By Scott Tibbs, September 2, 2015
There are a great many important brick-and-mortar issues to face in city and county government, yet the front pages of the Herald-Times and Indiana Daily Student were dominated by culture war issues on August 26 after the county council's work session the night before. Some people may ask, why are these Christians fighting a culture war? The answer: We are not. The culture war is being waged against us.
I would have preferred to not be bothered to attend a county council work session last Tuesday. I would have rather gone home to be with my two sons. But I knew it was important to be there and speak in opposition to what they were doing - both the Planned Parenthood funding and the dishonest, cowardly, underhanded and dishonorable attempt to fast track the vote to sneak it through before the public could get mobilized. That failed of course, as dozens of people turned out to rebuke the council.
This controversy and rancor could have been avoided had the county council (or the city council, two months before that) stayed out of the culture wars. They knew how much opposition there is to funding Planned Parenthood. The councilors could have easily decided that the Futures Family Planning Clinic can provide contraception instead. They could have taken a neutral position - neither supporting nor attacking Planned Parenthood. By staying out of the abortion debate, the council could have moved on with the work of supporting social service agencies in helping the poor. They could not do that. The Democrats had to charge into the culture war.
This farce needs to end. The Democrats have turned what should be a simple matter of helping social service agencies help the poor into a divisive political fight twice a year. The Democrats' alleged "concern" for helping the poor is overshadowed by the desire to make a pro-abortion political statement. The fact that the Democrats on the county council completely ignored all citizen opposition makes it even more obscene. This nonsense needs to stop.
