Biden on Gay Marriage/ Richard Grenell dismissal

Last week Richard Grenell a foreign policy and national security spokesperson for the Mitt Romney campaign, resigned.  The Romney campaign was criticized by some conservatives for hiring Grenell, an openly gay staffer.  On Sunday's Meet the Press program VP Biden said that he was ok with gay marriage.  President Obama says he opposes gay marriage, but supports civil unions.

I believe that President Obama's staff wanted to exploit the resignation of Mr Grenell by allowing VP Biden to enthusiastically support Gay marriage on a personal level, to curry favor with the gay community to gain votes.  I believe they were responding to recent polls that a majority of Americans, are not opposed to same sex marriage. The Biden support for same-sex marriage allows a not so subtle nod to the gay community, that the Obama administration also is open to same-sex marriage without supporting it "officially".

My views on gay marriage it that it is wrong for Christians to be in a gay relationship and that churches should not perform or condone gay marriage for their members, and churches should not be forced to perform marriages for same-sex couples who are not members.  As an American, I don't think I have the right to tell consenting adults how they should live as long as they are not hurting anyone else.  Although I would not vote for same-sex marriage, I support same-sex couples their "pursuit of happiness".

One reason that Pres. Obama's staff believes that they can alienate some Christians who are fervent in their opposition to gay marriage, is that these Christians, have demonstrated that in spite of what the Obama administration does these Christians will not  vote for President Obama.

An example of this is that during the healthcare debate, the Senate and House bills had differences. The House bill included the Stupak amendment that, did not allow abortion funding for healthcare participants and the Senate bill made no such provision.  Pro-life Senators could have inserted a similar Stupak-like amendment to their bill, even if they would not vote for it.  The democrats would have taken any amendment to the bill that Republicans proposed, but no Senator made provision halting public funding of abortion.

In the end to reconcile the bills as required the pro-life portion of the House bill was removed, but Stupak, got President Obama to sign an executive order banning public funding of abortions.  Instead of applauding Congressman Stupak for getting the Pro-life issue into the bill, Stupak is not recognized for this accomplishment by many in the Christian community.

I believe that Christians should leverage their power, by not being beholden to any party, but using this leverage to negotiate issues that are important to us   I believe that Pres. Obama's administration would make additional compromises if they could be assured of some support from these Christians.  We risk allowing other legislation that may be harmful to our society, because we don't utilize our voting leverage.

Can't We all Get Along

On the 20th Anniversary of the LA Riots.  I remember a statement from Rodney King, a victim of a brutal  police beating.  I remember praying for Divine intervention to end the fear, chaos and destruction in a US city as a result of the acquittal of the police officers.

In Washington, there is so much in-fighting and lack of cooperation that we have lawmakers who refuse to "Get Along".  John Boehner and other Republicans accuse President Obama of not cooperating.  When President Obama first entered office he asked for cooperation and in my opinion really tried to seek common ground.  Ms Pelosi and the President, I believe lost the battle of compromise and the Republicans in order to stay in power seem prone to drive a wedge between Americans to evoke anger so they can win.  But in order to do that they have not introduced anything new and they make enemies of our President and our neighbors who voted for him.

I am not naive enough to believe that only Republicans are guilty of not compromising.  The Democrats have also exhibited partisan behaviors.  This week a piece was issued in the Washington Post by Thomas J. Mann of the Brookings Institute and Norman Ornstein from American Enterprise Institute said the that the Republicans are the biggest offenders  

I believe the main reason that the policies of President Obama and Republican congress are failing is spiritual.  We are a house divided.  We are a country in discord.  Instead of coming together we feed on each other and we will fail if we continue.

In the words or Rodney King;  Can't we all get along?  In the words of Abraham Lincoln "A house divided, will not stand".

Keep it up congress and the American people, how is it working for us?

Read the Washington Post article here:     http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/lets-just-say-it-the-republicans-are-the-problem/2012/04/27/gIQAxCVUlT_story_3.html