The Party Platforms: Instructive Guides to Informed Voting - Part 2

Every year (beginning in 1988) the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission has published a comparison of the two major party platforms to assist Southern Baptists and other people of faith as they seek guidance in the decision for whom to cast their ballots in the presidential election.

This Party Platform Comparison Resource has been one of our most popular resources among rank-and-file church members. Hundreds of thousands of copies have been distributed or downloaded during the presidential elections over the past 20 years.

Instead of seeking to provide an analysis of the two major parties' positions, the ERLC prints the two parties' own statements of their positions on the various issues within our purview as the moral concerns and public policy entity of Southern Baptists. People can then decide for themselves, after comparing the two party platforms side by side, which one more accurately reflects their values.

For example, the Democratic Party platform includes the following statement on "Same-Sex Marriage":

"We support the full inclusion of all families, including same-sex couples, in the life of our nation, and support equal responsibility, benefits, and protections. We will enact a comprehensive bipartisan employment non-discrimination act. We oppose the Defense of Marriage Act and all attempts to use this issue to divide us."

Conversely, the Republican Party platform includes the following statement on the same issue:

"Because our children's future is best preserved within the traditional understanding of marriage, we call for a constitutional amendment that fully protects marriage as a union of a man and a woman, so that judges cannot make other arrangements equivalent to it. In the absence of a national amendment, we support the right of the people of the various states to affirm traditional marriage through state initiatives.

"...We also urge Congress to use its Article III, Section 2 power to prevent activist federal judges from imposing upon the rest of the nation the judicial activism in Massachusetts and California."

Compared side by side, the contrast between the two parties on "same-sex marriage" is clear--"Waterford" crystal clear.

Each voter can then make an informed choice based on which platform more accurately reflects their values and convictions.