Last week, right-wing talk-show host and writer [tag]Dennis Prager[/tag] became something of a laughing stock by arguing that Rep.-elect [tag]Kieth Ellison[/tag] (D-Minn.), Congress’ first Muslim, will literally “undermine American civilization” and “embolden Islamic extremists” if he takes the oath of office on a Koran instead of a Christian Bible. Prager’s Townhall piece, despite its historical and legal inaccuracies, was quickly embraced by the religious right, picked up by the cable networks, and became a real news story.
After widespread condemnation from thinking people everywhere, including plenty of intellectually serious conservatives who wanted nothing to do with his nonsense, Prager has decided to return to the subject in yet another column because, has he sees it, the first piece “seems to have touched a national nerve.”
As a rule, when you fall in a ditch, you should stop digging. Prager clearly hasn’t heard about this.
I never even hinted that there should be a religious test [for public office]. It has never occurred to me that only Christians run for office in America.
Of course not. All Prager wrote in his original column was, “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.” What would make anyone think this is a religious test?
I agree with the tens of thousands of office holders in American history who have honored the American tradition — I am well aware it is not a law, and I do not want it to be — of bringing a Bible to their ceremonial or actual swearing-in. Keith Ellison is ending that powerful tradition.
No, he’s not. Plenty of Jewish lawmakers have parted with the tradition, and some lawmakers have decided to forgo use of any religious text in the symbolic ceremony altogether. For some reason, Prager has singled out Ellison.
You don’t have to be Christian to acknowledge that the Bible is the source of America’s values…. The founders who were not believing Christians venerated the Bible as the source of America’s values just as much as practicing Christians did.
Prager appears to be unfamiliar with Thomas Paine, the Enlightenment, and anything Thomas Jefferson ever said.
It was understood from the beginning of the republic that liberty is derived from God, not from man alone.
And yet, somehow, those sloppy Founding Fathers managed to write an entire Constitution without mentioning God, the Bible, or Christianity. Must have slipped their minds.
[I]t was Keith Ellison who raised the entire issue of taking an oath on a Koran rather than a Bible.
If this Muslim would only embrace the Christian Bible for his swearing-in ceremony, Prager wouldn’t have felt the need to attack him. Therefore, this is Ellison’s fault.
[T]he first time in American history that a congressman has decided to jettison the Bible for another text should not go unnoticed.
It’s still not the first time, a fact Prager has already been made aware of.
I wrote not a word against Islam or the Koran and made it clear at the beginning of my column that nothing I write is specific to Islam or the Koran.
Then why not attack other lawmakers of minority faiths who forgo use of the Bible in their ceremonies? Why single out the Muslim?
[N]either I nor tens of millions of other Americans will watch in silence as the Bible is replaced with another religious text for the first time since George Washington brought a Bible to his swearing-in.
Still wrong. He and his tens of millions of friends have already sat in silence while the Bible was replaced by other texts in other ceremonies.
It is not I, but Keith Ellison, who has engaged in disuniting the country. He can still help reunite it by simply bringing both books to his ceremonial swearing-in.
Honestly, how does a guy like this get paid to offer political commentary and analysis?
OK, so we’ve established that Prager is spectacularly wrong, but let’s also not overlook an important detail — he’s not just a random right-wing nut, he’s the man the Bush White House appointed to a five-year term on the taxpayer-funded United States Holocaust Memorial Council. A statement announcing Prager’s appointment praised his “unique moral voice.”
Where does the Bush gang find these clowns? For that matter, why give them respected posts in the government?