Townhall Columnists Pat Buchanan
A Godless Party Expels the Creator
Sep 07, 2012
The authors of the Democratic platform have inadvertently revealed to the world the sea change that has taken place in that party we once knew.
For the first time -- and in the longest Democratic platform in history, 26,000 words -- there was not a single mention of God, the Creator, whom Thomas Jefferson himself, father of the party, proclaimed to be the author of our right to life and liberty.
The convention had approved the new platform, but when a firestorm erupted, a panicked Barack Obama hastily ordered "God" reinstated.
But when the amendment was offered to the convention by its chairman, Antonio Villaraigosa, the idea of restoring the name of God to the platform was hooted, jeered and booed by half the delegates on the floor, who three times howled, "No!"
The omission of God is being called an oversight. But the viral reaction to returning God, even when Obama asked that it be done, testifies that this was no accident. God was deleted deliberately.
This process has been under way for a decade. In the 2004 platform, there were seven references to God. In 2008, one.
Like the European Union, whose Christian heritage is being excised from official documents by its secularist elite, the country led by the Democratic Party of Obama is being de-Christianized.
Still, why would Democrats do something so seemingly stupid, something that will inevitably cause a backlash among believers?
Answer: Millions of Democrats are themselves offended when God is included, because for them, the God of the Old and New testaments is an impediment to the progressive march of mankind.
A year ago, in writing "Suicide of a Superpower," I discovered that the number of self-identified Christians had fallen from 85 percent of the U.S. population in 1990 to 75 percent last year and that 1 in 6 Americans now disbelieve in God.
Of Americans younger than 30, 1 in 4 profess no faith. Among Democrats, the figures are surely higher.
Which brings us to the quandary faced by the platform writers.
Why include in a statement of party beliefs a reference to God when a huge slice of that party would be deeply offended because such a reference would be the party's formal declaration that their atheist or agnostic beliefs are wrong.
Some atheists place a belief in God or Christ as the Son of God on a par with believing in Santa Claus. Others regard religion and especially fundamentalist faith as an often-destructive force because of what they believe it has produced over the centuries -- intolerance, inquisitions, massacres, martyrdoms, religious wars. |
