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The Democratic Party's Godless Platform
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All reference to God has been removed from the 2012 Democratic platform. This a curiosity indeed: how the Democratic party claims a warrant to lead a "nation under God," and a nation whose foundational document refers to the "Laws of Nature and Nature's God," when the natural law and the name of God have apparently become so abhorrent to it.
Highlights
Catholic Online (https://www.catholic.org)
9/5/2012 (1 decade ago)
Published in Politics & Policy
Keywords: Democratic Platform, Democratic convention, DNC, canmpaign 2012, godless,
CORPUS CHRISTI, TX (Catholic Online) - Fyodor Dostoevsky famously wrote in his Brothers Karamazov that if God does not exist, then everything is permitted. Without God it is difficult to see how there can be a natural moral law that binds us. Without a natural moral law, then there is no basis for law except the power of the State. For those who seek to flout the natural moral law, which are equivalent to the Ten Commandments, God can therefore be a serious inconvenience.
Apparently, as the Democratic party and its platform have strayed away from the natural moral law, embracing perversely intrinsic evils as moral and social goods, the Democratic party's leaders have found the mention of God more and more unbearable.
In a number of significant areas, the Democratic platform continues to push its agenda that runs roughshod over the natural moral law without obedience to which there can be no authentic human flourishing. Hence such areas in the Democratic platform are against the common good and intrinsically unjust.
The Democratic platform continues to push for the funding of all artificial contraception, which it euphemistically and vaguely refers to as women's right to control their reproductive choices." The platform prides itself on ensuring by law and by force that "women have access to contraception in their health insurance plan," which means the Democratic party expects all of us to have to pay for it--even if it be against our conscience and against the teachings of our Church.
Not surprisingly, the platform also "strongly and unequivocally supports . . . a woman's right to make decision . . . regarding . . . a safe and legal abortion, regardless of ability to pay." Not only does this advance the "unspeakable crime" of abortion as a legally-protected good, it goes a step further and expects all Americans to have blood on their hands. To assure that abortion is available "regardless of ability to pay," means, of course--again--that those whose consciences and religious teachings prohibit cooperating with this evil will be expected to fund it under the color of law.
On marriage, the Democratic platform supports "marriage equality," which is a gross misnomer, and supports the "movement to secure equal treatment under law for same-sex couples." The Democratic platform opposes any effort under law to maintain traditional marriage as a union of one man and one woman, and supports "full repeal" of the "so-called Defense of Marriage Act." Instead, it advocates passage of the "Respect for Marriage Act," which, of course, seeks to redefine traditional marriage out of existence.
The Democratic platform throws a temporary and nominal bone to "the freedom of churches and religious entities to decide how to administer marriage as a religious sacrament without government interference," but this simply means that the Christian concept of marriage must remain within the doors of the Church and not be suffered to venture into the public square.
Apparently, advancing all these intrinsic evils as good has made the thought of God--against whom these laws or positions offend--unbearable. So it is that, in a marked change from its 2008 and prior platforms, the Democratic party has removed the mention of God in its 2012 platform which ironically is titled "Moving America Forward."
At least with reference to God, it seems as the Democratic party is moving backward.
The Jews used not to mention God out of reverence and respect of his Commandments. One wonders if the Democrats do not want to mention God out of disdain of his Commandments.
The evolution of the Democratic party's discomfort with the concept of God seems to have been historically increasing, eventually evolving to the current "atheistic" official stance.
According to The Blaze, the 2004 platform for the Democratic party contained seven references to God, the 2008 platform retained one mention, and the 2012 platform apparently intends to banish God altogether.
Not only is the lack of mention of God a significant shift in the Democratic party generally, but the lack of mention of God in the Democratic platform distinguishes it from the Republican party platform which mentions God ten times. The Republic platform recognizes "God-given" freedoms or rights, and recognizes that men and women have rights, given to them by God, which the government cannot ignore, but instead must serve.
Without anchoring human or natural rights in God, rights become "State-given," and as one knows, what the State giveth, the State may take away. This would suggest that the Democratic party has developed into a party of pure positivism, where the only law and only rights are defined by man without reference to God.
Of course, the atheists are elated. CNN reported David Silverman, the president of the American Atheists, as a step forward. "We are obviously happy that the Democrats are taking these positive steps," Silverman observed.
Betraying a misunderstanding of the First Amendment and an animus against believers, Silverman continued to express what he hopes the ultimate Democratic party policy will be: "We are looking for the inclusion of everyone and we are hopeful that the inclusion will continue to the point that we can depend on Mr. Obama to repeal the faith based initiatives and reinforce the separation of church and state." What he really means is the exclusion of Christians from the public square.
The Democratic platform does retain a rather muted reference to faith, stating that faith, though it does not mention faith in God, "has always been a central part of the American story, and it has been a driving force of progress and justice throughout our history." Apparently, the atheists would have liked even this removed.
The Democratic platform states that the election "is not simply a choice between two candidates or two political parties, but between two fundamentally different paths for our country and our families."
That seems quite true, and it also seems that the path the Democratic party has chosen is the path without God.
This a curiosity indeed: how the Democratic party claims warrant to lead a "nation under God," and a nation whose foundational document refers to the "Laws of Nature and Nature's God," when the natural law and the name of God have become so abhorrent to it.
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Andrew M. Greenwell is an attorney licensed to practice law in Texas, practicing in Corpus Christi, Texas. He is married with three children. He maintains a blog entirely devoted to the natural law called Lex Christianorum. You can contact Andrew at agreenwell@harris-greenwell.com.
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