Paul Ryan Says Obama Would Compromise ‘Judeo-Christian’ Values
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Matt Sullivan/Getty Images(CASTLE ROCK, Colo.) — Paul Ryan squeezed in time on a four-stop, five-state day for a conference call with evangelical voters Sunday evening, issuing a warning about a second Obama term, saying the president is putting the country on a “dangerous path” that compromises “Judeo-Christian, western civilization values.”
Evangelical leader Ralph Reed’s influential group, the Faith and Freedom Coalition, hosted the call and Reed said “tens of thousands” of Evangelical Christians were listening in.
The GOP vice presidential nominee said in the “critical battleground states” it will make a “big difference” if people “are worried about…whether or not we’re going to go down the path the president has put us on.”
“It’s a dangerous path,” Ryan said in his opening remarks on the call. “It’s a path that grows government, restricts freedom and liberty, and compromises those values, those Judeo-Christian, western civilization values that made us such a great an exceptional nation in the first place.”
Ryan talks about his Catholic faith frequently on the trail but on Sunday evening, he went into more detail when a caller from Florida asked him how his faith has given him and his family courage throughout the campaign. Ryan said it “sustains us on a daily basis” and “we pray throughout the day,” noting he keeps a rosary in his pocket.
“It keeps us, keeps us humble, it keeps us strong, it keeps us in a great place, it gives us peace of mind,” Ryan said. “First prayer I say every morning is the serenity prayer.”
He said the hometown priest at his Catholic church in Janesville, Wis., emailed him Sunday night with a message: “Just have no fear.”
“And that’s how the Lord sustains me,” Ryan said. “No fear…It’s the prayer from my pastor, my family, with my family, and also it’s the prayers that are offered to me from perfect strangers that I know are out there praying, for Mitt [Romney] and myself, and our families, and our families are doing great.”
Ryan, who’s been with his three young children and wife, Janna, on the road for several days, said they are doing “very, very well” and they have been doing homework on the road this week.
“It’s because so many people around this country are praying for us and offering their prayers and coming up and giving us so many mementos that show they really care about this country and that they’re praying for us,” Ryan said.
As he does on the stump, he criticized President Obama for the administration’s mandate that hospitals and other employers affiliated with religious groups provide insurance coverage for contraception.
“We should not have to sue the federal government to keep our constitutional freedoms,” Ryan said, referring to the Catholic Church’s lawsuit over the mandate.
“Imagine what he would do if he actually got reelected. It just puts a chill down my spine,” he added.
Ryan will travel to Nevada next for a five-state, five-stop day on Monday.
Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio