By Paul S. Gardiner

This article argues for mobilizing and unifying millions more people of faith (American adults of different religious faiths who have a common belief in a Creator or Supreme Being) to vote in elections for candidates who truly support religious liberty and freedom as intended by America’s Founders and enshrined in the U.S. Constitution. As described herein, today’s Democrat Party and its platform are governed by many far-left beliefs and policies in direct opposition to many important traditional American policies and beliefs, including religious beliefs.

According to an April 25, 2018, Pew Research report about the religious beliefs of Americans, the vast majority of American adults (90%, or approximately 225 million people/voters) believe in some kind of higher power, with 56% professing faith in God as described in the Christian Bible and another 33% saying they believe in another type of higher power or spiritual force. Only one in 10 Americans say they do not believe in God or a higher power of any kind.

Much has been written recently about the influence over and control of today’s Democrat Party by very wealthy, politically far-left, “elitist” individuals primarily living in and around large cities on the West and East Coasts of the United States. Some of these individuals appear to no longer want America to be a constitutional republic but rather a socialist or socialist-oriented country where these unelected individuals “call the shots.” As Margaret Thatcher once famously said, “Socialists cry ‘power to the people’ and raise the clenched fist as they say it. We all know what they really mean — power over people, power to the State.” It is apparent that the ultimate goal of some of the major controllers of the Democrat Party is to create a socialistic, all-powerful American government that becomes, in effect, the god of the masses.

As previously indicated, the platform of the modern-day, far-left Democrat Party is almost totally contrary to many of the historic values and beliefs, including strongly held religious beliefs, of millions of living adult Americans and America’s founding generation and successive generations. A few indications of this are the Democrat Party’s support for open borders, tax-payer provided health care for illegal aliens, sanctuary cities (and states) protecting illegal immigrants, elimination of the Electoral College, the socialist “Green New Deal,” and several other socialist or socialist-oriented actions and policies.

Regarding the Democrat Party’s departure from the religious beliefs of millions of Americans, in 2017, Selena Zito claimed in the New York Post, “The Democratic Party has a God problem.” Remembering what happened in 2012, when it was widely reported that the Democrats booed God (during the platform hearings), Zito argued that Democrats have since “pushed away religious voters not simply by ignoring them but by actively repelling them with accusations of bigotry and backwardness.”

More recently, the Democrat Party’s negative feelings about people with religious faith have been described in an August 30, 2019, post at Stream.org entitled “Democratic Party Passes Resolution Against Christianity.” The language of the resolution makes it evident that the Democrat Party believes that Christian beliefs and beliefs of other religious faiths have “threatened the civil rights and liberties of many Americans, including but not limited to the LGBT community, women, and ethnic and religious/nonreligious minorities.”

Such a statement from a major political party would have been unthinkable in years past, but not with the modern-day Democrat Party. Among other things, the tremendous influence of the Western world’s moral foundation, principally imparted through the teachings and values of Christianity, largely has become repulsive to the Democrat Party.

In summary, the modern-day, far-left Democrat Party has demonstrated that it is no friend to people of faith and religious liberty. Thus, it is incumbent on Americans of all religious faiths to come together and present a unified front against candidates of the Democrat Party. Organizations such as the North American Interfaith Network, Faith and Freedom Coalition, Council for National Policy, Traditional Values Coalition, and the Christian Coalition jointly could develop a workable strategy to effectively mobilize and unify many additional millions of people of faith to vote for candidates who truly support religious liberty and freedom in America.

The clock is ticking. The question is, who will decide that this effort is worthwhile? And secondly, who will take the lead and devote resources to make it happen?

Paul S. Gardiner is a retired Army officer and avid lover of America’s constitutional republic and treasured religious liberty. He is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, University of Alabama, and United States Army War College. He and his wife of 50 years, Karen, reside in Hoschton, Georgia.