The Republican party has been dominated of late by a discussion of the sexual trifecta of gay marriage, abortion, and contraception. But are these the only values that matter?
America lives with the profound contradiction of a nation that is at once incredibly religious but increasingly decadent. In the United States 92% of Americans believe in G-d. But given the deep spiritual orientation of the American people, how are we to understand the even deeper materialistic impulses that had us spending $52.4 billion on Black Friday weekend shopping alone? And given the American people's strong disposition to family, what could account for the inability of approximately one in two couples to stay married?
Every four years the presidential election cycle lends a glimpse as to the answer, and we saw it the past few weeks especially. It lies with the American religious obsession with gay marriage and abortion to the exclusion of all other values. Yes, America is a religious nation but it is one whose religious convictions have been hijacked by sexual morality issues that have dominated the political landscape for decades.
While approximately seven percent of the American population is gay, more than fifty percent of all marriages end in divorce. And this was happening years before gays came out in significant number, let alone demanded the right to marry. In fact, gays seem to be the only men in America who are still passionate about marriage. While 74% of heterosexual couples choose to live together before marriage and a Pew Research poll recently found that the average age for an American straight man to marry has climbed to 30 from 23 in the 1950's, homosexual men are marching in the streets and petitioning the United States Supreme Court for the right to tie the knot.
Straight people don't need help from gays to destroy the institution of marriage, having a done a mighty fine job of it ourselves, thank you very much. And rather than pastors pushing real policies that might stem the tide of divorce -- like making marital counseling tax-deductible so that couples can afford the help they need -- we have instead chosen a repeated distraction.
In 1999 I published Kosher Sex which, although it became a best-seller, was instantly pilloried by Jewish and Christian clerics for the explicit erotic advice offered as to how to make the marital bedroom passionate again. Yet the number one cause of divorce in America is erotic disinterest and sexual boredom, with the Washington Post reporting that one out of three American couples is entirely platonic. Were pastors more willing to teach, say, the Song of Solomon, with its deep erotic secrets, rather than obsessing over gay marriage, millions of American children might not end up as yo-yos shuffling between parents' homes on weekends.
In 2008 the American economy nearly collapsed due to avaricious bankers and insatiable consumers whose homes were never big enough and cars never new enough. If ever there was a time where American religious and political leaders could engage in a national conversation about materialism, gluttony, and greed, it was then. But my Evangelical brothers responded not with a conversation about filling one's inner void with spiritual purpose but with Proposition 8, a national campaign to overturn gay marriage in California.
Abortion has also become a major distraction ignoring the values that underlie it. Ninety-nine percent of all abortions are single women who have been impregnated by men in an out-of-wedlock relationships. Yet where is the national conversation on the part of pastors about a culture that degrades woman and portrays them as the libidinous man's plaything, which is responsible for the high rate of abortion in the first place?
Tim Tebow is pilloried for the unseemly act of prayer in the secular cathedral of the stadium. But women jumping up and down in lycra to the accompaniment of pompoms and cleavage creates no offense. From the 4.2 million porn websites in the United States, to the female recording industry becoming soft porn itself, to wafer-thin models on magazine covers indirectly affecting 7 percent of all American girls with eating disorders, the dream of women being appreciated as much for the their brains as for their bust is being strongly undermined. Yet we see no push to mandate school uniforms that would inculcate the value of modesty and respect for the body among teenagers at America's public schools. In the African-American community nearly seventy percent of all marriages are out-of-wedlock births resulting in single mothers raising children on their own. But aside from Bill Cosby's courageous speeches on the subject, pastors largely ignore men's obligations to their children in favor of the Supreme Court's obligation to the unborn.
Then there is our growing narcissism. While two percent of the American population protect our freedom in the military, the remainder do scant public service. In a recent survey, when asked what they wished to do when they grew up seventy-eight percent of high school students responded, "Be famous." Yet even as our self-centeredness grows, pastors have yet to advocate a year of national service, prior to college, the discussion of life-at-conception all but muting any discussion about life-with-purpose.
Shmuley Boteach, 'America's Rabbi,' was the London Times Preacher of the Year at the Millennium and received the American Jewish Press Association's Highest Award for Excellence in Commentary. The international best-selling author of 27 books and award-winning TV host, he has just published "Kosher Jesus." Follow him on Twitter @RabbiShmuley. His website is www.shmuley.com.
Follow Rabbi Shmuley Boteach on Twitter: www.twitter.com/RabbiShmuley
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 |
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| Obama | Romney | |
|---|---|---|
| Electoral Votes (270 to win) |
332 | 206 |
| Obama | Romney | |
|---|---|---|
| Total | 65,899,660 | 60,932,152 |
| Percent | 51.1% | 47.2% |
| Democrats* | Republicans | |
|---|---|---|
| Current Senate | 53 | 47 |
| Seats gained or lost | +2 | -2 |
| New Total | 55 | 45 |
| Democrats | Republicans | |
|---|---|---|
| Seats won | 201 | 234 |
Govt has right to allow Secretary of HHS to implement these rules as they apply to preventative medicine. Self insured Catholic Organizations will have to let Insurers who fall under rule oversee their insurance policies to prevent Material Cooperation. This will give church plausible deniability in the face of Proportionate Reasoning.
The fact that some people try to make it a "religious" issue is abnormal and wrong. As I look at the persons who try to "institutionalize" or "regularize" a NORMAL bodily function, I cannot help but noticing that they are the ones who, by their own choice, know (or should know) nothing whatsoever about it.
BACK IN THE TIME OF THOMAS JEFFERSON, the 8th President of Yale, Timothy Dwight also said the very same thing about vaccination against Smallpox
That wise old guy was my dad, and even though I've outlived him, I keep my own faith and not give it to a fundraising social club.
They even seek in Virginia and other places to shame and bully women through state-sponsored sexual assault.
They illogically conflate paying for women's healthcare with religious freedom - instead of relating it to how those women actually exercise their choice.
Time to TAX all religious organizations for what they are - businesses.
They no longer serve as religious organizations. They serve to enrich the organizations and to serve as anti-American political organizations.
"The separation of Church and State is not meant to hinder religion, or to deny the role of religion in society or in our history. Many of the founders were Christians, even James Madison was a Christian, but what they established was a government that was non-religious - a secular government. That does not mean that they rejected religion; their purpose was to establish a government whose sole function was to administer earthy matters, while matters of religion were left purely to ecclesiastical institutions. The founders, by and large, were very much supportive of the role of religion in society, but they separated the ideas of society and government, leaving religion to play a role in society, not government."
http://rationalrevolution.net/articles/history_of_the_separation_of_chu.htm
www.offthegridmpls.blogspot.com
Correct me if I 'm wrong, but...
Doesn’t 'trifecta' usually refer to a 'winning' triple-issue?
Although they'll all deny it, morality, (particularly 'sexual' morality) as a ‘2012-republican-election’ issue is a LOSING issue...
Isn't it?
Would America, (or, It's sociopathic alter-ego, 'AmeriKa', that country which invaded Iraq, etc. for the hell of it, while allowing multi-billion weapons contracts with Saudi.Arabia, the country from whence arrived the 9-11 plane jackers…), really elect a Santorum, (with his 310+ million sexual obsessions)...
or a Gingrich, (with his ‘marriage as olympic decathlon’ & ‘lunar’ obsessions)...
and/or a Romney...
A man poised to treat his fellow 'mericans, (to borrow from the language-challenged former Texan-president), like he treats dogs during long-distance-driving-vacations??
…Really?
I DON’T think so!
With headlines like “85-95% of woman, (including catholic & republican woman) use birth control at some point”, I would imagine that President & Mrs. O’Bama are probably beseeching the Deity/Deities to have Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich & M. Romney, (in that order), as republican opponents…
Personal compatibility and attraction are not the only factors in sexual compatibility, and preying won't make it so.
And after this storm, and climax of marriage finally settles and they are finally left to themselves and themselves alone, they find that they do not know this person, they're trapped in a obligation they never really honored, and if they want to keep up the public's spotlight, their own "self-fulfillment" they have to advance on, go further, further root each other irrevocably and uselessly into one another's lives with babies, and houses until the whole sham falls apart.
Misdirection of the impulse to righteous action, in defense of a ruinous status quo is a sad business for any religious group to squander itself and our attentions on. Hypocrisy need not stand any longer than we accept it.