This Might Be Funny If It Wasn't True

"Insofar as a member of Congress taking an oath to serve America and uphold its values is concerned, America is interested in only one book, the Bible. If you are incapable of taking an oath on that book, don't serve in Congress."

The US is about to receive its first Muslim congressman, Keith Ellison, a Democrat from Minnesota.

Ellison has brought the bigots out of their holes by announcing that he intends to be sworn into office on the Koran, not the Bible.

It didn't take long for reich-wing pundits to come out with guns blazing such as the quote above by Dennis Prager. This rebuke is particularly odd coming from Prager, a Jew.

While the right-wing nutbars rage and fume about America being a "Christian Nation", intelligent people are quick to point out - well that these people are right-wing nutbars. From the Christian Science Monitor;

"To legal experts, no room for confusion exists. "A congressman having to swear an oath on a scripture that he doesn't believe in was unconstitutional from the very moment the Constitution was signed," says Kevin Hasson, head of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. "It would be beyond irony to violate the Constitution in the very act of requiring a congressman to swear his loyalty to uphold the Constitution."

"In Congress, newly elected representatives do not put their left hands on any book. They raise their right hands, and are sworn in together as the speaker of the House administers the oath of office. Some do carry a book, according to House historians, and some choose to photograph a private swearing-in afterward with their hand on the Bible. One senator is known to have carried an expanded Bible that included the Book of Mormon.

"The Constitution says: "The senators and representatives ... shall be bound by oath or affirmation to support this Constitution; but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States."

Now, mind you, if you wanted to have your swearing in on Jim-Bob's tailgate, that'd be another matter altogether.