Tradition
Consistent Life Ethic
Life is the basic building block upon which all other liberties are built, for without the right to life it is impossible to assert any other right. We acknowledge our duty and affirm our promise to defend human life at all of its stages from conception until natural death – to uphold a consistent life ethic. We understand the inherent dignity and sanctity of all human life – for each person has been made in the image and likeness of God.
Thus, we oppose abortion, abortifacient drugs, embryonic stem cell research, in-virto fertilization, the death penalty, euthanasia, and assisted suicide, while advocating for the just war theory, universal health care, and anti-poverty measures. In order to make this defense of human life a reality, we support a constitutional amendment guaranteeing the right to life. We support funding for local programs to establish pregnancy crisis centers, which would provide maternity items, pre-natal care, and other means of assistance to indigent expectant mothers. To reduce instances of suicide, we support improved recognition and treatment of mental illness and substance abuse. In our efforts to lower the murder rate, we support conflict resolution seminars in schools. To safeguard the dignity of human life, we also oppose human cloning and the ability to exercise intellectual property rights over any portion of the human genome.
Life is the basic building block upon which all other liberties are built, for without the right to life it is impossible to assert any other right. We acknowledge our duty and affirm our promise to defend human life at all of its stages from conception until natural death – to uphold a consistent life ethic. We understand the inherent dignity and sanctity of all human life – for each person has been made in the image and likeness of God.
Thus, we oppose abortion, abortifacient drugs, embryonic stem cell research, in-virto fertilization, the death penalty, euthanasia, and assisted suicide, while advocating for the just war theory, universal health care, and anti-poverty measures. In order to make this defense of human life a reality, we support a constitutional amendment guaranteeing the right to life. We support funding for local programs to establish pregnancy crisis centers, which would provide maternity items, pre-natal care, and other means of assistance to indigent expectant mothers. To reduce instances of suicide, we support improved recognition and treatment of mental illness and substance abuse. In our efforts to lower the murder rate, we support conflict resolution seminars in schools. To safeguard the dignity of human life, we also oppose human cloning and the ability to exercise intellectual property rights over any portion of the human genome.
Family Values
The family is the building block and foundation of society, and as such deserves special protection and advocacy in the public sphere. The family, at its most basic level, consists of a man and woman, joined together for life in marriage, and their children; however, it also includes grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins, and other relatives. We also recognize the tragedy of children losing their families, and know that any society that overlooks its orphans is one that has failed in one of its most basic moral duties.
Because of this, we oppose any attempts to redefine marriage -- including attempts to make the metaphysical absurdity of same-sex marriage legal. We support a constitutional amendment to recognize marriage and all similar unions as between one man and one woman. We support the repeal of no-fault divorce, and we wish to make civil divorce a rarity reserved for protecting a spouse or children from abuse or rampant infidelity. We support a prohibition on prostitution, and we support increased ease of access to tools to allow parents to prevent their children from viewing pornography. We support reduced access to contraception, and we support the repeal of the last forced sterilization laws in the country (even where unused or unenforceable), a complete and explicit reversal of Buck v. Bell, and an official apology from Congress for the eugenics programs that once existed in the United States. We support making adoption an easier and less bureaucratic process, increased tax incentives and financial support for those families that decide to adopt, additional funding for assisting foster families and orphanages, more encouragement for religious groups to run orphanages, and a better process to ensure that orphans are not abused.
Because of this, we oppose any attempts to redefine marriage -- including attempts to make the metaphysical absurdity of same-sex marriage legal. We support a constitutional amendment to recognize marriage and all similar unions as between one man and one woman. We support the repeal of no-fault divorce, and we wish to make civil divorce a rarity reserved for protecting a spouse or children from abuse or rampant infidelity. We support a prohibition on prostitution, and we support increased ease of access to tools to allow parents to prevent their children from viewing pornography. We support reduced access to contraception, and we support the repeal of the last forced sterilization laws in the country (even where unused or unenforceable), a complete and explicit reversal of Buck v. Bell, and an official apology from Congress for the eugenics programs that once existed in the United States. We support making adoption an easier and less bureaucratic process, increased tax incentives and financial support for those families that decide to adopt, additional funding for assisting foster families and orphanages, more encouragement for religious groups to run orphanages, and a better process to ensure that orphans are not abused.
Promoting Cooperation Between Church and State
While we strongly believe in the First Amendment’s right to the free exercise of religion, we recognize the great potential when church and state cooperate for the benefit of all. We support an accomodationist view of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment opposed to the secularists who hope to relegate religion to the private sphere – for while faith is always personal it is never private. We recognize America’s history as a Judeo-Christian nation, and we wish to celebrate our faith-based heritage. We also remind the public that the Establishment Clause exists not primarily to protect the state from endorsing a single religion as the state religion and thus infringing upon religious liberty but rather mostly to protect religion from the intrusions and excesses of the state.
We believe states and local governments should be able to work with the religious and private schools within their jurisdictions to promote the education of our youth. We believe that municipalities and states should be able to work with local churches, synagogues, mosques, temples, and other religious organizations and communities on a non-preferential basis to help in aiding the poor, the orphaned, the widowed, and the homeless in their jurisdictions and in serving the population at large after disasters. We support projects where local government and religious communities work together to further the arts and science and to promote the public health and welfare. We support the continued tax-free status of places of worship and religious organizations. We believe that displays of the Ten Commandments on public property, the phrase “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance, and the use of “In God We Trust” as our national motto are legitimate confessions of the state.
We believe states and local governments should be able to work with the religious and private schools within their jurisdictions to promote the education of our youth. We believe that municipalities and states should be able to work with local churches, synagogues, mosques, temples, and other religious organizations and communities on a non-preferential basis to help in aiding the poor, the orphaned, the widowed, and the homeless in their jurisdictions and in serving the population at large after disasters. We support projects where local government and religious communities work together to further the arts and science and to promote the public health and welfare. We support the continued tax-free status of places of worship and religious organizations. We believe that displays of the Ten Commandments on public property, the phrase “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance, and the use of “In God We Trust” as our national motto are legitimate confessions of the state.
Education
The education of our young people is essential for a thriving society to form well-rounded individuals who can participate in civic life and provide for the needs of others through in their own unique skills, talents, and knowledge. As such, our education system needs to be reformed to ensure a care for the entire person. The current education system focuses heavily upon compartmentalizing the disciplines and forming technocrats with little to no critical thinking. It also separates education from a child’s first educators, their parents, giving them little input in what their children are taught. The increasing centralization and standardization of education further separates parents from schools and does not consider the unique situations of particular regions of the country due to geography, commerce, culture, and others. Wealth disparity also limits access to quality education for the poor and cripples their opportunity for social mobility and engagement in the civic life. There is also a lost sense of enchantment in education that does not inspired in people a desire for lifelong learning. Our plan shall remedy these problems to make our nation the forefront of education.
We propose a massive overhaul to the education system, that would be done in cooperation with the states. An educational voucher system provided would be established by federal law and administered by the states to allow parents to pay for children's primary and secondary school education. Parents would be able to use their tax dollars to able to choose between public schools, private schools, religious schools, special needs schools, or homeschooling, so long as they meet minimum standards established by federal law and further defined by state law. As these students progress into secondary and post-secondary education, they should be able to enter the schools they want to enter based upon their ability and ethic, not income. We would enact further education to give parents co-ownership in primary and secondary schools so that they would act as non-profit cooperatives to ensure that schools remain accountable to the parents. A similar model will also be enacted at the post-secondary level so that students and faculty have the same co-ownership. We shall also enact a new curriculum that focuses upon broad education that balances the arts and sciences to better to prepare students for post secondary life, in the workforce, trades, professions, or academia. With a strong foundation, post-secondary institutions can remove the need for general education classes and focus upon specializing their education to the fields students wish to pursue. This would make the time students need for undergraduate programs while allow for a greater depth of knowledge in their programs. It would also form full person who can fully participate know civic life. Finally, we would return sex education to the sole responsibility of a child’s parents and ban all sex education programs from schools. All these will raise the standard of education in our country and create citizens who can contribute to society with their own unique talents and engage in the duties of civic life.
