ACU chairman David Keene |
The Conservative Political Action Conference board of directors is voting whether to permit a homosexual activist group, GOProud, to participate in CPAC again this year.
CPAC's organizer, the American Conservative Union, is under pressure after the American Principles Project issued an open letter announcing its withdrawal from the conference over GOProud's participation.Â
"If someone is tempted to think for a moment that GOProud is a benign force, then they should examine GOProud's insistence that the Republican party abandon social issues entirely. This makes them the friend of the Democratic party, which long ago embraced every radical sexual expression under the sun," said Robert Knight, senior correspondent for Coral Ridge Ministries.
With several more social conservative groups dropping out or threatening to do so behind the scenes, ACU chairman David Keene called on CPAC's board of directors to decide whether GOProud should be welcomed at the conference for a second straight year, according to a source on the board.
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The results of the vote will be announced on Monday.
"We've decided to put our resources elsewhere," said Mat Staver, president of Liberty Counsel. "We're going to attend the Values Voters Summit and Awakening 2011."
Staver explained that the latter conferences would both respect all three legs of the conservative "stool" described by President Ronald Reagan: fiscal responsibility, strong national defense and social conservatism.
"Well, I guess we're going to have to boycott until they stop embracing homosexuality as a so-called conservative value," said Peter LaBarbera, president of Americans for Truth about Homosexuality. "The reality is that GOProud is a homosexual activist group that would expand government to accommodate homosexuality."
Other conservative groups have decided to remain in CPAC and take the problem on directly.
"We are very opposed to the homosexual agenda, we're practicing Catholics," said Preston Noell of the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property. "We have found the best way to deal with this kind of problem is not to run away from it but to confront it."
At last year's CPAC convention, when the GOProud problem first surfaced, TFP conducted a survey asking CPAC attendees whether GOProud should be allowed to participate.
"We made the point that we were opposed," said Noell. "All civilized societies have opposed homosexuality and made it illegal for 5,000 years. They are not conservative. They may say they are but they're not."
Conservatives dedicated primarily to the battle against the homosexual agenda were disappointed that GOProud's participation at CPAC would be considered seriously in the first place.
"I've gotten used to homosexuality being treated as a special issue even in conservative circles," said LaBarbera. "It doesn't make any logical sense that they have to vote at all. But it doesn't make logical sense that some Christian denominations are debating whether to accommodate homosexuality."
"We can't let the libertarians destroy the conservative movement," LaBarbera continued. "The issue is not just same-sex marriage. The issue is whether homosexual behavior is morally right or wrong."
"This vote should be a slam dunk no," said Knight, a longtime leader in the fight to uphold Godly moral values in public policy.
"Anyone sporting the title of 'conservative' should know that traditional moral values are the foundation of self government and they make limited government possible," Knight told WND.
"Why then are they mistaking GOProud for a legitimate conservative group?" Knight asked. "No group that does not understand the importance of marriage as God intended it is conservative. Merely agreeing on some fiscal issues does not make one conservative. True conservatives understand the organic nature of religion, family and constitutionally limited government. You need not be religious to be a conservative, but you need to have an understanding that meddling with foundational institutions like marriage is a recipe for more government, not less."