So Rand Paul is giving up entirely any notion that he is a libertarian or has libertarians everywhere, if they are to have any credibility, must publicly condemn and disown him.
“The First Amendment says keep government out of religion, not religion out of government.” — Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), quoted by David Brody, speaking at a private prayer breakfast in Washington, DC. Uh, no Rand, that is not what the First Amendment says. It says, with regards to religion, the following:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof[.]
So yes, the Amendment says keep government out of religion, in that it prohibits any law interfering with the free exercise of religion. But Rand skips over the first part of the Amendment, that saying prohibiting any law respecting an establishment of religion. That means religion must stay out of government. No national religion. No law compelling people to attend religious services (attention Arizona). No law allowing people to use religion as a reason to discriminate (attention Indiana and Arkansas). Perhaps radical Christian Conservative Rand Paul means there is no law against mixing religion and politics. That’s true.
And then theocrat Rand says the US needs a religious reawakening, and the lack of religion led to Gay Marriage (the horror):
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) on Thursday told a group of pastors and religious leaders that the debate over gay marriage was a symptom of a “moral crisis” in America and said he hoped for “another Great Awakening.” […]
“In fact, the moral crisis we have in our country — there is a role for us trying to figure out things like marriage — there’s also a moral crisis that allows people to think that there would be some sort of other marriage.” Paul said earlier this month that allowing gay marriage “offends myself and a lot of people.” He said he would prefer that homosexuals had an alternative “contract” that gave them “equivalency before the law,” while preventing same sex nuptials.
“I’ve said this before, we need a revival in the country,” Paul said on Thursday, as several in the room murmured in approval.
“We need another Great Awakening with tent revivals of thousands of people saying, ‘reform or see what’s going to happen if we don’t reform,'” he said.
Republicans should embrace social libertarians. Rand Paul is not.