We Republicans have long claimed, captured and cherished the notion of “family values” as our own.  It is a term which tends to be simultaneously vague and yet deeply meaningful to many.  It is a term that we have politicized so much that it is now largely marginalized and devoid of its original meaning.

The “family values” of today would apparently embrace the election of Roy Moore to the U.S. Senate – the Roy Moore who not only was twice removed as Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court for thumbing his nose at the Constitution, but who also is credibly accused of having sexually molested children.

How can such a thing be?  It began decades ago, as the Republican Party and conservative Christianity (along with its “family values”) effectively married one another, a nuptial ostensibly based on their common concern over the painful issue of abortion. Sadly, the marriage of convenience has produced seriously defective offspring.  The couple started out their time together committed to power politics, largely abandoning concerns for the hearts and minds of the people, and caring less about the plight of the pregnant woman or the child born in poverty. The result? Both lost their moral authority, and more people in this country are now “pro-choice” than ever before.

Yet another still-born child of this wedded “bliss” is the tentacle of political expediency which has strangled the wedding partner, taking American Christianity not only to the point of impotence but also significantly gutting it of its former substance and glory.

As if all this weren’t bad enough, now we have the black pot calling the black kettle white.  Trump himself has admitted to being a sexual predator.  That enough should have been a disqualification for any office, much less the presidency.

As a former Republican officeholder, former judge and current candidate for a Republican U.S. House seat, I nonetheless respect Democrat Sen. Al Franken, who confessed, apologized, asked for a full ethics inquiry into his behavior, and now has resigned. By contrast, Trump’s and Moore’s denials continue, and in Trump’s recent endorsement of Moore, Trump explicitly counts political expediency as a more significant value than moral character. The two of them had better hope that no one remembers’ MLK’s noble goal that men and women be judged only by “the content of their character.”  Doing right has high value, and sometimes it requires letting the chips fall where they may.

I am a Republican, but I am ashamed of my party’s spinelessness in failing to speak out unequivocally and boldly against reprehensible and immoral conduct.  I am also a Christian, and believe that Christendom itself should promptly ask for a certificate of divorce from the so-called Republican Party of today, and indeed from politics itself.