You Can Judge an Idiot by His Favorite Cover

Because of the above title, this post may appear to be a part two to the last one but it actually touches a slightly different aspect of the same point – religious freedom in America. While the last post touched on the freedom to practice religion, this post will address the freedom of public officials to practice moral consistency in their religion.

This week, Keith Ellison D-Minn., the first Muslim in the U.S. House, said he will swear his oath of office on the Qur'an and not on the Bible. This has caused a small uproar among the hypocritical and radical right who spout their beliefs like so much vomit after a bender. These same religious-right yutzes who profess a profound belief in their God and often claim that they are victims of religious persecution (i.e, they cannot pray in schools, they cannot have the Ten Commandments in their courthouses, etc.) would turn around and persecute Mr. Ellison simply because he believes in a different religion than Christianity.

First of all, the oath is not even necessary to take office. Some presidents have even passed on giving an oath – Franklin Pierce and Herbert Hoover come to mind. So let's not make this into something bigger than it should be. In fact, it should not even be news.

But some people need to shout anytime their organized little world is upset. For example…

Dennis Prager:
"When all elected officials take their oaths of office with their hands on the very same book, they all affirm that some unifying value system underlies American civilization. If Keith Ellison is allowed to change that, he will be doing more damage to the unity of America and to the value system that has formed this country than the terrorists of 9-11."

Wow! What a crock of shite! Does this Prager guy really believe his own drivel? Doing damage to the value system? I fail to see your point Mr. Prager. There is simply no way that Mr. Ellison could harm the American value system by being an individual and standing up for his beliefs. In fact, I can think of nothing that is more inherently within the spirit of what America stands for than what Mr. Ellison is doing.

More snippets from Mr. Prager's tirade of tyranny…
"… imagine a racist elected to Congress. Would they allow him to choose Hitler's "Mein Kampf," the Nazis' bible, for his oath?"

Whoa Nellie! Hey, Mr. Pragermeister! Let me let you in on a little secret: racism is not a recognized religion. Therefore, it is not that someone can just choose "their favorite book." The Qur'an is the "Muslim Bible." It is not some manifesto written by some fascist (which you are close to being yourself). However, to take this to the extreme, I would say this – if you want to take an oath on "Mein Kampf," go ahead. I would bet that an elected official would not last long in office if he were to do such a racist thing. And if he did stay in office, it would only be because his racist views represent his constituents. Or maybe Mr. Prager does not like our system of government.

For people like Mr. Prager to even remotely suggest that all must conform to mainstream behavior and actions is a slap in the face to all those who have died for the USA and is an affront to the visionaries who founded our country all those years ago.

Shame on you Mr. Prager and all those who would have us stoop down to kiss all YOU hold dear. I don't remember any one person being the "decider" in these matters. Indeed, no one ever should be.

Crawl back into your hole hate monger.