, what a neck short very leader ralph reed is. i want to say a word about my friend penny man stop penny is extraordinary stop concerned women of america are an army of women on the ground in all 50 states standing up for our nation. , i am profoundly optimistic that we will turn our nation around and the reason i am optimistic is because of the leaders who are gathered here today. each and every one of you standing up and leading and taking on the forces of darkness, the threat that face our nation. there are many issues we could talk about. we could talk about jobs and the economy, we can talk about taxes and regulatory reform. i want to talk about an issue that i think will be front and center in 2016. and that is religious liberty. i believe 2016 will be the religious liberty election. religious liberty has never been more threatened in america than right now today. and let's talk about religious liberty both at home and abroad. when i was the solicitor general of texas, i was proud to defend the 10 commandments monument on th

i to want to thank ralph reed, cofounder and chairman. ralph is an extraordinary leader over the years. he's worked hard in building the faith and freedom coalition. i want to thank all of you for being part of that and being here today. you've got another great conference this year. it seems nearly every republican presidential candidate is here, which is a testament to the importance of your organization. >> they were learning and studying the word of the lord. times like these, and great national morning, all of us must come together to reflect on this and fortify our strength to continue to go forth. i don't know about you that had big impact on me as i am sure it has with you. we need to support with each other. we need to continue to bear the witness got acts through us. even in crisis, even in desperate times we can always walkup right as brothers and sisters look to the heavens and know we're children of god. that gives us all strength and i know your hearts and prayers are with families and pastor who lost their life and hope it n

i particularly want to thank ralph reed, the founder and chairman. an extraordinary leader over the years. he has worked hard in building the faith and freedom coalition, and i want to thank all of you for being a part of it, and being here today. you have got another great conference this year. it seems nearly every republican presidential candidate is here which is a testament to the importance of your organization. i was hoping somebody might actually recognize me with all of these presidential candidates coming up here. it is a great treat, i know, for you to have a chance to hear from all of them in one place at one time. mainly, i want to thank you for your involvement and for caring about the important issues that we face. i was reminded on the way over here of a story of a traveling preacher. the story goes that before making his way to the church the preacher wanted to mail a letter, so he asked a young boy along the way where the post office was. when the boy had told him, the preacher thanked him and said, if you will come to the baptist c

also going on in washington, ralph reed is hosting his faith leadership conference. this one has more extra emphasis on piety. here's a taste of how they carried the banner of religious freedom. senator cruz: religious liberty has never been more threatened that today. senator paul: we are borrowing $1 million a minute. we hardly have any money if you look at it. couldn't we start by not giving money to countries that hate us, burn our flag and persecute christians? senator rubio: the government is not meant to marginalize churches and synagogues. it is meant to protect them and their rights. senator cruz: i believe 2016 will be the religiously the election. john: ted cruz talked briefly about the gay marriage case in which the supreme court is about to rule. for the most part, all three of these candidates avoided directly engaging with it republican hot button issues called the like abortion. there are a bunch of republican hopefuls. on basis of what we heard today, what can we discern about the shape of the 2016 debate on social issues in the gop? mark: it is not

i to want to thank ralph reed cofounder and chairman. uilding the faith and freedom coalition. i want to thank all of you for being part of that and being here today. you've got another great conference this year. it seems nearly every republican presidential candidate is here which is a testament to the importance of your organization. i was just hoping somebody might actually recognize me with all these presidential candidates coming up here. as a great treat i know for you to have a chance to hear from all of them in one place at one time. mainly i want to thank you for your involvement and caring about the important issues that we face. i was reminded on the way over the story of a traveling preacher. the story goes before making his way to the church, the preacher wanted to mail a letter. for as a young boy along the way where the post office was. when the boy had told them, the preacher thanked him and said if you'll come to the baptist church this evening you can tell me -- you can hear me telling everyone how to get. i don't think

every one of you, ralph reed, what an extraordinary leader ralph reed is. [ applause ] he is tenacious. i'm pretty sure he never sleeps. and i have photographic proof that even if he does sleep when he sleeps, he's smiling. he brings a spirit of joy and utter determination to the task at hand of motivating people of faith to stand up and take our nation back. i also to want say a word about my friend penny nance. penny is extraordinary. concerned women of america are an army of women on the ground in all 50 states standing up for our nation. i'll tell you, i am profoundly optimistic we're going to turn our nation around. and the reason i'm optimistic is because of our leaders here today. the reason i'm optimistic is because each and every one of you standing up and leaving and taking on the forces of darkness the threats that face our nation. what i want to do this afternoon, there are many, many issues we could talk about. we could talk about jobs and the economy, we could talk about taxes and regulatory reform but i want to talk about an issue that i think will be front and center in

ralph reed was one. and gary bauer and bay buchanan and i were all working on that. the media dubbed us the "fearsome foursome." i want to react at this straight the fearless foursesome so we reactivate the battle this year. this is the biggest challenge of our life, to make sure that we get a good candidate and we support him and we win. don't be inclined to go third party. if you're inclined to go that way i invite you to move to europe. they have lots of useless third parties in europe. that is not our way. we have a two party system and i think you won't get very far trying to make the democratic party pro-life. you are stuck with the republican party. that is where the fight is and that is where we need you to get involved in politics. and eagle forum has been leading the way of that for years and we want to show again that our platform stands for traditional marriage the way god ordained it. we'll fight for it and we need everyone of you to be involved in politics from here through the 2016 election. it could be the most important election of our life and i wan

every one of you, ralph reid what an extraordinary leader ralph reed is. he is tenacious. i'm pretty sure he never sleeps. and i have photographic proof that even if he does sleep, when he sleeps, he's smiling. [laughter] he brings a spirit of joy and utter determination to the task at hand of motivating people of faith to stand up and take our nation back. i also want to say a word about my friend, penny nance. penny is extraordinary. [applause] concerned women of america are an army of women on the ground in all 50 states standing up for our nation. [applause] i'll tell you, i am profoundly optimistic that we're going to turn our nation around and the reason i'm optimistic is because of the leaders gathered here today. the reason i'm optimistic is because each and every one of you standing up and leading and taking on the forces of darkness, the threats that face our nation. what i want to do this afternoon, there are many, many issues we can talk about, we could talk about jobs and the economy, we could talk about taxes and regulatory reform. but i want to talk about an

ralph reed asked me to come here.was in utah the other day during an interview with a young woman and she said that sometimes you talk about faith. a lot of people don't like when you talk about faith. she said why do you do it and i said i will let you in on a little secret. the storms of life will come. it's inevitable. the lord is there to be with you, to support you, to give you strength. over the last 28 years, i've been set free. people say he takes the position sometimes we don't understand it. i will tell you what the lord has done for me. confidence strength and all the criticism. it doesn't matter a whole lot to me. i know the role i have to play on earth. to lift people and realize that all of those that were made in the image of the lord needs to be upheld. we know we need to love our enemies. that's a hard one. we know we have to be humble. we know we have to stand for the poor and the widowed. god bless those people in south carolina. they are playing for the game just like i am. i have a mission and a r

people like grover norquist and rand paul and the koch brothers and rick perry and eric holder and ralph reed. here is how hillary linton put it last month when she kicked off her campaign with her first policy speech. there is something wrong when one third of all black men faced the prospect of prison in their lifetimes. and estimated 1.5 million black men are missing from their families because of incarceration or premature death. it is time to change our approach and it is time to end the era of mass incarceration. we need a true national debate about how to reduce our prison population will eating our communities safe. this kickoff for a presidential campaign. i don't think anyone who is a veteran of this work that we do would have put smart money on that ever happening. here is the second point. this group has the potential to make good on the promise of smart effective reduction and over incarceration. different from what hillary said, you are not dated, you are doing. -- you are not debating, you are doing. there is a lot of talk out there and not a lot -- and not enough action. there

ralph reed asked me to come here. i was in utah the other day doing an interview. with a young woman. she said, sometimes you talk about faith. a lot of people don't like you when you talk about faith. why do you do it? i told her i would let her in on a secret. the storms of life will come, it is inevitable. how is your house built? the lord is there to be with you. to support you, to give you strength. over the last 28 years, i have been set free. people say, john kasich takes issue and we don't understand it. i will tell you what the lord has done for me. confidence, strength, and worldly criticism doesn't matter a lot to me. i know that the role that i have to play on earth, to lift people, to realize that all of those who are made in the image of the lord, need to be upheld. we know we need to love our enemies. that is a hard one. we know we have to be humble. we know we have to stand for the poor and the bereaved and the widowed. god bless those people in south carolina. they are playing for the larger game, i believe, just like i am. i have a mission, and i

everyone of you ralph reid what an extroidinary reader ralph reed is -- extraordinary -- he is tunation is nationtenacious and i am sure he doesn't sleep and i have photographic proof if he does sleep he does it smiling. he brings joy and utter celebration to the task of motivating people of faith to stand up and take the notion. and i want to talk about penny ann. penny is extraordinary -- concerned women of america are an army of women on the ground in all 50 0 states0 states standing up for our nation. [applause] >> i will tell you, i am profoundly optimistic we will turn the nation around and the reason antes rose is because of the leaders here and each of everyone of you standing up and leading and taking on the force of darkness that threats to face our nation. but i want to do this afternoon, there are maybe issues we could talk about. we could talk about jobs and the economy, we could talk about taxes and regulatory reform but i want to talk about an issue that i think will be front and center in 2016 and that is religious liberty. i believe 2016 will be the religious liberty el