(Thank you for your contributions here)
...I never participated on any of the religious threads...a subject (personal religious beliefs) which I don't think really should ever have been delved into on FR.
(Well, unfortunately some of the "There-are-two-subjects-you-should-never-discuss"-people never could bring themselves to cross the second bridge here...I believe this Web site has aptly proved the assumption on both counts to be quite faulty...)
... it would only lead to a distraction from common conservative principles we all espouse...I was worried that it would lead to unnecessary infighting...
Batter...most of your comments were well-reasoned, well-stated (I, of course, disagree with your critique of JimRob & the moderators).
But here is the crux of the part of your statement at its weakest -- something I had to read three times before it became glaring to me...which means, I'm sure most will also miss it like I did the first two times reading it -- even Christians who embrace the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Your assumption seems to be that (a) The Gospel of Jesus Christ is "unnecessary" to share with others; and (b) Division is ALWAYS terrible.
Just five posts after yours -- post #1,283 -- F15Eagle addressed the (b) portion of your comments when he mentioned key words of Jesus: Luke 12:51 KJV Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division: 52 For from henceforth there shall be five in one house divided, three against two, and two against three. 53 The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father; the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother; the mother in law against her daughter in law, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.
Hence the Gospel of Jesus Christ applied will divide!
Ultimately, Batter, "common conservative principles" will not save us -- individually or as a nation.
GOD does that.
And the true God will not tolerate rivals of trust -- no matter how noble they are.
The "Common conservative principles" you mentioned are VERY important! But they are not ultimately; because ultimately, this nation will one day fail -- like every nation.
The Bible says the USA will one day come to an end. It will have served God's sovereign purposes within His world.
I cannot accurately convey the personal heartache & internal cringing I felt in the immediate and lingering aftereffects of Hurricane Katrina. This was not only for the victims involved, but also as I daily heard the MSM repeat the daily liberal mantra that it was the government's job to save people and the government should be treated as the "ultimate savior."
You see, the reason why the liberal Democrats treat government as a "god" is because they recognize no higher power or transcendent entity than human government! Government is their manipulatable substitute god!
Sorry. But all of the above is outright heresy not only from a Christian perspective, but from a historic conservative perspective -- which never divorced our faith from the causes of liberty!!!
So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. (Jesus, John 8:36)
It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. (Apostle Paul, Galatians 5:1)
--In John 8, Jesus was addressing the religious legalists, whom He called "children of the devil."
--In Gal. 5:1, Paul had earlier in that same letter asked "who bewitched" a people who thought that what was begun in the spirit could now be finished in religious fleshly efforts of legalism. Religious legalism -- not only liberal socialism -- was indeed that stranglehold of a "yoke of slavery."
Batter, even conservative principled humanism will eventually crumble; it won't be able to deliver its promised deliverables. It does rely upon, after all, mere human fleshly efforts. The prophet Jeremiah told us, "the arm of flesh will fail you."
But there was one arm of flesh that didn't fail us.
Jesus Christ.
And He defined eternal life by saying we need to know "the true" Father (John 17:3). He didn't say a relationship with any ole' God would do. No, He specifically defined eternal life as relational -- with "the ONLY TRUE God."
And our Republican ancestors before us did not shrink back from addressing the "hard issues" that separated us from fellow religious conservatives in the 19th century.
The Mormons were a conservative people in the 1850s. They were "fellow religious-ites," if you will.
Yet the fledgling Republican party gave birth to "twins" in 1856. Those "twins?" It openly tackled the "twin relics of barbarism" -- slavery and polygamy.
It didn't play this game of "we-better-cater-to-the fellow-conservative-Mormons-and-not-ruffle-their-polygamous-feathers."
If our Republican forefathers had not tackled both "twin relics"...
...I don't believe slavery would have been addressed in the late 1850s into the 1860s --
--And I don't believe Republican leaders in Congress would have been able to defend one-man, one-woman marriage via numerous acts of legislation and law enforcement in the West!
Batter, the Gospel and the truth of God's Word is integral to His saving purposes -- both of us as a nation -- and as individuals bound or not bound for heaven.
We dare not take aim vs. the reason why Jesus came...because then we are taking on God, Himself!
Amen Col.