'Values Voter Summit' or GOP Rally?

The only thing that has changed is that the GOP has fully embraced this movement, which is why there are no moderate Republicans anymore, and there are no Republicans in the NE (on a national level).

IT IS PAST TIME THAT CONGRESS PUTS CORRECT UP DATED CHANGE IN THE 1913 TAX EXAMPT LAW SO THAT THE FILERS OF TAX EXAMPT DO NOT SPEAK ON ANY POLITICAL ISSUE OR CANDIDATE. CONGRESS MUST SEE TO IT THAT ALL THAT THOES THAT FILE TAX EXAMPT MUST REGESTER WITH THE I.R.S. BEFORE THEY FILE FOR THE GIVEN TAX YEAR. JUST LAST WEEK, A GROUP OF BISHOPS SAID THAT THEY LIKE TAX MONEY TO PAY FOR THE PLUS 12,000,000 ILLEGALS HEATH CARE IN THIS POSSIBLE HEALTH CARE CHANGE IN OUR COUNTRY EVEN THOUGH THEIR DIOSECES DO NOT REGESTER WITH THE I.R.S. OR PAY TAX. ANY VIOLATION OF THE TAX EXAMPT LAW MUST BE DEALT WITH BY THE I.R.S. LIKE THEY DEAL WITH THE TAX PAYERS. ALL FIFTY STATES SHOULD BE LOOKING AT THIS AS WELL.

For the life of me I cannot figure out why the media pays so much attention to this sort of gathering. News reports indicate that there were only about a thousand attendees, way down from those halcyon days when the Religious Right was a more formidable movement.

I have the distinct impression that the mainstream media hypes right wing gatherings like this just as they did with the town hall protests and the Tea Party gathering in Washington DC a couple of weeks ago. Yet, the most recent NBC/Wall Street Journal poll has a whopping 77% of the public personally liking President Obama notwithstanding their concerns about the economy and health care.

From : Faith-Based Initiatives: Sacred Deeds and Secular Dollars, 2001, www.urban.org/publications/310351.html

"Most participants agreed that there is not, and never has been, a strict wall preventing church and state from working together (see box). Government and faith-based organizations have a long history of cooperation, and some faith-based organizations, such as Catholic Charities, Lutheran Social Services, and United Jewish Communities, rely extensively on government funding to deliver services.
What sets the new proposals apart from past practice is that for the first time pervasively religious groups, such as churches, mosques, and synagogues, can receive government funds directly rather than through a nonprofit organization affiliated with the congregation. This departure charts untested waters in church-state relations and assures further debate."

TABLE 1. Who Should Be Eligble for Government Funds?

Favor Oppose Don't Know
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Catholic churches 62 32 6
Protestant churches 61 31 8
Jewish synagogues 58 34 8
Evangelic Christian churches 52 35 13
Mormon churches 51 41 8
Muslim mosques 38 46 16
Buddhist temples 38 46 16
Nation of Islam 29 53 18

A few small observations:

1. I'm old enough to miss the moderate Republicans of my youth. Granted, they were from the state of New York, but they were still Republicans. Sigh.

2. What is UP with posting in ALL CAPS? If no one has told you yet, I will: IT IS RUDE!

3. Check any web etiquette guide and POSTING IN CAPS is the visual equivalent of shouting. Are you deaf?

4. I don't know who said it, but look for the destroyer of America to wrap himself in the flag and carry a cross.

If they think that bullying, screaming, and endless in-your-face is going to get most of the country in church pews, they have another guess coming. The really decent people (not the play actors) are repelled by the whole scenario.

"Values voters" always have and continue to be lemmings who apparently don't take the minute or two that it would require for them to figure out that, for most of their "issues" (which generally involve imposing their religious beliefs on the population as a whole), their focus should be at the local level. It doesn't matter whether a Democrat or a Republican is in the White House; their local school's curriculum is still going to be determined locally. Whether gays can marry in their state will be determined by their state legislature and/or courts. Abortion restrictions will be determined, within the broad strokes of Roe, in their state capitol.

The funny thing is that they cannot or will not see how they are routinely used like a dishrag by the GOP on a national level, like clockwork, every four years. How has that constitutional amendment banning gay marriage (the one that Dubya promised in the '04 campaign, then dropped like a hot potato as soon as the results from Ohio came in) worked out for them?

More fundamentally, why do they feel an obligation to transfer their responsibilties as parents to the state to begin with? You want your kids to pray in school (even though Jesus warned against public displays of religiousity)? Fine--teach them to do it. They don't need permission, and they don't need a teacher (who may or may not be a Christian) to lead them through it. You want your kids to practice "abstinence only"? Fine, teach them yourself (you know, like Sarah Palin taught Bristol)--but don't try to deny other parents who acknowledge the hormonal firestorm that is adolescence the right to have their kids learn about ways to prevent pregnancy. You want your kids to believe that the earth is only 6,000 years old? Great, but don't try to pass it off as "science" in public schools.

In the meantime, keep voting for a party whose economic platfrom is the anethema of everything Jesus had to say about the social Gospel, and against your own pocketbooks, so that the multimillionaires of the nation can benefit (at the expense of the poor), and just keep telling yourselves that you're doing "the Lord's work". After all, I'm just SURE that He would endorse cutting school lunch programs so that the top 1% can have another capital gains cut....

I would argue that Democrats are "values voters."

Democrats vote for progressive values, such as:
(1) Universal Equality,
(2) promoting Family Unity over Family Divisiveness
(3) to be Governed Democratically, rathern than be governedy by Tyranny.

I really dislike the phrase "values voters" and the attitude these people have that they're the only ones with values and that they're morally superior. "Values voter" is really just shorthand for evangelical Christian, anti-abortion, anti-sex, anti-gay.

Here's a news flash: EVERYONE HAS VALUES and everyone votes based on their values. They're just not all the same values. My values tell me it's wrong to invade a country for no reason and slaughter thousands of people. My values tell me that it's important to protect the environment and not dump toxic chemicals into the ground and water supply. My values tell me to have compassion for the less fortunate. My values don't involve judging others for their private lives.

Time to stop these criminal enterprises! End once and for all; no political activity at all by any Tax-exempt organization! Further, no monies, services, or "issues" ads should be allowed except by registered voters in the political operatives voting district!!!! No corporate monies, no labor services, no Church propaganda, no PAC, no swift-boaters, no Luddites, only real live human voters!

Values, ¿how can a church impose its values on everyone, even infidels?
Tom, Dick and Harry. Tom's church believes everyone has a duty to provide for widows and orphans. How does he know? The Bible tells him so:
When you have finished setting aside a tenth of all your produce in the third year, the year of the tithe, you shall give it to the Levite, the alien, the fatherless and the widow, so that they may eat in your towns and be satisfied.»
«You shall not afflict any widow or fatherless. If you do afflict them, and they cry out to me, I will surely hear their cry and my wrath will burn, and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives will become widows and your children fatherless.»
A libertarian, Dick is a libertarian, he believes that what he earns is his, he says, «if Tom wants to give some of what he earns to the widows and orphans, that is fine, but Tom has no business telling me I must do the same.»
Tom's church, it cannot make Dick follow its values. Harry the atheist, he will not believe when Tom says everyone must provide for widows or else a sword will come down from Heaven and kill us. Tom had better have better reasons to convince Harry that everyone must provide for widows and orphans, Tom can appeal to Harry's patellar reflex («knee-jerk liberalism»), or to Harry's compassion for widows and orphans («bleeding-heart liberalism»), or to Harry's fuzzy sense that maybe, maybe, some hungry orphan will break into Harry's house and steal his groceries («fuzzy-minded liberalism»). Enough people, if Tom and his church can convince enough people that providing for widows and orphans is a duty for everyone, then Tom and millions of Harrys, they can pass tax and welfare laws, these laws will impose Tom's church's values even on Dick the libertarian. One wife, Tom's church cannot make Abdul worship in Tom's Christian church, but Tom's church can convince the state to impose the «one-wife-to-a-customer» Christian value on Abdul, even though Abdul's mosque says he can have up to four wives.
Values, government imposes values all the time, not just «right wing» religious values, but also «progressive» religious values. Imposing values, it is not that the opponents of the «Values Voters» oppose the idea of imposing values, it is the idea of imposing the specific values that the «Values Voters» wish to impose (or continue imposing), for ¡Behold! the opponents, they are perfectly happy to impose (or continue opposing) their own values on everyone by government tax and force.

To Tony_in_Durham_NC:

Sinclair Lewis stated: "When fascism comes to America, it'll be wrapped in a flag and carrying a cross". We've seen how correct he was from 2001-2008.

No values voters are Republican. You can't be a values voter and look the other way when the President lies to start a war and brags about torturing people. They'll whine about abortion, but we all know they don't give a sh*( about anybody alive, so they obviously don't care about the fetuses. They don't like people having sex. They should be murdering people of other religions.

I was given a t-shirt last Christmas that sums up my position:

"Moral Values"

then it lists them:

community, compassion, health care, civil liberties, healthy environment, public schools, good jobs, investment, safety, fairness

That summs it all up for me. Needless to say, I was not at the "Values Voters Summit" this past weekend.

PR Chris

Who would be left in the republican party if these values voters split off to form their own party?

All the RINOs are gone, the libertarians seem to have left, the big money interests really only care about the party in power at the time.

Really, who would be left?

I guess we shouldn't be shocked to see the presidential wannabes showing up at this pathetic summit, should we?

I wonder why Romney shows up though. Does he really think these evangelical types are going to allow a mormon in the big house?

And I am a bit surprised that Palin didn't show up. Maybe she's smarter than she looks.

It's all about what you think "values" are. I have deeply-held values. They don't line up with a lot that the GOP tries to do, and certainly not the folks at the "values voters summit". What a self-congratulatory title. Wouldn't it better off called the "Patriarchal System Reestablishment Summit?". Lots O'men there, I bet.

Tax the Mormon church for it's involvement in anti-gay politics, tax the Catholic church for it's involvement in anti-abortion politics and tax the evangelical churches for "targeting" candidates the don't like.
Give the money from these taxes to the poor and their children for medical care. Then, and, only then will America even come close to being a "Christian Nation"

"Values voters" are primarily Republican. They are also highly corrupt, connected to violent extremist groups, hostile to pregnant women, bigoted against gay people, tied to racist groups, and are extreme ideologues.

Ironically, after advocating thoroughly failed and unrealistic abstinence-only 'education,' and family-values laws, they have an extensive record of sexual scandals. Who would have thought that the US version of the Taliban would have single and married groupies? Rev. Bookburn - Radio Volta

And then there are Bill Clinton and Ted Kennedy!!!

And then there is the Immoral Majority/Intercourse Without Thinking/Valueless group who put O'Bama in the Blood-Red House!!

The Immoral Majority/Intercourse Without Thinking/Valueless group: The fastest growing USA voting bloc: The 70+ million "Roe vs. Wade mothers and fathers" of aborted womb-babies" whose ranks grow by two million per year.

"War is Peace; Freedom is Slavery; Ignorance is Strength."

Republicans have values.

It's extremely arrogant by the ignorant, fanatical far right wing (which is obviously now identical with the GOP) to maintain they are the ones with values, when the rest of us can clearly see those values are shallow and more about the surface than real content.

White, Christian, male-centric. Yep, the modern Klan, free of their white sheets.

Since we are into slinging colors, how about all the "pinko" left wing (which is obviously now identitical with Democrats)????

"the rest of us can clearly see those values are shallow and more about the surface than real content."

Some on the religious right seem to be sincere about the values they promote. But any sincerity or insincerity is largely irrelevant and misses the larger issues. One such issue is their self-righteousness of defining their political positions as being about moral values, accusing opponents of being hostile to values or morality. The other issue is their advocacy of Christian nationalism, which in practice is almost indistinguishable from formal theocracy.

CCNL

Why weren't you at the "Summit" this weekend? Not able to get away? 'cause you know you'd fit right in.

Pr Chris

They should rename this event THE BAD VALUES VOTERS SUMMIT.

Fitting in??????

Jesus was an illiterate Jewish peasant/carpenter/simple preacher man who suffered from hallucinations and who has been characterized anywhere from the Messiah from Nazareth to a mythical character from mythical Nazareth to a mamzer from Nazareth (Professor Bruce Chilton, in his book Rabbi Jesus). Analyses of Jesus’ life by many contemporary NT scholars (e.g. Professors Crossan, Borg and Fredriksen, On Faith panelists) via the NT and related documents have concluded that only about 30% of Jesus' sayings and ways noted in the NT were authentic. The rest being embellishments (e.g. miracles)/hallucinations made/had by the NT authors to impress various Christian, Jewish and Pagan sects.

The 30% of the NT that is "authentic Jesus" like everything in life was borrowed/plagiarized and/or improved from those who came before. In Jesus' case, it was the ways and sayings of the Babylonians, Greeks, Persians, Egyptians, Hittites, Canaanites, OT, John the Baptizer and possibly the ways and sayings of traveling Greek Cynics.

http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/theories.html

For added "pizzazz", Catholic/Christian theologians divided god the singularity into three persons and invented atonement as an added guilt trip for the "pew people" to go along with this trinity of overseers. By doing so, they made god the padre into god the "filicider".

Current crises:

Pedophiliac priests, atonement theology and original sin!!!!

Luther, Calvin, Joe Smith, Henry VIII, Wesley, Roger Williams, the Great “Babs” et al, founders of Christian-based religions or combination religions also suffered from the belief in/hallucinations of "pretty wingie thingie" visits and "prophecies" for profits analogous to the myths of Catholicism (resurrections, apparitions, ascensions and immaculate conceptions).

Current crises:

Adulterous preachers, "propheteering/ profiteering" evangelicals and atonement theology, all male hierarchies and strange banking and funding.

The Religious Right is a noisy bunch. And they've become so intertwined with the Republican party that it's almost impossible to tell them apart.

This interconnection may not be a great long term strategy for the GOP. Despite all the cacophony, our nation's march toward increased secularism has been slowed, has been accelerated and has almost come to a halt. But it's never reversed. When we reach the inevitable event horizon, religion will be all but dead.