Posted on 05/20/2003 8:14:33 AM PDT by theoverseer
In four Gospels - including the Sermon on the Mount - Jesus neglected to mention the subject of homosexuality. But that hasn’t stopped a handful of self-appointed leaders of the so-called Religious Right from deciding that it is an issue worth the presidency of the United States. In what the Washington Times described as a "stormy session" last week, the Rev. Lou Sheldon, Paul Weyrich, Gary Bauer and eight other "social conservatives" read the riot act to RNC chairman Marc Racicot for meeting with the "Human Rights Campaign," a group promoting legal protections for homosexuals. This indiscretion, they said, "could put Bush’s entire re-election campaign in jeopardy."
According to the Times’ report by Ralph Hallow, the RNC chairman defended himself by saying, "You people don’t want me to meet with other folks, but I meet with anybody and everybody." To this Gary Bauer retorted, "That can’t be true because you surely would not meet with the leaders of the Ku Klux Klan."
Nice analogy Gary. Way to love thy neighbor.
This demand to quarantine a political enemy might have had more credibility if the target – the Campaign for Human Rights -- were busily burning crosses on social conservatives’ lawns. But they aren’t. Moreover, the fact that it is, after all, crosses the Ku Klux Klan burns, might suggest a little more humility on the part of Christians addressing these issues. Just before the launching of the 2000 presidential campaign, George Bush himself was asked about similarly mean-spirited Republican attacks. His response was that politicians like him weren’t elected to pontificate about other people’s morals and that his own faith admonished him to take the beam out of his own eye before obsessing over the mote in someone else’s.
The real issue here is tolerance of differences in a pluralistic society. Tolerance is different from approval, but it is also different from stigmatizing and shunning those with whom we disagree.
I say this as someone who is well aware that Christians are themselves a persecuted community in liberal America, and as one who has stood up for the rights of Christians like Paul Weyrich and Gary Bauer to have their views, even when I have not agreed with some of their agendas. Not long ago, I went out on a public limb to defend Paul Weyrich when he was under attack by the Washington Post and other predictable sources for a remark he had made that was (reasonably) construed as anti-Semitic. I defended Weyrich because I have known him to be a decent man without malice towards Jews and I did not want to see him condemned for a careless remark. I defended him in order to protest the way in which we have become a less tolerant and more mean-spirited culture than we were.
I have this to say to Paul: A delegation to the chairman of the RNC to demand that he have no dialogue with the members of an organization for human rights is itself intolerant, and serves neither your ends nor ours. You told Racicot, "if the perception is out there that the party has accepted the homosexual agenda, the leaders of the pro-family community will be unable to help turn out the pro-family voters. It won’t matter what we say; people will leave in droves."
This is disingenuous, since you are a community leader and share the attitude you describe. In other words, what you are really saying is that if the mere perception is that the Republican Party has accepted the "homosexual agenda," you will tell your followers to defect with the disastrous consequences that may follow. As a fellow conservative, I do not understand how in good conscience you can do this. Are you prepared to have President Howard Dean or President John Kerry preside over our nation’s security? Do you think a liberal in the White House is going to advance the agendas of social conservatives? What can you be thinking?
In the second place, the very term "homosexual agenda," is an expression of intolerance as well. Since when do all homosexuals think alike? In fact, thirty percent of the gay population voted Republican in the last presidential election. This is a greater percentage than blacks, Hispanics or Jews. Were these homosexuals simply deluded into thinking that George Bush shared their agendas? Or do they perhaps have agendas that are as complex, diverse and separable from their sexuality as women, gun owners or Christians, for that matter?
In your confusion on these matters, you have fallen into the trap set for you by your enemies on the left. It is the left that insists its radical agendas are the agendas of blacks and women and gays. Are you ready to make this concession -- that the left speaks for these groups, for minorities and "the oppressed?" Isn’t it the heart of the conservative argument that liberalism (or, as I would call it, leftism) is bad doctrine for all humanity, not just white Christian males?
If the President’s party – or conservatism itself -- is to prevail in the political wars, it must address the concerns of all Americans and seek to win their hearts and minds. It is conservative values that forge our community and create our coalition, and neither you nor anyone else has - or should have - a monopoly in determining what those values are.
Who appointed you the overseer of what people can and can't do with their freedom?
I don't think Buckley is all-neo. I'm not even saying that neoconservatives are all bad on social issues.
I'm not a fundy .....I'm not even a Christian. As far as homos are concerned, and as I already mentioned on this thread, I'm only against giving them special rights that other Americans don't have. "Hate-crimes" laws is just one such special protection.
Your assumption that I'm a "fundy" because I disagree with the radical Homo agenda showcases your stupidity quite nicely.
Are you sure about this? What evidence is there that Buckley would support Bauer, Weyrich, etc. against Horowitz? I'd be interested to see it.
You seem a bit obsessed with labeling people into set groups. We conservatives are individuals, and as individuals have different takes on a variety of issues.
Our political clout comes from our shared beliefs. If I as an individual believe that Martians should be invited to come and rule over us, then my political beliefs are not going to get very far. But if millions of people believe this, then there is the beginning of a political movement.
What does the conservative movement stand for? The millions of Freepers and others who call themselves conservatives, what issues are they going to rally around together? Horowitz wants us support gay rights. Are we going to go along with him, as a political movement, or are we going to tell him that his view of conservatism is incompatible with true conservative values?
Maybe they have a point. ;O)
Is Horowitz a Christian (or a Jew)? That would put anything he says about Christ and Christians in perspective. Personally, I couldn't care less what a non-Christian has to say about the bible.
We're going to tell him that his view is wrong, just like I did in post #15 (which you obviously missed).
Well, it's true Bauer is a bit intellectually challenged to put it euphemistically, but he could discern this the same as most people capable of reasoning would. And he would presumably have an advantage in that he actually knows Marc Racicot and would have some insight as to whether he would meet with the KKK.
Bauer was obviously being disingenuous and hysterical. If you want to defend him as if he was being forthright and genuine, you only look as hysterical as he it.
Do you honestly believe there ae NO gay Republicans, when we have several OFFICEHOLDERS who are gay?
Are you advocating for everything under the REPUBLICAN TENT? REPUBLICANS for abortion, gun-control, whatever….:
Gay Money Comes Out of the Closet
: Salt Lake Tribune , August 19, 2000 Author: Ruth MarcusIn all, gays have contributed about $5 million this election to the Democratic National Committee alone -- a total that puts them among the top tier of Democratic givers
For the 2000 race, the DNC set up a new Gay and Lesbian Victory Council for those who gave $10,000 and more. It now has almost 100 donors, and about 13 members of the party's "Jefferson Trust," for $100,000 givers, are openly gay.
Gay And Lesbian Leaders Launch National Grassroots Effort To Help Elect Al Gore President
Nashville - February 29, 2000 - Praising Al Gore's commitment to fighting discrimination and promoting equality for all Americans, lesbian and gay leaders across the country today announced the launch of Gay and Lesbian Americans for Gore. The group will work over the Internet and in local communities to mobilize volunteers and organize support for Gore. Today's announcement came on the heels of an important national endorsement yesterday by the National Stonewall Democratic Federation, which has 47 affiliated clubs and 10,000 members nationwide.
Another thing I have noticed is how liberals bait the trap, and conservatives fall into fighting amongst themselves every time.
Racicot could not refuse to meet with the homosexual group, without being branded a bigot and ending up with ACT UP camped on the RNC steps 24/7. I imagine the original request for a meeting was to get that sort of reaction.
Instead, he defused that situation by meeting with them and listening. Then, of course, Bauer and his group cannot simply make a quiet phone call to find out what's going on. Nope, they take the bait, and publish a silly "open letter" and demand a meeting, in which they threaten the RNC with walking if THEIR agendas are not met!
Divisive politics rears its ugly head again, this time started by the left but escalated by the right. It is foolish and counterproductive, unless you want to see Kerry or Dean elected.
[S]ome people are fixated on homosexuality and homosexuals.The rational mind is ordered toward truth, and truth toward wisdom. There is no truth in same-sex eroticism. It is utterly irrational.
People who "thinks as I do" think that homos shouldn't be afforded protections that the rest of us don't have. Is that a radical position?
We bible-believing, born-again Christians believe the ENTIRE bible was written by God (Father, Son, Holy Spirit), not just those quotes attributed to Jesus.
In other words, it is all of equal importance and pure Truth.
And I agree with you 100% Miss Marple.
..and conservative gay people should feel good about the fact that the GOP is willing to dialogue and reach out to other "gays" who might disagree with them, rather than banish the thought of any dialogue with them in the name of "family values".
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