A lot of average moderate Republican's have been duped by the term "family values" which is actually a set of legislative agenda set by the Christian Coalition, Focus on the Family, and other Evangelical (fundamentalist) Christian politic/religious organizations. The Reagan politicalization of the Evangelical Christians has turned churches into political lobbying organizations and has turned me off on Christianity for years now which is very unfortunate. I'm in the process of trying to find a church that focuses on religion, not politics and I'm talking about what the people in the congregation talk about the second they have a free moment. In the Evangelical churches I've gone to, if you go to lunch with them, all the talk is about what a bitch Hillary is; that isn't religion to me.
Family Values is a specific thing, it is not a loose term. It has an outline of goals set forth by Dobson who is the head of one of the most powerful groups:
1) End all protections in the law against discrimination against gays. They want being gay to me a miserable and painful shameful lifestyle to the point that gays will come to Christ for conversion to the straight life. This is nuts to me; it doesn't work that way.
2) Protect the sanctity of marriage. This is another anti-gay thing; no coverage of benefits to gay partners.
3) No abortion right; none, not in the case of the mother's life being in danger, none. No first, second, 3rd trimester anything. None in the case of deformities which the Evangelicals think is not justification for abortion even if the baby has not brain (anaencephal baby). No abortion right for kids age 12 or under, for incest, for rape.
4) School prayer and not some silent minute; the teacher can lead the class in Christian prayer and the school can promote Christian focus from plays, music, etc. They can also exclude anyone non-Christian and not let their religion be included such as Jews, Moslems, etc. This is after all as Pat Bucanan said, a Christian nation.
5) End of the marriage tax penalty in the tax code.
6) No birth control information given by the school system; this is a family only issue. No sex ed.
7) Home schooling of children.
This is much of it; I can't remember if I left anything else out. You naively or not say you support all of this every time you say you stand for family values. They have deliberately picked a term for this legaslative agenda that would sound nice and warm and fuzzy so that many people would say, oh yeah, of course, I'm for family values. After all, what kind of person wouldn't be? Tricky stuff.
As we explore the issues, you might get a better idea of what you are supporting. |
