No Lack of Issues at Demo Convention: Morality, Pro-Choice, Gay Rights, Christian Radio
(AgapePress) – The Democratic Party has been involved in a flap surrounding the fundraiser that was scheduled at the Playboy Mansion during the party’s national convention in Los Angeles this week. The fundraiser has since been moved to another location, but now a prominent newscaster is calling morality a “frightening” thing.
The fundraiser at Hugh Hefner’s Playboy Mansion was moved because it conveyed the wrong message to working families across the nation, according to Joe Andrew, Chairman of the Democratic National Committee. But CBS commentator Bryant Gumbel recently interviewed Hefner and asked this question:
“Do you think the Gore preoccupation with morality is a frightening turn for the party?”
Gumbel said later in another interview that the Gore-Lieberman ticket’s centering of itself around family values frightens a lot of people because the term “family values” is a code word for exclusion and censorship.
In other issues surrounding the Democratic National Convention, pro-abortion advocates there are hammering away at one issue this week: the preservation of legal abortion. While pro-lifers are often characterized by the media as being one-dimensional when it comes to political issues, every pro-choice advocate has urged voters to decide this election on that one issue.
Kate Michaelman of the National Abortion Rights Action League puts it this way:
“I say no matter what your party, no matter your politics–if you are pro-choice, then vote your values. Vote our freedoms. Vote pro-choice.”
Michaelman says that means voting for Al Gore and Joe Lieberman. Pro-choicers are telling the delegates that if they do not vote for choice, there will be no choice.
Along with the pro-choice advocates, homosexuals received a lot of attention at the convention on Wednesday. During his speech last night, Lieberman promised to “tear down the walls of discrimination” for minority groups–including homosexuals. Earlier in the day, he received a standing ovation when he told a group of homosexual supporters about his opposition to Bill Clinton’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy in the military. Lieberman also declared his support for stronger hate-crimes legislation.
Meanwhile, religious broadcasters are expressing concern with a piece of the Democratic Party platform which calls for a return to the “fairness doctrine.” That policy, which was struck down by the Reagan Administration in 1987, would force broadcasters to air opposing views.
Dr. Don Wildmon heads the American Family Radio network. He gives an example of what that could mean for Christian stations.
“Let’s suppose that American Family Radio had a program in which we discuss homosexuality, and we told the truth–we called it a sin,” Wildmon says. “[Under the fairness doctrine] the most radical homosexual group could demand–and AFR would be forced to give [them]–time on the radio…to give their perspective.”
Brandt Gustavson is President of the National Religious Broadcasters organization. He echoes Wildmon’s concerns, saying the fairness doctrine could even curtail the presentation of the Gospel on Christian stations.