Portsmouth Daily Times - Convention gaffe inexcusable

FRANK LEWIS

PDT Staff Writer

Every once in a while, some political leader or party does something that totally amazes me. Last week it was the Republicans putting Clint Eastwood on minutes before Mitt Romney was introduced. He may have made sense to you, but all he did was clog up the rythmn of the convention as far as I am concerned. It was embarrassing and meaningless.

Wednesday it was the Democrats’ turn. First of all, whose idea was it in the first place to purposely remove any reference to God in the party platform. That person should be fired. The second problem is that it is embarrassing that the president signed off on the idea. But what happened Wednesday was one of the most asinine things I have ever seen.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa was thrown to the wolves by being given the unenviable task of polling the delegates on whether or not to add God to the platform, and to refer to Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. It was deer in the headlights when it turned out to be about 50/50, so not only did this guy take that vote once. He took it three times, then declared it had passed, much to the displeasure of about half the delegates. What makes it a complete charade is that his announcement that it had passed was already on the teleprompter before he took the three votes.

I am amazed that reference to God was purposely removed from the party platform. I am also amazed that it was a popular decision. Finally, I am amazed that no one has apparently ever read the bible. Jerusalem is the capitol of Israel. While some people haven’t caught up with the trends, Israel is returning to their original roots by referring to Jerusalem as their capital as they should. The uninformed news media made fun of Mitt Romney when he made that reference. It turns out he was right.

This is not a political party issue. It is a moral issue. There are just as many people who love God in both parties. The problem is when you allow your party platform to be hijacked and your beliefs removed for political purposes. I can say with a clear conscience that I would have written this column no matter which party did it. It is completely unacceptable. People should demand better of their leaders.

What I am most concerned about is the intentional action to remove God from the platform in the first place. Psalm 9:17 reads - “The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.”

Frank Lewis may be reached at 740-353-3101, ext. 232, or at flewis@heartlandpublications.com

Comments

(7)

yojoe

September 07, 2012

Well, here you go again, Frank, PDT's. Keep us busy in things we can't control for sure since we can't control The City and County Governments either, but You and M & M Messerly distract us in your busy work on the Federal levels when it's the local level ripping us off and out of our livelihoods and our life expectancy, daily.

The Fed's do send a lot if our tax money here to this "rural area" but you help let it, RICO, be diverted to private pockets through NGO's and the like.

We have the Staker/Holsinger killing, We have the USDA-ASB Gampp-Gate, the millions of dollars in DEFICITS in both The City And County. The unsolved Arsons, the Drugs, the NGO's, et al

And you rant on these crumbs under the table.

And you are a week late with your lead in, and off base with you second 2 items on the Dem's that was corrected as we've heard the national news outlet's not the local Yokel's. Do you and Messerly think we are the stupid people like the rest of the leaders in Scioto County.

And the whole article is full of what your colleague Ryan would label "negativity" that you at the PDT's label any constructive criticism of anybody! But you are allowed to do it to fill in those column inches?

It looks like you and M & M Messerly don't know the federal government in addition to the local governments, just being immersed your dictation journalism.

Here, Juno fights you back, a little.

And Insider nails you on your underlying foundations of the content of this article. You folks can't discern that, you like the rest of the secular world of Ptown, trying to usurp the churches of this county.

You checked this article off on your Messerly to do list? Hah............

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Junothiall1

Frank -

Agreed (although I do love Dirty Harry and his westerns)

Agreed. This has been the direction of the party who claims to be all-inclusive for years - it's just safer these days if you don't claim any religion so that you can stand up on the "high-ground" to call everyone else bigoted, stupid fools.

True - Someone owes Mr. Villaraigosa a huge apology and I'll start: I am sorry you had to go through that sir, I would've taken that bullet for you if I could as no one deserved that.

Agreed.

Agreed.

What I am most concerned with is the emphasis on 'ethics' over 'morals'. Our legal system and media only encourages this tendency for non-responsibility by glorifying the 'right to sue' and foisting 'celebrities' on us all as good examples to follow.

An ethical man/woman knows it's wrong to cheat on their spouse.

A moral person wouldn't even consider it.

burgoppys

great speech by BSmall. too bad its all void because the amendment had nothing to do with christianity.

cityinsider

This embarassing display just confirmed what many Christians already believe about the higher-ups in the Democrat party. It's just one reason there are so many former Democrats in the US.

Your Bible verse is very appropriate, too.

BSmalley

Believe it or not 25% of people in this country are not Christians and 50% of the people who label themselves as such are not devout or readers of the bible. We have separation of church and state for a reason. Pretty sure it was out founding fathers who came up with that one. No two people have exactly the same religious beliefs in this country so how can any one man lead based on his own religious beliefs? I never understood that. The President is an employee of the people. Not just the Christian people, but all the citizens of this great nation. It is his duty and obligation to do what is best for all. Do you really want a President who governs based upon his own set of beliefs without regard for the common good of the people he has sworn to represent? Would you like Mitt Romney to rule as President based on teachings from The Book of Mormon? There was another politician who referenced God quite often and governed based on his specific beliefs without regard for the good of the people as a whole. Adolf Hitler. Perhaps you've heard of him. Referencing God does not make you a better Christian nor does it make you a better leader. One's relationship with God is a personal one and although it may effect some decisions they make I don't believe it should EVER be the driving force behind them. That's a scary and slippery slope. One that has lead to the genocide of Native Americans, witch hunting, slavery, the Iraq war, and many other very unfortunate and tragic events in our history.

historymajor

September 11, 2012

Well said. The president is the president of the U.S., not the president of Christians. People worried when Kennedy was running that as a Catholic if elected he would allow the Pope to dictate U.S. policy. I've heard concerns about Romney's Mormanism. If elected, Romney can use his religion as a guide, but can't let it dictate policy. I didn't think Jimmy Carter was a very good president, but he is a devoutly religious man. I read his book, "Our Endangered Values: America's Moral Crisis," which discusses some of the issues of making decisions or upholding laws that as a Christian he may have disagreed with, but as a sworn Naval officer and later as president, he was duty bound to follow. Carter pointed out that he was president of a diverse nation with many religious beliefs and cultural mixes that must be respected in a civil society. That Obama attended a church led by a pastor who has some extreme beliefs or that Romney is a member of a religious sect that most Christians consider a cult, is not a problem for me as long as they uphold the laws of the nation as they swear to do in the oath of office.

Frank, it obviously IS a political issue or you wouldn't mention it. I had no idea "God was removed" from the Democratic platform. A small bit of research shows that is true, but also false. The word "God" is not there, but there are many references to faith, religion, church and clergy. Hardly the godless platform right wing zealots want us to believe it is. And Israel returned to its roots and declared Jerusalem its capital in 1950, hardly something new. They don't need us to tell them where it is. And frankly, it is not a functioning capital. The American embassy and others are in Tel Aviv. The Israeli government largely runs out of Tel Aviv, etc. Both Democrats and Republicans support Israel and that will continue no matter who wins in November. The get your panties in a bunch because they didn't placate the zealots in this country by saying Jerusalem is the captial will make no difference from a policy standpoint. It's much ado about nothing, Frank. I hope voters have the intelligence to check independent sources of their information about both parties and candidates, not Fox News or MSNBC and their ilk.