Posted on 06/16/2021 4:56:09 AM PDT by Kaslin
For sure, Democrats rejoiced as they watched Republicans painfully twist in the wind at the beginning of LGBTQ Pride Month, trying to figure out how to position their party on this issue.
Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel got flak from the right and from the left, as she essentially waved a white flag, declaring Republican Party neutrality on a key issue of our cultural conflicts.
"We will continue to grow our big tent by supporting measures that promote fairness and balance protections for LGBTQ Americans and those with deeply held religious beliefs," she tweeted.
But McDaniel's invitation to relegate these life-defining issues to the sidelines and enter a Republican big tent wasn't received with great enthusiasm.
In America's raging culture war, there is little doubt who is winning.
In 1996, according to Gallup, just 16% of Republicans said same-sex marriage should be legal. In 2021, this was up to 55%.
Across the board, what are generally thought of as traditional values have collapsed.
Twenty years ago, 40% of Americans said gay/lesbian relations were morally acceptable. In Gallup's most recent polling, it was 66%. Similarly, over this period, Americans saying out-of-marriage childbirth is morally acceptable went from 59% to 66%, sex between unmarried adults 53% to 72%, and divorce from 59% to 77%.
In 2006, 49% said that it is "very important" that couples with children legally marry. In 2020, this was down to 29%.
The point is that Republican pretense about neutrality on so-called social issues -- marriage, family, sexual identity -- is self-delusion.
Those pushing the LGBTQ agenda, the anti-Christian, the anti-traditional values agenda, are totally clear with themselves that this is not about peaceful coexistence, mutual acceptance or religious liberty.
They are in an all-out cultural war to eradicate all influence of biblical values in our culture.
And why should they back off? As the data above shows, they are winning. So, why not continue this successful war until no further burning embers of orthodoxy are left in America's public places.
At this writing, the Department of Education is being sued by LGBTQ activists, challenging the Title IX exemption for Christian schools to maintain biblical standards in the behavior they require at their schools. Although Attorney General Merrick Garland has indicated the Department of Justice will defend these protections for religious schools, as the LGBTQ assault aggressively persists, the language coming from the DOJ regarding how intensely they will defend these protections is becoming attenuated.
A Republican state committeewoman in Massachusetts, Deborah Martell, has been condemned by fellow Republicans, including McDaniel, for saying she was "sickened" by learning that a gay Congressional candidate adopted children with his husband. Martell is under pressure to resign, which she says she refuses to do.
Alaska Airlines is being called out by the ACLU, and threatened with a lawsuit, as result of a complaint from one its flight attendants that its uniforms do not accommodate nonbinary attendants -- those who do not identify as male or female.
So, where does this go without an opposition party?
Values matter because they translate into behavior.
If the Republican Party becomes a big tent of moral relativism, who will fight for transmission of the values that sustain life and freedom?
In the early 18th century, French nobleman Alexis de Tocqueville traveled around the United States, trying to grasp the secret of the great success of the new, young country. In his classic book "Democracy in America," he observed as follows:
"America is, however, still the place in the world where the Christian religion has most preserved genuine power over souls. ... one cannot say that in the United States religion exerts an influence on laws or on the details of political opinions, but it directs mores, and it is in regulating the family that it works to regulate the state."
We know quite well what the Democratic Party is about. The question is whether the Republican Party will provide the country a choice, championing the Christian values that de Tocqueville identified as the "secret sauce" of America's success.
No.
Next question.
Frankly, I do not see the “Republicans” standing up for much of anything. To do so would require some spine, guts and integrity.
They answered this question years ago. Remember the Defense of Marriage act? The Republicans trotted it out right before elections then (of course) didn’t have enough votes to pass (some pubbies in a safe seats would “cross the aisle”).
It was a Lucy and the football action because they thought the voters were rubes. Well most of the time they were right.
“No.
Next question.”
Agreed.
“In the early 18th century, French nobleman Alexis de Tocqueville
Typo: 19th century.
“In 1996, according to Gallup, just 16% of Republicans said same-sex marriage should be legal. In 2021, this was up to 55%.”
I fear stage one is over and conservatives have lost.
Stage 2 is the bigger battle. They will use LGTB acceptance to destroy Christianity. If gay rights are true, then the Bible is false and traditional churches are evil.
Hell no, the pansies will cower in a corner like they always do.
Will Donald Trump stand up for traditional Christian values regarding lgbtqp?
My sense is that he has already accepted the lgb positions. I’m not sure about tq in his world. He opposes p.
The Defense of Marriage Act was passed by Congress and signed into law by Bill Clinton. It was later declared “unconstitutional” by the U.S. Supreme Court — as some of us predicted it would when it was first passed.
Stage two may well be well on the way to being over. Is there any major denomination fighting against LGTBQ acceptance and social justice causes.
They don’t call the GOP the Surrender Party for nothing. It’s a well earned sobriquet.
I am as far-right on “values” as anyone you will meet, but I saw Trump’s election as a good thing because it meant the GOP voters had finally decided to rid themselves of the simpering, feckless hypocrisy of the so-called “Christians” who had been trotted out as their political leaders over the last 30+ years.
I don’t want a political leader who promotes my “values” anymore. I want one who will leave me the hell alone. That’s the true American spirit, folks.
You’re right. I was thinking of the constitutional amendment proposed by Bush II.
The GOP does what they are told to do by the Marxist.
It's hard to rail against divorce from the pulpit when a bigly number of congregants are in that state of sin. Then some of the people in the pulpit split up, and that plank of the Communist Manifesto was achieved. Nobody forced that on us - we were willing accomplices.
To your point, twice-divorced Trump wasn't the poster child for morality. I was ok with that because, frankly, I never held up the President as a moral figure...there had been way too many losers in that chair for my liking, starting chiefly with Clinton.
The battle for the morality of America is up to Americans. It is a battle best conducted by setting an example. This is why, in part, things are so screwed up. People love to go on and on about gays etc blah blah blah, but the truth is they surrendered that fight decades ago on the hill of selfishness, erm, divorce. Splinters and beams.
You miss the point. The article is about gop leaders assisting in winning the culture battle, which Christian Conservatives have been losing.
My point is that we won’t find much support in THAT lgbtqp battle from Donald Trump.
I can’t think of a single major leader who is on my side on this.
I could post at length about that, but consider this one item I would present to reinforce that point: In the United States today, a pre-nuptial agreement has more legal weight than a marriage.
Just read that again and think about it.
Christian conservatives lost the culture battle when they turned to politicians to win it for them.
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