#Faith2016 News Roundup (June 11)

(Note: This is the second in a series of posts that highlight some of the best news and commentary writing on the role of faith in the 2016 election. See my post from earlier in June.)

Here are some highlights from the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s Road to Majority 2016 conference. I will most frequently highlight writers who specialize in covering religion. But this post spotlights a few journalists who covered or commented on the event.

• Charlie Pierce of Esquire offers an insightful if occasionally glib comparison of the Christian right event in Washington to Mitt Romney’s anti-Trump confab in Utah.
• Hillary Clinton spoke at a Planned Parenthood event in Washington on Friday. Having finally and officially earned the endorsements of President Obama, Vice President Biden, and progressive favorite Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) this week, many people noted that each candidate spoke to the core of its base on Friday, which was unofficially the first day of the general election campaign. PBS NewsHour Political Director Lisa DesJardin had a good segment on the contrast.
• Washington Post blogger Jennifer Rubin had a provocative post entitled “Faith and Freedom Coalition Should Protect Both from Trump.” It’s worth reading because it concisely and unhesitatingly lays out the intractable dilemma the billionaire-playboy reality TV star poses authentic religious conservatives.
  

  If he wins with their support, they lose any moral standing to insist that their issues be taken seriously. No doubt many will consider any support for Trump to be hypocritical.

  If he wins without their support, other Republicans will conclude that religious voters don’t matter.

  If he loses with their support, they will have endangered their reputation for nothing.

  The only scenario in which value voters come out with their institutional and personal dignity intact is if Trump loses without their support. Only then does the party get the message that it has no chance to win without them.

• USA Today reporter David Jackson has a good news story that includes not only Trump’s speech, but also some broader context for readers to understand how (if?) this conference is consequential. Jackson notes that several speakers did not even mention Trump by name, giving further evidence of the difficult position in which the religious right finds itself.