Democrats have officially abandoned ‘God’

OPINION:

One of the most flummoxing and embarrassing moments in modern politics unfolded at the 2012 Democratic National Convention after God was axed from the party platform.

At the time, President Barack Obama was alarmed that his fellow Democrats adopted an official platform that removed any mention of “God.” He asked why the Almighty was taken out and requested that the Lord be placed back into the text.

Republican leaders — who had mentioned God 12 times in their own 2012 platform — seized upon the Democrats’ blunder, criticizing not only the removal but also the decision to yank support for Jerusalem being designated the capital of Israel. 

With criticism and furor snowballing, Democrats scrambled to change course on their platform. Through a cacophony of chaos on the second day of the 2012 Democratic National Convention, convention chairman Antonio Villaraigosa held a voice vote.

The intent? To act on Mr. Obama’s wishes to add “God” and Jerusalem back into the platform. To call the resulting procession a debacle is an understatement. 

Voice votes require a two-thirds majority to be adopted. Mr. Villaraigosa called the vote three times. But when he attempted to assess opinions on reinserting “God” into the text, it was not clear if the “ayes” had truly overrun the “nos.” 

Still, Mr. Villaraigosa pressed forward as though they had and was promptly booed. It was an awkward moment for a major political party flirting with the idea of deserting God. Regardless of the boos and antics, the Almighty and Jerusalem were indeed slipped back into the text, and the nightmarish embarrassment was eventually forgotten.

Fast forward 12 years, and it appears the Democrats are finally prepared to abandon God once and for all, with the draft of the 2024 Democratic Party Platform offering no mentions of “God,” “Lord” or “Almighty.” 

Of course, it’s possible that Vice President Kamala Harris’ ungainly replacement of President Biden — a man who has touted his Catholic faith yet seemingly didn’t demand “God” be mentioned — could lead to amendments to the final platform, though that remains to be seen. 

Ms. Harris, too, has talked about faith, though, as is often the case with these politicians, that influence often doesn’t translate to policy.

Perhaps the latest banishment of God from the Democratic blueprint should come as no surprise, as American culture and the progressive megaplex are increasingly focusing on the whims of the self. As I’ve stated before, up is down and down is up on several moral, social and structural matters such as abortion and the transgender obsession.

Just consider what did make its way into the Democrats’ proposed platform. While God gets no mention, Donald Trump is shockingly referred to more than 150 times in the 80-page treatise. 

The proposed platform unsurprisingly dives deep into “reproductive freedom,” with excessive content aimed at highlighting the Biden-Harris administration’s efforts to protect abortion access. 

Pregnancy termination has become an obsessive inflection point for the Democratic Party, taking on a sacramental position in progressives’ mantras and priority lists.

“If he returns to the White House, Trump will ban abortion nationwide,” the platform warns, despite Mr. Trump’s continued attempts to downplay the issue and his public claims he simply wants to allow states to decide how to handle abortion in the post-Roe era.

The document also speaks extensively about LGBTQ issues, pledging to advance the Equality Act, despite many Americans’ fears it will restrict religious liberties and punish Christians for living their faith. 

Anyone paying attention to the cultural and political winds over the past 15 years shouldn’t be surprised by the Democrats’ official abandoning of God. The obsessive focus on the impulses and vagaries of the human heart over the eternal has led us to this point, with many signposts along the way,

In 2019, the Democratic National Committee openly acknowledged that “religious unaffiliated” Americans are now the largest religious group within the liberal ranks. But that’s not all. The DNC unanimously passed a resolution at the time proclaiming, in part, that “religiously unaffiliated Americans overwhelmingly share the Democratic Party’s values.”

Atheist leaders praised Democrats at the time, with the resolution also taking aim at how religious liberty interferes with progressive ideals.

“Those most loudly claiming that morals, values and patriotism must be defined by their particular religious views have used those religious views, with misplaced claims of ‘religious liberty,’ to justify public policy that has threatened the civil rights and liberties of many Americans, including but not limited to the LGBT community, women, and ethnic and religious/nonreligious minorities,” the resolution continued.

The resolution and the platform’s official removal of God should raise eyebrows among faithful Americans of all political stripes who care about religious values and the ability of faithful citizens to live out their beliefs in the public square.

Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee, warned in the wake of the kerfuffle over the first removal of “God” that the Democratic Party was headed on a perilous path.

“I think their having removed purposefully ’God’ from their platform suggests a party that is increasingly out of touch with the mainstream of American people,” Mr. Romney said at the time. “I think this party is veering further and further away into an extreme wing that Americans don’t recognize.”

Sadly, culture has continued to worship the self at the expense of the Almighty, so the Democrats’ shift might just be par for the course. The Republican Party also pared down its platform, with “God” making only two appearances in it, a decrease from the past. 

At a time when our nation and world face unprecedented struggles, the move away from God is deeply troubling. With attention being turned away from humans’ accountability to a higher power, we must hope and pray that faith remains an important and respected centerpiece of American freedom.

• Billy Hallowell is a digital TV host and interviewer for Faithwire and CBN News and the co-host of CBN’s “Quick Start Podcast.” He is the author of four books.