Rand Paul Reaches Out to Evangelicals over 'Moral Crisis' Connected to Gay Marriage

Is he shifting further to the right on the issue?

I've previously noted that Sens. Rand Paul and Ted Cruz fundamentally have the same view on gay marriage (both are opposed; both want states to be able to manage law and ban). The difference between the two of them appeared to be that Cruz was more willing to make his social conservatism on marriage part of his platform, while Paul tended to bring it up as a response when asked about it.

Today, clips released from a prayer breakfast Thursday attended by Paul show his willingness to campaign on trying to appeal to evangelicals. David Brody of the Christian Broadcast Network has some exclusive clips here and here.

Paul talked about how there's a "spiritual problem" behind America's woes and called for a new religious revival. And he's very explicit about his religious disapproval of same-sex marriage, tying it to a "moral crisis" currently taking place in America. Talking to his audience, he said, "The moral crisis we have in our country—there is a role for us to figure out things like marriage. There's also a moral crisis that allows people to think there would be some sort of other marriage."

That is reaching a little bit further than the Paul who wants to leave the matter up to the states, though he did tell his audience not to rely on Washington to deal with these matters for them. This is the guy who previously said he doesn't want to have to register either his guns or his marriage in Washington and said he doesn't think the government "needs to be too involved with this." Watch the clip yourself below and decide whether this represents another shift in Paul's positions. Or perhaps you may be more concerned about him saying we should keep government out of religion, but not keep religion out of government: