Today when I was in church, the Gospel Acclamation was Christ’s Sermon on the Mount, and one of the things that my priest addressed in his Homily was injustice. One of the ways we feel the presence of God is our anger to injustice and our feelings of resistance towards the presence of evil. My boys were baptized today in the Catholic Church, as I was as a young boy, and all of that is creating a path of walking in the light, though we may be surrounded by the wicked. Christ teaches us to value our principles of righteousness and justice over the popular and often wicked ways of the world. We are called upon to be children of Christ by living our lives through His teachings, which is to reject sin every time that Satan and his lies are presented to us, remembering that it means nothing to gain the world and lose our souls.
What does this have to do with the state of the Republican Party today? Today we witnessed the unsurprising McCain like move of Scozzafava endorsing the Democrat, reaching around across the aisle to endorse the candidate who would best represent the district blah blah blah. As usual a McCainiac has come to stab conservatives directly in the chest, only to have the media and party leaders question the fact that conservatives are moving the party further to the right at the detriment of the party. However, under a closer examination, it has nothing to do with the party being taken over by extremists as much as it does that it is past time that a conservative party becomes taken over by conservatives. This is not a time for bowing down to the Democrats on bended knee as McCain and the Republican Main Street Leadership would have us do. This is a time, to quote Phylis Schafly, for the party to offer a choice, rather than an echo.
Scozzafava is the straw that broke the camel’s back in terms of who we are as a party. Many in leadership want us to be like Howard Dean, all things to all people depending on the region. I say that principle has not worked for the Republican Party; the more we have expanded the Big Tent as Karl Rove said, the more that conservatism has suffered. The liberals in the GOP have owned the party, and we spend far too much of our time covering liberals like McCain, Lapdog Lindsey and the stimulus voting Maine girls and not enough time advancing a comprehensive conservative agenda.
There are a concrete set of tested and true principles that are and should be non negotiable within the GOP-all of which revolve around the idea that the Judeo-Christian society and family are the best ways to create a strong America. This goes deeper than hot button issues of abortion and marriage; although those are important issues included in our party’s framework, it comes down to the way we view our society. We believe that the family is the focal point of our society, and whether it is through the use of increasing private and religous education or protecting the sanctity of life, we must provide an alternative to the liberal secular agenda. We know of course that liberals believe that knuckle dragging Christians are incapable of raising successful children and must be indoctrinated by the village elders who believe that teaching God is dead and moral relativism is somehow more neutral than teaching that God is great, and there is a clear difference between good and evil.
As conservatives, we know that there is a difference between good and evil, and that as conservatives we are called upon for the greater good. We are not afraid to show our children the greatness of God, why should we deny this in front of our party and our nation? We must not put a few votes over the principle of saving the fabric of our society. Remember what Christ has taught us.
If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will save it. And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul? If anyone is ashamed of me and my message in these adulterous and sinful days, the Son of Man will be ashamed of that person when he returns in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.” (Mark 8:34-38)
It’s time to close this big Tent and rebuild this party as Reagan, the greatest and most conservative President of our time showed us how-within the principles of freedom, justice and the American way. We will stand and fight, not because we are dividers, but because we offer a clear alternative of society, one where we will stand up and fight for our children’s society. The tent has only room for principle, not party. Let us stand up for the family, and for our country from the McCains and Pelosis, for they are one and the same. We will do it ad majorem dei gloriam-for the greater Glory of God.
