I am increasingly wondering how many **CONSERVATIVES** agree with this minister.
Stuff that was pretty much universally believed in the conservative movement a generation ago about the importance of moral values now seems to be up for debate.
I'm concerned and frankly scared by a significant portion of what I see on Free Republic in this election cycle. I know it's not the official position of Free Republic and it's a minority position, but there is a consistent undercurrent of opposition to a moral foundation for government that scares me.
I live in a military community in the Bible Belt where our secular conservatives tend to be pretty straight-arrow people who generally believe in basic principles of decency and family values. I can think of several local Republican politicians who make no claim to be churchgoers but stay married to one woman and have kids who seem to be from decent stable families. I just don't hear locally some of the things I've been seeing on Free Republic recently attacking Christian conservatives, and it worries me if what I'm seeing here reflects trends in the broader national conservative movement.
I've read conservative commentators write that there's been a shift in the way Young Republicans act on college campuses. It's more than going from a button-down preppy look to a grunge rocker look comparable to the nastiest stuff from the sixties — it's a fundamental shift in the definitition of conservative from “family, faith and patriotism” to “get big government out of my life.”
Obviously family values are quite compatible with small government, but when conservative is defined as “getting the government out of my bedroom,” we have adopted the same rhetoric as Democrats of a few decades ago.
That's dangerous.
Being conservative and being libertarian are not the same thing. Ron Paul is not a conservative, and people who advocate libertarian views in the Republican Party simply do not understand that American government was never intended by **MOST** of the Founding Fathers to be a secular government. That's what distinguished the French Revolution from the American Revolution, and led to the growth of America while leading France into the Reign of Terror with its vicious attacks on religion which continue to this day in that officially secular state.
I'm glad that Gingrich told a gay man he'd be better off voting for Barack Obama. Good for him. I wish I could trust the rest of the conservatives in the Republican Party to say the same.
You are correct the Trends are more liberal among many who call themselves Christian Conservatives, the politically correct and hate crime bills that back it made many squeamish about posting how they really feel in this Country.
The Judicial attacks on the Conservative Christians has also helped the left.
That is why Newt Gingrich is proving to be the candidate with enough courage to take them on. So I am with you for Newt Gingrich and pray he can prevail to be our next President.