Flash Points USA III - God & Country - Gary Bauer
Flash Points USA III - God & Country - Gary Bauer
Gary Bauer (President of American Values) responds to question about gay marriage, partial birth abortion, prayer in schools, the pledge of allegiance, ten commandments monument, he says "There's been a cultural war in the United States, even though I know it's politically incorrect even to mention the phrase, but there's no doubt there has been a cultural war for several decades quite frankly. One could go all the way back to the school prayer decision by the Supreme Court in 1963 and I think these are issues that deeply divide the American people and that say a lot about the philosophical divide in our country and unfortunately they're issues that are being settled more or less in the courts which I think is a very unhealthy development."
Flash Points USA III - God & Country - Gary Bauer
Gary Bauer (President of American Values) says "I think that the most disturbing thing about all of this is that we're rewriting American history. I've visited hundreds of schools in the last several years and I find that America's children are being taught that the founders somehow wanted "no religious" expression in the public square. The founders would be shocked to hear that, everything they did was permeated by their faith, they prayed in Constitution halls they were trying to form the details of the new nation, so, I think it's very disturbing indeed if we fail to read the minutes of the last meeting and don't have a sense of what our own history is."
Flash Points USA III - God & Country - Gary Bauer
Gary Bauer (President of American Values) is asked how he would describe the relationship President Bush has with the Christian Conservatives, he responds "President Bush has a long history of being aligned with conservatives and the Republican party and specifically men and women of faith. If you go back to the last campaign, I think one of the defining moments was actually in the Republican Presidential Debates in which I was part of, where we were all asked who the philosopher was that had had the greatest impact on our lives and then Governor Bush and myself both said Jesus Christ. It was considered a controversial issue by some, but in my view it helped cement the fact that he was the front runner and would likely get the nomination, because Christian conservative voters are such an important part of the Republican constituency."
Flash Points USA III - God & Country - Gary Bauer
Gary Bauer (President of American Values) speaks about the Massachusetts Supreme Court ruling regarding same sex marriage, saying "There's a variety of opinions about what the Goodridge decision did, but generally it's being interpreted as suggesting that under Massachusetts law it is inappropriate to continue to keep marriage as the union of one man and one woman. The court went even further and I think this is extremely disturbing in basically ordering the state legislature to take a certain action. I think there's some serious questions here about the division of power and whether the citizens of Massachusetts have the right to pass laws through their elected representatives, if they don't the Supreme Court of Massachusetts should run the state and the state legislature can be disbanded."
Flash Points USA III - God & Country - Gary Bauer
Gary Bauer (President of American Values) speaks about the Massachusetts Supreme Court ruling regarding same sex marriage, saying "I think there are two major problems in the court's decision. One is a procedural question where I believe they severely overreached and by doing so are a perfect example of activist courts that are out of control. The second thing is the actual substance of their decision, to overlook 3,000 years of western civilization and try to remake an institution that quite frankly not only predates America but predates the Massachusetts Supreme Court, I think is the height arrogance."
Flash Points USA III - God & Country - Gary Bauer
Gary Bauer (President of American Values) speaks about the role of religion in gay rights, saying "I believe all the important debates in American history have been informed by morality and by each individuals concept of what our faith requires of us. It's very educational to go back and look at Lincoln's speeches on slavery, they were basically moral arguments that god did not make some men with saddles on their back and other men with spurs to ride them. Martin Luther King framed his entire movement for equal rights for blacks in moral terms. In fact interestingly today King would have a hard time giving most of his speeches in any public school because of the sort of radical secularism we have. So I think its impossible to have any serious debate in America whether its about helping the poor, going to war, corruption in Washington, or things like the definition of marriage without bringing religion and morality into it."
Flash Points USA III - God & Country - Gary Bauer
Gary Bauer (President of American Values) responds to question asking if homosexuality is moral issue, "Virtually every religion teaches that homosexual conduct is prohibited or in the terms of some religions a sin. So that is one purely religious issue. There's a separate issue of the political agenda of the gay rights movement, and that's when we get into gay marriage and what we ought to be teaching children in schools, gay adoptions, and some of the other issues.