Yet more wackiness from the religious right...

[marcusmarcusrc]

Somehow I ended up on the American Family Association email list a while ago. Usually they send messages about boycotting Ford because they sponsored a Gay Pride parade, which makes me feel sad about the people who run this email list but happy about my Ford ownership. But today's email was particularly egregious: basically, they are up in arms about the fact that our new Muslim congressman will swear his oath of office on a Koran. I was kind of surprised that that would even be a question - of course you want people swearing oaths on the book that they consider most holy - so I looked in more depth at the email. One quote:

"If Keith Ellison is allowed to change that [swearing on something that isn't the Bible], he will be doing more damage to the unity of America and to the value system that has formed this country than the terrorists of 9-11."

How can people living in 21st century America be this totally insane?

Comments

[arcanology.livejournal.com]

I have a rabbit with more brains than that. I mean, that's not just bigoted and stupid, it's bigoted and dumber than a sack of rice.

[nonnihil.livejournal.com]

This is particularly amusing because the Bible prohibits the swearing of oaths (Matthew 5:33-37). Whereas to my knowledge the Koran does not.

[gnibbles.livejournal.com]

what would an athiest swear on? not that these people would ever elect one...

[purplebob.livejournal.com]

I have to wonder about that too. I think a copy of the Constitution would work well.

Of course, that would require Americans electing a non-closeted atheist, which has never happened, so I guess we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

[lauradi7.livejournal.com]

Apparently the Koran is one of the specifically named holy books that one can use for swearing-in. The usual thing offered to athiests in court is affirming that one will tell the truth, not swearing it.

[kirisutogomen.livejournal.com]

Obviously these guys are even dumber than your average nutjobs, but honestly, it's not any stupider than some of the stuff people like Michael Moore spew. The question is whether we manage to identify them as fringe radicals to be ignored.

[purplebob.livejournal.com]

Apparently the Religious Right just made up the story anyway -- Congressmen don't use a religious text when swearing their oath of office.

That's good.

[arcanology.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry "Michael Moore" as a counter for right wing whack jobs is overdrawn. You will be charged ten debate points in overdraft fees.

Seriously, I'm wildly sick of "well, okay, that guy is bad, but there are other bad guys on the other side". So what? Is someone supposed to get a free pass for that? If so Rush entitles me to kick anyone on the right in the crotch, repeatedly, for the next nine hundred years.

Except he doesn't.

[kirisutogomen.livejournal.com]

No, no one is supposed to get a free pass. It's just not very interesting to point out that there are crazy stupid people in the world. We knew that. I'm not "wildly sick" of it, but honestly, so what?

I'm more interested in the question of what's considered fringe lunatic and what's considered extreme but mainstream. How do we determine whether Michael Moore is considered more mainstream than the American Family Association? Can we rate them on stupidity accurately enough to identify mistakes in the public classification of one as mainstream and the other as not?

[marcusmarcusrc.livejournal.com]

I feel like the lunacies on the right are a lot closer to their mainstream than the equivalent lunacies on the left. The AFA has a distribution of hundred of thousands, from what I can tell... the equivalent would be if MoveOn.org sent out emails about 9/11 conspiracy theories or something. And I feel like this is indeed wackier than Michael Moores rantings, not that I've read that much of what he writes.

[gigglefest.livejournal.com]

I wonder how they would describe "the value system that formed this country", anyway. One thing I liked about wandering through the DC monuments was reading the stuff about preserving the rights of the minority, etc.