corrente

Congrefs shall make no Law respecting an establishment of religion...

(via L A Times)

By Stephanie Simon, Times Staff Writer

WASHINGTON — In the blue and gold elegance of the House speaker's private dining room, Jeremy Bouma bowed his head before eight young men and women who hope to one day lead the nation. He prayed that they might find wisdom in the Bible — and govern by its word.

"Holy Father, we thank you for providing us with guidance," said Bouma, who works for an influential televangelist. "Thank you, Lord, for these students. Build them up as your warriors and your ambassadors on Capitol Hill."

Nearly every Monday for six months, as many as a dozen congressional aides — many of them aspiring politicians — have gathered over takeout dinners to mine the Bible for ancient wisdom on modern policy debates about tax rates, foreign aid, education, cloning and the Central American Free Trade Agreement.

Through seminars taught by conservative college professors and devout members of Congress, the students learn that serving country means first and always serving Christ.

Okay (heavy sigh) for anyone who might read this and say "What's the big deal?" please try this exercise: Go through this and, everyplace it says "Christian", substitute in your mind the word "Muslim." Or "Mormon." Or "Flying Spaghetti Monsterism" (or its heretical offshoot known as "Pastafarianism").

Do you want adherents of any of those sects using US Government property to persuade the people who actually do the work of legislating that their first allegiance should be to their notion of the True Faith rather than the best interests of all the people?

Christ on a crutch and Buddha on a pogo stick, I want it a requirement that these people have to spend at least six months living in a country where their religion is a despised, if not illegal, minority faith. (Saudi Arabia comes to mind.) Evidently pure exercise of empathy is beyond their beautiful minds.