Rep. Bill Sali's Contempt for Religious Liberty
As gleefully reported in the American Family Association's One News Network: Last month, the U.S. Senate was opened for the first time ever with a Hindu prayer. Although the event generated little outrage on Capitol Hill, Representative Bill Sali (R-Idaho) is one member of Congress who believes the prayer should have never been allowed. I'll let Pastor Dan respond to the biblical allusion at the end there. But I will add that one thing the Founding Fathers intended wasn't just "envisioned", it was enshrined in the Constitution, which makes explicit that there shall be no religious test for elected office. Why would there be one for opening the Senate with a prayer? True religious liberty means nothing without religious diversity. Difference is the mark a real freedom of choice leaves behind - both the freedom to choose different ways of believing as well as the freedom not to believe. The presence of difference should be honored and celebrated as a sign of our religious freedom.
On Sunday, one of his local papers, the Idaho Press-Tribune, offered this rebuke: Sali inexplicably draws the spotlight on matters that have little to do with anything the U.S. government actually administers. I see that Representative Sali has attempted to "clarify" his remarks. The new version sounds like he believes it's ok for Minnesotans to elect a Muslim to Congress, so long as Rep. Ellison governs like a Christian. Whatever that means, it's not any better. But I'll let you read that for yourself to decide if he helped his cause.
Digging the hole deeper still with yet another interview, Sali added that his beef is really with multi-culturalism, which he strangely contends is un-American: Friday, Sali said multiculturalism is in conflict with the national motto "E Pluribus Unum," or "out of many, one." He said multiculturalism would mean "out of the many, the many." David Neiwert notes that Sali's new argument is at least as confused as all the rest: Actually, E Pluribus Unum is in fact a clear expression of multiculturalism, which is predicated on the idea that our democratic institutions and the values around them are what bind together all Americans from their many diverse walks of life. Simultaneously, it celebrates those differences as part of what makes us great.
Rep. Bill Sali's Contempt for Religious Liberty | 6 comments (6 topical, 0 hidden)
Rep. Bill Sali's Contempt for Religious Liberty | 6 comments (6 topical, 0 hidden)
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