Disgusted By Religious Bigots

I’ve been watching this abomination go on concerning congressman-elect Keith Ellison’s decision to swear on a copy of the Koran during his private swearing-in ceremony, and I am DISGUSTED at it!

No, I have no problems whatsoever with Keith Ellison’s decision to take his oath of office on top of the Koran. If bible-thumping Christians feel they need to swear on top of their family bibles in their own private ceremonies, then Ellison should be entitled to do the same based on his own religious beliefs as a Muslim.

If it were up to me, though, I’d have them all swearing on top of the US CONSTITUTION, which is what they are supposed to be protecting, preserving, and defending anyway. But hey, what do I know? I’m just a freedom-loving libertarian who has more respect for that document than 99.9% of the ingrates who are elected to uphold and defend it.

What DISGUSTS me are these Christian BIGOTS who believe that Ellison and others like him should be FORCED to swear on nothing BUT the Christian Bible, or not at all. And what DISGUSTS me is the lame excuse that they use to justify their blatant BIGOTRY.

Conservative talking head Dennis Prager claims that Ellison should be FORCED to swear on the CHRISTIAN Bible because it is… now get this… TRADITION! Yes, feel free to belt out a few choruses from the “Fiddler on the Roof” song by that same word.

Tradition. Prager claims that a Muslim politician should be FORCED to swear on a Christian bible as a matter of TRADITION!

Well you know there are plenty of things that were done in the days of George Washington that were supposedly a matter of TRADITION. Owning slaves was one of them. Several of America’s Founding Fathers owned slaves. Did that make it right? Absolutely not! TRADITION demanded that women be subservient to their husbands and that husbands were OBLIGATED to beat their wives to keep them in line. Did that make it right? Again, absolutely not!

And Prager is apparently joined by a goober Congressman from Virginia who went so far as to infer that unless we deal with the problem with immigration, that, to use his words, “there will likely be many more Muslims elected to office and demanding the use of the Koran."

That’s Congressman Virgil Goode of Virginia who made that statement… and sounding a lot like an early Lester Maddox in the process.

Excuse me Congressman Goober, but here’s a little tidbit that you seem to forget in your rhetoric: the bulk of the people coming into America illegally ARE NOT MUSLIMS! Care to take a guess what religion they are? Yup, you guess it, they are predominantly CHRISTIANS! But I suppose that it’s easier to call all of the illegal immigrants Muslims because it justifies invoking 9/11, right? I mean, that is the standard operating procedure for Republicans nowadays. Keep the masses eternally fearful and thus in constant need of your services.

And by the way, I should point out for those of you in Goober’s district that the congressman-elect happens to be a NATIVE-BORN AMERICAN, so there really was no justification to link the issue of his religious belief to immigration. But then again, there is no such thing as logic when you’re invoking FEAR.

What also disgusts me is that these people can’t even be HONEST about their religious bigotry! No, they have to HIDE their bigotry and call it “heritage” or “tradition” or “values” in order to justify it. That’s the only way they can worm their bigotry into effect in government. Oh yes, allow prayer in schools… not because they happen to be “OUR CHRISTIAN” prayers, but because it’s “tradition”. Post the Ten Commandments everywhere… because it’s “tradition”. Shove God and Jesus and biblical phrases and references into every facet of society and especially in every facet of government… because it’s “tradition”.

I’ll let you in on a little hint: if America’s Founding Fathers were really as “devout” and obsessed with “tradition” and “heritage” as our current bigots believe them to be, then they never would have even suggested to revolt from England. There’s this little thing called “Divine Right” that says that kings are appointed BY GOD. And the truly “devout” would even remember the passages from the Book of Kings in the Old Testament that supports this TRADITION that kept inept and incompetent rulers in charge. The Founders wouldn’t even have considered revolting against a monarchy that was appointed – supposedly – BY GOD, because that would go against “tradition” and “heritage”. They wouldn’t have allowed Thomas Jefferson to pen in the Declaration of Independence that King George III is UNWORTHY to be any sort of leader, much less a king. That not only goes again “tradition” but also against the Old Testament itself!

And if America’s Founding Fathers really were concerned about “tradition” and “heritage” and “values”, then they certainly would not have thrown in Article VI of the US Constitution that says in PLAIN ENGLISH that no religious test will EVER be required as a qualification to ANY OFFICE OR PUBLIC TRUST in the United States. That includes those little swearing-in ceremonies.

But maybe I’m expecting too much from people like those in Congressman Goober’s district. Understanding what the US Constitution actually SAYS? That may be a stretch. Expecting to understand PLAIN ENGLISH may be a challenge too.

Oh, one more thing… this swearing-in ceremony that has the bigots in an uproar? It’s just for SHOW! The ACTUAL swearing-in process takes place en masse in the House of Representatives and hardly anyone holds up a book at that point. So not only are these bigots in a huff over this, but it’s over a MEANINGLESS SHOW!

Now if Dennis Prager and his ilk, and the Goober from Virginia and his ilk want to be ignorant, intolerant religious bigots, then that’s their right. But do us all a favor and be HONEST about your bigotry! You don’t like non-Christians! Be honest about that! Be HONEST about your desire to shove your beliefs down the throats of the “non-believers”. Don’t hide it with weasel words like “tradition” and “heritage” and “values”, because you’re smearing the very meaning of those words when you do it.

Of course I’m not really expecting them to be honest about their own bigotry. Nobody wants to admit that they’re bigoted, even though they’re quick to condemn the bigotry in others, but it’s high time that we start calling people on their bigotry and getting it out in the open.

The cons and neo-cons want to compare our current troubles to World War II… and so, with that in mind, I’ll wrap this little rant up with a good quote from Frank Knox, Secretary of the Navy from 1940-1944. He said, and I quote: "I believe with all my heart that civilization has produced nothing finer than a man or woman who thinks and practices true tolerance."

If that’s the measuring stick for civilization, then the cons and neo-cons are coming up mighty short.