As I sat in Church this morning and heard my pastor say that the Evangelical Party had been hijacked by the Republicans I was shocked.

I am pretty sure that Barry Goldwater fought the very thought of the Christian Right taking over the party. While the principles of the Republican Party surely match up to any religion that feels abortion is wrong and that charities need money more than the government does, I hardly think the RNC raided the evangelicals and “took them over”. If anything, the proliferation of the Christian Right within the party has hurt the Republicans more than it helped.

Now mind you, I am a rock-solid Christian who was raised in the church. However, the Christian Right will always side with the anti-abortion party. Fiscal conservatives, long the Republican base, are not so easily sold. The fact that the Republicans have forgotten their fiscally conservative roots has been more damaging to vote-getting than abandoning Bush’s compassionate conservatism and/or not electing Mike Huckabee and his populist ideas ever will. While both men have great ideas, they forgot that the government doesn’t do any of them well.

I am not saying that we should take evangelicals for granted, though. I am saying that the Republicans should do what is best for the evangelicals. Republicans should advocate and implement lower taxes and spending and reduce government subsidies to places like Planned Parenthood. If they do, more money will flow to charities and more churches and faith-based initiatives will be involved in people’s lives, not just the cleanup of the indiscretions.

Isn’t that what evangelicals really want?

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