Christian Right Losing Faith In The GOP

[Frodo]

This goes to show just how unnatural the Republican New Right coalition between the religious right and big business really is.  Their alliance is proving just as inherently contradictory as the Democratic New Deal coalition of yore between southern segregationists and northern liberals who shared fundamentally different values and visions.  Republicans cannot continue indefinitely to attempt to satisfy both wings that are wedded together primarily in a marriage of convenience.  I am convinced at this point that there is nothing that the Republican leadership can do to appease either wing lest one take offense that the other is benefitting at the other's expense.  If they abide with the demands laid forth by the Christian Right in this article, they will be digging their own graves a little deeper as the backlash against the Republican Party and the conservative movement gathers strength.  At some point this marriage of convenience will break apart completely -it is already fracturing as we speak:
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Exodus of 'values voters'?:
Conservative Christians losing faith in GOP to advance their agenda

12:00 AM CST on Sunday, April 2, 2006
By WAYNE SLATER / The Dallas Morning News

WASHINGTON – There was no clearer sense of the despair among conservative Christians who gathered recently than the row upon row of books with urgent, alarmist titles.

Pagan America. Judicial Tyranny. Liberalism Kills Kids. The Criminalization of Christianity.

In the political culture wars, religious conservatives say they've been electing candidates but not getting the results they want. And leaders worry that they might be about to lose Christian conservatives as a potent political force because of unmet expectations on a host of issues and stumbles by a Republican administration they helped elect.

Conservative "values voters" have been crucial to Republican success, with religious leaders driving huge voter turnout in recent elections. If they lack enthusiasm this fall, experts say, the GOP could lose control of Congress.

"The nation isn't focused today in a way it was on such issues as abortion, marriage, the nature of the family," said the Rev. Laurence White of Houston. "For us, it's not the economy, stupid. It's the morality, stupid."

The Rev. Rick Scarborough, an East Texas evangelist whose group Vision America sponsored a two-day conference aimed at getting Christian activists involved in the 2006 elections, says he hopes to mobilize groups representing 20 million people. To motivate them, he offers a list of 10 grievances and a program to register voters and press candidates to pass specific legislation.

"We're tired of talk. We want action," he said. "It occurs to us that no matter who is in the White House or who says what we want to hear, nothing ever changes."

High on the list are a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage and a judiciary more sympathetic to religious expression, like permitting the Ten Commandments in government buildings and allowing pastors to endorse candidates from the pulpit.

"If these issues are not addressed, you'll see values voters stay home by the millions. And then the Republicans and others who have been the beneficiary of the values vote are going to lose," Mr. Scarborough said.   

[DanielX]

Well, if there really is a rift then I hope the GOP jettisons the Religious Right. I can handle a Pagan America, just not a Socialist one .

[Bleeding heart conservative, HTMLdon]

These people cannot be satisfied no matter what we do.

[Speed of Sound]

These people cannot be satisfied no matter what we do.

Theyre not satisfied because they havent completely ruined America yet.

[MODU]

Theyre not satisfied because they havent completely ruined America yet.

The same could be said for the far left. 

[Speed of Sound]

Theyre not satisfied because they havent completely ruined America yet.

The same could be said for the far left. 

But lying is a SIN, MODU. 

[afleitch]

These people cannot be satisfied no matter what we do.

Then why do it? Why give them such a say in the way the Republican Party is run that it is now a Grand Old Platform, not a Grand Old Party?

[MODU]

Theyre not satisfied because they havent completely ruined America yet.

The same could be said for the far left. 

But lying is a SIN, MODU. 

hahahaha

[ATFFL]

Theyre not satisfied because they havent completely ruined America yet.

The same could be said for the far left. 

But lying is a SIN, MODU. 

hahahaha

It was the putting it in red that really kicked it.

[Josh/Devilman88]

Maybe all of the Christains should make their own party and then maybe this country might get better.

[afleitch]

Maybe all of the Christains should make their own party and then maybe this country might get better.

I highly doubt it. By 'Christian' who do you mean? I doubt many of the religious right would be comfortable including Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Quakers, Church of Christ....

[MODU]

Maybe all of the Christains should make their own party and then maybe this country might get better.

I highly doubt it. By 'Christian' who do you mean? I doubt many of the religious right would be comfortable including Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Quakers, Church of Christ....

You just made my day. 

[afleitch]

Maybe all of the Christains should make their own party and then maybe this country might get better.

I highly doubt it. By 'Christian' who do you mean? I doubt many of the religious right would be comfortable including Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Quakers, Church of Christ....

You just made my day. 

I threw that in.

But it's true; there are 'Christians' out there who would hate my guts because I am Catholic, even if I wasn't gay.

EDIT: And if America was ruled under Catholic doctrine I doubt it would have much time for protestantism either

[Speed of Sound]

Maybe all of the Christains should make their own party and then maybe this country might get better.

Uuumm.....so then all other religions would form a single party, while the Christian Party suffers Civil War and crumbles. Other religions, or preferrably, athieists take over.

Actually, that does sound pretty good. I say do it!

[Gabu]

Maybe all of the Christains should make their own party and then maybe this country might get better.

There are, what, some thousand-odd sects of Christianity?  The "Christian Party" (if it truly lived up to its name) would be a lot like the Whig Party, in that it would represent a very broad portion of the electorate and it would have so few ideas that all of its members could agree on that it likely would not last a very long time.  It would only work if you could get 78% of the nation to all agree to a set of ideas (given that 78% of the United States is Christian), and when is the last time that's ever happened?

[Brandon H]

Maybe all of the Christains should make their own party and then maybe this country might get better.

I highly doubt it. By 'Christian' who do you mean? I doubt many of the religious right would be comfortable including Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Quakers, Church of Christ....

You just made my day. 

I threw that in.

But it's true; there are 'Christians' out there who would hate my guts because I am Catholic, even if I wasn't gay.

EDIT: And if America was ruled under Catholic doctrine I doubt it would have much time for protestantism either

I was on Michael Peroutka's The American View site and I am getting into an argument with someone on there saying Catholics aren't Christians. I do have to admit though that things like this make me have to actually do some research and I learn in the process.

Anyway, if there were a Christian Party, you would have some Protestants and Catholics fighting with each other and go no where. Even if you had a Catholic Party, could you see Santorum and Brownback in the same party as Kennedy and Kerry?

[afleitch]

My point exactly: Christianity is very diverse; those who talk about 'Christian' values all the time are really talking about their own values, which not all American's agree with and even not all American Christians will agree with. Not only do they wish to impose their morality on American government, but also on other Christians who are uncomfortable with that idea.

[opebo]

Losing faith in the GOP?  They are the GOP!