The GOP is Losing Us

What is the Problem with the GOP

There are many reasons why I believe that the GOP lost in 2008 and 2012. For one thing they have begun pushing what they call more “moderate” candidates. What that really means is that the GOP is beginning to abandon one of their greatest supports, Evangelical Christians. The Tea Party arose because of the GOP move toward secularism as the Democrats had done a couple of decades ago. When was the last time you heard a candidate for office identify with Biblical teaching? When was the last time a candidate offered up a prayer, I mean a real “In Jesus Name” prayer?

In 2012 my wife and I had to swallow very hard and beg God for forgiveness in order to vote for Mitt Romney, a Mormon. More importantly having seen what Mr. Romney did here in Massachusetts I could hardly call him a moderate and would never consider him conservative. I wonder how many Christians felt that there was not much difference between candidate Romney and president Obama. After all, Mr. Obama gave us the Affordable Care Act, which has turned out to be anything but affordable. On the other hand Mitt Romney gave Massachusetts Romney Care which is better than the ACA but still more costly than advertised.

So why did Romney lose? If you look at Ohio, president Obama won by 260,000 votes but is was widely reported that 350,000 evangelical Christian votes were not even cast. The president carried 3 normally red southern states probably because evangelical Christians just stayed home and nominal Christians just did not see the difference. After the rise of the Tea Party in 2010 both Democrats and Republicans have expended extensive resources trying to squelch the movement. Now the mantra from the GOP is “Well you better get out and vote for our Candidates if you want things to change!” Oh yeah, first you don’t listen to us at all and then you tell us we have no choice but to vote for the candidate you decide to put up for election. That makes me want to go vote. We did, by the way, vote but it was very hard to do as we really do not support the values of many of the candidates.

There are various estimates that as many as 14 million evangelical Christians simply sat out the 2012 election as I was very tempted to do. What the GOP does not seem to understand is that moral values are as meaningful to an evangelical Christian as a political position that is fiscally conservative. While I do not believe that anyone can legislate morality I also believe that you cannot legislate a new definition of morality. Our constitution affords every US citizen, note “citizen” not illegal alien, the right to be free and to pursue that freedom however they choose. While I believe God’s Word on issues such as murder, stealing, adultery, incest and homosexuality, I also believe God’s Word when it says that He desires all to come to a knowledge of the truth. As an evangelical Christian I believe it is our responsibility to season the earth with God’s Love and forgiveness while understanding that there will be judgment.

But it seems that this is not acceptable to the GOP. So maybe it is time that we come together and for a GNP (Grand New Party) that not only follows our constitution but subscribes to moral values that are in line with God’s Word. Some would say that separation of Church and State is important to keep the government from becoming a church driven state like many of the Islamic countries. I would subscribe that the separation of Church and State is intended to keep State sanctioning a particular Church but not intended to keep the Godly principles of Church out of State.

Let’s look at that just a little bit. In Galatians 5:22-23 says “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.” Romans 13:8 says “Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.” When you look at these scriptures they exude love and concern for others as well as fiscal responsibility yet Christians, especially evangelical Christians, a denigrated and labeled as intolerant and uncaring. It seems odd that these “intolerant”, “uncaring” folks give more to charity than do the “enlightened” ones who denigrate and ridicule them and more importantly, those enlightened ones are exceedingly and sometimes viciously intolerant of their more generous counterparts.

The pertinent question is this; Who is the real demagogue and why should the GOP move more in that direction than toward it’s tradition supporters? The truthful answer is I really believe that we evangelical Christians have turned over the reigns of politics to a group of people who have a greater identity with the world than with God’s Word. The GOP leadership listens more to left wing criticism than they to to their own constituents and even worse they adopt the demagoguery without question. That being the case, the GOP is good at looking at balance sheets and making a determination that it can’t work fiscally but they do not make the association of moral value with the other deep seeded Bible based beliefs of evangelical Christians.

The result is a complete disconnect between GOP axioms and those of the evangelical Christian. So it’s time for some change!

Let’s Do it!