Dissecting the GOP Platform with a Secular Scalpel

Section 3 (“America’s Natural Resources: Agriculture, Energy, and the Environment”)

There’s another reference to vague theism at the bottom of page 20, where it says, “the Republican Party reaffirms the moral obligation to be good stewards of the God-given natural beauty and resources of our country.” That is the only explicit religious reference in the third section, a section which deals with the issue of climate change at length. But while that quote by itself may sound like Republicans are “warming up” (sorry, couldn’t resist) to the idea of accepting the evidence for climate change and doing something about it, the rest of the section says otherwise. Here are some quick examples of quotes which say just the opposite of what that bit might seem to suggest:

• “The Democratic Party does not understand that coal is an abundant, clean, affordable, reliable domestic energy resource.”
• “Climate change is far from this nation’s most pressing national security issue.”
• “The central fact of any sensible environmental policy is that, year by year, the environment is improving.”

It seems that the only thing the Republican Party wants to do about climate change is prevent the Democrats from implementing any measures to stop it.

Now, I did say that I wanted this review to focus on issues specifically relevant to atheism, and not just my personal political positions, so you might be wondering what climate change has to do with a person’s religious beliefs (or lack thereof). In some ways, this is like the abortion issue, in that it’s not explicitly a religious issue, but the denial of climate change does appear to have very strong underpinnings in a conservative Christian worldview (in some cases, at least).

I’ve previously collected examples of statements that conservatives (including elected officials) have made, which indicate purely religious reasons for denying the significance of climate change. Given the plethora of statements like that, I don’t think it’s reasonable to consider the Republican Party’s cavalier attitude toward this issue in the Platform as being completely separate from religion. The religiously-fueled positions held by some individuals are probably not the only impetus for the party as a whole to take this stance, but I highly doubt that the religious factor doesn’t at least play some part in it.

Section 4 (“Government Reform”)

In this section, the only statements of a religious nature are reiterations of previous statements; there’s another statement about abortion on page 24, and another call to repeal the Johnson Amendment on page 27.

Oh, but then there’s Section 5.