'Come to Jesus' Moment for GOP. (by Wayne Besen)
Will Republicans purge their own gay members?

The story line:
IN 1995, I ARRIVED IN Washington as a fresh-faced and doe-eyed 25-year-old. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do for a living, but I thought working on Capitol Hill might be interesting and the big buildings looked kind of cool.
Although I had just served as a press secretary in a U.S. Senate primary, I wasn’t a political junkie and all I really knew was that Democrats were the pro-gay "good guys" and Republicans were the anti-gay "bad guys."
For days, I scurried down the long corridors of the ornate and musty congressional offices to drop off resumes. While I was ultimately unsuccessful in attracting a job offer, I did manage to attract furtive glances from many staffers on the Hill—particularly from well-scrubbed Republicans. If there had been steam coming out of some of those Republican offices, I would have sworn I was in a bathhouse. Wasn’t the GOP supposed to be the party that loathed gay men and lesbians?
This bizarre dynamic was simply too mind-boggling for a political neophyte like me to comprehend. I chalked it up to one of life’s great unknowable mysteries, such as "Does God exist?" or "Why do straight women think Fabio is hot?"
Eleven years later, I must admit, I still don’t get it. How can people go home with a same-sex partner at night and then show up at work the next morning to denounce gay men and lesbians?
I must stress, however, that many Republican office holders are pro-gay and there are many honorable Republican activists, such as former Log Cabin leader Patrick Guerriero, but they tend to be in the minority in their party.
WHEN I QUESTIONED gay republicans, they would often scoff and say the Republican Party is tolerant. As proof, they would point to the offices where they worked and proclaim that they were gay-friendly environments. The Mark Foley scandal, as it turns out, proves they weren’t lying. The Republican elite in Washington loves gay people as long as they don’t broadcast their sexual orientation.
Read: "Don’t let the yahoos on the prairie know you’re a fairy or they will stay home on Election Day and we won’t get our tax cuts and promotions."
On a recent airing of "The Chris Matthews Show," commentator Tucker Carlson revealed that educated and wealthy Washington Republicans can’t stomach the religious fanatics.
"The deep truth is that the elites in the Republican Party have pure contempt for the evangelicals who put their party in power," Carlson said.
"Everybody in our world has contempt for the evangelicals. And the evangelicals know that, and they’re beginning to learn that their own leaders sort of look askance at them and don’t share their values ... It’s pandering to the base in the most cynical way, and the base is beginning to figure it out."
A combustible new book, "Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Political Seduction," by former faith-based initiative honcho David Kuo, asserts that top GOP strategists privately called evangelical leaders "nuts" and "goofy."
IT IS EASY TO SYMPATHIZE with evangelicals. For more than two decades, they had admirably outworked every other group in America to win offices. In the process, the GOP became part of the conservative evangelical religion.
This is why it must be incredibly painful to find that national party leaders are more likely to play show tunes than gospel hymns once safely ensconced in the Beltway. Indeed, gay activist Mike Rogers has outed so many hypocrites that it now seems more newsworthy if he reveals a Republican is actually heterosexual.
If you are having trouble understanding the betrayal felt by Christian conservatives, look at it from a different perspective. Imagine how you would feel if you came to find that Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) had offices filled with homophobic, apocalyptic Christians waiting for the end times?
Incensed by the duplicity, the Traditional Values Coalition’s Lou Sheldon has called for a "Come to Jesus Meeting" between the GOP elite and their conservative base. It is clear the Republican Party is in the midst of a major identity crisis and there is no turning back. At the meeting, Republicans will be forced to either abandon the goofy nut jobs or reluctantly agree to crucify gays.
Sorry if I don’t shed a tear, but gay conservatives may be getting exactly what they deserve. They have helped elevate the very puritans that may now purge them. It was a good ride while it lasted, but the party is over. The only regret is that the halls of Congress won’t be quite as much fun to cruise once they’re gone. (Wayne Besen)

For my two-cent worth, Republicans and evangelicals always try to be seen as a "sync-up" party to lure voters into their conservative "moral value" but behind the scene, they just simply use each other to advance their power grip and hidden agenda respectively. And when the pitiful fact was revealed, the betrayal hurt soaked in, and the sour taste was no longer swalloable, the break-up was unavoidable. The result of this Mid-term election, as we all know now, solidified that fact.
Let it be the day when evangelicals have to admit that homosexual exists and there is nothing they can do but to soften its view on this fact as part of God's given life.
And let it be the day when Republicans realize that they should not go too far to the right; they can't ride along with evangelicals' hidden agenda as long as they, the Republicans themselves, are also susceptible, contaminable, and communicable with this so-called "homo-lifestyle".
The election result speaks loudly and clearly. The Dems did not need to win this battle. The break-up, the fight, the discrepancy, and the hypocracy among republicans and evangelicals apparently was what woke up American voters.
No need to point out how many sex scandles in high-profile pastors, priests, reverands, and Republicans alike. This article summed up pretty dawn well that hypocracy; And as long as they, the right-wingers and evangelical extremists, can't identify themselves and resolve that hypocracy, American voters, sooner or later, would do that job for them. That past midterm election result was an example.
As Mr. Besen pointed out, the GOP has two choices, "Republicans will be forced to either abandon the goofy nut jobs or reluctantly agree to crucify gays." If the GOP abandons its goofy evangelical nut jobs - in which I doubt it - the extrimist evangelical fanatics would loose a major grip of power to exapand their evangelical hidden agenda. If the GOP publicly agrees to crucify gays, it only encourages future politicians (gays and gay-friendly alike) side with Democrats which is not a good GOP's policy either. The Military has been loosing thousands of linguishtic experts simply due to its tough stand on the "don't ask dont' tell" policy, why? because substantial amount of these linguishtic experts happen to be...gay. Now that says a lot as why the GOP needs such a "homo-lifestyle" to run their business.
That being said, just because the GOP is struggling with its identity crisis, the evangelicals are not neccessarily off the hook either. There is no need to point out how many sex scandles, abuses, and cover-ups in high-profile pastors, priests, reverands, across the country.
One is not sure how long the two, Republicans and evangelicals, would be estrange in this ideology battle but at least they can ride along with each other in one common issue: identity crisis. Either they continue to stubornly denies the existence of homosexuality, crucify every single gay and lesbian pastors, priests, reverands, and Republicans alike or change their way of seeing things and accepting homosexuals as part of life-101 lesson. Otherwise, such hypocrites continue to exist in "homo" Republicans and evengelicals alike as we are seeing across the country.
Now that answers Mr. Besen's questions,
"...How can people go home with a same-sex partner at night and then show up at work the next morning to denounce gay men and lesbians?" (Wayne Besen)
One needs not to be a Christian to fully understand what it means to be an open heart to accept all forms and shapes of human mankinds. "God made me for a reason, and nothing is in vain. Redemption comes in many shapes and many kinds of pain.", Dolly Parton once sang in her song "Travelin' Thru".
Only when Republicans and evangelicals put themselves in the shoes of those "homo-lifestyle" and humbly admit that they are "just a weary pilgrim. Trying to find what feels like home", they would find peace and stop hating themselves. (Duc Luu)