Dear federal/state elected official,

This letter is from the "This Is What I Believe Project".  (http://www.thisiswhatibelieve.com/ )

It is simple and straight forward. This is to be a reminder of what your job is as an elected official in our American government.

You were elected by the people in your state, your constituents. You were elected by them to represent them in government, placing their beliefs, values and concerns before others. You were elected to be their voice.

Today, there is no way you or any other can claim that the elected body as a whole is representing the people who placed them there. All you need to do is turn on the news. Over the last few decades, the rights of the majority of Americans have been eroded away in legislation and in the courts. This trickle of events started slowly but has become a cascading torrent eroding away the foundations of America.

This letter, which is signed by your constituents, is a reminder of what we the majority of Americans hold to be our traditional values. We expect you to take this to heart, and understand that the people will only be pushed so far.

• Stand up for our values.
• Represent us, the people, the majority.
• Morality does matter. Good and Evil are both real.

Our Traditional Values are a moral code and behavior based upon the Old and New Testaments. We believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that the Lord has given us a rule book to live by: The Bible. We are committed to living, as far as it is possible, by the moral precepts taught by Jesus Christ and by the whole counsel of God as revealed in the Bible.

As an outgrowth of our commitment to the Bible, we believe the following:

• Right To Life: We believe that every human deserves the right to life—from conception to death—and that we do not have the right to kill unborn children nor to murder the elderly through active euthanasia. We do, however, support the death penalty. The Bible is clear that the government has the responsibility to provide for peace and security for its people. We also believe the government has the power to take the lives of those who murder others and to wage war against our enemies.
  
  
• Fidelity In Marriage And Abstinence Before Marriage: Based upon biblical principles, we believe that marriage is to be a lifelong commitment. We also believe that fidelity in marriage is essential. We also believe that teenagers and young adults should be taught to abstain from sexual contact until after they are married. The epidemic of sexually transmitted diseases running rampant in our culture is evidence of the failure of the sex education movement. Violating God's principles on chastity has dire consequences. We support the God-ordained institution of the family, which is a union of a man and woman, with or without children—and is based upon marriage, blood, or adoption.
  
  
• Homosexuality, Bi-Sexuality, Transgenderism, And Other Deviant Sexual Behaviors: The Bible clearly condemns all sexual behaviors outside of marriage between one man and one woman. Homosexual behavior is explicitly condemned in both the Old and New Testaments as an abomination and a violation of God's standards for sexuality. We oppose the normalization of sodomy as well as cross-dressing and other deviant sexual behaviors in our culture.
  
  
• Pornography: The spread of pornography in our culture is a threat to the stability of families and frequently results in family break down, child molestations, and spousal abuse. We oppose this threat because it destroys families and it destroys the person who has become addicted to it. Pornography is a progressive addiction that ruins the conscience of the person. Frequently, this person acts out his sexual fantasies by molesting children, raping girls, and committing other sexual crimes—including murder.
  
  
• Patriotism, Loyalty To Country, And Political Involvement: We believe that we are to be good citizens. This means we are loyal to our nation (not blind loyalty, however); we are to support our Armed Forces, law enforcement officials, and we should participate in the political process. We live in a free country but we will not remain free if we do not exercise our rights as citizens.
  
  We believe in the principles outlined in our Declaration of Independence, our Constitution, and the writings of our Founding Fathers. We support free enterprise, limited government, low taxes, and personal responsibility. We believe in self government, not self indulgence. We do not believe that the federal government should extend its power over every aspect of our lives. The best government is the one that governs the least.
  
  
• Religious Freedom: We are advocates of religious freedom. We believe the First Amendment to our Constitution gives all of us the right to freely exercise our religious faith and that religious faith is the cornerstone of freedom in this nation. Our Founding Fathers supported religion, purchased Bibles, established congressional chaplains, and sent missionaries to witness to the Indians. They enacted the First Amendment to protect religious freedom, not to stifle it. We are opposed to any movement in this country that will strip away our constitutional rights to freedom of religion, speech, and association.
  
  
• Addictive Behaviors: We are opposed to the spread of legalized gambling in our society because this behavior frequently leads to addictions, the destruction of families, and the abuse of children. We oppose the legalization of addictive drugs and support strong law enforcement efforts against this societal scourge. We believe it is self-destructive and destructive of our culture, for individuals to become addicted to such behaviors as gambling, alcohol, smoking, pornography, or the use of drugs.
  
  
• Discrimination And Tolerance: We are not tolerant of behaviors that destroy individuals, families, and our culture. Individuals may be free to pursue such behaviors as sodomy, but we will not and cannot tolerate these behaviors. They frequently lead to death. We do not believe it is loving to permit someone to kill themselves by engaging in a self-destructive behavior. We believe in "discrimination" in the good sense: choosing between good and evil, right and wrong, the better and the best. We believe in discrimination in the sense of being discerning between good and bad choices. Popular culture maintains that all forms of discrimination are wrong. This is incorrect. A person with "discriminating taste" is one who uses wisdom in making choices. In short, we believe in intolerance to those things that are evil; and we believe that we should discriminate against those behaviors which are dangerous to individuals and to society.  
  
  
• Love And Hate: The Bible teaches us that we are to love our enemies and do good to those who persecute us. We believe it is a loving response to oppose behaviors that destroy individuals and families. It is not loving to allow someone to kill themselves or other individuals. It is not "hate" to fight against such cultural forces as pornography, drugs, abortion, and sodomy.
  

The Summing Up: Our Traditional Values are based upon biblical foundations and upon the principles outlined in the Declaration of Independence, our Constitution, the writings of the Founding Fathers, and upon the writings of great political and Christian thinkers throughout the ages.

President George Washington, in his Farewell Address in 1796, said that popular government cannot exist without morality—and morality based upon biblical principles. In effect, he defined traditional values in these words:

Of all the dispositions and habits, which lead to political prosperity, Religion and morality are indispensable supports….And let us with caution indulge the supposition, that morality can be maintained without religion. – Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure—reason and experience both forbid us to expect, that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.

In short, Bible-based traditional values are what created and what have preserved our nation. We will lose our freedoms if we reject these values.

Signed,