UPDATE: Edited for content. -Nicho

I wrote previously about Rep. Virgil Goode’s not-so-hidden racist remarks earlier, but a few things have happened since then and this story has it a bit closer to home that I previously anticipated. My wife has made a number of friends online. One in particular she got into a rather heated discussion the other night.

The person in question is a died-in-the-wool southern Republican Christian, which to my measurements is my wife’s diametric opposite as far as personalities are concerned. Nevertheless, my wife and this person have developed a good online friendship as they share the same passion for celebrity gossip (though neither of them would ever call it such). They’ve managed so far to keep their political and religious view apart from one another as they were both fairly well aware that it was somewhat of a powder keg. It was all well and good until my wife forwarded a story about Keith Ellison being sworn in on a Quran that was owned by none other than Thomas Jefferson.

My wife, being a huge fan of antiques and stuff owned by historical figures in general, was in awe of the concept that Ellison had this opportunity and forwarded the news item to her friend. Her friend, being a Republican who has given only the Fox News version of events surrounding the Goode/Ellison fiasco her attention, took this as a stab at her beliefs. It would be easy for me to say “she doth protest too much” but that would be taking the easy way out; I want to address this head on.

This situation is a shining example of exactly what is wrong with Virgil Goode’s letter and its subsequent media coverage. Don’t get me wrong for his letter condemning Muslims from being elected to congress was overtly racist. The problem is that people who are upset about it are Christians who don’t seem to recognize their own naked intolerance. It’s ironic that their savior preached tolerance as key to being a good person and, by default, a good Christian.

Another thing she probably doesn’t understand is that Goode’s letter was, more than likely, a political bone that was thrown to his less-than-tolerant constituency so they’d know he was still a “good ol’ boy” who they could depend on to defend the Bible, if not so much the Constitution or Bill of Rights. The problem with this is that it justifies bigotry – it gives racism a social credibility. This is why playing politics with someone’s personal convictions is so dangerous.

Tolerance is a necessity in our society. Apparently when my wife and her friend got into it, her friend used the stock phrase, “this country was established on a Judeo-Christian ethic” and this thinking somehow justifies that Muslim man should not be allowed to run for office, let alone hold office. The problem is that this country may have been founded in a value system that found its roots in Christian doctrine but it was also founded on the principle that the government would not officially recognize any religion. There’s a reason for this: They saw what the Church of England did to people who happened to believe in a different interpretation of the Bible.

Initially the people who came to the new colony of England did so to escape this treatment only to attempt to run the colony based on their own stringent beliefs. Because of all of this our Forefathers had the wisdom of first-hand experience to make certain there was a clear and definite wall between government and religion. You can argue with me all you want about this – Jefferson and Adams have a long history of correspondence that pretty much leaves even the most conservative of readers with that conclusion. It should also be noted that Jefferson was, among many other things, a learned theologian which is why he probably had a Quran in the first place.

Now there’s a couple of addendums to this:

1. Rep. Keith Ellison sought out, met with and cordially invited Rep. Virgil Goode out for coffee, which Goode accepted. Asked if he was felt singled out as the first Muslim member, Ellison said no and added, “By reaching out to Congressman Goode I’m not trying to be accepted, I’m trying to build bridges. In this world there are too many misunderstandings. I want to put a human face on things.”
2. The Preznit just nominated Zalmay Khalilzad, also a practicing Muslim, to take the place of departing curmudgeon John Bolton as the US Ambassador to the United Nations. When asked if Rep. Virgil Goode had a public comment on Dubya’s appointment to the highest office a foreign dignitary can be nominated, the official response was, “He has had no comment whatsoever…Don’t expect any.”
3. The people who are up in arms about all of this, and thereby are stirring the pot with the political right, are the very same ones who are openly advocating the assassination of members of congress who do not agree with their personal policies on immigration. I’m fairly certain that the gun-toting ones who nod in agreement with this buffoonery are 100% Bible-bangin’ Christian. And here’s a hint: The Somali immigrants I know came here because of the gun-toting religious zealots who wanted to cleanse the earth of non-believers in their country.

But that’s the way the ultra-right-wing has been operating in this country; kids with fireworks that get bigger and bigger as long as they’re allowed to get away with their antics. And they don’t’ care who they hurt so long as their message gets out there. What worse is that their “parents”, who represent the mainstream Republicans, are like those parents of screaming children you sometimes see in the grocery store who just ignore their child completely. So even though Ann Coulter should be serving time in a federal penitentiary for advocating the poisoning of a Supreme Court Justice or the assassination of President Clinton, morons on the right still buy her books and consider her acidic hate speech somehow relevant to rational discourse.

And here I sit, fully aware that Democrats yet again broke new ground in good precedent by electing the first woman Speaker of the House and all the righties can complain about is how far to the left she is. Minnesotans elect the very first Muslim to congress and all the righties can do is say intolerant things and hide behind the book that preaches tolerance. Progressivism may have started under the Republican banner, but it has certainly traveled since Teddy Roosevelt’s time.

I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do.