” My reading indicates that he [Goldwater] saw no place/role for Christians in the Republican party.”
I do not understand your comment. Why should any specific religion be important to a political party?
The original founding of the Republican Party in the 1850s specifically rejected social issues from their platform.
The moderates have been attacking the ghost of Goldwater for years. Even Ann Coulter insinuated that he was a racist a while back over his opposition to the civil rights act as was passed. Unfortunately he was absolutely correct in his assessment that the civil rights act went too far and would invade the rights of every private businessman in the country.
He supported an earlier less invasive version of the civil rights act, supported a limited affirmative action, and was a founding member of the NAACP in Arizona.
Personally I think America would be in a far better place today if the “moderate” purists hadn’t actively tried to destroy him rather than vote for him. I doubt the democrats would have been able to re enslave blacks the way they did.
Slavery wasn’t a social issue?
With the “small” exception. of slavery. Ignore the sophistry of distinguishing between slavery and the expansion of slavery.