Image Credit: Minnesota House.
America's World Image is Suffering from the Current Religious Crusade
BBSNews Editorial 2007-01-04 -- Virgil Goode (R-VA-5th District), a religious extremist congressman masquerading as a guardian of American values yesterday penned a non-answer to his charge about a Muslim invasion due to immigration in USA Today, and time will tell if Republicans including president Bush will yet condemn this man as a fool and a bigot.
|
|
|
Keith Ellison, a Democrat from the Minnesota House of Representatives who recently became a United States Congressman in Minnesota.
Image Credit: Minnesota House. |
We won't hold our breath. The smear and fear party that the GOP has become shows no signs of waking up to facts and reality any time soon. Goode is still on his high-horse about Keith Ellison being a man of principle who will use the Quran as his holy book for his photo-op swearing in opportunity (using American Founding Father Thomas Jefferson's copy of the Quran no less) after the non-religious official version that requires no religious test. Goode claimed that "Judeo-Christian principles ... have made ... [the United States] a beacon for freedom-loving persons around the world" even as that claim is false shown clearly by John Nichols writing for the Nation who hit the notion squarely on its head:
History does not provide even a soft grounding for this fantasy. The Founders of the country were men and women of the Enlightenment who, while surely imperfect in their thoughts and deeds, wisely sought to burst the chains of what Thomas Jefferson referred to as "monkish ignorance and superstition." They revolted against the divine right of kings, rejected the construct of state-sponsored religion and wrote a Constitution that not only guaranteed freedom of religion but required that: "The Senators and Representatives...and all executive and judicial officers, both of the United States and of the several states, shall be bound by oath or affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States."
One reason people around the world flock to the shores of America is because of religious freedom, and for many, that means the freedom from any imposed religion; either by law or majority fear tactics. And yet with Virgil Goode, we see a throwback to the good ol' days of the American South where black folks knew their place, American indians were drunks and no accounts, and women were barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen where they belonged.
These people, Goode and his ilk, simply do not understand simple truths such as "in god we trust" did not even show up on paper currency in the United States until 1956, just 51 years ago, or on coinage until 1864 and that this god "motto" had been interrupted in American history from 1883 to 1938. The mid-1950's was a time in America where there were black and white water fountains, and lunch counters, and transportation, and where a black person marrying a white person was against the law in many American states. A close minded 'golden age' where bigots and narrow minded individuals wish they could live but can never be again. They should get over themselves and pause for a reality check...
As we said in an earlier story where Dennis Prager made a similar fool of himself, 'Dennis Prager Inspires Muslim Haters to Expose Themselves' that some really disturbed people seem to be coming out of the woodwork over Keith Ellison using the Quran in his ceremonial swearing in ceremony.
Another whacky person named Deborah Weiss writing for the pop-up intensive Web site Human Events claims:
"Were we to allow Ellison to swear on a text that states his oath does not have to be truthful because he is making it to infidels, or that his allegiance is to a Higher Authority than the Constitution and he does not have to respect our nation's laws to the degree they conflict with Sharia or the Koran, then his oath would not be equivalent to an oath taken on the Bible. To swear on a book that is in direct conflict with the purpose of our oath, renders the oath meaningless. The object of the oath matters."
It is because the founders knew there would be silly people like this who live in some sort of dream world of their own, that they posited the country should be run with a firm principle of freedom of religion and a strong foundation of separation between Church and State. We would take it a step further and say that American politics should take serious note of the rational free thinkers of the world who believe that governments should be non-religious. Consulting imaginary gods, and depending upon what source one uses there are from 4300 gods to millions of them, is an excercise in futility when considering issues such as social security and a huge budget deficit not to mention a war of choice and revenge waged by the current US administration...
Anne Nicol Gaylor from the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) got it right in the holiday display that was for the eleventh year in 2006 displayed in the Wisconsin state capitol:
"At this season of the Winter Solstice, may reason prevail.There are no gods, no devils, no angels, no heaven or hell.
There is only our natural world.
Religion is but myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds."
Mixing religion with the waging of war and the day to day governing of a free people is a fools errand. People like Virgil Goode and those that support him show that as an object lesson to all Americans and the world. To truly be free means to be free from coercion into even feigning a religious preference just to go along to get along.
And those that would force their views onto the country as Virgil Goode would should be sent packing during the next election cycle for the good of national security and the truly priceless American heritage that has been rent asunder by the current US administration.
Comments (0)