A watershed is a ridge of high land from which rivers on one side flow in one direction and rivers on the other side flow in a different direction. In America, rivers on the east side of the Continental Divide flow to the Atlantic Ocean, while rivers on the west side flow irresistibly to the Pacific.
Thursday night was a dark and perhaps fatal night for the once noble Republican Party. For prior to last night, the rivers flowing from the mountain tops of the GOP flowed majestically in the direction of natural marriage, normative sexuality, and the natural family. The Republican Party was founded not only to fight against slavery but to fight against the corruption of the institution of marriage. It was founded to fight for marriage as the union of one man and one woman. On Thursday night, it utterly,and perhaps permanently, abandoned that cause.
After Thursday evening, the rivers are now flowing with the irresistible pull of gravity in the direction of non-normative sexuality and the embrace of behavior which deviates alarmingly from God’s design for humanity. From this day forward, the party is dedicated to the embrace of “shameless acts” which are “contrary to nature” (Romans 1:26-27).
Peter Thiel, a Silicon Valley powerhouse and co-founder of PayPal, struck the first blow against sexual normalcy by declaring “I am proud to be gay. I am proud to be a Republican. But most of all I am proud to be an American.” His announcement was met with a standing ovation and thunderous applause. Ken Vogel of Politico tweeted out a picture of all the nominee’s children giving his remarks an enthusiastic standing ovation in their VIP box.
Thiel went on to denounce Republican efforts to reclaim our nation from the grip of moral decay as nothing more than “fake culture wars (that) only distract us” from the main goal of achieving economic prosperity. In other words, the important thing is not moral character but getting rich.
This, of course, was a pre-approved convention speech delivered with the imprimatur of the new leader of the Republican Party.
Right-thinking Republicans have always opposed the normalization of homosexuality for the same reason we opposed slavery: because of the harm it does to those who are trapped in it and to a culture which allows it. We oppose the embrace of homosexuality not because we hate homosexuals but because we love them. We know the health risks involved in this behavior, from incurable sexually transmitted diseases to the crippling mental, emotional, psychological, and spiritual harms associated with it. We love people too much to see them immersed in such a self-destructive lifestyle without a word of warning.
The party’s nominee for the presidency then delivered the coup de grace when he declared that he would do “everything in my power to protect our LGBTQ citizens,” and received loud applause for the line.
Now we certainly want every American to be protected from violence, regardless of their sexual preference. But the proper view of the matter is that it is perfectly possible to embrace people and to want them protected from violence without being required to embrace their behavior. It is possible to communicate the message “I love you but I can’t approve of your conduct.” Every mom and dad, in fact, knows that this is the essence of good parenting.
When the crowd enthusiastically applauded the embrace of the LGBTQ community, the party’s nominee ad-libbed a line that was not on the tele-prompter: “As a Republican it is so nice to hear you cheering for what I just said.”
According to Politico, “Facebook reported it was the most talked-about moment of the speech on its network.”
All in all, it was a very sobering evening for those of us who deeply care about the moral fiber of this land, and grieve its departure from its Judeo-Christian moorings. The GOP and its leadership crossed the Rubicon last night and committed itself irretrievably to the advance of the homosexual agenda. We must resist this advance with all the energy within us, but the outcome became much less certain last night. The enemy is no longer at the gates, he is inside the gates. May God help us all.
(Unless otherwise noted, the opinions expressed are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the views of the American Family Association or American Family Radio.)
