Mitt Romney, the 2012 GOP presidential nominee, waded into the fray surrounding Arizona's controversial religious freedom bill which opponents say discriminates against gays when he urged the state's Republican Gov. Jan Brewer to veto it because it is the "right" thing to do.

In a tweet to Gov. Brewer shared with his 1.55 million followers Tuesday evening, Romney noted: "veto of #SB1062 is right." It has since been retweeted more than 2,500 times as of Wednesday morning and has more than 1,400 favorites.

Romney's tweet came as a surprise to many, particularly due to his staunch opposition to same-sex marriage.
"This coming from the guy who opposed same sex marriage. Massachusetts as governor? @MittRomney:@GovBrewer: veto of #SB1062 is right," tweeted Jason Evan Mihalko.

"Wow. I really did NOT see that one coming. #progress," tweeted Dan Richter.

In an interview with CNN on the issue Monday Brewer, who has until Saturday to sign or veto SB 1062, did not indicate which way she will decide. If she does nothing, the bill will automatically become law.

"I can assure you, as always, I will do the right thing for the state of Arizona," she told CNN.

"I'm going to go home, and when I receive the bill, I'm going to read it and I'm going to be briefed on it. We have been following it. And I will make my decision in the near future," she said.

According to the report, however, Arizona Republicans who know the governor well say it is very likely that she will veto the bill that many argue if it becomes law will be bad for Arizona's economy.

Popular conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh charged on his radio show Tuesday that Gov. Brewer is being bullied into vetoing the bill by gay advocates.

"Religious beliefs can't be used to stop anything the left wants to impose, unless they're Muslim religious beliefs and then we have to honor those. But any other religious beliefs are not permitted," said Limbaugh, according to a Politico report. "The left will not allow them. Now, the current thinking is that Gov. Brewer will probably veto the bill, which, you might think on the face of it will make her a hero with the news media and the rest of the left."

He explained that vetoing SB 1062 will make her a hero for a total of "five minutes." After that, she will continue to be a "near criminal conservative Republican," said Limbaugh. "Their reaction will be, what took her so long? Why did she even consider not vetoing this?"

"She's being bullied by the homosexual lobby in Arizona and elsewhere," he continued. "She's being bullied by the nationwide drive-by media, she's being bullied by certain elements of corporate America in order to advance the gay agenda. I guess in that circumstance bullying is admirable. In fact, this kind of bullying is honorable."

Russell D. Moore has responded to the accusation that he and other conservative Christians are hypocrites if they suggest that some persons' consciences won't allow them to use their creative gifts to help celebrate same-sex weddings.

In his Sunday article – "On Weddings and Conscience: Are Christians Hypocrites?" – Moore, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, defended his view that Christian professionals may deny their services to help celebrate same-sex weddings due to their conscientious objections.

He was writing in response to an article by Kirsten Powers and Jonathan Merritt in The Daily Beast on Sunday.

"If you refuse to photograph one unbiblical wedding, you should refuse to photograph them all. If not, you'll be seen as a hypocrite and as a known Christian, heap shame on the Gospel," the authors charged. "As all Christians know, Jesus saved his harshest words for the hypocritical behavior of religious people. So, if Christian wedding vendors want to live by a law the Bible does not prescribe, they must at least be consistent.

"Before agreeing to provide a good or service for a wedding, Christian vendors must verify that both future spouses have had genuine conversion experiences and are 'equally yoked' (2 Corinthians 6:14) or they will be complicit with joining righteousness with unrighteousness. They must confirm that neither spouse has been unbiblically divorced (Matthew 19)."

Powers and Merritt were referring to Moore's earlier column for The Gospel Coalition, in which he gave advice to a conflicted photographer. Moore had advised that the self-identified evangelical Christian politely decline to film a same-sex wedding but for all other weddings, the photographer "need not investigate … whether the wedding you are photographing is Christ-honoring."

In his latest piece, Moore responded by pointing out that the two authors did not quote the next sentence, which read, "But when there is an obvious deviation from the biblical reality, sacrifice the business for the conscience, your own and those of the ones in your orbit who would be confused."

Moore explained that the photographer would generally have no ability or authority to find out the sorts of things a pastor or church elders would about a marrying couple. "Unless the photographer has a reason to think this (that the wedding is unbiblical), he needn't hire a private investigator or ask for birth certificates and court papers to make sure it's not."

The case of a same-sex marriage is "obviously wrong, in every case," Moore stressed. "There are no circumstances in which a man and a man or a woman and a woman can be morally involved in a sexual union (I have no reason to assume that Powers and Merritt disagree with apostolic Christianity on this point. If so, they should make that clear)."

Moore wrote that it's fine for the Daily Beast to ridicule the sexual ethic of the historic Christian church, represented confessionally across the divide of Catholicism, Protestantism, and Orthodoxy. But "it's quite another thing for the state to coerce persons through fines and penalties and licenses to use their creative gifts to support weddings they believe to be sinful."

"This article (in The Daily Beast) maintains that there are no circumstances in which the Bible 'calls Christians to deny services to people who are engaging in behavior they believe violates the teachings of Christianity regarding marriage.' Really? Does that apply only to the morality of marriage? Should a Christian (or Muslim or Orthodox Jewish or feminist New Age) web designer be compelled to develop a site platform for a legal pornography company?" Moore asked.

It's debatable how consciences can be protected by law and in the courts, he noted, "but acting as though those concerned about such things are the reincarnation of Jim Crow is unworthy of this discussion."

State senators in Arizona voted heavily along partisan lines Wednesday in passing a bill that allows business owners to refuse service to homosexuals based on their religious beliefs.

With Republicans in the majority, the bill, SB 1062, passed with a 17-13 vote. It defeated attempts to expand existing employment laws which protect against racial and religious discrimination to include sexual orientation, according to theArizona Daily Star. A companion bill is also expected to pass in the House shortly.

"This bill is not about discrimination," said Yarbrough who is a sponsor of the bill. "It's about preventing discrimination against people who are clearly living out their faith."

The Arizona Senate Democratic Caucus responded in a statement that the group opposes the bill because it "conflates discrimination with religious freedom."

"SB 1062 permits discrimination under the guise of religious freedom," said Senate Democratic Leader Anna Tovar in the statement. "With the express consent of Republicans in this Legislature, many Arizonans will find themselves members of a separate and unequal class under this law because of their sexual orientation. This bill may also open the door to discriminate based on race, familial status, religion, sex, national origin, age or disability."

Democratic Sen. Steve Gallardo who represents Phoenix said while everyone has the right to their religious beliefs he doesn't agree with the premise of SB 1062.

"I do not agree that we have the right to discriminate because of our religious beliefs," said Gallardo. "I do not believe we have to throw our religious beliefs to others that don't share our same beliefs."

Arizona currently has laws protecting individuals and businesses from any state action which substantially interferes with their right to exercise their religion. SB 1062 bolsters that protection by extending coverage to private transactions as well.

A San Diego council member has become the first openly gay Republican to include his same-sex partner in a campaign advertisement.

Carl DeMaio, who is currently attempting to win the Republican primary, and challenge Democrat Rep. Scott Peters, has featured footage of his partner, Johnathan Hale, and himself at a pride parade in 2012 in a campaign spot that was released on Thursday.

GOP campaign officials and Elizabeth Wilner, who tracks campaign ads for the nonpartisan firm Kantar Media, told TheWall Street Journal that to their knowledge this was the first political advertisement from either party which included a politician's gay partner.

DeMaio, who is running against two other Republicans, has received the support of several high profile House leaders, including Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who have given the campaign $10,000 and $5,000 respectively.

DeMaio said that Hale did not have a problem appearing in the video because he supported his partner's political ambitions.

"You know, I think he's very supportive because he knows that I am very passionate about reforming our nation's finances and getting people back to work and holding government accountable just like I did in San Diego to save the city from bankruptcy," DeMaio told The Wall Street Journal. "In order to do this, I think we need to fix our political party, getting it off the divisive social issues and refocusing their attention on fiscal and economic reforms that are able to unite Americans, rather than divide them."

DeMaio also said he didn't think including Hale was a "big deal."

"You see straight candidates feature their spouses, their children, and sometimes their household pets," he added.

The Wall Street Journal's Patrick O'Connor predicted that there could be a "backlash from some conservative activists who have made this a big issue," citing Brian Brown, president of the National Organization for Marriage as an example.

Brown sent an email to supporters in September that said that DeMaio was a "pro-gay 'marriage,' pro-abortion candidate" and that the council member was "fine with abandoning the most important foundational institution of society."

He also called DeMaio a "trophy candidate [Republicans] can point to and say to the media, 'see, we're progressive, too. We've evolved' … In DeMaio, they hope to have a colleague who can steer their way to some of the millions that go into gay political causes."

DeMaio is one of three openly gay Republicans running for Congress this year, including Dan Innis in New Hampshire and Richard Tisei in Massachusetts.

"I think if you are a party that believes in financial freedom and economic freedom and you're against the government taking money or government mandating or regulating businesses, then I think that your commitment to personal freedom should extend to people's private lives," said DeMaio. "Let's get government out of what happens in people's personal lives and in their people's bedrooms and refocus the attention of government to economic reform because those issues are pressing and have not been really addressed by either party in recent years."

A biographer and friend of Ruth and Billy Graham said the couple formed a perfect partnership and that their love remained strong even into old age.

"She was his life partner in everything, an integral part of his ministry," Hanspeter Nuesch, 30-year director of Campus Crusade for Christ in Switzerland, told The Christian Post in an interview on Wednesday. Nuesch's new book, Ruth and Bill Graham: The Legacy of a Couple, was released last month.

Nuesch told CP that he wrote his book because he saw several hundred books on the life and ministry of Billy Graham, 95, but none covering the story of the couple. "Ruth has played such an important role in this ministry. We have to write a book on the couple," the author explained.

As he researched the wife, who died in 2007, of renowned evangelist Billy Graham, Nuesch "realized she was a really exceptional person – as exceptional as Billy." The story of the couple's romance plays a central role in his book.

A Long, Persisting Romance

"In your thinking, we have grown apart due to the wide separation of our various interests, but I feel closer to you than ever," Ruth wrote her husband while he was on a long evangelistic crusade in England, Nuesch quoted. "Wherever you are, I go with you in mind and heart, praying for you continually." Despite their long separation – two months – Ruth wrote, "Your problems, real heartaches, and glorious victories are much more my very own."

Nuesch explained that the romance lasted through the Grahams' entire marriage, even growing stronger in old age. "If you speak with Billy about Ruth his eyes always light up and he speaks so highly of her," the biographer explained.

The couple "felt that within God's guidelines sexuality was a gift of God, given for the marriage partners' enjoyment and not only for procreation," Nuesch wrote. Graham publicly disagreed with the pope on this matter, arguing that "young people are getting the wrong idea about sex – within marriage it's the most wonderful of relationships." The Grahams would often kiss in public.

Nuesch told a story that revealed the Grahams' attitude toward divorce. When Ruth was asked on camera if she ever thought about divorce, she responded with a joking glimmer in her eye. "Divorcing never, but killing several times." This was her feisty personality, "a very normal person, very authentic, full of fun," the biographer explained.

Partnership

The biographer argued that the defining characteristic of the Grahams' marriage was its partnership. "They saw their ministry as a teamwork," Nuesch said. "God has called Ruth, just as clearly as He has called Billy. He called her as clearly to evangelism, but she expressed this call by staying at home, taking care of the family and freeing Billy up to be the evangelist."

Ruth would often joke that "God has delivered me, He has liberated me for staying at home and praying, not having to run after Billy all the day." She sacrificed her lifelong dream of preaching the Gospel in Tibet in order to raise a family and strengthen her husband's ministry. Nuesch explained that their separate roles helped them to run the family well while Billy spread the Gospel across the world.

Ruth was not just an evangelist by backing up Billy, however. The daughter of former President Richard Nixon, "Julie Nixon Eisenhower, said she was led to the Lord through Ruth Graham," Nuesch recalled. "If Billy has been given the gift of evangelism, Ruth has been given the gift of faith," Eisenhower said.

Nuesch even described Ruth as the person of faith in the Graham household. "In sermons, Billy led, but at home, she was supporting him, encouraging him. She embodied faith much more than Billy," the biographer explained. "Billy often said my world mission would have been impossible without her encouragement and support."

A Common Mission

The Grahams pursued a closer relationship with God together, as a family. "They both saw that it was their common mission to help share the Gospel to the world, to make Jesus known," Nuesch explained. When Billy Graham went away on evangelistic crusades, he would call Ruth at 5 o'clock in the afternoon, and they would pray together.

Both Ruth and Billy looked beyond worldly fame and never boasted of meeting important people, instead focusing on serving the Lord in their interactions with others, Nuesch said. He recalled an instance where the president was calling, and Billy Graham "would say 'I don't have time – I just have to talk to our housemaid at the moment. I'll call you back.'"

Ruth never put her husband on a pedestal.

"People who knew them best said they are even better at home than they are on the podium, and that is a very strong testimony for a person," Nuesch recounted. He counted authenticity and integrity among the Grahams' key traits.

The biographer argued that the strongest part of the Grahams' marriage was their prayer life. "There is no better recipe for a good marriage than to pray together frequently, because in this way you sense your spouse's heart," he explained. Both Ruth and Billy prayed and read Scripture constantly, very often with each other.