A committee of Wyoming Republican Party delegates had a robust debate Friday about whether to declare the United States a Christian nation, and Wyoming a Christian state.
Then the committee declined, by a vote of about 11-4, to adopt the proclamation into the party’s list of core beliefs.
Proponents of the change called for a moral revival across the nation.
Detractors cited the free will given to mankind, and the numerous religious declarations already within the state GOP’s platform.
That unfolded Friday in a board room at the Wyoming State Fairgrounds as a blizzard churned outside.
Ultimately, the committee voted not to change the party’s platform: its 23 planks of core beliefs, whose text asserts them as “timeless truths.”
The planks inform the public what Wyoming Republican Party functionaries see as the party’s core beliefs. Some groups and websites also use it to gauge how “Republican” state lawmakers are, in their view.
The platform is not legislation and doesn’t bind the state or confer rights.
Christian Nation, Christian State
Tina Clifford, a party representative from Fremont County, offered one of the most thoroughly debated proposed plank: “The United States is a Christian nation, and Wyoming is a Christian state.”
Ted Davis, of the Crook County GOP, countered by saying he’s a strong Christian, but he doubted the necessity of the new language.
“All over, our platforms already reference to creator, God, creator, God,” said Davis. “I think this would be incredibly redundant, and an opening for people to take exception and be offended for no reason.
“And if they wanted to get offended by a platform plank, there’s enough there already to do it.”
Paul Metevier, of Carbon County, launched a different type of opposition.
He noted that the state GOP platform already calls the freedom to practice “one’s own religion” a God-given right.
The proposed change therefore “conflicts with something we already see as a timeless truth,” said Metevier.
Ben Hornok, of Laramie County, voiced complete favor of Clifford’s motion.
“Lord knows we are not (a Christian nation or state), and that’s the problem,” said Hornok. “No other religion, other than the Christian faith, will change a heart, will change a life, will bring the moral principles we hope for in our nation.”
Troy Bray, of Park County, said the new language was a little redundant, but otherwise favorable because of how “short, sweet, to the point” it was.
‘God Never Forced Anyone'
Clifford addressed Metevier’s point.
Deeming both state and nation “Christian” entities wouldn’t mandate a faith on people, she said.
“So, I guess I don’t see it would be a conflict to put it under (the) religious freedom (header),” she added
Ty Etchemendy, of Converse County, said he struggled with the motion.
He spoke of its merits but also the simple act of, rather, “personally (sharing) my faith with someone.”
Sen. Cheri Steinmetz, R-Torrington, who represented the Goshen County GOP in the debate, said she also struggled with the motion and opposed it.
“Because we all love the Lord, but God never forced anyone like this. There was the tree of life, there was the tree of knowledge of good and evil in the garden,” she said, referring to account in Genesis in which God gave man a choice between life and evil, and man chose evil.
“He wants people to choose him, not for us to make the choice for them,” she said.
Clifford said one can be overt with her beliefs without forcing them on others, and the nation’s fate could come down to who wants more to decide it.
Many of the nation’s problems spring from a lack of morality, she said.
“I don’t necessarily see this as forcing people, putting people off,” said Clifford. “I think if we want to try to change things back to the way they were and have it be good, I think we just need to do it.”
An uncertain voice vote left Wyoming GOP Vice Chair Bob Ferguson in doubt, and he called for a show of hands.
Clifford’s motion failed.
‘Timeless Truths’
So did every other new plank to the state GOP platform proposed.
The committee killed planks rejecting “sanctuary” jurisdictions, declaring a need for secure borders and for elections to have no “federal takeover or interference” impairing them; and elevating human needs above those of artificial intelligence.
Ferguson indicated in a later interview with Cowboy State Daily that he was unsurprised they failed.
“The party platform is not supposed to deal with current issues,” he said.
Still, the full convention may, in accordance with its rules, bring platform changes to the floor Saturday.
The current platform lauds private property rights, gun rights, the right to life “from the moment of conception to the moment of natural death,” religious freedom, family values, heterosexual marriage, liberty from forced medical procedures, the free market, citizen government, the value of the U.S. Constitution and states’ rights — to name a few.
The Pater Familias
The First Republican Platform passed in 1856, in Philadelphia.
Among its many similarities to the Wyoming GOP platform of today were assertions of state rights, the equality of man under the law, and the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
The older platform, however, launched a recurring condemnation of hot-button practices from that era: “those twin relics of barbarism — Polygamy, and Slavery.”
It resented that “test oaths of an extraordinary and entangling nature have been imposed as a condition of exercising the right of suffrage and holding office.”
It railed against abridgments of the press and free speech. It demanded Kansas be admitted into the Union. It also called the slogan “might makes right” unworthy of American diplomacy and shameful.
It called for the federal government to build a railroad to the Pacific Ocean.
The 1857 platform concluded: “We invite the affiliation and cooperation of the men of all parties, however differing from us in other respects, in support of the principles herein declared; and believing that the spirit of our institutions as well as the Constitution of our country, guarantees liberty of conscience and equality of rights among citizens, we oppose all legislation impairing their security.”
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
