• • The GOP Platform: Solid, Conservative
• • Republican Delegates Encourage Teaching Bible in Schools

I am so grateful that the Family Research Council has kept us updated on the activities of the VERY IMPORTANT Platform Committee.  I am of the opinion that anyone who wants to run as a Republican should be required to read the Platform and commit to support the Platform.  Also note, Gayle and Sandy are Eagle Forum Presidents in their respective states. 

July 13, 2016 - Wednesday - Our friends at Family Research Council

Republicans now have a platform to stand on, a solidly conservative platform. The GOP platform committee met for two days with 112 delegates from every state and territory and came to a consensus, a conservative consensus for the principles of the Grand Old Party. There was lively discussion on a number of issues ranging from agriculture to economics, to health care, to immigration, to national security. Issues effecting the national moral and cultural climate were also prominently discussed among the delegates from all 50 states and U.S. territories. I am very happy to say that the final platform document overwhelmingly approved by the delegates maybe the strongest statement of conservative principles by a GOP platform to date. As Gayle Rozika, a Utah delegate for whom this was the 6^th platform, told me this is the most conservative platform in her experience. Her efforts, along with those of delegates like Carolyn McLarty (Okla.), Len Munsil (Ariz.), David Barton (Texas), Jim and Judy Carns (Ala.), Kris Kobach (Kan.), Sandy McDade (La.) and a host of other conservative leaders were effective in ensuring the GOP platform provides a clear and compelling understanding of the core conservative principles that those associated with the Republican party prioritize and pursue.

Our coalition of delegates -- including FRC Action and other groups like the March for Life Action, Eagle Forum, and Concerned Women for America -- proved invaluable. The platform is an important document, showing the Party of Lincoln continues to respect freedom, and the rule of law, the idea that all humans deserve respect, not because of some category, but because we have inherent dignity and are made in the image of our Creator. The platform is a useful document, a standard, for the party in local, state, and federal elections, use in town halls, and provides standards to which we should hold our elected officials. Platform Chairman Senator John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), led by co-chairs Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-Va.) and Governor Mary Falin (R-Okla.) all did an excellent job allowing delegates to offer amendments and debate the issues with sincerity and respect. They deserve much respect for their efforts.

Here are some key takeaways from the platform for social conservatives:

• The already pro-life plank of the GOP added a call to enforce born alive protections, and to stop the Gosnell-like murder of babies born alive and probably violation so federal law by Planned Parenthood. As the new platform will say, "we oppose infanticide" - a declaration that the Democrats in the House of Representatives and Planned Parenthood opposed! The platform also for the first time calls for redirecting taxpayer dollars away not only from abortion providers, as the 2012 platform did, but specifically the nation's largest abortion provider Planned Parenthood. The platform also calls for allowing states the flexibility to exclude such providers in their Medicaid programs.

• The platform contains conscience protections for health care providers, which I was able to strengthen by adding doctors, nurses, and pharmacists in anticipation of the historic House vote today on the Conscience Protection Act. This act protects against the administration's refusal to enforce current law protecting against government discrimination of health care providers and health plans which object to participation of abortion.

• I also offered an amendment on conscience, for the right of parents to determine not only the medical treatment for their minor children, but also therapy. As mental health awareness has become all the more common with suicide, addiction, and many other struggles, parents should be able to decide the best treatment and therapy for their children, not the government.

• And while the platforms of the past affirmed no taxpayer funding for abortion, this platform improved its call for a government-wide Hyde Amendment to bar funding for abortion and health care plans with abortion coverage, something which the Democrat draft platform now calls for a repeal.

• With the overturning of the institution of marriage by the Supreme Court, the pressure to force millions of Americans to adopt same-sex marriage threatens individuals, charities and businesses alike. Reaffirming support for marriage between one man and one woman was a key victory of the platform, and affirming the traditional family -- which is where, as social science clearly shows, children thrive best.

• It calls for removal of marriage penalties in public assistance programs to help strengthen families struggling in today's tough economy. Adding, twice, language calling for conscience protections -- including the First Amendment Defense Act as introduced -- related to those who support marriage between one man and one woman was a victory for the idea that the government should not punish people for supporting marriage as the union of one man and one woman.

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CLEVELAND-In addition to jobs, healthcare, and other issues that they agreed upon unanimously, members of the Republican Platform Committee debated teaching Bible in school, in a measure that was ultimately adopted as a plank into the GOP platform.

As a whole, Platform Committee delegates seem deeply concerned about the growing militant secularizing of American culture, and with it the purging of Judeo-Christian influences and references from American life, especially public schools and the public square.

In part to combat this trend, delegates considered language to protect and restore religious liberty and faith-based expression. One of those measures concerned giving public high schools the option of offering an elective class that would teach the Bible as literature.

Louisiana delegate Tony Perkins, who is also president of the Family Research Council, proposed the following amendment in a subcommittee: "A good understanding of the Bible being important to the development of a good citizenry, we encourage state legislatures to offer the Bible as a literature curriculum as an elective in America's high schools."

In fact, there are four types of literature in the Bible: historical narrative, poetry, didactic (i.e., teaching), and prophesy. This class would explore the Bible from this literary standpoint.

Several delegates supported teaching the Bible, but questioned this precise language. For example, Mary Kay Culp of Kansas wondered if the Bible should be taught as history, rather than literature.

Perkins responded that the term "literature" was deliberately chosen because some schools teaching the Bible as literature had already been challenged in court, where the courts sided with the school. So to avoid reinventing the wheel and potentially forcing new litigation, teaching the Bible as literature would enjoy some protection under current court precedent in some parts of the country.

Others opposed this language, for various reasons.

Rising GOP star Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach-a prominent constitutional lawyer who was a law professor before being elected to public office-pushed back against those trying to block this measure, saying:
 

I would remind the body that the first Congress of the United States in 1789 called for the distribution of Bibles to all schoolchildren in the United States at that time. And this is an important principle our Founding Fathers chose to embrace in the First Congress of the United States.

One Alabama delegate, State Rep. Jim Carnes, took yet another step, vigorously defending Perkins' measure. In response to an attempt to change the wording of the measure, Carnes declared:

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July 13, 2016 - Wednesday

When the gavel fell in Cleveland yesterday evening, delegates at the Republican platform committee had succeeded in crafting one of the most conservative GOP platforms in modern times. Not all were celebrating the clearly enunciated conservative principles that underscored the party's pro-military, pro-life, pro-natural marriage, pro-religious freedom stands. In the concluding moments of the platform gathering, a small group of delegates were engaged in an outright deceptive effort to derail the platform and potentially the convention. After repeated efforts to redefine marriage for the Republican party and interject special LGBT provisions in the platform, an effort was launched to create a Minority Report promoting items for an LGBT agenda, under the guise of creating a preamble for the platform from the 1860 Republican platform.

As soon as the proceedings concluded, the initiators of this effort announced to CNN that 37 delegates had signed on to a call for a Minority Report that would circumvent the process and put the platform onto the floor of next week's convention and potentially derailing the GOP gathering. David Barton was one of the delegates that was misled into signing the resolution. He wrote a letter to delegates last night explaining what took place and urging others who may have been lied to, to remove their names from the resolution.

The use of such deception is not surprising, given the tactics of LGBT activists. Social media, fueled by anti-Christian organizations like the Southern Poverty Law Center, has been abuzz that I added language to the GOP platform that has embraced "reparative therapy" for homosexuals. Nothing provides a clearer example of both their dishonesty and their self-absorption. Here is the exact language that I added to the platform under the subsection of "Protecting Individual Conscience in Health Care:"

"We support the right of parents to determine the proper medical treatment and therapy for their minor children. We support the right of parents to consent to medical treatment for their minor children and urge enactment of legislation that would require parental consent to transport their daughters across state lines for abortion."

The subcommittee adopted the language without any opposition -- even from a LGBT activist who was on the subcommittee and leading the effort for Paul Singer, the wealthy Republican donor.

July 12, 2016 - Tuesday

For those looking for conflict in Cleveland at the 2016 GOP Convention - they may be a bit disappointed. The contested convention that was talked about did not materialize, nor is a battle royal developing over the party's platform. After the first full day of working on the platform, it appears the GOP is set to have another solidly conservative statement of principles that draws sharp lines of contrast with the Democratic Party.

I once again have the privilege of serving as Louisiana's male delegate on the platform committee. I am grateful to the Republican voters of Louisiana and the leadership of the state party for giving me the opportunity to help craft the GOP guiding document that will hopefully shape and direct the party's work over the next four years. I am also fortunate to have a great team of policy personnel from FRC Action on the ground here in Cleveland working in coalition with other conservative groups and delegates to ensure the party's platform remains a solidly conservative document.