Last night I caught a moment of a news story that made me chuckle. Meghan McCain [stinkingly close to my daughters name, by the way!] was the keynote speaker at an event designed to push Republicans to reconsider their position on gay marriage. John McCain’s former campaign boss, Steve Schmidt, took it a step further by saying, “It cannot be argued that marriage between people of the same sex is un-American or threatens the rights of others.”
Of course, James Dobson has proclaimed that for the last 15 years. I couldnt agree with Schmidt more on that point. Dobson’s logic has lead to the downfall of his power as people wake up and realize that having a married gay couple across the street won’t devalue their heterosexual marriage one bit. I’ve long said that James Dobson doesn’t speak for me. But the point is that we’re starting to see a logical shift by Republicans towards the center politically after the religious right failed to deliver a victory in November 2008.
More and more Evangelicals are realizing that Republicans make for strange bedfellows. While Democrats don’t provide a great alternative, people are realizing that with their fervor to be anti-abortion, they’ve gotten into political bed with some weird folks!
– There are plently of Evangelicals who wrestle on the edge of passivism, Republicans have never been accused of that.
– There are plenty of Evangelicals who long for a society that takes care of the poor, Republicans are for eliminating social programs and viel it behind a “small government” mantra.
– There are plenty of Evangelicals who are uncomfortable with having Washington controlled by big business lobbyist.
– There are plently of Evangelicals who believe in gun control, Republicans are entrenched in the NRA.
– There are plenty of Evangelicals who believe we need to take care of the environment, Republicans are bought and paid for by big business who want to “self-regulate” like they did back in the Reagan days. You know… the stuff that kept the EPA so busy through the 1990s.
– James Dobson accused Clinton of placing judges in office that passed a lithmus test, then tried to forced the Bush administration to do the same thing.
– There are plenty of Evangelicals who want to see leaders come from diverse backgrounds, genders, and ethnicities. Watching last year’s RNC gave them a glimpse of something they didn’t want to be a part of.
I could go on…
Reality is, the Democratic nor the Republican parties make good bedfellows for the average Evangelical. We have to take some good with some bad. I’m just happy to see the death of the assumption that because I’m an Evangelical I must be a Republican. In fact, I’ve always been an Independent who felt responsible to vote for the candidates who could best represent me for the office they are running for.
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