Gays get out! A call to purge the GOP of homosexuals

The Idaho Values Alliance, a long time supporter of Idaho Republican Sen. Craig, is now asking for his resignation. They start off by saying that he should resign IF he is homosexual, but then they continue

It strains credulity to think that the senator can provide an explanation for his guilty plea if he did nothing more than accidentally brush someone’s foot with his shoe and pick up a piece of paper off the floor.

The Judeo-Christian tradition says that the standard for identifying the truth is that “by the mouth of two or three witnesses every fact is confirmed.” The senator’s guilty plea, when added to the officer’s testimony, satisfies the biblical standard for confirming the essential truth of what happened, and unless the senator can provide a compelling and convincing explanation for his plea, we will need to regretfully accept that the fact of his behavior has been established. It seems unlikely that he can “unring the bell” his guilty plea has sounded.

So - if he is homosexual he should resign, and the evidence as they see it make it extremely unlikely that he is NOT homosexual. But they continue to say

One larger issue must be addressed. The Republican Party platform clearly rejects the agenda of homosexual activists. The Party, in the wake of the Mark Foley incident in particular, can no longer straddle the fence on the issue of homosexual behavior. Even setting Senator Craig’s situation aside, the Party should regard participation in the self-destructive homosexual lifestyle as incompatible with public service on behalf of the GOP.

No member of the Republican Party in the 1860s could represent his party and be a slaveholder at the same time. Nor can the Republican Party of today speak with authority and clarity to the moral issues that confront our society and at the same time send ambivalent messages about sexual behavior. It is time for the Republican Party to be the party that defends the American family in word, deed, and by personal example.

This is a call for the purge from the Republican Party of such people as Sen. Craig, and very likely Ralph Reed or Sen. Lindsay Graham.

So why should they be purged? Because people like the Idaho Values Alliance consider them "Sinners." Says who? Some power-hungry political leaders who use religion as their base of power, that's who.

I strongly suspect that Ralph Reed is gay, and I don't like him. But my dislike is based on his efforts to impose religion on our secular government. I rather respect Lindsay Graham because he is a man who learns on the job and does not seem to demonize his opponents. I objected to his role in the effort to convict Bill Clinton in the Senate impeachment trial, and I dislike his support for a number of Republican policies, but those are political judgments, not judgment on him as a "Sinner."

I very much respect and like Barney Frank from Massachusetts. He is often described as the smartest man in the House of Representatives, and his ability to get off a great quip is legendary. Why should we remove people like Barney Frank and Lindsay Graham from government service just because someone has read a book that answers all questions and rejects them? Biblical Inerrancy, besides being bad religion, is also a rotten way to run a government.

Apparently, however, the people in the Idaho Values Alliance think it is the source of all good government and are willing to destroy the political career of Sen. Craig from Idaho over the issue.

Government is not religion, nor is religion a good basis for government. Religion is too inflexible to be allowed to ever have the power to govern people on any basis. Religion can observe, advise and recommend, but never govern. The result of religious government is always war.

In the meantime, if the GOP conducts a purge of homosexuals, all they will do is drive them deeper into the closet or destroy the careers of some people, occasionally good and occasionally bad (like all the rest of us.) As a Democrat the only good thing I see coming from that is a weakening of the Republican Party and ultimately the rejection of the social conservatives by the rest of that party.