The GOP and GOD

About 2 weeks ago Kathleen Parker wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post titled Giving Up On God. It was for me the Cliff Notes version of why I bristle and swallow hard to keep the bile from coming up my throat any time I hear words like Conservative Values, Family Values, Chrisitan Values, Moral Values, etc. coming out of the sanctimonious mouths of pompous, hypocritical Republicans, a list of names so long I lack the time, the space, or the stomach to list here in this post.

So if by some remote chance you have not read the article in its entirety, please do, it's that good. But here are a few of the juicier excerpts:

As Republicans sort out the reasons for their defeat, they likely will overlook or dismiss the gorilla in the pulpit.

Three little letters, great big problem: G-O-D.

I'm bathing in holy water as I type.

To be more specific, the evangelical, right-wing, oogedy-boogedy branch of the GOP is what ails the erstwhile conservative party and will continue to afflict and marginalize its constituents if reckoning doesn't soon cometh.

Simply put: Armband religion is killing the Republican Party. And, the truth -- as long as we're setting ourselves free -- is that if one were to eavesdrop on private conversations among the party intelligentsia, one would hear precisely that.

[...]

So it has been for the Grand Old Party since the 1980s or so, as it has become increasingly beholden to an element that used to be relegated to wooden crates on street corners.

Short break as writer ties blindfold and smokes her last cigarette.

Which is to say, the GOP has surrendered its high ground to its lowest brows. In the process, the party has alienated its non-base constituents, including other people of faith (those who prefer a more private approach to worship), as well as secularists and conservative-leaning Democrats who otherwise might be tempted to cross the aisle.

[...]

It isn't that culture doesn't matter. It does. But preaching to the choir produces no converts. And shifting demographics suggest that the Republican Party -- and conservatism with it -- eventually will die out unless religion is returned to the privacy of one's heart where it belongs.

Religious conservatives become defensive at any suggestion that they've had something to do with the GOP's erosion...

[...]

Suffice it to say, the Republican Party is largely comprised of white, married Christians. Anyone watching the two conventions last summer can't have missed the stark differences: One party was brimming with energy, youth and diversity; the other felt like an annual Depends sales meeting.

With the exception of Miss Alaska, of course.

[...]

Great article and Great big act of bravery on the part of Kathleen Parker. She may have been writing in jest when she wrote, "Short break as writer ties blindfold and smokes her last cigarette.", but she wasn't too far off the mark. She knew she was setting herself up for a landslide of vicious attacks. And she has indeed been the target of many attacks, not surprisingly from the very people who claim to be good "Christians" like James Dobson:

So, Kathleen Parker has determined that getting rid of social conservatives and shelving the values they fight for is the solution to what ails the Republican Party (“Giving Up on God,” Nov. 19). Isn’t that a little like Benedict Arnold handing George Washington a battle plan to win the Revolution?

Whatever she once was, Ms. Parker is certainly not a conservative anymore, having apparently realized it’s a lot easier to be popular among your journalistic peers when your keyboard tilts to the left. She writes that “armband religion” — those of us who “wear our faith on our sleeve,” I suppose, or is it meant to compare socially conservative Christians to Nazis? — is “killing the Republican Party.” Lest readers miss the point, she literally spells it out. The GOP’s big problem? G-O-D.

N-O-N-S-E-N-S-E.

So it is at this point I feel a great debt of gratitude for doing what most of us could not do since we do not consider ourselves "Conservatives". It really did need to come from someone "inside" the party. But sadly, it came at great expense to one of the few principled Conservatives left in the party.

Thank you Kathleen for stepping out and saying publicly what most don't have the courage to say. It needed to be said.