Can the party that rode the 1980s
Ronald Reagan revolution to glory recapture its youth?
If you’re the Republican Party of Florida, you can try by staging a first-of-its-kind youth summit in a ritzy resort, bringing in controversial beauty queen Carrie Prejean, Olympian-turned-reality TV star Bruce Jenner, and talking a lot about the Internet.
That the Florida GOP thinks Ms. Prejean and Mr. Jenner have any relevance to young voters is sad.
This is even sadder:
Republican National Committee new media director Todd Herman told the more than 400 attendees that Democrats won in 2008 in part because the GOP failed to utilize Facebook, Twitter and other social media tools as political weapons.
Herman said “Republicans do not use these tools for activism. We have failed in that regard.”
The more Republicans try to “get in touch” with youth, the more foolish they look.
Asking a beauty queen that insists the Lord is against homosexual marriage and a reality television personality to reach out to youth is the wrong way to go.
You can use social media all you want, but if you are selling Republican versions of Paris Hilton, you are foolish. You will get what you deserve.
If your overriding message is that God is a Republican and wants homosexuals to repent, you are destined to failure. And you should be.
Christians need to spend less time politicking and more time acting like Christians. Jesus personally reached out to the unsaved. He did not lobby the legislature in Rome to persecute sinners.
George Washington said “government is force.” Christians say “God is love.”
Using “force” to spread “love” is nonsense. Absolute and utter absurdity.
And that’s what the Florida GOP is selling. That’s what the “socially conservative” Republicans nationwide are selling.
You can use Twiiter all you want, and that message ain’t gonna sell.
I am a Christian. And I want a secular government. Government force and Jesus’ love do not mix. They can not mix. Attempting to mix them is futile. The separation of church and state benefits the church as much, if not more, than it benefits the government.
The political message that sells is “freedom.” And that includes freedom for homosexuals, pot smokers and adulterers. Freedom is dangerous. Live – and let OTHERS live – dangerously.
Jesus was friends with sinners. With prostitutes. With thieves. He did not join the Pharisees in their condemnation of those that failed to follow every jot and tittle of the Judaic law. He spoke against the self-righteousness of the Pharisees.
Jesus believed in love. The Pharisees, and their modern equivalents among the “socially conservative” wing of the GOP, believe in the law.
You can not serve two masters.
