Asshats are Unhappy With Obama’s Inclusiveness

One of the high points for me in Barack Obama’s inauguration speech was (along with his strong expression of support for actual science) his not to the religious diversity of America:

“For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness.  We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus, and nonbelievers.  We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this earth.

And, when he said it, alarm bells went off in my head.  There are two words in there which are, basically, the equivalent of tossing a haunch of mutton to a starving mountain lion.  And I was right.

Over at AOL news are a whole bunch of scary quotes regarding the use of the words ‘Muslim’ and ‘nonbeliever.’  

With that one line, the president “seems to be trying to redefine American culture, which is distinctively Christian,” said’ Bishop E.W. Jackson of the Exodus Faith Ministries in Chesapeake, Va. “The overwhelming majority of Americans identify as Christians, and what disturbs me is that he seems to be trying to redefine who we are.’”

Bishop Jackson, you are wrong.  America is not, and never has been, a Christian nation.  President Barack Obama is not redefining America, he is, for the first time at the national level, recognizing American culture for what it is — a true stew (we are not a melting pot — in a melting pot, all of us would look alike, think alike and believe alike (which we do not)).  Obama is not redefining who we are, he is recognizing who we are.

 

Jackson said he and others have no problem acknowledging that “this country is one in which everybody has the freedom to think what they want.’” Yet Obama crossed the line, in his view, in suggesting that all faiths (and none) were different roads to the same destination: “He made similar remarks in the campaign, and said, ‘We are no longer a Christian nation, if we ever were. We are a Jewish, Hindu and non-believing nation.'”

Not so, Jackson says: “Obviously, Jewish heritage is very much a part of Christianity; the Jewish Bible is part of our Bible. But Hindu, Muslim, and nonbelievers? I don’t think so. We are not a Muslim nation or a nonbelieving nation.”’

Jackson claims to accept that America is a country ‘in which everybody has the freedom to think what they want.’  He is, however, claiming that, since a majority of Americans are Christians (and he includes (somewhat reluctantly, Jews), we are a Christian nation and those who don’t think the right thing are less than human, are less than American.  He says, in no uncertain terms, that Muslims, Hindus, nonbelievers (and, though he doesn’t state it outright, I have no choice but to assume he also includes Native American beliefs, Sikhs, Shintoists, Buddhists, animists, etc.) are not fully American as we are not part of the dominant paradigm.

The Rev. Cecil Blye, pastor of More Grace Ministries Church in Louisville, Ky., said the president’s reference to nonbelievers also set off major alarm bells for him. “It’s important to understand the heritage of our country, and it’s a Judeo-Christian tradition,”’ period.

Reverand Blye, you are also wrong.  America is based upon the enlightenment — a humanist philosophy which stands in stark contrast to the Judeo-Christian tradition.  Had the Founding Fathers created our government in that tradition, it would have been a monarchy with an established church (and all other churches would have been forced to pay taxes to support that state church). 

On the plus side, however, are the surveys on the page.  One asks, “Do you believe in a higher power?” and 13% say no (which is a little low — it should be about 16% (but this is an internet poll which are extremely inaccurate)).  The other question asks, “Did Obama’s nonbeliever remark bother you?” with 74% saying no and 24% (presumably the same 1 in 4 who think that 43 was anything less than a total disaster as President) saying yes.

So three out of four respondents to this survey have no problem with the inclusiveness of Obama’s speech. One in four want to deny citizens and legal residents equal rights as Americans.

You, the asshat Christianists, the Dominionist assholes who want to turn America into an evangelical version of Iran, the right wing conservative religious nuts, the ones determined to recognize equal civil rights for gays, lesbians, atheists, Muslims, and all the other citizens who do not think exactly the same things about God and Jesus,  are perverting the basis of the Constitution of the United States.  You are seeking to exclude about 25% of United States citizens based upon belief.  You are ignoring the founding documents of our democracy.  You are behaving in an un-American manner.  Which is your right.  But it is also my right to tell you that you are wrong.