Thompson Says He Won't Tout His Religion on Trail (Update3)

By Kim Chipman

Sept. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Republican presidential contender Fred Thompson, who is basing his campaign on an appeal to conservative voters, says he isn't a regular churchgoer and doesn't plan to speak about his religion on the stump.

Thompson, in his first campaign stop in South Carolina, told a crowd of about 500 Republicans yesterday that he gained his values from ``sitting around the kitchen table'' with his parents and ``the good Church of Christ.''

The former senator from Tennessee later told reporters that his church attendance ``varies.''

``I attend church when I'm in Tennessee. I'm in McLean right now,'' he said referring to the Virginia suburb of Washington, where he lives with his wife, Jeri, and their two young children. ``I don't attend regularly when I'm up there.''

Thompson, 65, said he usually goes to church when visiting his mother, who attends a Church of Christ in Brentwood, Tennessee, outside of Nashville. Thompson said he isn't a member of any church in the Washington area.

Thompson's remarks may not play well with some religious voters who represent a sizable segment of the Republican Party and whose support he has been courting, portraying himself as a ``common-sense conservative.'' President George W. Bush received 78 percent of the evangelical Christian vote in 2004 while Democrat John Kerry got 21 percent of that vote, according to the Pew Research Center.

Talking About God

In his first South Carolina campaign event yesterday, Thompson brought up his childhood church and said God gives him the ``strength and wisdom'' to tell ``the truth.'' The comments marked the most Thompson has said to date on the campaign trail about his religion.

A woman in the crowd asked the former senator whether he would commit to talking about God nationwide, not just in a southern state such as South Carolina, where many people identify themselves as evangelical Christians.

Thompson responded by saying he has a relationship with God and doesn't plan to talk about it widely on the campaign trail.

``I know that I'm right with God and the people I love,'' he said in Greenville. But it's ``just the way I am not to talk about some of these things.''

He then launched into part of his stump speech, touting his ``100 percent pro-life voting record'' and talking about how seeing the sonogram of his now almost 4-year-old daughter, Hayden, had a profound effect on him.

Thompson's churchgoing habits weren't a problem for at least one onlooker.

Leaning Toward Thompson

``I like where he stands. I like his moral aptitude,'' said Pam Wolff, 61, of Greer, South Carolina. ``Whether or not he attends church every Sunday doesn't matter to me.''

Asked by reporters later to clarify his stance on religion, Thompson said: ``Me getting up and talking about what a wonderful person I am and that sort of thing, I'm not comfortable with that, and I don't think it does me any good. People will make up their own mind about that, and that's the way I like it.''

South Carolina, which along with Florida will hold the first southern U.S. primary, turned out the biggest and most enthusiastic crowds of Thompson's five-day campaign trip following his official announcement of candidacy last week.

Thompson also traveled through New Hampshire and Iowa, the first two states to hold presidential nominating contests.

Bypassed Debate

Thompson sat out the Iowa straw poll on Aug. 11 and bypassed a Republican presidential debate in New Hampshire on Sept. 5 in favor of appearing on ``The Tonight Show With Jay Leno'' to announce his candidacy, a move that drew criticism from some political observers.

``He has managed to royally annoy both'' states, said Steffen Schmidt, a political science professor at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa. ``His mission is to attract GOP primary voters and Iowa caucus attenders. Leno would be good for the general election or California maybe.''

Thompson has a shorter time to connect with voters and raise funds than his primary competition -- frontrunner Rudy Giuliani and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, who have been campaigning for months.

Thompson says that his No. 1 priority as president would be national security. He frequently talks about the need for Americans to come together to show a united front in the war against radical Islamic terrorists around the world who want to ``bring western civilization, primarily the U.S., to its knees.''

Broader War

Thompson says Iraq is just part of a broader war and that without the 2003 U.S. invasion, ``there's no question'' that Saddam Hussein would have ``nuclearized the Middle East.''

Two days ago -- standing on the same City Hall steps in Nashua, New Hampshire, where John F. Kennedy declared his presidency 47 years ago -- Thompson was asked how he would make funding of the Iraq war more transparent while also ensuring adequate money in the federal budget for maintaining the U.S. infrastructure.

The Aug. 1 collapse of a Minneapolis bridge that killed 13 people -- the worst U.S. bridge failure in 25 years --``went down because things aren't being paid attention to at home,'' said Cindy Holden, 57, a nurse who asked the question.

In response, Thompson launched into an almost 10-minute answer focused on why it was necessary to overthrow Saddam Hussein. He didn't mention infrastructure.

``I think he lost track of it because he wanted us to understand why he thought what we had done wasn't so bad,'' Wolff said, referring to Iraq.

To contact the reporter on this story: Kim Chipman in Washington at kchipman@Bloomberg.net .

Last Updated: September 11, 2007 15:24 EDT

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