and civic organization to come and speak and help educate or re-educate the role of Christianity in civic affairs.

JW: Your book, "Understanding Evangelicals: A Guide to Jesusland," offers to help readers better understand evangelical beliefs and values. What have you found to be the most misunderstood aspect of evangelicalism today?

DJ: Many Americans fear that evangelicals want to change our democratic form of government to a theocracy. There is this misplaced fear that evangelicals are intolerant and suffering from an “us against them” mentality. So I approached this project with the intent of first explaining who evangelicals are, why we believe the Bible to be the inerrant Word of God, why there is absolute truth, and how we view different social issues in the light of Scripture. It is a primer not only for the secularists, but also the evangelical. One reviewer wrote that my book was a “much needed concise yet comprehensive primer for Christians who wonder what God actually says about the various social and political issues of our day.” That was my goal.

JW: Thank you for your time!

DJ: It has been a pleasure and an honor.