Fields: Family Values GOP Style
BY SAM FIELDS
One of the consequences of the GOP candidates’ merger with the religious crowd is that candidates must pass a series of litmus tests. Abortion, prayer in school, gay anything are but a few of this social issue gauntlet that all fall under the catchall of “Family Values.”
There are a hundred Rightwing Christian groups that wrap themselves in some variation of “Family Values”.
As the election season goes along they all have the same message. They want a President who supports biblically inspired families that combine “Leave It To Beaver” with Jesus and The New Testament.
If it’s not it’s James Dobson’s Focus on the Family. Or it’s Tony Perkins and his Family Research Council. Did I forget football coach Bill McCartney and his Promise Keepers?
They and a hundred others all have the same story about biblically-inspire family values.
But one does not have to read very far into the New Testament to realize when it comes to “family values” that these folks don’t really know or believe what the bible says. They are just convinced that the bible says what they believe.
The New Testament has only one real message: Get ready for Jesus and the Second Coming. Screw families and family values; they just get in the way.
A good starting point to truly understand New Testament family values is Matthew quoting Jesus at 10:34-37
“I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man’s foes will be those of his own household. He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me…”
Jesus assured his followers that nothing was more important than eternal salvation through him. Everything else is “second place” to The Second Coming.
Less you think that Matthew is an anomaly, you’re wrong. In light of The Second Coming the New Testament is filled with attacks on marriage and family as counterproductive and a waste of time.
Luke 20:34-35: “The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage; but those who are accounted worthy to attain to that age and to be resurrected from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage.”
But no one can top Matthew for solving the compunction for marriage and carnal desire. In Chapter 19:12 he wrote:
“There are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. He who is able to receive this, let him receive it.”
Now there’s a real “Christian family values.” It’s too bad that the fathers of Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich, etc., didn’t subscribe to that belief.
February 23rd, 2012 at 11:18 am
Since I know and like you personally Sam, I have to say that I am stunned at the depth of the pure venom you feel for these people. As a libertarian and an atheist I feel free to observe that the visceral hatred most liberals feel for those who disagree with them appears to be growing. Intolerance thy name is liberalism. In a turbulent world I appreciate the basic human decency found in Christians of every stripe, and Mormons in particular. Way back in my high school teaching days in the ghetto of Southwest Philadelphia (actually at the high school at the end of my block) I loved the 7th Day Adventists. Their children were always clean and well dressed, respectful and eager to learn. Left wing hate and class war political strategies have destroyed many families in its bid to repress free speech, religious values and yes, family values. Look around you Sam. We’re gonna be dead a very long time. Do you want to leave a world of hate behind just because it brings your friends political power or can you embrace what others live and hope for even if you don’t believe a word of it.
February 23rd, 2012 at 11:20 am
Very thought provoking.
I must admit, I find your analysis right on point.
February 23rd, 2012 at 11:24 am
I love when an atheist is telling us what the Bible says.
Notice Fields has such hate for religious believes that he refuses to capitalize the Bible, although that is the proper way to write it according to every English guidebook.
February 23rd, 2012 at 11:26 am
Perfectly conveyed like it should be by a kind and compassionate liberal. The world is surely a better place because of people like you.
February 23rd, 2012 at 11:28 am
Right on!
February 23rd, 2012 at 1:49 pm
DEAR ED,
WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO YOU IN YOUR DOTAGE? Are you feeling guilt about all those rip snortin’ attack pieces in the LEDGER?
Religion is hardly a love fest. Every year people are dying by the millions in disputes over “my god is better than your god.”
All I have done is point out the ignorance/hypocrisy of so-called believers.
By what standard do religion and its adherents get a free ride from the search for truth?
A recent Pew survey showed that the most knowledgeable people on religion were atheists. The least knowledgeable were those who professed the most faith.
It comes as no surprise that idiots like Mr. Courthouse attack me without ever having read the bible.
Seeing you in that same group is a little disappointing.
As for your beloved Mormons I suggest you look into this ant-Semitic cabal.
For 2000 years Jews have resisted Christian baptism notwithstanding torture, exile and murder.
Mormons have ignored our wishes and have now begun baptizing us post mortem. Not that I think it has any substantive value it just brings up old wounds of forced conversions which have plagued my people for three millennium.
Their latest attack on the Jews was last week when once again they held a public ceremony baptizing Anne Frank.
February 23rd, 2012 at 2:22 pm
Hawking’s right
February 23rd, 2012 at 3:24 pm
Sam,
I don’t judge anyone because they are born into a religion. I judge them on how they behave. I think Mormons(that I know), 7th Day Adventists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, by and large most Protestants, Jews and most Catholics (excluding any of the Kennedys) are really decent people and can be trusted to follow the Golden Rule.
As to rip snorting editorials – they are about people who have chosen the political life.
Of course they are horrible people and I know if they ever walked by your home, your lawn would probably die. Anything written or spoken about the politically active is merely a description of the drug crazed wife swapping pond scum with the ethics of a Times Square pimp that we elect to office in the country.
I haven’t changed but there is a huge difference between those born and raised into a faith and those out doing harm in the name of that faith (Behavior – not belief)
To set your mind at rest – I received a glowing letter from Dr. James Kennedy before he died singing my praises for defending the right of ministers to invoke Jesus Christ when invited to say the invocation at Pompano City Commission meetings when the Commission tried to ban any mention of Christ in their public prayers.
Kennedy was so pleased that anyone in the media would defend Christianity like that he wanted to put me on his radio network as a wonderful representative of the right thinking media.
I was forced to offer full disclosure in that to me it was a First Amendment issue not a religious issue and my exact words were, “If the Commission invites the local coven of witches to say the invocation and they show up bare-assed, painted blue and praying to Satan, well that’s OK with me too.
Strangely I never made it on the air but it was his air to do with what he wished.
Another PS – I know of the many generous pro bono and just kind things you have done for needy people from every walk of life during your career. You have used your talents to benefit many others though I’m sure few on this blog know of your human decency in helping so many. What I say here is never personal criticism … like you I love the joust, even in my dotage.
Ed
February 23rd, 2012 at 4:56 pm
The bible. Brought to you by people who thought the earth was flat.
February 23rd, 2012 at 6:31 pm
Mr. Courthouse – most atheists are VERY knowledgeable about the bible. That’s WHY they are atheists. No intelligent person who has read this book of mythology could possible believe its contents.
February 23rd, 2012 at 9:19 pm
Sam is correct. Other than divorce for any reason other than infidelity, there is little in the Bible to suggest Jesus was overly concerned with the so called social issues some religious obsess about today. I would argue that Jesus’s priority of thought can be found in the following scripture. John 13:34-35 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so must you love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” This command to love one another applies to everyone, including those who’s bedroom habits we may not agree with AND SAM, those who’s belief in God runs counter to your own. Your hatred for Christians is no less a sin than the behavior you condemn them for. Perhaps some self-help would be the place to start.
February 24th, 2012 at 6:57 am
Good thing the Democrats don’t worry about family values. How else could you have had Ted Kennedy, the Hero of Chappaquiddick?
February 24th, 2012 at 7:28 am
@Stacie;
True on Ted Kennedy…
But then again, he only killed 1 person.
GWB, on the other hand, sent tens of thousands of folks (mostly civilians) to their death.
So there is that.
And we both know you voted for him… Not once. But twice.
February 24th, 2012 at 11:00 am
Ed,
Ideologies and the people that run them should be subject to the same scrutiny regardless of whether they are secular or magical thinkers (religion).
Further, judging them on the basis of the one or two you have met is ridiculous. By that standard if Oscar Schindler was the only thing I knew about the Nazis I might think it was a bunch of swell guys.
Religions would have us believe they are above the fray of human foibles.
They are as bad as or worse than the rest of us.
Here are two little recent vignettes.
Google “Vatican and money laundering” and you will see that once again the Vatican is at the center of a major bank scandal.
As the center of the last Vatican money laundering scandal, Bishop Paul Marchincus, said back in the 1980’s: “You can’t run this place on 400 Hail Marys.”
Less it be thought that I am picking only on the Catholic Church– admittedly it is a favorite sport exposing The Evil Empire—get ready for the public expose’ of the fanatical Chabad Jews.
Google “pedophilia and Chabad” and you will find that there has been a long standing practice of protecting their“kosher kiddiediddlers”.
The Australian Chabadists were shipping them to the U.S. to keep them one step ahead of the local gendarme. David Kramer and Velvel Serebryanski, Mordechai Yomtov and David Cyprys are but a few of the child molesters holy of holies that Chabad was moving around like it was a game of Three Card Monte.
Once in the U.S. their old habits came back and a number are in American prisons and/or under Australian extradition orders.
Fearful of the political wrath of the local Hassidics, Brooklyn D.A. Charles Hynes is fighting tooth and nail to conceal the files on 85 “Pious, peyot, pornographers.” New York’s highest court is hearing the case.
Because they try to hold themselves out as better than the rest of us they are in fact worse than the rest of us who are generally willing to acknowledge our foibles
Ed, it sounds you are getting sloppy in your old age. But anytime you would like to have a beer with me name the brand and I’ll bring a case over.
February 24th, 2012 at 7:15 pm
Re: The Vatican Bank
My cousin John Cardinal Foley of Philadelphia died recently after returning home from 30 years at the Vatican as the Pope’s flack catcher and head of La Observatore Romano and the Vatican Radio.
Let me tell you how John got his job. (PS he became a priest in the days when most seminaries weren’t, shall we say as, ‘glandular’ as they are today.)
Long ago when we were both little J-School guys John decided to opt for the seminary where he could get a good gig as a priest in a suburban parish and get free golf at ritzy country clubs. He was eventually promoted to Monsignor and had his own little fiefdom on the West Chester pike.
I opted for the more hedonistic life of a lifeguard in Wildwood, New Jersey. We were both happy in our own way.
The Cardinal at that time in Philadelphia was a Polish priest named Krol and he suddenly had a major PR problem with Philadelphia magazine. It seems a bunch of Polish monks called the Paulists where not adhering strictly to the poverty, chastity and obedience rule of the monkish life and Philadelphia magazine was reporting on their Mercedes cars, color TV and lavish lifestyle on the dime of devout old ladies.
Someone suggested John might be able to contact his old drinking buddies at the mag and make the story go away. He did, it did.
Then suddenly there was a Polish pope with a similar problem in Rome with the Vatican bank.
Well, the story goes the Polish Cardinal recommended him to the Polish pope (or as the Sun Sentinel called him – The first Non-Catholic Pope) and John was promoted to Archbishop and was allowed to bring his mother with him to Rome to live in the Vatican.
The missing money was overlooked and the problem went away. He was golden.
Many years passed and the new German pope promoted him to Cardinal and his old parish trimmed the brim off a Phillies baseball cap and sent it to him to wear at his investiture. Shortly after that they found he had leukemia and he came home to Philadelphia to die.
So to make a long story longer, I know all about the Vatican bank scandals, the mob influence and inner workings of a corporation that can take a 1,000 year return on its investments.
My point being, we’re old farts now Sam and though its good have the old passions about justice etc. we eventually need to pass the torch to the kids out there. And they are there, they just need a chance and maybe some advice from dottering old fools like us. Getting your blood pressure up at injustice can clear the arteries.
Re: the beer – 8 heart attacks, diabetes, liver and kidney failure have slowed my drinking down to the odd Quart of Jameson and a dozen Guinesses a night. I can’t walk too far but I can make it to the bar from the parking lot most days. I drive alot faster than I used to – to cut down on the time to get into an accident. So it would be great to see you – maybe John Keller can join us as well and we can hash over the grand old days of Broward before all our friends and contacts went to prison.
Ed