Politics A Christian Nation
posted by on December 22 at 10:40 AM
In November, right-wing blowhard Dennis Prager wrote in a column for Townhall that
Keith Ellison, D-Minn., the first Muslim elected to the United States Congress, has announced that he will not take his oath of office on the Bible, but on the bible of Islam, the Koran.He should not be allowed to do so — not because of any American hostility to the Koran, but because the act undermines American civilization.
Prager went on to write that
Devotees of multiculturalism and political correctness who do not see how damaging to the fabric of American civilization it is to allow Ellison to choose his own book need only imagine a racist elected to Congress. Would they allow him to choose Hitler’s “Mein Kampf,” the Nazis’ bible, for his oath? And if not, why not? On what grounds will those defending Ellison’s right to choose his favorite book deny that same right to a racist who is elected to public office?
Today on Think Progress, there’s this:
In September, [Prager] was appointed by President Bush to a five-year term on the taxpayer-funded United States Holocaust Memorial Council.Yesterday, the Executive Committee of the Holocaust Memorial Council adopted a resolution condemning Prager’s views as “antithetical to the mission of the Museum as an institution promoting tolerance.”
The resolution can be found here.
Then there is Virgil "Asshat" Goode (who, quite frankly, I'm surprised SLOG has missed or ignored) who says he's worried that if we don't fix our immigration policies NOW we will be faced with many more muslims in public office ruining Christian America.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/12/21/quran.congress/index.html
Uh, isn't the Nazi's bible, in fact, The Bible?
I guess he missed the part in the US Constitution that forbids giving elected officials a religious litmus test or requiring them to swear loyalty to one religion (granted this was put in there so the Founding Fathers could tell the Church of England to frak off, but still). He also must have forgotten that we have freedom of religion.
The real question is: Why does Dennis Prager hate America?
Lis, the Nazis were able to take advantage of pre-existing Christian anti-Semitism, but the higher ups were not Christian and disdained Christian churches. They legislated that crosses on churches be replaced with swastikas. There's no doubt that the churches in Germany and their conquered territories were complicit, but they also experienced persecution, particularly if there were minority relgions like Jehovah's Witnesses.
Yeah buddy... bigot gets knocked down a notch... I'll give Prager one prop: there is a God. But seems none too pleased...
The response to Prager's analogy is this: If someone who abided by Mein Kempf could actually get elected, than they should be able to take the oath on Mein Kempf.
In that scary scenario, the fact that a Nazi sympathizer could even get elected—relegates taking the oath on Mein Kempf to a miniscule issue by comparison to the their election.
Josh: Good point, but Prager probably doesn't see much difference between a muslim, an atheist (and what would we swear on, anyway?) or a nazi being elected to high office.
Christians have been trying to disavow the Nazis for sixty years, but the fact is the Nazis were for the most part good Catholics. Hitler loudly opposed atheism and secular schools in his speeches, and in private was a deeply spiritual man. The Waffen SS wore belt buckles that said "GOTT MIT UNS" on them.
But none of that changes the fact that no Congressman has ever been sworn in on any kind of book at all; the business with the book is afterwards, for the cameras.
"The Waffen SS wore belt buckles that said "GOTT MIT UNS" on them."
ahh that image is soooo darn cute....the mitten council getting the nazis to do their bidding. promoting responsible mitten use to all the aryan childrens..
makes one feel all warm and fuzzy.. hey, like MITTENS! thanx.
Fnarf, as I stated, the churches were complicit in persecution, particularly in the Baltic states, and Jehovah's Witnesses were sent to concentration camps as well. No one had it as bad as Jews or Gypsies, but really, anyone in the Reich who participated in any unsanctioned activity, including many churches, was subject to persecution.
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