Excerpts From Our Exclusive Ron Paul Interview
By John Lofton
— God, the Bible and civil government. Paul agrees it is not the role of civil government, at any level — Federal, state or local — to feed, house, clothe or educate anybody and that this would also be un-Constitutional. He believes Scripture is God’s Word and thus inerrant and infallible. He says: “Defiance of God’s Law will eventually bring havoc to a society.” He believes our country came together by God’s Providence “just as, Providentially, it may end, by God’s Will.”
— Abortion. Yes, Paul thinks abortion is murder but there is a difference between taking a so-called “morning after pill” and a person committing “the horrible murder when you see someone lying in the floor and someone takes a gun and puts it to their head. I don’t equate those and don’t expect the law or juries to treat them exactly alike.” He says, however, he lacks the wisdom to say what the penalty ought to be for abortionists or those getting abortions.
Paul says he doesn’t know if he “accepts completely” that God has decreed the death penalty for murder though he believes all States have the right to impose capital punishment. He is “so skeptical” of the Federal Government’s judgment that he doesn’t like the idea of the Feds pretending they know whose life they are going to take.
Re: Impeaching judges who will not treat abortion as murder, Paul says there is “no consensus” for this so the chance of this happening is “slim-to-none.” He says he’s trying to reverse Roe v. Wade not by a Constitutional amendment or writing a new law but by “denying the jurisdiction to a Federal court to do what they done.” Thus, States could have laws against abortion without being reversed by Federal courts.
Paul says “we’ve been conditioned for 100 years to be zombie-like” in deferring to court rulings, that we’ve been “brain-washed through our public schools to believe this and to accept the notion that the Constitution has no meaning.”
— Homosexuality And The Military. Is homosexuality a sin? Paul says he’s “not as judgmental about that probably because of my medical background. I don’t see it in [such] simplistic terms. I think it’s a complex issue to think it’s a sin or other problems with the way people are born. It’s too complex to give an answer as simple as that [that homosexuality is a sin.]”
Does he believe God says homosexuality is a sin? “Well, I believe a lot of people understand it that way but I think everybody is God’s child, too, so, you know, I have trouble with that.” I point out that, Biblically-speaking, all human beings are made in God’s image but not all are God’s children; some people are children of the devil. For example, in John 8:44ff, Jesus tells some folks they believe He is not God because their father is the devil.
Re: Paul having said that President Clinton’s “don’t-ask-don’t-tell” policy concerning homosexuals in our military is “a decent policy” and that he, as President, would retain it, I ask him, why, instead, wouldn’t he have said something like this:
Unrepentant homosexuals and adulterers, and others in these kinds of categories, are not decent people, they are people with flawed characters. Therefore, to the extent humanly possible, as President, I would attempt to seek to bar such persons of poor and bad character from our military.
Paul says well, for every homosexual problem we have in our military we also have a heterosexual problem. I agree saying fine, so both types should be banned. I ask: why not try — as far as is humanly possible — to ban from our military all homosexuals, adulterers, fornicators? He says: “Well,…we’re all imperfect, we all sin. If the heterosexual or the homosexual sins, that to me is a category dealing with their own soul. Since we can’t have only perfect people go in the military, I want to separate the two because I don’t want to know the heterosexual flaws or the homosexual flaws….For the practicality of running a military, I’d just as soon not know every serious thing that any heterosexual did or any homosexual did. And those flaws have to do with all our flaws because each and every one of us have those imperfections and we all are sinners.”
I reply: “Well, we’re all sinners but some people do work harder at their sin than others. Some are repentant sinners fighting their sin; and others like unrepentant homosexuals are marching down Main Street saying that they are proud that they are homosexuals — these are not people who are merely sinners.”
I ask: If we both want people in our military of good moral character, how do we find out before they go in if they in fact are of good moral character? Isn’t it better to find this out before people are in our military?
Paul: “Well, I think it’s virtually impossible if you are looking for perfection in good moral character —”
Me: “I’m not” [looking for perfection.]
Paul: “Maybe you’re looking for perfection — you have to define good moral character —”
Me: “Sure.”
Paul: “And that means people don’t lie, cheat, steal, murder, they don’t beat their wives, and they’ve taken care of their kids.”
Me: “OK.”
Paul: “And so if you can find people like that then you know they may not be perfect but they would be of moral character that could be in our military.”
I tell him I believe God will not bless any military that’s full of unrepentant homosexuals, adulterers and fornicators. He does not reply to this observation.
— The Draft. Re: the possibility of a draft, Paul says his son just got a notice about his 14-year-old child saying that the “No Child Left Behind” law (pushed through Congress by President Bush and Sen. Edward Kennedy) requires that this child is to be notified and sign or not sign up for Selective Service at the age of 14.
— Other Issues. In our interview, Paul also discusses: Why he stays in the Republican Party; allegations he’s voted for so-called “ear-marks,” pork barrel projects for his district; the possibility of President Bush being impeached; and illegal immigration.
