Un-American Arrogance In Biblical Porportions

On November 28, 2006, the American Family Association released an Action Alert urging the public to show their outrage that an elected official wants to take his oath of office on the Holy Book of his religion. Gasp! The Shock! The Horror!

The AFA quotes Dennis Prager:

Forgive me, but America should not give a hoot what Keith Ellison’s favorite book is. Insofar as a member of Congress taking an oath to serve America and uphold its values is concerned, America is interested in only one book, the Bible. If you are incapable of taking an oath on that book, don’t serve in Congress. In your personal life, we will fight for your right to prefer any other book. We will even fight for your right to publish cartoons mocking our Bible. But, Mr. Ellison, America, not you, decides on what book its public servants take their oath. 

This is not, nor has it ever been, about anybody’s “favorite book”. If I were elected to congress and wanted to hold my hand over a Harry Potter book or Eragon - I would understand if people started to look at me funny and start to complain. The placing of the hand over the Bible, or any other Holy Book is one thing - Harry Potter, quite another.

Belief in, or acceptance of, the Bible has never been a requirement to hold public office. If it were, Thomas Jefferson and the rest of the Founding Fathers would probably start to roll over in their graves. It’s un-American.

America was built on the concept of freedom - and one of those freedoms is the freedom of religion. I, as an American Citizen, am free to choose whatever religious beliefs I wish to follow. If I want to pick up a bible and head to church - I am free to do that. Or not - it’s ok. If I want to pick up the Koran and become Muslim - I have that right. If I want to become a zen Buddhist, or practice Judy-ism (the gospel according to Judy Tenuta)  … it’s all good.

But, if I want to force my religious beliefs on anyone, force them to use materials from my religion in their activities - that is Un-American!

America is not only interested in one book. We are interested in a lot of things. The Bible is ok. But Harry Potter is a better seller. I hear Stephen King has been selling a lot of books lately too. And just think how well a book of Britney Spears crotch shots would sell - it’d put Madonna’s Sex book to shame!

But, I’m getting away from myself here.

This reminds me of something quite similar. It’s the image of someone swearing on a Bible in a courtroom that the testimony they’re about to give is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Sounds familiar, right?

When a Muslim is to testify, and they place their hands on a Koran - it’s apparently no big deal. When a child, who is too young to know what the Bible is or what it represents is to testify, he doesn’t put his hand on anything - the judge usually just asks them if they know the difference between the truth and a lie and then ask them to promise to tell the truth, and it isn’t a big deal. When an atheist testifies in court and dosen’t put his hand on a bible, it’s still no big deal.

How, exactly, is this any different than what’s going on here?

And how, exactly, is forcing elected officials to place their hands on the Bible (and not the Koran) not in direct violation of the Establishment Clause?

Need A Little Voting Help…?

It’s almost time to go vote again. I probably don’t have to say that - considering the amount of coverage political issues have gotten on the evening news … not to mention all those multiple campaign ads that are showing up on just about every commercial break that’re starting to make me nauseous because they aren’t about how good their candidates are, but rather about how bad their opponents are. Why is it that nobody wants to talk about where they stand on the issues, but rather how their opponents have been wrong in the past? And why is it that nobody is even remotely willing to tell the full story?

And it’s not just the TV Campaign Ads either - it’s blogs … tv news casts … newspaper articles …

So, it’s rare when something comes along that actually helps you to understand the issues … when something comes along and tells you where to vote and about the issues you’re really voting about … and occasionally, those things comes from some unexpected places.

Google Earth is one of those places. In case you didn’t know - Google Earth is a program very similar to the Google Local or Google Maps website - although it contains many more features. One feature of Google Earth are various layers that can appear or disappear. You can put a layer up with street names … you can put a layer up to tell you where parks are, or hotels, or restaurants, or libraries, amongst a number of other things.

And then there’s the Congressional Districts layer. It helps map out the various congressional districts - and even contains links to more information about who is running in each of the congressional districts and more information about what’s going on.

Methinks it’s definitely worth checking out…