I do not know how many people have seen the following article regarding the Texas GOP 2004 Platform. When I received this information, I found it hard to believe. But after looking at the Texas GOP Website, this is the truth. For those people who do not believe the religious right has alternative motives, think again. Based on this platform, let's take society back about 100 years. Even better, let's start ruling like the Taliban. Or, why not round up everyone who does not live their lives in the manner that the religious right thinks we should and send them to......Anywhere but America? Maybe it is time we all started thinking twice about candidates who profess the support of the religious right? Otherwise, this may become the National Republican Platform in the near future!
RELIGIOUS RIGHT'S GRIP ON TEXAS GOP TIGHTENS
AS PARTY CONVENTION PASSES EXTREMIST PLATFORM
Tightening their grip on the Republican Party of Texas, far-right activists
pushed through an extremist party platform at the GOP state convention in
San Antonio this month. Policies proposed by the 2004 state party platform
threaten religious freedom, civil and equal rights, public education and
good government. (Page numbers from the platform are in brackets below.)
Religious Freedom
* "The Republican Party of Texas affirms that the United States of
America is a Christian nation." [8]
* "Our Party pledges to exert its influence to restore the original
intent of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution and dispel
the myth of the separation of Church and State." [8]
* The 2004 party platform opposes efforts to restrict display of the
Ten Commandments and other religious symbols in government buildings and
other places maintained by tax dollars. [7]
Civil/Equal Rights
* "The Party supports amendment of the Americans with Disabilities Act
to exclude from its definition those persons with infectious diseases,
substance addiction, learning disabilities, behavior disorders, homosexual
practices and mental stress, thereby reducing abuse of the Act." [14]
* Republicans state that it should be a felony to issue a marriage
license to a same-sex couple "and for any civil official to perform a
marriage ceremony for a same-sex couple." [10]
* Defining marriage as a "God-ordained, legal and moral commitment only
between a natural man and a natural woman," the platform supports a federal
constitutional amendment that bans same-sex marriage and opposes "granting
of benefits to people who represent themselves as domestic partners without
being legally married." [10]
* The platform opposes hate-crime laws (which increase penalties for
crimes that target people based on hatred for their religion, race, sexual
orientation and other characteristics). [8]
* The platform supports "covenant marriage" (which endangers battered
spouses because it would allow couples to divorce only after a waiting
period and counseling, even in cases of domestic abuse) and advocates
rescinding no-fault divorce laws. [10]
* The platform condemns homosexuality, supports criminalizing sexual
relations between consenting adults of the same sex and calls on Congress to
"withhold jurisdiction from the federal courts from cases involving sodomy"
(an implicit criticism of last year's U.S. Supreme Court's ruling that
overturned sodomy laws). [10]
* The platform opposes the adoption of children or foster parenting by
gay men and lesbians. [10]
* The party supports laws that bar Child Protective Services from
removing an abused child from his or her home, even in cases of "immediate
danger to the child's physical health or safety." [13]
* The platform calls for requiring people who report child abuse to
identify themselves and their contact information. [13]
* The state party platform calls for a ban on stem-cell research (which
experts believe holds the promise of cures for a variety of diseases like
Parkinson's and Alzheimer's). [12]
Public Education
* The party calls for schools to emphasize "Judeo-Christian principles"
and for including Bible-based "theories" like "intelligent design" about the
origin of humans in science textbooks (which would, in effect, water down
discussions of evolution). [16, 17]
* Republicans support health education that promotes abstinence from
sex "until heterosexual marriage with an uninfected person" and oppose any
other instruction on methods of preventing pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. [15]