It’s 2007 and our newly-elected democratic majority has hit the ground running and we’ve already had our first case of bigotry and intolerance from elected officials. That didn’t take long, even by our standards.
Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., has been elected as the first Muslim in Congress and was sworn in on the Quran. I’ll wait for my more devout Christian readers (which I’m sure exist in abundance) to exhale after that collective lung-popping gasp.
Virgil Goode, R-Va., claims “if American citizens don’t wake up and adopt the Virgil Goode position on immigration, there will likely be many more Muslims elected to office and demanding the use of the Quran.”
Ellison is an American citizen, so the immigration point is completely moot. The official swearing in of the representatives is done en masse, without a Bible, Quran, Cliff’s Notes or even a Post-It.
Who’s to say that placing one’s hand on a Bible is the moral shield preventing shifty, ethically ambiguous Congresscritters from entering public service?
Last time I checked, the Bible is one of the most violent, bloodthirsty books out there.
For example, in Numbers 31:1-54, Moses gets pissed because Israelite soldiers show mercy to Midianite women and children and instead instructs the soldiers to “kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him. But all the women and children, that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves.”
Ellison came back at Beck and the other nimrods at CNN, and he explained that “Osama bin Laden no more represents Islam than Timothy McVeigh represented Christianity,” and kudos to him for saying it.
In fact, there are quite a few cases of domestic terrorism perpetrated by Christian nutbars in our history books.
It seems few belief systems are safe from extremism, except maybe a few notables like Buddhism, Taoism and other several thousand year-old “New Age” belief systems where detonating thermite in an abortion clinic is still considered morally repugnant. I jest, sarcastically, of course.
Goode has since attempted to spin his completely off-base and meritless statements by turning it into a carefully deconstructed argument for the abolition of immigration.
“I believe that if we do not stop illegal immigration totally, reduce legal immigration and end diversity visas, we are leaving ourselves vulnerable to infiltration by those who want to mold the United States into the image of their religion, rather than working within the Judeo-Christian principles that have made us a beacon for freedom-loving persons around the world,” Goode stated in a recent letter.
I’d make a joke regarding hypocrisy, contradiction and illogic in the previous statement, but it makes me too angry.
Let me say it again: America is not a country founded on Judeo-Christian principles.
Instead, our founding fathers were rather fond of Christianity bashing. If you believe Thomas Jefferson, George Washington and others were devout, God-fearing Christians, you didn’t deserve that passing grade in your American history class.
And I’m sure the Keith Ellisons of the U.S., as well as people of all faiths, would like everyone to know that just because someone isn’t Christian doesn’t mean they don’t love freedom.
While one of our country’s mantras may be “In God We Trust,” here’s to an alternative: “In Goode We Most Certainly Do Not Trust,” which could serve as an example of how religious intolerance and ignorance tend to go hand in hand.
Originally printed in the Daily O’Collegian, January 9th, 2006
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