Democrats Vote Yes to Ramadan, But No To Christmas
Posted on December 12, 2007
War on Christmas? Bah!
From the office of GOP Rep. Steve King:
Congressman Steve King reacted this morning to the nine “NO†votes on his resolution to honor Christmas and the Christian faith. The vote shocked Capitol Hill observers because votes on similar resolutions honoring the holidays of Islam and Hinduism passed without any NO votes.
Appearing this morning on the Fox News Channel’s Fox and Friends, King said, “The [nine] naysayers didn’t make it to the floor to debate. I would like to know how they could vote Yes on Islam, Yes on the Indian Religions and No on Christianity when the foundation of this nation and our American culture is Christianity…I think there’s an assault on Christianity in America.â€
The nine Members voting NO were Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-NY), Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-NY), Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO), Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-FL) (FL), Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA), Rep. Jim McDermott (D-WA), Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA), Rep. Pete Stark (D-CA), and Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-CA). None of the nine voted against resolutions honoring the Islamic holiday of Ramadan and the Hindu holiday of Diwali.
Nine Democrats voted No – Ackerman, Clarke, DeGette, Hastings (FL), Lee, McDermott, Scott (VA), Stark and Woolsey.
Nine Democrats voted Present – Conyers, Frank (MA), Holt, Payne, Schakowsky, Schwartz, Wasserman Schultz, Welch (VT) and YarmuthThis is interesting because of this group 17 of the 18 Ds above voted FOR a resolution honoring Ramadan (Lee missed the vote). Note that the King resolution was based on the language in the Ramadan resolution. You can compare them if you want, but King’s is more benign. Ramadan – H.Res. 635 and Christmas – H. Res. 847
H. Res. 847: recognizing the importance of Christmas and the Christian faith
And all but one voted yes on the Ramadan resolution in October, as did nine other Democrats who voted “present†on this one. (Barbara Lee missed the earlier vote.) The boss blogged this much earlier but after knocking Tanc for voting “present†on the Ramadan resolution — which no House member voted against, do note — I’d be remiss if I didn’t flag this at HA. Any explanations here other than simple bigotry? If so, Steve King says he’d love to hear them, as would I. The left sometimes seem to have it in its mind that the Establishment Clause contains some sort of equal protection component that makes it okay to endorse minority religions, however symbolically, while scrupulously resisting the faith of the majority lest it burst into theocracy. No such doctrine, boys.
Separation of Church and State or separation of Christianity and State?
This has got to make the ACLU and CAIR super proud.
» Filed Under 1st Amendment, ACLU, CAIR, Christmas, Church And State, News, Politics As Usual, Video
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So can this be used to get these Democrats voted out of office. I am happy to say none of them represent me as my House member is a Republican. I hope none of them is a pro-life Democrat as they are a rare breed.
Had that little tidbit on my ‘Morning Coffee’ yesterday (the 12th), and didn’t get one single comment about it. I’m just baffled more people haven’t noticed.
For consistency’s sake, I suppose it would have made sense for the representatives who voted yes on 635 to vote yes on 847, but a full reading of the text of both resolutions shows that the blogs above are vastly oversimplifying things. As usual, context is everything.
847 was passed, as the resolution’s language notes, in the wake of 9/11 in a climate of fear and potential misunderstanding about Islam. It was proposed and passed to prevent American Muslims from feeling threatened and to encourage all Americans to be unified in the wake of these terrible attacks but to avoid scapegoating the innocent. The resolution makes almost no mention of Muslim theology, and is offered by an (at that time) entirely non-Islamic House of Representatives as a gesture of friendship to the American and international Muslim community.
HR 635 can be read either as the sort of relatively insignificant resolution the House and Senate pass all the time praising or recognizing one event/group or another, or it can be read as a defensive volley in the supposed “War on Christmas.” Of course, the language of 635 belies the very idea of a war on Christmas. If 225,000,000 Christians are afraid their holiday will somehow be forced underground, they’re a pretty fearful bunch. From where I sit, Christmas, a holiday the Puritans once banned because it was associated with waste and debauchery (most people celebrated it anyway), has rallied nicely since the mid-1600s, and is in no need of defense.
What the nine “nay” voters undoubtedly objected to was the implication in the bill that Christianity is, in all but name, the official religion of the United States. The people now preparing to flame me a la Michelle Malkin can pretend this sentiment isn’t in the bill while, at the same time, agreeing with the sentiment, but it’s there. Where the Constitution forbids the establishment of a state religion, the implications of a House resolution that lavishly praises a religion that is the one practiced by a vast majority of Americans, taking pains to connect it with the Republic using language familiar to anyone who has read the various arguments right-wing Christians have made attempting to paint the founders as deeply committed to a Christian state (they weren’t), are considerably different than one that discourages discrimination and irrational hatred of the practitioners of a tiny minority religion.
That said, it’d be hard not to see a trap like this one, and why these nine didn’t vote “present” or simply skip the vote, I don’t know.
I should correct myself, by the way: 635 was not passed in the immediate aftermath of 9/11. It is recent, but it referenced those events.
Flame away, right-wing fellow Americans.
This nation was built on Christianity check it out for yourselves now we have
these 9 people Anti-Christian and Anti American Democrats thats apparently for Islam vote them out get some red blooded AMERICANS in there that love this nation and what it stands for and send these democraps over seas where they can celebrate Ramadan.As for me I am celebrating CHRISTmas and the coming of my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ