Tulsa Republicans: We've Got God

It's too bad that we missed the Tulsa County Republican Convention on Saturday. Based on the report in the Tulsa World, it was a very interesting meeting—part political rally, part tent-revival service.

Besides the usual calls for less government regulation, repeal of the income tax, and other such political proposals, local GOP officials apparently took a detour through Sunday school. World reporter Randy Krehbiel noted that the conventioneers approved a statement of principle that, in the words of the statement, "fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge."

The wise, God-fearing Republican leaders also supported the teaching of creationism, as well as the posting of the Ten Commandments and "In God We Trust" in all public schools. Finally, the Tulsa Grand Ole Party expressed support (as if we had any doubt) for Judeo-Christian values, "while maintaining freedom of religion for the individual."

There's a lot to ponder in this list of pro-God resolutions. And frankly, we're jealous. We thought we could be pro-God too. Yet the Republicans seem to have God squarely in their corner. They have no doubts. They know full well, for example, that God rejects modern biological science, no matter what the biologists say. They know, too, that school children will never misbehave or cheat on math tests again if God's Word is tacked on the schoolhouse wall. (If only God worked this way!)

And though we see no actual evidence of God's preference for the GOP, we suppose it's possible that God really is a Republican. We just don't know which kind of Republican God really is: A born-again evangelical Republican like Pat Robertson or James Dobson? A Mormon Republican like Mit Romney? A Catholic Republican like Rudolph Giuliani? A Methodist Republican like George W. Bush?

We like to think that God is above partisan politics. And that God might be somehow available to Oklahoma Democrats, independents, libertarians and other back-sliders who don't follow the official gospel of the Tulsa GOP. But then again, we could be wrong.