Maybe They Should Pray Harder...
With none of the leading GOP candidates willing to put gay-bashing, a ban on premarital sex and a demand for the death penalty for abortions at the forefront of their campaign, religious conservatives are at a crossroads:
Well, if the data is true, than someone better start pandering to this voting bloc:
I would think that after being bamboozled by Ronald Reagan and GWB this group would catch on: the GOP will never outlaw homosexuality, premarital sex and abortions because then there would be no issue to use to get the votes of the Religious Right. But as long as they (the GOP) continues to bait the RR with promises of an Old Testament-driven America, these guys seem more than willing to bite.
The irony? Christianity is also about helping the poor (SCHIP legislation), the unfortunate (Hurricane Katrina victims) and making peace with your neighbors (foreign policy)...things the Religious Right seem to care nothing about.
"There's no one Republican presidential candidate that inspires them, and the movement leaders can find fault in one way or another with all the candidates," said John Green, a senior fellow at the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. "It's hard to tell if it means that their influence is waning. But they're likely to have more influence if they stay united. The longer they stay behind several candidates, the less influence they'll have."
Well, if the data is true, than someone better start pandering to this voting bloc:
A recent Pew Research Center survey found that 43 percent of Republicans say social issues will be very important in deciding how to vote in 2008, and another 31 percent call issues like abortion and marriage somewhat important...
[snip]
...Roughly one in five conservatives, churchgoers and Christian evangelicals are undecided.
I would think that after being bamboozled by Ronald Reagan and GWB this group would catch on: the GOP will never outlaw homosexuality, premarital sex and abortions because then there would be no issue to use to get the votes of the Religious Right. But as long as they (the GOP) continues to bait the RR with promises of an Old Testament-driven America, these guys seem more than willing to bite.
The irony? Christianity is also about helping the poor (SCHIP legislation), the unfortunate (Hurricane Katrina victims) and making peace with your neighbors (foreign policy)...things the Religious Right seem to care nothing about.
Comments
"I’m just a small town country boy from Wisconsin, so it was a thrill when I actually got to be on National Radio Thursday (18th).
I’m a greens keeper and I was working in the shop that afternoon when Janet Folger’s national “Faith to Action” Christian radio show came on and the topic was about an upcoming gathering of national evangelical leaders this weekend, to discuss which candidate they should unite behind.
For those of you who aren’t aware, a few weeks ago Ms. Folger hosted what she called the “Values Voter” debate. All of the Democrats refused to attend, as did the “top” 4 Republicans (none of whom the extreme-right evangelicals seem to be interested in anyway).
The debate was set up so that the candidates who DID show up (Huckabee, Tancredo, Hunter, Brownback, Keyes, Paul, and a couple of others) would answer questions presented by 40 different “Family Values” conservative “leaders“ like James Dobson, Mat Staver, and Phyllis Schlafly, and the candidates would be judged on their answers by an audience of 2700 hand-picked delegates. Hand-picked, by the way, by those same 40 conservative “leaders”.
Leading up to the debate, Ms. Folger had asked for 40 days of fasting and prayer, “so that God may reveal his choice”.
But at the end of the debate, it was a split vote.
The panel and their hand picked audience had picked Mike Huckabee. The one who gave “all the right answers” to every question. But as Ms. Folger points out, he was but one among the many who gave the right answers to most of the questions anyway.
The internet poll, on the other hand, (made up of the thousands of those watching the debate on satellite TV, listening on several Christian radio networks, or over the ‘net itself) overwhelmingly picked the one who “stood out”. The one who had stood up there and answered every single question according to his principles, and not according to what this particular crowd wanted to hear. Dr. Ron Paul. Dr. Paul, you see, told Ms. Folger’s panel that he was unwilling to limit the free speech rights of pornographers (gasp) . He was unwilling to allow the government to become involved in people’s medical decisions. He favors civil rights for all people. He even believes that things like prostitution and drug use are moral questions, not legal ones. But even with all of his “wrong answers” Dr. Paul not only walked away with the internet poll, he still finished 2nd amongst her hand picked crowd too.
The next day, Ms. Folger spewed out the same ridiculous lie that Ron Paul supporters are becoming all too familiar with, that his stats on the internet poll had been skewed by spammers. Never mind that in most of the polls I’ve visited, I’ve only been allowed to vote once, but apparently none of the other Republican candidates (including the “top tier”) are smart enough to have their own “bloggers” out there skewing polls if this really is the case. But then again, Ms. Folger is quite familiar with the tactic of “deception”.
Considering Ms. Folger’s political background, I was surprised that she must never have heard the axiom of, “if a man is to secure his own liberty, he must be willing to defend his enemy’s liberty to the death. For what freedoms are taken from him today, will be taken from you tomorrow”.
I had hoped to share it with her, but didn‘t get the chance. As you will see:
Janet Folger: “We have Brian from Bunker Hill”
Me: “I was wondering why after 40 days of fasting and prayer for God to show us His choice, why we are not backing the ONE who stood out?”
JF: “Which one was that?”
Me: “Dr. Ron Paul”
JF: “He stood out all right. He stood out because he gave all the wrong answers.”
Me: “Maybe they were only the wrong answers in man’s eyes?”
JF: “ There are some things where we have to look to the Bible over the Constitution…”
Me: “Excuse me, but the Bible takes precedence over the Constitution in our individual lives, not in our government.”
At which point she got rude, hung up on me, and went on about Dr. Paul‘s “wrong answers“.
I wish she had let me continue. I wish she had let me explain that it has been the Christian principle of Liberty that has made this country great. And then I would have shared that axiom with her. Because if we don’t fight tooth and nail for the Liberties of EVERYONE we disagree with, soon none of us will have Liberty. Ron Paul was the only candidate on that panel with the courage and honesty to stand up there on that stage and tell me that he will fight for my right to stand on a street corner and read from the Bible. Because he will fight for that right for my enemies too. He is willing to stand up for the rights, protections, and freedoms of ALL families. Not just those Ms. Folger declares as “worthy”. He is willing to stand up for ME and my family to make ALL of my medical decisions, instead of allowing the government to make those decisions for me, even “end of life” ones. No, Dr. Paul didn’t give the “wrong answers”. The answers that Ms. Folger and her theocratic thugs were expecting to hear were the “wrong answers”. Dr. Paul gave answers based on honesty, integrity, freedom, and peace. In other words, Dr. Paul gave the answers God would want to hear.
Ms. Folger is right about one thing though, this is the most important election we will face in our lifetime. The wrong choice from either side has the potential to destroy our country as we know it, as the “land of the free”.
Dr. Paul has the potential to reach across all party lines. True fiscal conservatives and anti-war liberals can BOTH support Dr. Paul. Imagine that! Goldwater conservatives, La Follette progressives, and moveon.org getting behind the same candidate!
And Dr. Paul is the ONLY Republican that can win. No matter how much Ms. Folger says that she is a “single-issue” voter, and that the issue for her is “life”, that is not the “single-issue” THIS election is going to be about. THIS election is going to be about the phony “war on terror“.
Dr. Paul is the only one on the Republican side who can stand up to any of the Democrats’ “top three” and expose their public stances on the war as a continuation of a failed foreign policy, rather than the “anti-war” positions that they pretend them to be. Not one of the Democratic front-runners would guarantee that they’d have all of the troops out by inaugaration day 2013!! Dr. Paul would have them out inside the first year, beginning immediately on Inauguration Day. 2009.
74% of this country is against this war. Dr. Paul is the ONLY one on the conservative side who agrees with the American people on this. If he were to be the nominee, he’d be able to knock the likely candidate from the other side into the dust, as none of them appear to agree with the American people. That’s something none of the other Republicans (including the 4 “top tier”) can do because they are all also amongst the 26%! The wrong side, according to the American people.
But as Ms. Folger’s “Bible over the Constitution” remark revealed, she is more interested in instituting a Judeo-Christian theocracy in this country, rather than living up to her show’s “tagline”: “Life, LIBERTY, and the family”. Apparently the only “Life” Ms. Folger is interested in is the “unborn”, not those dying every day in this phony “war on terror“. The “ban gay marriage” movement she is just a small part of has shown that the only “Family” she has any interest in are those of “married”, heterosexuals. And, apparently, “Liberty” in that tagline means, only if you’re a “Christian“.
If any of you are in the vicinity of Chicago next Saturday, the 27th, stop by the Peace Rally and look up the Ron Paul representatives. The rest of you, I urge you to look into Dr. Paul. The deeper you look, the more you see a man of principles and integrity who honestly wants the “power” to be in OUR hands, while insuring peace and freedom for ALL of us.
One Louv all,
Brian