LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY wyldraven)

Salon: Thompson proposes a new gay marriage amendment

[...] It's not every day that a presidential candidate gets asked point-blank what to do about "deviancy." But there was Fred Thompson in Sioux City Friday morning, taking this question from a voter: "My question is what society's position should be on deviancy, including homosexuality?" asked an older, white-haired man.

The concept of "deviancy" is in the headlines here in Iowa because a county judge recently threw out the state's ban on gay marriage, saying it violated the constitutional rights to due process and equal protection. The ruling has since been stayed while it is appealed to the state's Supreme Court.

Thompson answered the deviancy question with a considerable lack of specificity. "Well, society's position and the government position, and what the government ought to do to exercise the power of the federal government, is not necessarily the same thing," he said. Then he said that the government should treat everyone the same way, and that "we should not set aside categories to give special set-aside treatments" to specific groups. This is the language, more or less, of the religious right, which argues that laws that protect gays and lesbians from discrimination amount to unjustified special legal privileges. [...]

[highlighting mine]

He's already using Dominionist code words in his campaigning. Is he doing it consciously? He is anti-abortion (would like to see Roe v. Wade overturned) and anti-gay rights.[1] He is also a vocal global warming doubter.[2]

Thompson is a member of the Church of Christ, which is rooted in the Second Great Awakening.[3] James Dobson has been reported as saying Thompson is "Not a Christian", meaning apparently that he is not openly religious enough. It looks to me like Fred is trying to address that issue now, and move closer in line with the likes of Dobson.

In a recent poll, he is in a dead heat with Rudy Giuliani for the Republican nomination.[4]

[1]Thompson: Roe 'bad law and bad medicine'
[2]"Plutonic Warming"
[3]Fred Thompson’s Faith: Churches of Christ 101
[4]Fred Thompson in Dead Heat With Rudy Giuliani As He Enters the Race According to Rasmussen Reports