Gary Bauer Reports: Traditional Marriage A Winning Issue, Turn Off The Fan And Another Attack On Under God

Tuesday April 22, 2014

From: Gary L. Bauer

Traditional Marriage A Winning Issue

Are social conservatives’ views unpopular?

Left-leaning political commentators, Democratic Party operatives and the Republican establishment constantly advise the GOP to drop social conservatives’ issues from the party’s platform. Today American Values, along with Family Research Council, released the results of a commissioned national survey conducted by Wilson Research Strategies showing that 82 percent of Republican and Republican-leaning independents believe marriage “should be defined only as a union between one man and one woman.” In fact, 74 percent of GOP voters strongly agreed with this statement.

It’s time for Republicans to stop taking advice from people who want them to lose. As I noted in Politico today, “Public policy makers are doing a great disservice to themselves and future generations by continuing to misread the convictions of the American people, who overwhelmingly support the institution of marriage as a unique union of one man and one woman. The misinformation campaign waged by media elites muddies the debate and attempts to isolate those who support the time-honored traditions and values shared by every major world religion throughout human history.”

“Incredibly, the debate is no longer about privacy and tolerance. Religious liberty, free speech and rights of conscience are now at stake. This survey should remind political and cultural leaders that this debate is far from over.  If anything, it is taking on a new sense of urgency for millions of men and women of faith.” Click here to read more.

Turn Off The Fan! 

Representative Steve Lynch, a Democrat congressman from Massachusetts, used some colorful language recently in predicting what will happen next in the Obamacare debate. Speaking on Boston Herald Radio, Lynch said that the worst parts of the law are still unimplemented but eventually will “hit the fan.”

Lynch’s subtle comparison of Obamacare to poop has a ring of truth. Some of the most onerous, unpopular portions of the law have been postponed, including a new 40% tax on health care policies that the Obama Administration feels are too good –policies it refers to as “Cadillac plans.”

The congressman’s warning comes in the wake of President Obama telling liberal congressmen to “forcefully defend and be proud of” Obamacare. One Democrat consultant said, “They all voted for it, they all own it, so they can’t get away from it. So they’d better start defending it.”

Another Attack On “Under God”

The Pledge of Allegiance was written in 1892 and formally adopted by Congress in 1942. The words “under God” were added twelve years later, and it is an interesting story how that happened.

One Sunday morning early in 1954, President Dwight Eisenhower attended services at the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church a few blocks from the White House. There he heard Reverend Dr. George MacPherson Docherty give a stirring sermon calling for the addition of the words “under God” to the Pledge. Docherty said that there was nothing in the Pledge that differentiated Americans from Russians. Russian school children, he argued, could recite a similar pledge to their country.

This prompted Ike to reflect on what made Americans different from their Soviet enemies—-what set America apart. Of course, it is that we believe our liberty comes from God.

The next day, Eisenhower initiated the process of adding “under God” to the pledge. Soon after, Rep. Charles Oakman introduced a bill to add the words and the law passed overwhelmingly in both houses of Congress and was signed by the president.

Interestingly, given the current attacks on religious liberty and the overall trend toward restraining religious speech, I’m not sure such a bill would pass today, especially in Harry Reid’s Senate.

The courts have gone back and forth about the constitutionality of the daily schoolroom ritual. In 2002, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals declared the words to be an unconstitutional endorsement of religion. Then, in 2010, the same court ruled that the phrase could be left in because it invokes not religious faith but “our founders’ political philosophy that a power greater than the government gives the people their inalienable rights.”

Now “under God” has been targeted again. A national humanist group is suing a New Jersey school district on behalf of a family that believes the words “under God” discriminate against atheist children. The American Humanist Association claims that phrase “marginalizes atheist and humanist kids as something less than ideal patriots.” This even though state law allows children to opt out of reciting the pledge.

I don’t know how this latest fight will turn out. But I do know that the left won’t be happy until all recognition of God is banished from the public square. Ronald Reagan used to say that if we ever forget that we are “one nation under God then we will be a nation gone under.” He was right.

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