Making Sense

Two weeks ago I wrote a column encouraging churches to take a moral stand and make their voices heard as the Supreme Court deliberates the constitutionality of California’s Proposition 8, which voters in my home state approved in 2008 to ban same-sex marriage.

I pointed out that the fight over Proposition 8 is not just about the legality of gay marriage; it’s part of a larger effort by some factions to change the culture. In that context I wrote: “There is also a very slippery slope leading to other alternative relationships and the unconstitutionality of any law based on morality. Think about polygamy, bestiality, and perhaps even murder.”

Was that a provocative statement? Yes, but it was designed to provoke thought about worst-case scenarios and the value of morality in our society.

Did I mean to equate same-sex marriage with murder? No, I did not, and anyone who believes that is very mistaken. I believe those who tell me they favor gay marriage out of love, but I also believe they are engaging in behavior that is wrong in God’s eyes, and I believe this out of love for them.

Should I have made myself more clear, by rearranging the sentences and adding more detail? Probably, and I regret that some people misunderstood. The topics do have the common thread of morality, but one does not necessarily follow the other.

I should point out that my concern about the future of morality in the law is well founded. Justice Antonin Scalia, whom I admire for his no-nonsense Supreme Court opinions, expressed similar concerns writing for the dissent in Lawrence v. Texas, the 2003 homosexual sodomy case. He noted that “state laws against bigamy, same-sex marriage, adult incest, prostitution, masturbation, adultery, fornication, bestiality, and obscenity” are sustainable only if validated by case law “based on moral choices.”

“Every single one of these laws is called into question by today’s ruling,” Scalia wrote.

Scalia, Chief Justice William Rehnquist and Justice Clarence Thomas were on the losing side of the Lawrence opinion, but Scalia’s dissent found many logical deficiencies in the majority opinion, which found a protected liberty interest in private and consensual sexual behavior.

Scalia’s opinion goes on to discuss Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion in 1973. The discussion was in a different context, but the topic is appropriate here.

For those of us who believe that abortion is murder, we went far down the slippery slope 40 years ago when the Supreme Court nullified morality-based abortion legislation. Infanticide now happens every day under the guise of privacy rights.

Is it outlandish to suggest that other forms of murder might possibly become legal in the future? Assisted suicide is legal in Oregon, and euthanasia is legal in some foreign countries. Who knows what the future holds; the slope is very slippery indeed when society cuts its ties to morality.

Where do we go from here?

I am hopeful that the Supreme Court will find that Proposition 8 is constitutional after all. Even the majority in Lawrence stated that their decision “does not involve whether the government must give formal recognition to any relationship that homosexual persons seek to enter.”

In the meantime, we are having a great debate, and churches should add their voices.

Copyright ©2013 Michael Reagan. Mike’s column is distributed exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate. For info on using columns contact Cari Dawson Bartley at cari@cagle.com or call 800-696-7561.

Making Sense

Billions of Christians around the world celebrated Easter last Sunday, but not our media.

Once again the holiest day of the Christian year slipped under their godless radar.

I saw Easter pop up in the news a only few times last weekend, but the stories had nothing to do with God or religion, or the importance to Christianity of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The Easter “news” was Easter egg hunts. ABC and USA Today covered the 135th annual White House Easter Egg Roll like it was a nuclear arms treaty.

An Easter egg hunt in Seattle things turned bloody when two mothers got in a nasty fight after one pushed the other’s child. And the big Easter story out of Minnesota was that an egg hunt had to take place in the snow.

Meanwhile, on Easter Sunday morning, ABC’s “This Week” with George Stephanopoulos did its part to desecrate the holy day.

The show’s panel discussion on religion included an atheist who had complained three months ago that President Obama was wrong to speak of Jesus Christ at the memorial service for those killed in Newtown, Conn.

Marking Easter Day without mentioning its importance to Christians reminded me of something my father Ronald Reagan once said: “If we cease to be one nation under God, we’ll be a nation gone under.”

My father understood that the whole planet closely watches the actions of the United States. We’re seen by the rest of the world as a godly nation.

If we’re not leading the way, if we’re not serving as a good role model for the rest of the countries in the world, then who will? Russia? China?

If you don’t believe the world is watching us, here’s a little story about a man I met on the plains of Kenya.

I was staying at the Mara Safari Club when one of the Maasai warriors who worked there came up to me.

“Are you Ronald Reagan’s son?” he asked.

“Yes,” I said.

“I’ve seen you on TV on Larry King,” he explained.

I looked around me at the empty savannah and thought, “How in the world did he see me on CNN here in the middle of Africa?”

“You’re the Christian,” the Maasai man said.

“Yes.”

“You have a brother, Ron.”

“Yes.”

“He’s an atheist, isn’t he?”

“Yes.”

“I’ve seen him too on Larry King.”

Then the Maasai man asked me if I talked to my brother, Ron.

“Not often.” I said.

“The next time you talk to him,” the Maasai said, “tell him that there’s a Maasai warrior that prays for him every single day in Africa.”

As a Christian, and someone who was not praying for my brother and sisters every day at that time, I suddenly felt about an inch tall. Because of that encounter I do pray for them now.

People wonder why the country is in the turmoil it is. Yet our godless media give us no moral principles to live by and nothing of eternal value to hang on to or reach for.

If you do strive for something spiritual or publicly express your faith in God and his power and love, the media are quick to ridicule you or bring in atheists for “balance.”

I don’t care what the media or the atheists think about God or our Founding Fathers. We’re a Christian nation. We were founded on godly principles. Read the Constitution.

We desperately need to get back to those founding principles, and not just on Easter Sunday.

Copyright ©2013 Michael Reagan. Mike’s column is distributed exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate. For info on using columns contact Cari Dawson Bartley at cari@cagle.com or call 800-696-7561.

Making Sense

You can’t win the fight if you don’t put on the gloves.

A punch-drunk, old heavyweight boxer knows that’s a truism, but not the churches of America.

The Supreme Court heard arguments this week on the constitutionality of California’s Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage in the state by a 52 to 47 margin in 2008 but has since been declared unconstitutional by federal courts.

Fox TV, Rush Limbaugh and other talk-show pundits have weighed in, arguing the conservative — and moral — position that sanctifying gay marriage with the grace of the U.S. Constitution is not only wrong but a serious threat to the culture of this country.

But those media outlets often speak to those who are already in the choir. That leaves a lot of other Americans who aren’t hearing anyone preaching the conservative argument on gay marriage.

I don’t expect the GOP to provide any leadership. Republicans are too busy cat-fighting with each other and making sure their presidential choice will be whooped by Hillary Clinton in 2016.

And where in the heck are the churches on the issue of legalizing gay marriage?

Where are the Protestants, Jews and Catholics? Have they lost their tongues? Their hearts and wills? Their institutional you-know-whats?

Where’s the moral outrage? Why aren’t thousands of our pastors, priests and rabbis shouting from their pulpits? Why aren’t they leading their congregations through the streets in mass protest?

Why aren’t their bishops appearing on the tube with David Gregory and Piers Morgan to defend the institution of marriage as a union of one man and one woman?

Like the bank executives that are too chicken to stand up to the federal bullies in Washington, and like the energy company bosses in California who won’t stand up to the Green Socialists in Sacramento, the churches cower in fear.

Are they afraid to lose their 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status by engaging in political activity? Are they afraid to be derided as religious nuts and cultural Cro-Magnons by the liberal media?

Or are our churches and their comfortable leaders simply no longer willing to fight for what is right?

This fight over Proposition 8 isn’t just about saying it should be legal in the eyes of government for two people of the same sex to get married in California.

It’s ultimately about changing the culture of the entire country; it inevitably will lead to teaching our public school kids that gay marriage is a perfectly fine alternative and no different than traditional marriage. There is also a very slippery slope leading to other alternative relationships and the unconstitutionality of any law based on morality. Think about polygamy, bestiality, and perhaps even murder.

Churches should be in the vanguard of the fight to defend the culture against legalized gay marriage, not hiding in their pews.

Sure, the mainstream liberal media will be against them and will ignore them as much as they can. But if the churches show up en masse — and make sure millions of their members’ voices are heard — the media will be forced to cover them, and even the Supreme Court will feel the political wind.

Meanwhile, as the High Court decides our fate, it’s time for the churches to get engaged and start fighting for America, instead of wimping out. If it takes them giving up their 501(c)(3) status to start fighting for righteousness, then I’m all for it.

Copyright ©2013 Michael Reagan.  Mike’s column is distributed exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate. For info on using columns contact Cari Dawson Bartley at cari@cagle.com or call 800-696-7561.

Making Sense

I love talk radio; I love Fox News.

If it weren’t for the arrival of their strong conservative voices, Americans would still have nothing to listen to but the one-sided news and opinions of the left-liberals who run the mainstream New York-D.C. media.

But I’m frustrated.

Talk radio and Fox are getting so boring, so predictable, so shrill, I can barely tune in anymore.

Night after night on Fox, it’s the same issues, the same arguments, the same lame liberal guests showing up to be browbeaten by Hannity and O’Reilly.

How many Juan Williamses does Fox have on its staff anyway? Five? Is my friend Alan Colmes the only liberal in North America who’ll come on and debate Hannity?

Seriously. Is there anything Williams and Colmes — or for that matter, pie-thrower Ann Coulter — will say about Obamacare or the Obama Economy they haven’t said 100 times on TV in the last year?

“The Five” is another example. It gets great ratings, but it’s so stale and predictable.

Can’t Fox find anyone better than Big, Bad Bob Beckel to go 1-on-4 with that show’s conservatives, who, except for funnyman Greg Gutfeld, are like watching Hannity II, III and IV?

And is there some new FCC law against having two liberals on a Fox show once in a while? (Not Juan Williams, thanks.)

Fox needs to get fresh faces and new voices into its regular lineup. Instead of arguing with Williams night after night, what’s wrong with Hannity or O’Reilly talking to ordinary Americans — people who’ve lost their homes or can’t find a job?

I think even loyal viewers are starting to notice that Fox’s slogan should be changed from “Fair and Balanced” to “Stale and Predictable.”

The other day, after seeing conservative guest Dennis Prager waste most of his air-time watching Hannity tangle his liberal guest, I sent out a Tweet saying, “I think sometimes Hannity invites guests on to watch him argue with another guest just to get their approval. It’s frustrating.”

The response from my conservative Republican followers was quick and one-sided; a bunch of Tweeters agreed with me that Fox was losing its steam.

A guy named Tom said nothing interesting ever happens on Hannity’s show. Another guy said he loved Hannity but said he “needs to find new people to interview, too many repeats.” Sharron tweeted she’s stopped watching him altogether.

This is a serious problem for conservatives and Republicans — and the United States of America.

We’re in a serious fight with Obama and his gang, who seem hell-bent on turning us into a socialist country with enough government spending and debt to qualify for membership in the European Union.

For good and bad, talk radio and Fox have become the national voices of conservatism, the places where conservative ideas and arguments can be publicized and debated.

The Republican Party has made the mistake of allowing Fox and talk radio to become its spokesman, in large part because it has no national spokesman of its own. But Fox and talk radio are letting the GOP and the rest of the country down.

People outside the Beltway are desperate for solutions to our economic and social problems, but Fox and talk radio seem more interested in giving them arguments — tired arguments.

People — our people in the conservative choir — are starting to tune out Fox and talk radio. And it’s because their song — our song — is getting stale and predictable.

We need to start hearing a new tune from the conservative media — and new singers.

Copyright ©2013 Michael Reagan.  Mike’s column is distributed exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate. For info on using columns contact Cari Dawson Bartley at cari@cagle.com or call 800-696-7561.

Making Sense

By the time you read this, the world’s billion-plus Roman Catholics may have a new pope. And when the black smoke of Tuesday’s indecisive first vote has turned to the white smoke of final decision, don’t be surprised if the cardinals have chosen… a Catholic pope.

After the election of Benedict XVI in 2005, I wrote that the cardinals had correctly ignored the desires of some people to install a wimpish equivocator willing bend with the winds of compromise. I believe the cardinals will show the same wisdom in 2013.

In other words, the cardinals will choose someone who can remain faithful to his creed and his office, a true Catholic in all respects.

Some dissidents think the Church needs to become relevant by embracing all modern codes of conduct, but the Church will remain relevant where it really counts only if it retains its core principles. When the world is in adrift in turmoil, the answer is not more turmoil.

For example, abortion is no less evil today than it was in 2005; the need to protect life is no less compelling. The world will always need a place for rock-solid affirmation that life matters.

For those Catholics who don’t like the idea of a Catholic pope, there is an answer. It’s called the Episcopal Church, and every Catholic Church in the United States should have a map showing the location of the nearest one.

There, dissident Catholics will find homosexual bishops, lesbian priests, sanction for abortion, the unfettered right to divorce, and all those other practices the Catholic Church forbids under pain of mortal sin. It is the church that can’t say no. Dissidents will be very comfortable there.

Does the Catholic Church have problems to solve? Yes, it does.

The child-abuse scandal must be dealt with unequivocally. The next pope will also have to quell dysfunction within the Vatican’s central bureaucracy, the Curia. Some cardinals are thought to be frontrunners for the papacy based on their management skills, though I believe the Church needs more than a manager — it needs a leader.

There is also the matter of re-energizing the faithful. I won’t deny that a higher level of energy would be a good thing; after all, Pope Benedict did retire because he realized he could no longer serve due to “lack of strength of mind and body.”

I believe the Church will find a pope who can manage its bureaucracy and provide the energy to excel as a transformational world leader, as did John Paul II.

The new pope need not be transformational in the sense that doctrine should change, but transformational in finding new ways to make the wisdom and relevance of Church doctrine understood by all, and attractive to those who have not yet found a home for their innate faith.

Update: Let’s pray that Pope Francis is that leader.

Copyright ©2013 Michael Reagan.  Mike’s column is distributed exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate. For info on using columns contact Cari Dawson Bartley at cari@cagle.com or call 800-696-7561.

Making Sense

Take President Obama and his Cabinet of Liars, please.

We all know what dirty tricks they played to try and stop the sequester’s automatic budget cuts from happening.

They spent weeks trying to frighten the America people into believing the country would collapse into chaos and suffering if the federal government’s sequester-forced spending cuts went into effect.

The campaigner in chief and his chorus of toadies did everything they could to make sure the puny spending cuts — which would have merely taken the federal budget back to its 2012 level — would cause the most pain to the most people.

Supposedly the cuts were going to decimate the ranks of our local police forces and firefighters, throw hundreds of teachers into the streets, create long lines at airports and maybe even leave the United States vulnerable to a military invasion by Greece.

Of course, most of Big Media played right along with Obama’s dirty political game. Like the dupes they are, they publicized every sequester scare-story like it was going to mean the end of America as we know it.

(Too bad the MSM don’t devote the same level of hysteria to covering some of our real problems, like Obama’s runaway federal spending and our un-payable future debt load.)

In case you haven’t noticed by now, Armageddon didn’t happen. The sequester came and the sun is still coming up. Planes aren’t falling from the heavens. And I haven’t had to use my guns to defend my home against a single robber or terrorist.

Even the invertebrate Republicans in Congress haven’t caved to pressure from the special interests who oppose the sequester cuts, though perhaps they just need more time.

So far, Obama’s cross-country campaign of whoppers hasn’t worked on the American people, who don’t need Karl Rove to tell them that the “Big Bad Wolf” the president was yapping about every day wasn’t really at their doors.

Another hopeful sign that most Americans are not as naive or stupid as the Obama Gang thinks they are came this week when the citizens of Los Angeles went to the polls.

The mayoral primary was the top draw, but also on the ballot on Tuesday was one of California’s infamous ballot measures.

The official title was “Proposition A — Neighborhood Public Safety And Vital City Services Funding And Accountability Measure.” That’s government-speak for a half-cent sales tax hike.

If you’re not familiar with the fiscal condition of my home city of Los Angeles, it’s a depressing microcosm of the federal government and the state of California. Taxing too much and spending even more, the city already has a sales tax of 9 cents and a projected annual budget deficit of $216 million.

To get voters to OK the higher sales tax and add $200 million in annual revenue to City Hall’s $7.2 billion budget, LA’s politicians imitated the president’s tactics.

Just as Obama tried to scare the public into believing that the sequester would hurt our national security, the local pols here tried to scare voters into thinking public safety would be endangered without Proposition A.

Proposition A was backed by the police chief and outgoing Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who used police academy recruits as props and warned of losing 500 city cops if the sales tax hike was defeated.

I’m happy to report that the voters of the City of Los Angeles saw through the sham. Proposition A went down to defeat Tuesday night, crushed by a final margin of 55 percent to 45 percent.

Proposition A’s defeat was a minor victory in the great war against government taxing and spending.

But when voters in a liberal city like Los Angeles can’t be scared into voting for higher taxes, it’s a sign that maybe Americans are getting wise to government lies and the politicians who tell them.

Copyright ©2013 Michael Reagan. Mike’s column is distributed exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate. For info on using columns contact Cari Dawson Bartley at cari@cagle.com or call 800-696-7561.