A Republican Told Roy Moore to Stop Using His Photo. Moore Is Still Using It.

And in a fundraising email, Moore suggests this is all about the battle between God and Satan.

Roy Moore greeting supporters in September.Brynn Anderson/AP

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Roy Moore is still using a photo of Sen. Mike Lee in his fundraising emails—despite that fact that the Utah Republican asked the former judge now running for the US Senate in Alabama to stop doing so in the wake of allegations that Moore once initiated a sexual encounter with a 14-year-old girl.

Shortly after the Washington Post first reported this story on Thursday, Moore, a Republican, sent out an email asking supporters for money. The message touted Lee’s endorsement, as well as endorsements from Republican Sens. Ted Cruz (Texas) and Rand Paul (Ky.). Lee subsequently requested that Moore remove him from future pitches. According to the Salt Lake Tribune, Lee said through a spokesman that if the allegations against Moore are true, “Moore should resign.”

But when Moore sent out another fundraising email on Friday, Lee’s face still graced the appeal. This email—which blamed the “Obama-Clinton Machine” for spearheading a “vicious and nasty round of attacks” on Moore—didn’t mention Lee’s name. But it prominently featured Lee’s image, suggesting the Utah senator is still standing behind Moore. 

Image from Moore’s Friday fundraising email. Lee is the fellow on the far right. 

The latest Moore email was intriguing on another level. Its headline reads, “We are in a spiritual battle.” And the solicitation suggests that the recent Post story was part of a diabolical scheme targeting Moore. With such language, Moore’s campaign was trying to push a button for evangelical voters.

The phrase “spiritual battle” is rather close to the fundamentalist Christian concept of “spiritual warfare.” That is the notion that the world is basically defined by the titanic struggle between God and Satan and that the events of daily life are part of this clash, meaning Moore’s latest imbroglio is no mere case of a politician being hindered by reporting on his past behavior. No, something much bigger is afoot. 

The email proclaims,

The forces of evil are on the march in our country.

We are are in the midst of a spiritual battle with those who want to silence our message.

The forces of evil will lie, cheat, steal—even inflict physical harm—if they believe it will silence and shut up Christian conservatives like you and me.

Their goal is to frustrate and slow down our campaign’s progress to help the Obama-Clinton Machine silence our conservative message.

That’s why I must be able to count on the help of God-fearing conservatives like you to stand with me at this critical moment.

Without saying it explicitly, Moore is essentially asserting that the Post and anyone echoing or reinforcing its expose are in cahoots with the devil. This is a message designed for those who already know the truth.

Moore’s gambit seems rather obvious. His brother has compared his current predicament to the persecution of Jesus Christ. And now his campaign is signaling evangelicals that they need to have his back—and give him money—in his fight against the satanic forces that have somehow orchestrated a damaging news story based on 30 sources.

This raises the question: are Lee and other GOPers backing away from Moore in league with Beelzebub? Perhaps Moore’s next fundraising email will provide an answer.

WE'LL BE BLUNT.

We have a considerable $390,000 gap in our online fundraising budget that we have to close by June 30. There is no wiggle room, we've already cut everything we can, and we urgently need more readers to pitch in—especially from this specific blurb you're reading right now.

We'll also be quite transparent and level-headed with you about this.

In "News Never Pays," our fearless CEO, Monika Bauerlein, connects the dots on several concerning media trends that, taken together, expose the fallacy behind the tragic state of journalism right now: That the marketplace will take care of providing the free and independent press citizens in a democracy need, and the Next New Thing to invest millions in will fix the problem. Bottom line: Journalism that serves the people needs the support of the people. That's the Next New Thing.

And it's what MoJo and our community of readers have been doing for 47 years now.

But staying afloat is harder than ever.

In "This Is Not a Crisis. It's The New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, why this moment is particularly urgent, and how we can best communicate that without screaming OMG PLEASE HELP over and over. We also touch on our history and how our nonprofit model makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there: Letting us go deep, focus on underreported beats, and bring unique perspectives to the day's news.

You're here for reporting like that, not fundraising, but one cannot exist without the other, and it's vitally important that we hit our intimidating $390,000 number in online donations by June 30.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. It's going to be a nail-biter, and we really need to see donations from this specific ask coming in strong if we're going to get there.

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WE'LL BE BLUNT.

We have a considerable $390,000 gap in our online fundraising budget that we have to close by June 30. There is no wiggle room, we've already cut everything we can, and we urgently need more readers to pitch in—especially from this specific blurb you're reading right now.

We'll also be quite transparent and level-headed with you about this.

In "News Never Pays," our fearless CEO, Monika Bauerlein, connects the dots on several concerning media trends that, taken together, expose the fallacy behind the tragic state of journalism right now: That the marketplace will take care of providing the free and independent press citizens in a democracy need, and the Next New Thing to invest millions in will fix the problem. Bottom line: Journalism that serves the people needs the support of the people. That's the Next New Thing.

And it's what MoJo and our community of readers have been doing for 47 years now.

But staying afloat is harder than ever.

In "This Is Not a Crisis. It's The New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, why this moment is particularly urgent, and how we can best communicate that without screaming OMG PLEASE HELP over and over. We also touch on our history and how our nonprofit model makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there: Letting us go deep, focus on underreported beats, and bring unique perspectives to the day's news.

You're here for reporting like that, not fundraising, but one cannot exist without the other, and it's vitally important that we hit our intimidating $390,000 number in online donations by June 30.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. It's going to be a nail-biter, and we really need to see donations from this specific ask coming in strong if we're going to get there.

payment methods

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