Don’t Be Deceived: Secular Republicans Don’t Carry Reagan’s Values
Secular Republicans are disingenuous. Although they proudly call themselves “Reagan conservatives” while in public service, in reality they embrace very little of Reagan’s values. But this is to be expected. Secularism lacks an ethical basis—no foundation—and in particular, it has no religious basis.
William Berriman, an English theologian from the 18th century, wrote: “It is the property of the Devil, not to mistake the nature of virtue, and esteem it criminal, but to hate it for this reason, because it is good, and therefore most opposite to his designs. The wicked, as his proper emissaries, resemble him in this, and grieve to have the foulness of their vices made conspicuous by being placed near the light of virtuous example.”
Recently, 300 moderate Republicans called for the U.S. Supreme Court to force homosexual marriage upon our once Christian nation.
These GOP Chieftains and Lieutenants lack wisdom. They are neither “shrewd,” “insightful” nor “wise”—but “weak-willed” and “easily seduced.” They do not believe in the truth that “The true glory of a nation lies in its righteousness rather than its wealth or power.”1 In describing what these GOP leaders are wreaking upon the nation, the picture which comes to mind is—”As though a man floating rapidly onwards to the falls of Niagara, should occupy himself in drawing a very admirable picture of the scenery.”2
These leaders have served as key cogs of the Republican Party apparatus for a quarter of a century. Defining themselves as “conservative” camouflages their radical, secular ideology. They are responsible for frittering away the branding and legacy of limited government, lower taxes, deregulation of business and a philosophy of—”the-one-thing-government-can-do-for-me-is-leave-me-alone”—bequeathed to the Republican Party by Ronald Reagan in the 1980s.
Self-professed homosexual Ken Mehlman hid his homosexuality from the Republican Party base while serving as White House Political Director under Karl Rove (2001-2003), as the Bush-Cheney campaign manager (2004), and RNC Chairman (2005-2006). That Mr. Mehlman feels a need for the public to know his proclivity behind closed doors strikes me as strange. It’s none of my business! But what is my concern is his defining homosexual marriage as the “conservative position.” As Mehlman recently told the Boston Globe: “One of the points that I hope people appreciate when they read the brief is that supporting marriage equality is, in fact, the conservative position.”
What Mehlman is trying to pull here is unconscionable—without principle.
This trend of redefining words has only just begun. Phony Republican leaders will continue to use the word “conservative,” but with two different meanings. Therefore, if we mean to appreciate conservative values, defend them and even judge them any better than the Democrat Party’s penchant for abortion, homosexual marriage and anti-God values, then we must define the basic values of the Grand Old Party.
Evangelical and Pro-Life Catholic Christians will find little “community” with Republican secularists, as these agnostics attempt to impose a godless paganism on the nation. After all, what is a political party if not a group of individuals supporting certain beliefs?
The Whig Party—predecessor of the Republican Party—collapsed in the mid-19th century over the issue of slavery. Specifically, pro-slavery Whigs determined to expand the evil practice into the new territories. Likewise, secular Republicans who impose so-called homosexual marriage on the nation in 2015 will have the exact same effect on the Republican Party that slavery had on the Whig Party in 1852—it will collapse.
The Founders established the Bible as the fixed point in order to judge, therein establishing the unity, structure and shape that welded a people together in a single terrain and fashioned American Exceptionalism. In 1963, the shortsighted Supreme Court eliminated the Bible from public schools causing lone dissenting Justice Potter Stewart to prophesy, “… [the decision] led not to true neutrality with respect to religion, but to the establishment of a religion of secularism.” This atrocity has finally reached its denouement in America. One worldview is going to reign supreme between these two competing ideologies: godless secularism or biblical Christianity. One philosophy leads on to fortune, the other “over the falls of Niagara.”
It is easily defended that Christianity birthed America, its first governing document written and signed by the Pilgrims before debarking the Mayflower in 1620: “Having undertaken, for the Glory of God, and advancements of the Christian faith … .”3 America’s Founders were convinced that they were “a people chosen by God with ideals to realize and a religious mission to fulfill: One nation under God.”4
Secularism and Christianity are distinct religions. Secularism can be implicated in the moral free fall threatening America’s long-term survivability. This godless paganism is dismantling America brick-by-brick, and the answer is not found in redefining words to suit the spirit of the age. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer offers, “If you board the wrong train, it is no use running along the corridor in the other direction.”
We must return to Jesus, a Gideon or Rahab the Harlot must make a stand.
1 Michael V. Fox
2 George Bowen, quoted by Charles Spurgeon in his commentary on the book of Psalms, The Treasury of David
3 The Mayflower Compact
4 Marcello Pera, Why We Should Call Ourselves Christians: The Religious Roots of Free Societies
David Lane is the founder of the American Renewal Project.
