I pulled the weblog-post below from Andrew Sullivan’s weblog. It doesn’t surprise me, but reading through what Dew wrote reminded me of thoughts I had back in the early-to-mid 80’s when I was in the height of my Evangelical self. (Click the link below to read the post. It may make my comments that follow more understandable.)
As absurd as this sounds, I used to wonder how non-Christian parents could ever really love their children! After all, the ability to love came only from Jesus. We could only truly love when we were in relationship with Jesus, so those who were not could not really love anything, but maybe themselves or evil. I would think that non-Christian parents were only interested in themselves – satisfying their own desires, lusts, or needs without putting their children or their children’s needs before their own. I actually could not conceive of how non-Christian parents could truly love their children.
Think about that! What was I thinking? I was taking the Religious Right’s ideas to some of their logical conclusions, I believe. These conclusions extend to just about every aspect of live.
Now consider the Republican Party and the political process – I now hear or read Religious Right politicos talking about RINO’s (Republicans in Name Only). The term “RINO” applies to any Republican who does not support the policy points of the Religious Right. John McCain, Giuliani, or any moderate are examples, and I believe they are including non-Christian Republicans in that category as well.
After all, to have a country so instituted by God’s will as is the United States, and knowing that our country is divinely chosen to fulfill a great purpose in the world, and knowing that a government’s role is to see to the development of God’s purposes, then only “born-again” Christians can rightfully lead this country. Since godly leadership can only be elected by those who approve of God’s plan for the nation, then eventually, if left to their own devises, the Religious Right over time would justify limiting the vote to only those who can prove a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. After all, our founding documents first limited voting rights to landed men, so there is a Constitutional precedent for restricting those who can vote, just as long as it is not according to skin color or gender (those characteristics are enshrined in the Constitution). Non-Christians would only selfishly vote for those things that are going to benefit them, and those things will obviously be ungodly. Evil can only beget evil.
Thank God, and I mean it, that I am no longer in that mind-set (even though my current one is probably just as warped!).
DEW’S POINT: The invocation for the GOP Convention today will be given by one Sheri Dew, a Mormon. She has described the movement for marriage rights for gays as the equivalent of Nazism. Here’s an excerpt from a recent speech:
I found myself reading the latest edition of one of the nation’s most popular news magazines. One of the major articles was about gay “marriage.” There were several statements that stood out for me in a dramatic and terrifying way, but one of the most sobering features of the entire article was a picture of two handsome, young men, getting “married.” What distressed me most was the fact that they were both holding an infant “daughter” – twin girls they had adopted. I was, frankly, heartsick. What kind of chance do those girls have being raised in that kind of setting? What will their understanding of men and women, marriage and families be? Is there any chance that, as adults, they could expect to marry and enjoy a healthy relationship with a man, including rearing children together? In addition, there were alarming concepts about “family” presented throughout the article – concepts that even questioned the validity of heterosexual families.
To say I found the entire article sobering would be a grand understatement. And I found myself thinking, “Talk about influence. Imagine the influence of that one magazine in presenting ideas about the family that are totally in opposition to God’s plan and will for His children.”
This escalating situation reminds me of a statement of a World War II journalist by the name of Dorothy Thompson who wrote for the Saturday Evening Post in Europe during the pre-World War II years when Hitler was building up his armies and starting to take ground. In an address she delivered in Toronto in 1941 she said this: “Before this epic is over, every living human being will have chosen. Every living human being will have lined up with Hitler or against him. Every living human being either will have opposed this onslaught or supported it, for if he tries to make no choice that in itself will be a choice. If he takes no side, he is on Hitler’s side. If he does not act, that is an act — for Hitler.”
Look, she has every right to oppose same-sex marriage and every right to feel strongly about it. But comparing well-meaning advocates for including gay people in their own families as the equivalent of Nazis is just, well, sadly typical of what the GOP is fast becoming. Is Dick Cheney the equivalent of a Nazi?