1. Bob now distances himself from his earlier homophobia, what part not politics genuine epiphany. Bob 2.0 now claims he isn't morally superior to anyone, allowing how he's even progressed so far as to overcome his aversion to PAC money and political careerism. I don't share Bob's new notion of moral equivalence. I'm demonstrably his moral superior. And he may have moved on from righteousness, but I got it to burn. Bob can beg all the spiritual bread he likes, but such meager crust as I've ever had never left me so starved as to say what he has. I've also never been party to aggressive war. Had Bob acquired any great and useful conception of morality he would by now at least have acknowledged the two-thirds of a million innocent dead so far from our country's invasion of Iraq. Maybe Bob 3.0 will do this. Ted DOS would have.

2. I don't claim "Bob Inglis doesn't think for himself on Iraq". I say on my website I don't know what Bob thinks about Iraq, if in fact he knows himself. What he thinks is immaterial. His actions to now have been for Bush.

Ted Christian
write-in candidate for the 4th Congressional District
www.christianforcongress.us

from www.inglisforcongress.com/response.asp#Christian:

Objections from Ted Christian, write-in candidate:
Claim: Bob Inglis is saying: "The homosexual lobby is attacking marriage! Right ... Big Gay is out to destroy heterosexuality."

Bob Inglis's response:
As to my thoughts on various issues involving homosexuality, please see these two links to op-ed pieces that I’ve written:

Marriage amendment's failure isn't a sign of our 'slouching toward Gomorrah'

Culture Wars: Nation should be fighting to restore the kingdom of the heart

One of the things I would change about “Inglis 1.0” (my description of my first years in office) is the self-righteousness that I displayed. I was for term limits and I limited myself. I was against PAC money and I rejected their contributions. I posited myself as being pure as the driven snow and morally superior to my colleagues.

Then I lost the Senate race in 1998 and had six years to sit in the audience and see the show from a different perspective. I saw actors saying and doing things that made me cringe. I looked in the rear-view mirror and realized that I had said and done all of those things.

In returning to Congress for Inglis 2.0, I hope to lose some of the sanctimony. I am not morally superior to my colleagues or to anyone else on the face of the planet. I hope that this admission allows me to be a more robust agent of grace, displaying the truth that U2 sings about in their song “Grace”:

Grace, she takes the blame
She covers the shame
Removes the stain
. . .
It’s also a thought that can change the world
. . .
What once was hurt
What once was friction
What left a mark
No longer stings
Because Grace makes beauty
Out of ugly things
Grace makes beauty out of ugly things.

I said all of the things that you asked about in your email below. I said even worse. In 1993 in Greer I said that homosexuals were, “Sick, wrong and perverted.” Of all the self-righteous things I’ve ever uttered in public, that was the worst. There would have been only one way to have fixed it and that is to have added the words, “Just like me.” The reality is that we are all in need of grace. My receipt of that free gift doesn’t make me morally superior; it makes me the beggar who’s found bread and who should tell other beggars where they can find the same real bread.

Claim: Bob Inglis doesn't think for himself on Iraq
Stay the course” not a good enough answer for Iraq, Inglis says
(August 29, 2006)

U.S. Rep. Bob Inglis (R-SC), said Tuesday that Americans should not be content to “stay the course” and that Iraqi leaders need to hear an impatient insistence that they make progress in reigning in a potential civil war.

Inglis returned Aug. 25 from a 10-day fact-finding trip in the Middle East that included meetings in Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Israel and Sudan. He traveled with Rep. Chris Shays (R-CT), Chairman of the House Government Reform Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats and International Relations, Brian Higgins (D-NY) and Al Green (D-TX).

“Stay the course is not a good enough answer for the American people,” Inglis said. “We listened and learned a lot while we were on this trip, but we also delivered a message. All of us—Republican and Democrat alike—repeatedly communicated to our Iraqi hosts that they must make rapid progress in answering the questions that, left unanswered, threaten a civil war.

“They need to deal with the question of division of oil revenues,” Inglis said. “They need to fix the problems caused by de-Baathification. They need to develop a working model of pluralism. ‘Stay the course’ cannot mean that we stand around while they take their sweet time to answer those questions.”

Inglis reiterated his admiration for American troops serving in Iraq. “The hardest thing about visiting in Iraq is leaving. You have the sense that you’re at the epicenter of mission and purpose. It’s hard to leave when you’re with America’s best—volunteers all, doing work of real significance. I was very conscious of my need to help supply the civilian political leadership necessary to move us down the road toward resolution.”

Inglis said a partition government is a real possibility if the Iraqi government does not make immediate progress.