Slippery Slope: The Unification of Church & State
Republican Representative Virgil H. Goode Jr., of Virginia, is outraged at the election of the first Muslim congressperson to the House of Representatives. Apparently, Mr. Goode believes that Mr. Ellison (first Muslim congressperson in question) poses a "serious threat to the nation's traditional values". The thing that is really grating on Mr. Goode (gotta love that name btw!)is that, get this, Mr. Ellison want to use the Koran in his swearing in ceremony.
Something that I find extremely tricky, is reconciling America's "traditional values" of freedom, independence, the individual, and seperation of church and state narrative, with stuff like Congressman Goode's caring who uses what in their swearing in ceremony and "calling on Americans to wake up" or else there would "likely be many more Muslims elected to office and demanding the use of the Koran."... I mean, wouldn't you just be embarassed to say those things in a life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness and whatnot, society?
posted by JJ @ 12:11 PM
9 comments
9 Comments:
The Koran has been used by other people before this Congressman - I saw this story yesterday and was stunned at the obvious Muslim-baiting this guy was showing... and again, trying to play on the "fear" of Americans for political points.
As JJ's Dem political operative friend, scott t and JJ are totally right about the lack of separation of church and state in US politics.
I did want give you all more context on this deal. Members of Congress in the House are all sworn together on the floor and they simply pledge an oath to their office and the constitution. There is no religious text present. There is an individual photo op that US House members get with the Speaker, it is essentially a made-up swearing in to allow House members to have that picture. At this photo-op, individual members can bring whatever religious text they want, but at no time is there a swearing in on a religious text, only swearing to the oath of the body, US constitution.
If you want to read more on this right wing made up controversy, just google in google news, Keith Ellison and Dennis Prager.
Thanks for clarifying DPO - feel sort of embarassed that I didn't know that...
So what's Mr. Goode on about then? He's really making all of this stuff up then? (in a thinly veiled attempt to cover up his racism)...
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Check this out.
As JJ's DPOF, here is pary of transcript from CNN interview. As again, this is great example of the right wing doing go messaging to distort the facts. Rep. Goode has been sworn in many times, and he knows no religious text is used the official swearing-in. He just wanted to do some "fearmongering" (as Scott T) and gotta give the right wing base some "meat" after the awful mid-term elections.
Asked by Mr. Blitzer what he thought of the reaction to his election, and to his swearing-in preference, Mr. Ellison said:
Well, Wolf, I’m glad you made that distinction because when I’m officially sworn in, I will do it the same, exact way as every Congressperson-elect who is sworn in. We will all stand up and, in unison, lift our hand and swear to uphold that Constitution.
And then later, in a private ceremony, of course, I’ll put my hand on a book that is the basis of my faith, which is Islam. And I think that this is a beauty. This is a wonderful thing for our country, because Jewish members will put their hands on the Torah, Mormon members will
put their hand on the Book of Mormon, Catholic members will put their hand on the book of their choice. And members who don’t want to put their hand on any book are also fully free to do that. That’s the American way.
But I think that we need to not focus on what religious text any Congress member might want to use. Let’s focus on the text that binds us together. That’s the Constitution. That’s a great document, and I’m looking forward very much to raising my hand and swear to uphold that Constitution.
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