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Guest Commentary

Time to update GOP platform, ala Cruz and Lane

4/8/2015

The Iowa GOP needs to update the party’s platform to welcome what Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas sees as his Christ-driven presidential candidacy and to endorse the mission of David Lane and the American Family Association to make the U.S. once again a Christian culture as God intended.

The 2014 party platform had been toned down from several of its predecessors that essentially called for the elimination of the federal government, the arming of all citizens to support any insurrection against any vestiges of that federal demon, and other more provocative proposals.  In fact, the platforms had so many oddball proposals that a few of them even awakened the watch-dog press which was pretty much unaware that the evangelical religious right had seized such control of the GOP.

But with the Cruz candidacy, Lane’s bizarre approaches and the upcoming Iowa Straw Poll and caucuses, we’re pretty much going back to the fun-and-games-and-hate provisions of previous party platforms.

To square with the re-evangelizing of the Iowa GOP and the Cruz candidacy, here are some platform demands that might be considered for 2016.

 

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Reinstate God’s covenant with Noah

Eliminate all government flood-control programs and flood responses offered under FEMA: We must be mindful of Genesis 9:13, in which God promised Noah that He would not again destroy the world by flood.  As part of the Judeo-Christian culture preached by Lane, the slogan will be “If it’s good enough for Noah, it’s enough for me.”

 

Tell people how things really started

All national and state parks that have signage noting that the canyons and mountains impressing tourists are billions of years old, must also carry wording that such aging is “Merely a geological opinion” and that based on holy scripture Archbishop James Ussher  of Ireland (1581-1656) proved that the first day of creation was Sunday Oct. 23, 4004 BC, that Adam and Eve were driven from Paradise on Monday Nov. 10 4004 BC, and that Noah’s ark — see above — touched down on Mt. Ararat on Wednesday, May 5, 2348 BC.  Consideration should be given to making those dates national holidays.

 

Lower the minum wage

The minimum wage shall never exceed $1 an hour, thus being in accord with the statement attributed to Jesus Christ in Matthew 26:11, “The poor you will always have with you.”

 

Eliminate federally mandated warning labels from bottles, cans and other containers

Such paternalism and supposed government wisdom are needless because, after all, in Mark 16:16-17, we read “those who believe…when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all…” As for the non-believers, they’ll get what they deserve!

At least those are some of the planks that come to mind with the Cruz candidacy and the doctrinaire approaches that will soon afflict the electorate and be treated as Gospel by the press.

Other scriptural references like beating swords into plowshares, Isaiah 2:4 and Micha 4:3; loving your neighbor as yourself, Mark 12:33; blessing the peacemakers, the merciful and the other bleeding hearts, Matthew 5:3-12, will require further study and perhaps are the sole responsibility of the private sector.

It gets a bit complicated, particularly when the likes of Cruz and Lane, and their supporters, consider themselves to be “the light of the world,” Matthew 5:14, except, of course, for those scriptural cites requiring further study. CV

Herb Strentz is a retired administrator and professor in the Drake School of Journalism and Mass Communication and writes occasional columns for Cityview.

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