What Is A Political Conservative?

Most Republicans we see on television and talk with claim to be Conservatives. Wikipedia defines Conservatism as: Conservatism is a political and social philosophy promoting traditional social institutions in the context of culture and civilization. The central tenets of conservatism include tradition, organic society, hierarchy, authority, and property rights. This tends to be the popular definition. The word “Conservative” means to conserve, to resist change.

A conservative friend on Twitter just gave me this definition of Conservative: The overall definition is one who believes that to contain the power of government, we must preserve personal responsibility and enforce ethical standards. It's the last part “contain the power of government” that seems to be at odds with the social aspect. It seems when it comes to social issues, Conservatives seem to want more government.

Social conservatives will be the first to call for sodomy and drug laws. They will not even discuss marijuana legalization, much less some hard drugs. As I discussed in, Mistake of Government Controlled Marriage, social conservatives don't want to remove marriage from government, while fighting against same-sex marriage.

The Sin of Conversion Therapy

Over the years, and even recently, I have been mocked for saying conversion therapy is torture. In case you aren't familiar, Conversion therapy is the pseudoscientific practice of trying to change an individual's sexual orientation from homosexual or bisexual to heterosexual using psychological or spiritual interventions. This therapy often includes locking people alone in a room with a bible. Conversion therapy is also sometimes performed on transgenders.

I just watched the story of 15 year old Alex Cooper who made the mistake of telling her parents she liked girls. Within a short time the girl was whisked way to St George, Utah, where she was placed with a husband and wife, the Simms, in their family home, who were to provide the conversion therapy. She was forced by her parents, grandparents, and the police to live with this couple for 8 months.

At first, the Simms did the typical forced bible study and brainwash techniques, such as mild punishments and repetitive language. Once, when Alex was caught asking for help in the grocery store, she was dragged from the store, tossed into the car, and punched in the stomach by Mr. Simms. At other times, she was whipped with a belt all over her body.

Racism and Prejudices

I was asked recently why Jews are hated. I found that to be a thought provoking question. It led me to doing a lot of reading. Even after that I saw no clear reason. In biblical times it had a lot to do with their religious believes. Hitler hated Jews because of his time spent living in anti-Semitic, Vienna. Hitler later came to associate Jews with communism. This is likely due to the part Jews played in the Russian Bolshevik revolution.

In Poland, "Judeo-Bolshevism" was known as "Żydokomuna" and was used as an antisemitic stereotype. There has been a long connection between Judaism and communism. Some say this is a fallacy attributed to The Protocols of the Elders of Zion that told of a plan by Jews to dominate the world through communism.

When Church and State Collide

There has been a major debate over a small time bakery and other businesses that refused service—based on religious belief—to gay couples preparing for marriage. In some cases suits were filed and won by the gay couples. This is not about the cases themselves, but the dangers that lie ahead.

Let's begin by my stating that I do believe a business has the right to refuse service for many reasons. I think businesses that don't want to serve gays should put up a sign to indicate their desire. This would give gays and their supporters notice to not spend money with these businesses. The greatest part of being American is the right to make choices, especially informed choices.

We often wonder from what vantage point a person writes, so I want to state that I personally don't believe government should be involved in marriage because all Americans should be equal under the law. Because government chose to interject itself in personal relationships, a dangerous door was opened.

Boy Scouts Admit Gays

The Boy Scouts of America has made the decision to allow openly gay scouts. Since the beginning scouts have had sexually active gay boys in the organization. Allowing the boys who are openly gay to join the scouts is the correct thing. I think It would be better to know which boys were gay so that on outings they aren't allowed to share tents and cabins. This would be essentially the same as separating sleeping arrangements by gender.

The people running the scouts still will not allow gay leaders. For some reason too many people believe gay adults are pedophiles, while statistics show otherwise. The anti-gay people point to a 1988 study (Erickson et al. (1988). Behavior patterns of child molesters. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 17, 77-86 ) that says 86% of the men found molesting boys were gay or bisexual. I dare to argue that a straight male won't molest young boys, but they will molest young girls. We can apply the same statistic that 86% of the molesters of young girls are male. All stats bare out the fact the majority of child molestation comes from males. If we apply the logic 86% of child molestation comes from men, then maybe the scouts should allow only female scoutmasters.

The Moral Atheist

Each day we are all faced with "moral" decisions. We see this word tossed around by all people, but is there a single definition of morality? Christians see gay marriage as a moral issue because it goes against their religious teachings. The bible tells us about many things that mankind shouldn't do, which are labeled immoral.

If morality is based on religion, then that means non Christians can't be moral. That would mean those who came before Christianity couldn't be moral, yet they were. It's for this reason we must define morality.

Since mankind became a social creature they seemed to have lived under certain rules. If everyone stole from one another, the social order would quickly break down. The same thing could be said for murder. Morality seems to come down to protecting possessions and family.