Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) was willing to stand alone on the nomination of Michigan attorney Michael Bogren. Now, thank goodness, he won’t have to. The more people hear about the offensive comparisons the East Lansing lawyer made, the more disturbed they are. That includes Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas).

In his confirmation hearing, Senator Hawley gave Michael Bogren an out. He asked Bogren, point blank, if he actually believed what he said about Catholic families being equivalent to the Ku Klux Klan. When this nominee to the federal court said yes, even the Missouri senator was surprised to hear the answer: “I stand by those comparisons.” Since then, a lot of the Michigan attorney’s supporters have tried to excuse the offense as an attorney just doing his job. Senator Ted Cruz, a lawyer himself, finds that very hard to believe.

“The nominee didn’t just represent a client; at his confirmation he affirmatively declared ‘there is no distinction’ between Catholic teachings and KKK bigotry,” he tweeted. “I’m a NO,” Cruz announced. “And POTUS should withdraw the nomination.” FRC, dozens of leaders in the Conservative Action Project, and a growing number of Republicans agree. A man who thinks Christians shouldn’t have a place in the public market because they believe in the freedom of religion and expression should never get a lifetime appointment.

When Steve and Bridget Tennes were kicked out of the East Lansing Farmers Market for refusing to contract their farms for same-sex marriages, locals couldn’t believe it. The attack on the Tenneses was especially upsetting since both Steve and Bridget are military veterans, and they know better than anyone the price of freedom. “We were surprised, and we were shocked,” Steve said at the time. “My wife and I both volunteered to serve in the military to protect freedom. Now we come home and the freedom that we worked to protect, we have to defend in our own backyard.”

Michael Bogren knew what kind of case it was when he agreed to represent the city. If he had a problem with East Lansing’s position, he could have withdrawn from the suit — or not taken it at all. Even in the defense, he could have taken a different approach. And he certainly, Senator Hawley pointed out, never needed to stoop to personal attacks and vicious rhetoric.

As the chorus of Bogren skeptics grows louder, NRO’s Ramesh Ponnuru surveyed a number of experts about Bogren’s responsibilities as an attorney — and whether they required him to characterize the Tenneses in such a hateful way. “Most of the conservative legal academics to whom I’ve spoken (who admittedly may not be a representative sample, but who have read the key filings) do not believe that Bogren acted in a reasonable manner. They point to three features of his representation beyond his KKK analogies. Bogren opposed letting the Catholic Church file a brief in the case, an unusually aggressive move that could be read as suggesting animus. He gratuitously criticized the plaintiffs for their allegedly selective fidelity to Catholic teaching. And he misstated the law.”

Republicans can’t afford to get this one wrong. Men and women of faith don’t need another hostile judge slipping through the confirmation process with a lifetime appointment. If you agree, contact your senators and urge them to vote NO on Bogren.

Originally published here.

President’s Day — in June!

It’s not every day that you get a call that the President of the United States is on his way to your church. But for McLean Bible Church Pastor David Platt, the unannounced stop was a chance for his large congregation to do what Scripture commands: pray for Donald Trump.

For churches across the country, Franklin Graham’s call to intercede for the president came at an important time. Tensions overseas, division at home, hostility from the media, and even voices inside that would tempt him to cave on core values — they all set the stage for believers across America to heed I Timothy 2.

“First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.”

As Pastor Platt said, “We don’t want to do that just on this Sunday. We want to do that continually, day in and day out. So I want to ask us to bow our heads together now and pray for our president.”

“We know we need your mercy. We need your grace. We need your help. We need your wisdom in our country. And so we stand right now…. and we pray for your grace and your mercy and your wisdom upon [our president]. We pray that he would look to you; that he would trust in you; that he would lean on you; that he would govern and make decisions in ways that are good for justice, good for righteousness, good for equity, every good path.”

From coast to coast, tens of thousands of similar prayers rang out — Americans, joined by a love of this nation, asking God’s blessing on a man who doesn’t just lead our country, but who needs Jesus as much as the rest of us. I hope, as believers, we commit to keeping Donald Trump in our daily prayers. As Pastor Platt said, may the gospel seeds that were sown Sunday continue to bear fruit in the president’s heart, give him courage and divine wisdom to make the right decisions for the challenges ahead.

Originally published here.

This is a publication of the Family Research Council. Mr. Perkins is president of FRC.