According to our source at the Constitution Party Convention, the CP Platform Committee has voted to retain the controversial preamble language that mentions Jesus Christ specifically. The debate was reportedly contentious. The final vote was 35 to 23.
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Each state is only allowed 3 delegates to be on the platform committee. And not every state is organized or came to the convention.
Since the proposed change was defeated in the platform committee, it was reintroduced in the convention. The final results (according to our records) was 64 voted NO for the purposed change and 46 voted YES so it was defeated.
The total amount of delegates Friday/Saturday was 126 from 35 states.
These results reflect only the vote cast by members of the platform commitee, not by the convention.
The wording to the preamble was changed in 2000, not 2008. That was an interesting debate/vote.
It was just the Platform Committee that had 58 members. Im hearing more than 100 members. I’ll try to get numbers for the whole convention on Sat.
Red in post #2: I agree with you. I struggle with it myself. I do not want to do anything that would make others think I am ashamed to be identified with Christ and wish to acknowledge His superiority and blessings, but on the other hand the party is attaching themselves to Him, thus raising the level of accountability to which they must answer for their conduct. A possible compromise would be to move paragraph 3 and 4 (with some edits, see below) to the top of the Preamble and move 1 and 2 under that. I hope people do not see that as diminishing Christ but as a way to word the preamble such that those who read it, whether agnostic, Hindu, or Muslim, etc., know that first and foremost the party is to uphold the Constitution and defend religious liberty for all. THEN it can go on to say we “Acknowledge…..” It may also make sense to change “jurisprudence to its Biblical foundations” to” jurisprudence to its roots in British common law which was rooted in the Holy Scriptures”. I’m sure this debate will continue and I am open if people have a valid point that is opposite of mine. I wish to word it such that readers can know that all are welcome yet we know from Whom our blessings our derived.
“Did they reword any of it or kept it entirely intact?”
IDK Cody. I didn’t get that detailed of a report.
Jim@3, the preamble remained the same in 2008.
“Are there really only 58 Delegates to the CP National Convention?”
“Only 58 delegates? Wow, the CP is small.”
No no. That is the number that voted in the Plaform Committee.
Richard, by “much higher” do you mean still fewer than 100? That would be impressive.
Only 58 delegates? Wow, the CP is small.
The number of delegates will probably be much higher tomorrow or the next day. Typically national conventions don’t have that good an attendance that early on.
Is there a live feed of the convention somewhere?
Did they reword any of it or kept it entirely intact?
Are there really only 58 Delegates to the CP National Convention?
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I thought they just changed it from God to Jesus Christ in 2008.
I suspect that if the language was introduced today, it might not pass. Not that CP people are hostile to acknowledging Jesus, just that it might be considered unneccessary or ill advised. The language dates to a time when Christian Reconstructionist forces were flexing their muscle inside the party.
Now, however, since the language is already there it has inertial support because people think removing it would signal retreat/defeat, and those who favor removing it are seen as trouble makers and/or faithless.
It’s singehandedly the one piece of information that draws the most people to the party and drives the most people away.