Washington Post columnist says the Republican Party must ditch God in order to survive.
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.
Ms. Parker cites the election of Barack Obama as evidence that Americans no longer care much about the moral-values issues that have historically driven conservative voters to the polls. The problem with that analysis is that it doesn’t hold up when you look at the results in the three states that voted on marriage-protection amendments Nov. 4. Residents of California, Florida and Arizona voted to define marriage in their constitutions as the union of one man and one woman — making traditional marriage 30-for-30 when the people are given the chance to decide the issue. That both Obama and marriage won in California and Florida makes it clear that many who pulled the lever for the “change” he espoused also pulled it for the stability provided by marriage as recognized for millennia in all civilized societies.
After a brief stop to take gratuitous swipes at Sarah Palin for her belief in and reliance on God — a mandatory practice for the mainstream media in these post-election days — Ms. Parker offers that it “isn’t necessary to evict the Creator from the public square.” No, it is only necessary for Christians to stop letting our religious beliefs and values inform our political views and votes. Why? Because we live in a “diverse” nation that “is no longer predominantly white and Christian.”
No need to argue her implied statistics — a few minutes with Google prove how glaringly wrong they are. The accuracy of her numbers isn’t the point, anyway — it’s the notion that, because there are people of many faiths in the United States, those of the Christian faith must not think or act like Christians when engaging the public square. That is similar to something then-Sen. Obama said a couple of years ago, arguing in a speech before a gathering of liberal Christians that “democracy demands that the religiously motivated translate their concerns into universal, rather than religion-specific, values.”
“It requires that their proposals be subject to argument, and amenable to reason,” he added. “I may be opposed to abortion for religious reasons, but if I seek to pass a law banning the practice, I cannot simply point to the teachings of my church or evoke God's will. I have to explain why abortion violates some principle that is accessible to people of all faiths, including those with no faith at all.”
That is, as my theologian friend Al Mohler called it, “secularism with a smile” — offered in the form of an invitation for believers to show up, but then only to be allowed to make arguments that are not based in their deepest beliefs. Kathleen Parker has gone even one step further, though. She’s rescinding the invitation altogether.
Good thing, then, we don’t need an embossed note from Ms. Parker — or anyone else — to take part in the political dialogue — of either party. Our invitation to engage the process comes straight from our Founders. We will continue to stand up for the sanctity of human life, the sacredness of marriage and the right to have a say in the principles that will continue to guide this nation founded on biblical principles. Where Ms. Parker gets it most wrong is in writing that socially conservative Christians are an “element that used to be relegated to wooden crates on street corners.”
We’ve never been that marginalized in our culture and government — and won’t be anytime soon, the efforts and epithets of big media notwithstanding.
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