TPM reporting:I don't think that's the appropriate line for a congressman to take when it comes time for another congressman to take the oath. Why would you swear allegiance to a document outside your faith? In our legal system, people can take the oath in a variety of ways.So, any Virginia Republicans want to take the plunge?
Religious diversity is a strength, not a weakness in this country.
We need immigration reform, but not for the reasons that Mr. Goode cited. What would happen in this country if a Christian were elected in Lebanon and he had to swear allegiance to the Koran when it came time for them to take office? There would be an outcry in this country.So I embrace religious diversity. I welcome this new member of Congress. I'm glad he's swearing allegiance to a document that is consistent with his faith.
And what I would like America to do in 2007 is understand that the war on terror is about intolerance, that Syria is a dictatorship that has no interest in seeing a representative democracy in Iraq, that Iran, the president of Iran hosted a conference denying the Holocaust in December 2006, has avowed to destroy the state of Israel. We don't need to be talking to these people. We need to be standing up to their agendas and bringing them in line with the world, a world of tolerance. And Iran and Syria are not tolerant states, and the statements by Virgil Goode do not represent the best of who we are as a nation.
Goode's comments were seriously out of line with the American values set forth in the Constitution, Declaration of Independence, and other works by our founding fathers. I'm disappointed more elected officials, the ones who swear to uphold the aforementioned Constitution, haven't blasted Goode for making such un-American statements and then vigorously defending them.
Hopefully it will dawn on Goode that Freedom of Religion is not limited to his selected faiths. But I'm not holding my breath.