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Gov Gregoire Admits She's Morally Conflicted
Gary Randall
The Olympianeditorial board was wondering out loud yesterday if the Governor's effort topass a same-sex marriage bill will cause lawmakers to "be so distracted bythe contentious issue that they let it divert them from their primarypurpose---balancing the budget."
However, there was a more poignant back story in their comments. Astory of a woman's conflict with her faith, her responsibilities of leadershipand what she has accepted as "equality."
She told the press earlier this week, "I have been on my ownjourney, I'll admit that."
The Olympian pointed out that the Governor's new found position onmarriage is in clear conflict with her church---the Catholic church and itsbishops in Washington State.
Greg Magnoni, spokesman for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese ofSeattle, also said this week his church would be "looking for theLegislature to uphold the current legal definition of marriage as between a manand a woman." The position of the Catholic Church is clear.
The Governor admits she has struggled with the marriage issue forthe past 7 years.
In defending her new found position she told the press, "Thisis about my personal faith. I came to understand my religion is one thing, butas governor of the state and as a human being, I believe in equality."
It is indeed conflicting to believe something and act inopposition to that belief.
While the Governor crossed the threshold on the sanctity of lifeand became an advocate for abortion some time ago, she has remained conflictedon marriage. Believing one thing while doing something else is alwaysdifficult.
It is written that double minded people become unstable in alltheir ways.
But how does the idea of "equality" and"fairness" square with her position on abortion. Doesn't the baby inthe womb have a right to live---equal to the right of other children whosemothers chose not to kill them?
And does legalizing same-sex "marriage" really createequality? What about polygamous groups who love each other and have long termrelationships? What about closely related couples, brother and sister, fatherand daughter, first cousins, etc? What about their equality and fairness?
Marriage was not created on the basis of equality or fairness. Itwas created as a relationship between a man and a woman for much greaterpurposes and every major religion and every successful civilization hasrecognized its importance and rewarded and honored its existence. Until now.
Re-defining marriage is not an act of equality. It's an act ofconferring "special rights" to a certain group because of politicalpressure.
Can a culture be morally neutral? Can religion and morality be onething while actions something else?
It is written that a double minded man or woman is unstable in alltheir ways. Being morally conflicted is difficult.
Scripture teaches that for those who know to do right and not doso, is sin. Sin can be conflicting. It is possible, but very emotionally andspiritually challenging to have been taught the truth, then to walk away fromit.
It is also emotionally and spiritually conflicting to say youbelieve something, then advocate against it, while washing your hands of theconsequences. Pilate discovered that truth.
I pray that the Governor will reconsider the teaching in her homeand her church when she was a child. And rediscover the truth. And be free.
And not sacrifice the sanctity of marriage onthe illusion of equality.
Gary Randall is Founder of Faith and Family Network
The Olympianeditorial board was wondering out loud yesterday if the Governor's effort topass a same-sex marriage bill will cause lawmakers to "be so distracted bythe contentious issue that they let it divert them from their primarypurpose---balancing the budget."
However, there was a more poignant back story in their comments. Astory of a woman's conflict with her faith, her responsibilities of leadershipand what she has accepted as "equality."
She told the press earlier this week, "I have been on my ownjourney, I'll admit that."
The Olympian pointed out that the Governor's new found position onmarriage is in clear conflict with her church---the Catholic church and itsbishops in Washington State.
Greg Magnoni, spokesman for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese ofSeattle, also said this week his church would be "looking for theLegislature to uphold the current legal definition of marriage as between a manand a woman." The position of the Catholic Church is clear.
The Governor admits she has struggled with the marriage issue forthe past 7 years.
In defending her new found position she told the press, "Thisis about my personal faith. I came to understand my religion is one thing, butas governor of the state and as a human being, I believe in equality."
It is indeed conflicting to believe something and act inopposition to that belief.
While the Governor crossed the threshold on the sanctity of lifeand became an advocate for abortion some time ago, she has remained conflictedon marriage. Believing one thing while doing something else is alwaysdifficult.
It is written that double minded people become unstable in alltheir ways.
But how does the idea of "equality" and"fairness" square with her position on abortion. Doesn't the baby inthe womb have a right to live---equal to the right of other children whosemothers chose not to kill them?
And does legalizing same-sex "marriage" really createequality? What about polygamous groups who love each other and have long termrelationships? What about closely related couples, brother and sister, fatherand daughter, first cousins, etc? What about their equality and fairness?
Marriage was not created on the basis of equality or fairness. Itwas created as a relationship between a man and a woman for much greaterpurposes and every major religion and every successful civilization hasrecognized its importance and rewarded and honored its existence. Until now.
Re-defining marriage is not an act of equality. It's an act ofconferring "special rights" to a certain group because of politicalpressure.
Can a culture be morally neutral? Can religion and morality be onething while actions something else?
It is written that a double minded man or woman is unstable in alltheir ways. Being morally conflicted is difficult.
Scripture teaches that for those who know to do right and not doso, is sin. Sin can be conflicting. It is possible, but very emotionally andspiritually challenging to have been taught the truth, then to walk away fromit.
It is also emotionally and spiritually conflicting to say youbelieve something, then advocate against it, while washing your hands of theconsequences. Pilate discovered that truth.
I pray that the Governor will reconsider the teaching in her homeand her church when she was a child. And rediscover the truth. And be free.
And not sacrifice the sanctity of marriage onthe illusion of equality.
Gary Randall is Founder of Faith and Family Network
Categories: Washington Eagle Forum Blogs
2012 Primary Debate Schedule
Here is the most up-to-date and complete schedule we have for the 2011 / 2012 Republican Primary debates. These debates are between all the Republican candidates. For the schedule of debates between the Republican nominee and President Barack Obama, see the 2012 Presidential Debate schedule page. Upcoming debates are listed at the top. Scroll down for past debates including the full video of each debate.
January 7, 20129pm ET / 6pm PT on ABC – Live Stream
Location: Saint Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire
Sponsor: ABC News and WMUR
Participants: Santorum, Romney, Paul, Perry, Gingrich, HuntsmanJanuary 8, 20129am ET on NBC (Yes, 9am)
Location: Chubb Theatre at the Capitol Center for the Arts in Concord, NH
Sponsor: NBC News, Facebook and the Union Leader
Participants: Santorum, Romney, Paul, Perry, Gingrich, Huntsman January 16, 20129pm ET on Fox News
Location: Myrtle Beach Convention Center in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
Sponsor: Fox News and Republican Party of South Carolina
Participants: TBDJanuary 19, 2012Air time TBD on CNN
Location: Charleston, SC
Sponsor: CNN and the Southern Republican Leadership Conference
Participants: TBDJanuary 23, 2012Air time TBD on NBC
Location:University of South Florida in Tampa, Florida
Sponsor: The St. Petersburg Times, NBC News, the National Journal and the Florida Council of 100
Participants: TBDJanuary 26, 2012Air time TBD on CNN
Location: Jacksonville, FL
Sponsor: CNN, CNN en Español, The Hispanic Leadership Network and The Republican Party of Florida
Participants: TBDFebruary 22, 20128pm ET on CNN (Originally Dec 1, then Nov 30)
Location: Mesa Arts Center in Mesa, Arizona
Sponsor: CNN and the Republican Party of Arizona
Participants: TBDMarch 1, 20128pm ET on CNN
Location: Georgia
Sponsor: CNN and the Georgia Republican Party
Participants: TBDMarch 5, 2012Air time TBD on NBC
Location: Reagan Library in Simi Valley, CA
Sponsor: Reagan Library, NBC News and Politico
Participants: TBDMarch 19, 2012Air time TBD on PBS
Location: Portland, OR
Sponsor: Oregon Public Broadcasting, NPR, PBS, and The Washington Times
Participants: TBD
January 7, 20129pm ET / 6pm PT on ABC – Live Stream
Location: Saint Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire
Sponsor: ABC News and WMUR
Participants: Santorum, Romney, Paul, Perry, Gingrich, HuntsmanJanuary 8, 20129am ET on NBC (Yes, 9am)
Location: Chubb Theatre at the Capitol Center for the Arts in Concord, NH
Sponsor: NBC News, Facebook and the Union Leader
Participants: Santorum, Romney, Paul, Perry, Gingrich, Huntsman January 16, 20129pm ET on Fox News
Location: Myrtle Beach Convention Center in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
Sponsor: Fox News and Republican Party of South Carolina
Participants: TBDJanuary 19, 2012Air time TBD on CNN
Location: Charleston, SC
Sponsor: CNN and the Southern Republican Leadership Conference
Participants: TBDJanuary 23, 2012Air time TBD on NBC
Location:University of South Florida in Tampa, Florida
Sponsor: The St. Petersburg Times, NBC News, the National Journal and the Florida Council of 100
Participants: TBDJanuary 26, 2012Air time TBD on CNN
Location: Jacksonville, FL
Sponsor: CNN, CNN en Español, The Hispanic Leadership Network and The Republican Party of Florida
Participants: TBDFebruary 22, 20128pm ET on CNN (Originally Dec 1, then Nov 30)
Location: Mesa Arts Center in Mesa, Arizona
Sponsor: CNN and the Republican Party of Arizona
Participants: TBDMarch 1, 20128pm ET on CNN
Location: Georgia
Sponsor: CNN and the Georgia Republican Party
Participants: TBDMarch 5, 2012Air time TBD on NBC
Location: Reagan Library in Simi Valley, CA
Sponsor: Reagan Library, NBC News and Politico
Participants: TBDMarch 19, 2012Air time TBD on PBS
Location: Portland, OR
Sponsor: Oregon Public Broadcasting, NPR, PBS, and The Washington Times
Participants: TBD
Categories: Washington Eagle Forum Blogs
Tweets from Congressional Staffers Describe On-Job Drinking in Office of Congressman Larsen
Story broken by NW Daily Marker
For young men and women with ambitions toward a career in politics, working in a Congressional office can be a heady, almost dreamlike experience. Left unsupervised, the combination of youth indiscretion and close proximity to the nation’s levers of power produces results that can be ugly, messy and embarrassing for senior staff and even the representatives voters send to the Capitol to do the people’s work.
Over several months, according to online messages allegedly made by staffers with Democratic Congressman Rick Larsen, the D.C. office of Washington State’s 2nd District has been the setting of a staffers-gone-wild bash, a binge of embarrassing behavior including insults lobbed by legislative aides at the Congressman himself and accounts of on-the-job drinking, all broadcast for the world to see on via Twitter.
Click here to read the rest of this sordid story
For young men and women with ambitions toward a career in politics, working in a Congressional office can be a heady, almost dreamlike experience. Left unsupervised, the combination of youth indiscretion and close proximity to the nation’s levers of power produces results that can be ugly, messy and embarrassing for senior staff and even the representatives voters send to the Capitol to do the people’s work.
Over several months, according to online messages allegedly made by staffers with Democratic Congressman Rick Larsen, the D.C. office of Washington State’s 2nd District has been the setting of a staffers-gone-wild bash, a binge of embarrassing behavior including insults lobbed by legislative aides at the Congressman himself and accounts of on-the-job drinking, all broadcast for the world to see on via Twitter.
Click here to read the rest of this sordid story
Categories: Washington Eagle Forum Blogs
President Lincoln's Thanksgiving Day proclamation
The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings off fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God.
In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union.
Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore.
Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battlefield; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom.
No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People.
I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.
And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and Union.
In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed. Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the United States the Eighty-eighth.
Published on 11/23/11 in the Washington Examiner
In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union.
Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore.
Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battlefield; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom.
No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People.
I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.
And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and Union.
In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed. Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the United States the Eighty-eighth.
Published on 11/23/11 in the Washington Examiner
Categories: Washington Eagle Forum Blogs