From: kadie@herodotus.cs.uiuc.edu (Carl M. Kadie)
Subject: [Republicans] On Religion and Culture
Organization: University of Illinois, Dept. of Comp. Sci., Urbana, IL
Date: Wed, 7 Oct 1992 05:23:10 GMT

[Michael Lax posted the Republican Platform to alt.politics.election.
Here are excerpts related to religion and culture. - Carl]

[...]

     Unlike our opponents, we are inspired by a commitment to
profound change.  Our mission combines timeless beliefs with a
positive vision of a vigorous America: prosperous and tolerant,
just and compassionate.  We believe that individual freedom, hard
work, and personal responsibility -- basic to free society -- are
also basic to effective government.  We believe in the
fundamental goodness of the American people.  We believe in
traditional family values and in the Judeo-Christian heritage
that informs our culture.
[...]
     We believe in the American people:  free men and women with
faith in God, working for themselves and their families,
believing in the value of every human being from the very young
to the very old.

[...]
     Just as spiritual principles -- our moral compass -- help
guide public policy, learning must have a moral basis.  America
must remain neutral towards particular religions, but we must not
remain neutral toward religion itself or the values religion
supports.  Mindful of our country's Judeo-Christian heritage and
rich religious pluralism, we support the right of students to
engage in voluntary prayer in schools and the right of the
community to do so at commencements or other occasions.  We will
strongly enforce the law guaranteeing equal access to school
facilities.  We also advocate recitation of the Pledge of
Allegiance in schools as a reminder of the principles that
sustain us as one Nation under God.
[...]
     Parents bring reality to these principles when they pass
them on to their children.  As the Book of Proverbs proclaims,
"Train up a child in the way he should go:  and when he is old,
he will not depart from it."
[...]
*Promoting Cultural Values.*  The culture of our Nation has
traditionally supported those pillars on which civilized society
is built: personal responsibility, morality, and the family. 
Today, however, these pillars are under assault.  Elements within
the media, the entertainment industry, academia, and the Democrat
Party are waging a guerrilla war against American values.  They
deny personal responsibility, disparage traditional morality,
denigrate religion, and promote hostility toward the family's way
of life.  Children, the members of our society most vulnerable to
cultural influences, are barraged with violence and promiscuity,
encouraging reckless and irresponsible behavior.  This undermines
the authority of parents, the ones most responsible for passing
on to their offspring a sense of right and wrong.  The lesson our
Party draws is important -- that all of us, individuals and
corporations alike, have a responsibility to reflect the values
we expect our fellow citizens to exhibit.  And if children grow
to adulthood reflecting not the values of their parents but the
amorality with which they are bombarded, those who send such
messages cannot duck culpability.
[...]
--
Carl Kadie -- kadie@cs.uiuc.edu -- University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign