I'm confused about the American Republican party

[kandrathe]

It's just really confusing as an outsider looking at the Republican party saying "Freedom for everyone! Constitutional rights rule!" while also saying "Gays want to marry? We better make that against the law, because the Christian Bible says so."

And, this is where I agree with you. The answer is that both Republicans and Democrats are split into factions (all under a big bloody tent).

Within the Republicans, there are at least three clear groups. There is a faction that are mostly evangelicals (religious i.e. see Bob Jones III), and want to use government to enforce their world view on others, or at least use their influence to keep the government from changing the status quo (such as in broadening marriage to include same sex couples, decriminalizing drug use, opening liquor stores on Sunday) . There is another faction that are more strongly libertarian, and see the governments true role as defending people, and not in providing/caretaking for people (e.g. Ron Paul). Then there are the Neocons (e.g. George Bush kinder gentler nation), who are in favor of social democratic domestic policies, and strong interventionist foreign policy.

Within the Democrats, you have traditional conservative blue collar labor, the progressives (e.g. Clinton, Obama, who often overlap with Neocons in domestic and foreign policy), a more communist/socialist group, the environmentalists (Naderists), and a myriad of single issue fringe.

Since we have the two party system, everyone chooses either red or blue. If we had a multiparty system you'd see at least six to eight different strong political parties, and dozens of small fringe ones.