Despite What His Spokesperson Says, Todd Akin Has Previously Made Similar Attacks On Liberals' Religious Beliefs

Republican Senate candidate Todd Akin has been getting slammed by religious leaders for making the following offensive comments:

I think NBC has a long record of being very liberal and at the heart of liberalism really is a hatred for God and a belief that government should replace God. And so they’ve had a long history of not being at all favorable toward many of things that have been such a blessing to our country.

Akin's spokesperson claimed that these remarks were "off-the-cuff" and that Akin didn't have sufficient time to explain his allegedly less-offensive point:

Akin Communications Director Steve Taylor said the point Akin was trying to make was that there is a basic difference between the tenets of liberalism and conservatism. Conservatives believe rights are granted by God and it is the responsibility of government to aid in protecting them, Taylor said.

“Liberals believe rights are granted by government,” he said. “Congressman Akin believes those two concepts define the basic debate between the two ideologies.”

Akin’s comments were off the cuff, Taylor said, and with more time to articulate his point he could have “provided a more artful answer.” But he wasn’t talking about anyone’s individual relationship with God, Taylor said, only the “defining principles of two political ideologies.”

Unfortunately for Akin, however, Gloria at ForwardSTL has unearthed some screen shots from Akin's 2010 website that show that, when he had all the time in the world to articulate his position, he said much the same thing:

True Conservatives believe that their Creator granted them certain unalienable rights, and this freedom has its origin in the heart of the citizens. This conviction works from the bottom up, moving from self-government to family-government to church-government and eventually to civil-government. Liberals instinctively seek to make civil government their god, and force everyone else to become their slaves through big government takeovers. They wish to control what you own, but also what you think.

In other words, even with all of the time in the world to craft his message, Akin still clearly is claiming that liberalism is in opposition to belief in God.