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There is a duplicitous perversity to political parties and to the politics they engender.
Michael Perutka, candidate for President for the Constitution Party, recently sent out an essay by Reed Heustis pointing up a blasphemous base to the Republican Party platform. He wrote that both former President Reagan and President Bush II had made statements affirming the essential “goodness” of man and maintained such a position worked counter to the conviction of our Founders who were all suspicious of mans motives. Heustis wrote, “The Republican Party’s platform acknowledges the alleged “goodness” of man, whereas the Bible teaches the inherent evil of man whose only redemption is through Jesus Christ and Him alone. Therefore, the Republican Party advocates an anti-Christian principle in its very first sentence.”
Since countless astute observers have pointed up in detail the relentless deterioration of legal principles and the proliferation of humanist policies that have marked the Republican Party it seemed appropriate to bring this sacrilegious position to the attention of Party members.
Rod Martin is an Arkansas Republican. Educated at Cambridge, he is smart, well connected, ambitious, zealously partisan, and espouses Christianity. Through his Vanguard Group PAC he sends out salutary missives about current Republican activities.
Mr. Martin and I have exchanged some rather heated correspondence. In the November/December 2002 issue of the Christian Statesman, Mr. Martin wrote an encouraging article about the number of Christians active in the Republican Party. He wrote, “Christian conservatives now hold a majority of seats in 36% of all Republican Party state committees (or 18 of 50 states), plus large minorities in 81% of the rest, double their strength from a decade before. They are weak in just 6 states (plus D.C.), all northeastern. As the study put it, Christians are ‘gaining influence by spreading out to more states and digging in when faced with opposition.’ Once dismissed as a small regional movement, ‘Christian conservatives’ have become a staple of politics nearly everywhere.”
My position on this issue is that the number of Christians in American society has consistently been inversely proportional to righteousness making Rod Martin’s hopeful writing meaningless in enhancing a Christian agenda.
In a letter to the Editor, my response to his article contained the following, “Since God often selects the foolish and the base, immature American Christians are prone to stupidity and foolishness and often exhibit this characteristic behavior in their professional life. Having been taught that God is their servant, personal evangelism marks the extent of their service. Bringing about godly dominion in society is beyond their ken.” To which Mr. Martin replied, But this much is certain: his characterization of the vast majority of his brethren is haughty and hateful, and demonstrates yet again that “reformed and always reforming” too often means nothing but “too pure for you. To Mr. Cronkrite and his ilk, I would kindly suggest imitating not merely the law but the love of Christ before expecting American Christians to listen to them, much less follow them. A Dale Carnegie course wouldn’t hurt either.”
The editor of the Christian Statesman would not allow me to respond to this rather pointed personal attack.
Following is Mr. Martin’s response to Reed Heustis’s questioning the Republican assumption of the “goodness of man”: “Don’t talk to me about the “Christianity” of Michael Peroutka, Howard Phillips or the Constitution Party while they are placing paid advertisements in Business Reform magazine stating bald-faced lies. Mr. Peroutka says, among a great many other impossible things, that he will — on his first day in office as President — personally end legal abortion, abolish the Department of Education, etc. Unless he’s planning a military coup these are absolute impossibilities, and unless he has the IQ of a turnip, he knows that. No President has such power, and if he did, he would be a dictator.
The Constitution Party has paid a great deal of money to publicize the fact that it’s a pack of liars. It has no claim whatsoever to Christianity anymore. So you may kindly keep your “don’t vote for evil” smugness to yourselves. Your hero has made you a bunch of hypocrites, in full-color print.” And my reply, “You and I are on the same side but the immediate vituperation that results from the defense of your position not only ignores the issue but makes sane discussion impossible. Is it true that the Republican Party Platform sets forth the goodness of man? – That is what is being claimed and you failed to address it.
I will grant you that Peroutka probably could not bring forth all the reforms he proposes but the same claims have characterized political campaigns on both sides for many years – Reagan promised to close the Department of Education. Peroutka is stating his intentions and they appear to be more righteous than those of the opposition. Political campaigns are never bound by the realities of government they always seem to portray the personal opinions of the candidates or those they feel will garner the most votes.
It is my understanding that several of our Founders were concerned that political parties would distort good government. I have observed with interest the distortion of the opinions of good and honorable men (and now women) in order to advance in the power structure of political parties.”
My reply did not receive a response.
Now let me tell you why I described membership in political parties as “duplicitously perverse”.
Under a section entitled “Statement of Faith” on the vanguard.org page the following statement appears: “VI. The Fall of Man. God originally created man in His own image, and free from sin; but, through the temptation of Satan, he transgressed the command of God, and fell from his original holiness and righteousness; whereby his posterity inherit a nature corrupt and wholly opposed to God and His law, are under condemnation, and as soon as they are capable of moral action, become actual transgressors. From “The Abstract of Principles”, the official doctrinal statement of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, adopted in 1858.”
The vanguard.org page also contains a number of effusive testimonials concerning Rod Martin; His wife extols his fine character; one complimentor believes we should pray that Rod Martin “will be in the White House some day”; another maintains he “spends his time selling his vision instead of bashing the other guy”; Former presidential candidate, Steve Forbes says, “Rod Martin is a Reaganite-Thatcherite conservative…[and] a man who has spent much of his life ministering to and working for the benefit of others. I know Rod as an advocate for freedom, a leader who understands the real changes we need in Washington, and who has the drive and ability to make those changes happen.”; Dr. Ted Baehr calls him “gracious”; and former Governor Mike Huckabee says, “he is a tireless worker for the Republican Party across the nation”.
The hypocrisy that characterizes the ambitious politician was inferred by Shakespeare in his play Julius Caesar when Caesar said to Marc Antony: “Let me have men about me that are fat, / Sleek-headed men, and such as sleep a-nights. / Yon Cassius has a lean and hungry look. / He thinks too much. Such men are dangerous.”
Major league athletes are renown for their unrestrained egos. Unusual athletic ability is quickly noticed and rewarded with unearned kudos that cultivate hubris. Major league coaches must often contend with prima donnas.
Bright young men and women are treated to a similar unearned enhancement of their self-esteem. Teachers fawn over them, they are noticed, ferreted out, and often groomed for future leadership. Cambridge is the scholastic major league and these highly talented, full of themselves students arrive there to be programmed with the centrist political theory that has overtaken our world.
Brilliance is not always lucid. Reed Hustis’s point concerning the sinful nature of men is as active in the brilliant as it is in the moronic – all, left to their own devices, will tend toward the irrational. There is safety in having righteous advisors and more safety in being humble enough to hear and act on the truth when it is clearly presented.
King David’s lust for Bathsheba and his complicity in her husband’s death were sins that might have required his life. But God loved the humility that allowed Nathan’s confrontation (at the risk of his life) to engender sorrow and repentance. Those who cannot be corrected are as Caesar discerned Cassius -“dangerous”.
Rod Martin is not the only Republican Party member to evidence a distorting, evil intransigence. Active party members, both Republican and Democratic, are always eager to ignore the facts as long as they fail to support The Party agenda. This acceptance of liberty robbing programs and failure to obey the legal mandates of God and Country in the name of party loyalty has contributed mightily to the deterioration of our Nation.
“Published originally at EtherZone.com : republication allowed with this notice and hyperlink intact.”