Nick, The Washington Post reported on the March 26th event in which Rand Paul made the “moral crisis” comments. According to the video found on CBN’s Brody File, Paul told the pastors:
The First Amendment says keep government out of religion. It doesn’t say keep religion out of government. So you have a role and a place here. I open the Senate each Wednesday morning, and we open it every day with a prayer. So, you have prayer in your government. Our religion is part of our daily life and part of our government, and always has been. The one thing I would say is, and this is given as free advice, don’t always look to Washington to solve anything. And, in fact, the moral crisis we have in our country—there is a role for us trying to figure out things like marriage, there’s also a moral crisis that allows people to think that there would be some sort of other marriage. And so, really there’s a role outside and inside government. But I think the exhortation to try to change people’s thoughts also has to come from the countryside, from everywhere outside of Washington. In fact, we’re the most disconnected city on the planet from the people. So don’t have a lot of faith in what’s going on up here. That doesn’t mean don’t participate with us up here and try to make it better. Definitely do, but realize, like every other problem, that—I’ve said this before: We need a revival in the country. We need another Great Awakening with tent revivals of thousands of people saying reform or see what’s going to happen if we don’t reform.
Joshua Pinho works for American Principles in Action.
