Some utterly forgettable candidate for some useless office used this phrase in an ad recently. It’s alliterative. It’s catchy. It’s pregnant with emotion. But what does it mean? I presume that if we don’t elect the candidate from the ad, then “faith and family” are somehow going to be imperiled. But how? How could electing this man/woman/cephalopod (I forget which) help protect faith and family?

“Faith” is belief in something that cannot be proved. Will The Other Guy make it illegal to believe in things that can’t be proved? Not a chance. The entire US Government runs on faith; it’s not about to outlaw itself.

I know plenty of self-described christians who would welcome the prohibition of Islam, so it can’t be the peril to faith in general they fear, it is only peril to the practice of a particular religion. My guess is that this message appeals primarily to evangelical christians. But what exactly is it they fear? Perhaps they fear that christianity will be outlawed. Although I suppose that is possible, I also know that christianity is one of those religions that tends to thrive under persecution. If that is the case, then anyone serious about the health of the christian faith should not fear such persecution. And conversely, any christian who fears his religion being outlawed is likely just a lousy christian.

The term “Family” is equally plastic. What do they mean when they say the family is under fire? Will The Other Guys make families illegal? No. Perhaps The Other Guys plan to pass laws allowing just anyone to get married. How the marriage of someone else actually imperils the family is beyond me, but I think we all know that “the family is under fire” is actually code for “we can’t let homosexuals marry!”

<Yawn>

I hate double standards. Christians waving their hands about their faith being under fire – when it isn’t – is just stupid. But so-called “christians” getting all frothy in the mouth because homosexuals want government-approved marriage is just plain hypocritical. I know that a lot of christians think that pleasing God is a matter of obeying a lot of rules, but they get their religion all wrong when they do that. Jesus Himself said that loving one another is the second greatest commandment, after loving God. These anti-gay so-called christians who love bombing Muslims on the other side of the world are anything but loving.

So what is it they fear? I have no idea. Do you?