WASHINGTON, Nov. 7 — They could compete for strangest bedfellows of 2008.
Rudolph W. Giuliani is a supporter of gay and abortion rights who is building his Republican primary campaign around his response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Pat Robertson, the Christian conservative broadcaster, once said permissiveness toward homosexuality and abortion led to God’s “lifting his protection” to allow those attacks.
But there they were Wednesday morning, Mr. Robertson endorsing Mr. Giuliani, the former mayor of New York City, as “an acceptable” Republican “who can win the general election.”
It was the latest manifestation of the deep divide in the Christian conservative movement over how to balance politics and principle in the coming era after President Bush, who once so deftly brought it all together.
Many former Christian conservative allies dismissed the endorsement as an inexplicable stunt. They noted that Mr. Robertson, 77, had lost much of his influence since the heady days of his second-place finish in the Iowa caucuses 20 years ago when he ran for the Republican presidential nomination.
“What support he has left,” said Connie Mackey, a vice president of the public policy arm of the evangelical Family Research Council, “is obviously going to be eroded by this very strange endorsement.”
Others close to Mr. Robertson, though, said he decided to speak out to rebut a threat from other Christian conservative leaders to bolt the Republican Party if it nominates Mr. Giuliani or any other candidate who supports abortion rights.
The unlikely alliance emerged from a behind-the-scenes friendship that began with a shared flight back from Israel in 2003. It grew through commiserations about prostate cancer and even included a videotaped salute delivered by Mr. Giuliani at Mr. Robertson’s 75th birthday.
Mr. Robertson came forward as many Christian conservative leaders are gravitating toward various Republican contenders in hopes of bringing along others in their movement.
Senator Sam Brownback, Republican of Kansas, who had hoped to be the Christian conservatives’ standard-bearer before dropping out of the race last month, on Wednesday threw his support behind Senator John McCain of Arizona, who is sometimes considered a foe of the movement. Mr. Brownback called him “the best pro-life candidate to beat Hillary Clinton," and the endorsement could give a needed boost to Mr. McCain’s thin Iowa campaign network.
Mr. Robertson’s habit in recent years of making public statements as a mouthpiece for God may have sapped some of the value of his endorsement. In January 2004, for example, he said God had told him President Bush would win re-election in a “blowout,” a prophecy that by October he amended to a “razor-thin” victory. On other occasions, he has suggested that liberal judges were a more serious threat “than a few bearded terrorists who fly into buildings,” and that teaching evolution or flying gay-pride flags might invite the wrath of God in the form of natural disasters.
But Mr. Robertson still controls the Christian Broadcasting Network, which says it reaches an average daily audience of about 900,000. The network has already provided Mr. Giuliani a valuable opportunity to court its evangelical audience.
“I believe in God, I pray to God, pray to Jesus for guidance and for help,” Mr. Giuliani, a Catholic who does not attend mass, said in an interview on the network in September. “I have very, very strong views on religion that come about from having wanted to be a priest when I was younger and having studied theology for four years in college.”
Mr. Robertson has had warm words for the former mayor as well. After Mr. Giuliani spoke at Mr. Robertson’s Regent University in June, for example, he told his viewers that “people came out of there saying, We want to support him, we’re going to give him money, we want to vote for him. I mean it was just amazing.”
“Rudy’s a very good friend of mine,” he told ABC News in an earlier interview. “I think he’d make a good president.”
Mitt Romney, a rival for the Republican nomination, has worked hard to win the support of Mr. Robertson and other Christian conservatives. Mr. Romney and his wife, Ann, met with Mr. Robertson at Regent University this spring, for example. And Mrs. Romney struck up a friendship with Mr. Robertson over their shared love of horses, even sending him a picture of herself on horseback.
Mr. Robertson invited Mr. Romney to speak at Regent, too.
Mr. Robertson’s American Center for Law and Justice once even sued Mr. Giuliani and the City of New York over its recognition of same-sex domestic partnerships.
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Rudolph W. Giuliani is a supporter of gay and abortion rights who is building his Republican primary campaign around his response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Pat Robertson, the Christian conservative broadcaster, once said permissiveness toward homosexuality and abortion led to God’s “lifting his protection” to allow those attacks.
But there they were Wednesday morning, Mr. Robertson endorsing Mr. Giuliani, the former mayor of New York City, as “an acceptable” Republican “who can win the general election.”
It was the latest manifestation of the deep divide in the Christian conservative movement over how to balance politics and principle in the coming era after President Bush, who once so deftly brought it all together.
Many former Christian conservative allies dismissed the endorsement as an inexplicable stunt. They noted that Mr. Robertson, 77, had lost much of his influence since the heady days of his second-place finish in the Iowa caucuses 20 years ago when he ran for the Republican presidential nomination.
“What support he has left,” said Connie Mackey, a vice president of the public policy arm of the evangelical Family Research Council, “is obviously going to be eroded by this very strange endorsement.”
Others close to Mr. Robertson, though, said he decided to speak out to rebut a threat from other Christian conservative leaders to bolt the Republican Party if it nominates Mr. Giuliani or any other candidate who supports abortion rights.
The unlikely alliance emerged from a behind-the-scenes friendship that began with a shared flight back from Israel in 2003. It grew through commiserations about prostate cancer and even included a videotaped salute delivered by Mr. Giuliani at Mr. Robertson’s 75th birthday.
Mr. Robertson came forward as many Christian conservative leaders are gravitating toward various Republican contenders in hopes of bringing along others in their movement.
Senator Sam Brownback, Republican of Kansas, who had hoped to be the Christian conservatives’ standard-bearer before dropping out of the race last month, on Wednesday threw his support behind Senator John McCain of Arizona, who is sometimes considered a foe of the movement. Mr. Brownback called him “the best pro-life candidate to beat Hillary Clinton," and the endorsement could give a needed boost to Mr. McCain’s thin Iowa campaign network.
Mr. Robertson’s habit in recent years of making public statements as a mouthpiece for God may have sapped some of the value of his endorsement. In January 2004, for example, he said God had told him President Bush would win re-election in a “blowout,” a prophecy that by October he amended to a “razor-thin” victory. On other occasions, he has suggested that liberal judges were a more serious threat “than a few bearded terrorists who fly into buildings,” and that teaching evolution or flying gay-pride flags might invite the wrath of God in the form of natural disasters.
But Mr. Robertson still controls the Christian Broadcasting Network, which says it reaches an average daily audience of about 900,000. The network has already provided Mr. Giuliani a valuable opportunity to court its evangelical audience.
“I believe in God, I pray to God, pray to Jesus for guidance and for help,” Mr. Giuliani, a Catholic who does not attend mass, said in an interview on the network in September. “I have very, very strong views on religion that come about from having wanted to be a priest when I was younger and having studied theology for four years in college.”
Mr. Robertson has had warm words for the former mayor as well. After Mr. Giuliani spoke at Mr. Robertson’s Regent University in June, for example, he told his viewers that “people came out of there saying, We want to support him, we’re going to give him money, we want to vote for him. I mean it was just amazing.”
“Rudy’s a very good friend of mine,” he told ABC News in an earlier interview. “I think he’d make a good president.”
Mitt Romney, a rival for the Republican nomination, has worked hard to win the support of Mr. Robertson and other Christian conservatives. Mr. Romney and his wife, Ann, met with Mr. Robertson at Regent University this spring, for example. And Mrs. Romney struck up a friendship with Mr. Robertson over their shared love of horses, even sending him a picture of herself on horseback.
Mr. Robertson invited Mr. Romney to speak at Regent, too.
Mr. Robertson’s American Center for Law and Justice once even sued Mr. Giuliani and the City of New York over its recognition of same-sex domestic partnerships.
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