Religious Politics - Cal Thomas speaks (moral, homosexuals, America, marriage)

[Bright-ness' Shadow]

Who is Cal Thomas?

http://www.ambassadoragency.com/clie...le.cfm/cid/125
With a twice-weekly column appearing in over 600 newspapers nationwide, Cal Thomas is the most widely read and one of the most highly regarded voices on the American political scene. He is a panelist on the popular "Fox News Watch" show, which airs Saturdays at 6:30 p.m. ET. His new USA TODAY feature, Common Ground, provides insightful discussion of contentious social issues with his friend and political counterpart, Bob Beckel.

He is one of the more important radical-conservative journalists

What he says from the Washington Times

Politics often dulls the senses to morality and "values." That's because of an unholy alliance between people of faith and politicians that often ends in compromise on the part of the faithful and the cynical harvesting of their votes with little offered in return. So, when someone like Rep. Don Sherwood, Pennsylvania Republican, is exposed for cheating on his wife and allegedly abusing his mistress, Cynthia Ore, he still gets an 85 percent approval rating from the Focus on the Family Action organization. The delicious irony is he might have earned a 100 percent rating had he voted for the Marriage Protection amendment, which he supported. Mr. Sherwood lost his seat to a Democrat.

One might reasonably argue that a very good way to protect marriage is to remain faithful to one's spouse, but in politics that sort of behavior won't raise money for the interest groups or votes for the Republicans. In this case, "family values" wasn't about Mr. Sherwood's personal example, but his record of keeping homosexuals from marrying. Wouldn't it do more for the family to strengthen heterosexual marriage before telling others how to live their lives? Why have we seen so many politicians (and some clergy) who talk about "family values" turn out to be the worst practitioners of them?

If this is the "quality" of the Christian Focus on Family, what does it say about the people they do turn out to vote? What does Thomas' comments say about the "alliance" of the Religious Right (which is neither in this case) and Republicans?