Holiday Religious Bigotry Special
We said we would not post until unless something big broke, and well, I think it has. The supposed “War on Christmas” is kind of old news now, and I never could get too excited about the placement of creches at fire houses, or not – that’s not what will kill Christmas. I am far more worried about stuff that matters more.
My business life has been awful this Christmas season in the sense that there has been no slow down. Typically the phone quits ringing and I get to use the later half to two-thirds of December to catch up on all the stuff that has been sitting while I was putting out fires. Not this year, at least not to date. As late as yesterday afternoon, I was getting emergency type calls from clients who had one government agency or another breathing down their neck demanding something by Christmas – or else. And who knows what next week will hold? In California, much of this is driven by stepped up enforcement intended to pad the grossly depleted state coffers. The only thing that will kill business faster than over taxation is fines – but that is a story for another time.
The Christmas spirit has been hard to find this year. So I sympathized when I read the quote from Senator Jon Kyl that Robert Costa carried on The Corner:
“Senator Reid is using the Christmas holiday as an anvil to pound people into submission,” says Sen. Jon Kyl (R., Ariz.) in a conversation with National Review Online. “He’s no longer being realistic.”
“Harry Reid and the Democrats can’t win this debate on the merits,” says Kyl. “The only way they prevail now is by using the artifice that members supposedly can’t go home until we’re done. For Christians, this is one of the holiest days of the year. We want to be with our families. Reid knows this. It’s a very bad way to make public policy and horrible to use that kind of force to pass a bill of this kind.”
That dear friends is a war on Christmas that matters – in so many ways.
I am struck by how it emphasizes the fact that not being a religious bigot means not only not bad-mouthing someone’s religion, but respecting it, even if not believing it.
I am reminded of a time, a long time ago, I worked for a company in which the entire upper management was Jewish – observantly Jewish. As the Easter Season approached I requested Good Friday afternoon off for my largely Mexican Catholic crew to observe the Stations of the Cross. It was granted for a few hours until the company controller handed me the assignments for my crew for physical inventory that day and the president/owner of the company attempted to rescind his granting of time off. In a display of temper about which I should not be proud I pointed out that the upper management of the company took six weeks aannually off for religious observances and that four hours for my crew was a small request, and certainly a fair one. I was told by that upper management that as the owners, “They were exceptional.” I told them they were words-I-will-not-repeat-here (‘bigot’ was the kindest). This point was accompanied by a physical display (I was much, much younger at the time) that resulted in drywall repairs, and I stormed out.
Senator Reid is free to celebrate Christmas in any way he sees fit – that is the beauty of America. But it is a subtle and ugly form of bigotry to use his different and personal view in disregard of that of others.
I have, as an evangelical Presbyterian, staunchly defended here the rights of Mormons, and we should here remind everyone that Harry Reid is a Mormon, to identify themselves as Christians. But this is not about his Mormonism (though some schmuck will probably try to make it so), this is about Harry Reid. So it is with a great deal of hesitation that I will declare that the actions of Harry Reid in this case are decidedly unchristian. Bigotry, even subtle bigotry of this type, lacks charity – which is the preeminent hallmark of any Christian.
This is supposed to be a season of beauty for all, and one in which many of us celebrate the birth of our Savior. Well, this is just ugly and it robs all of us of the beauty of the season. Shame on Harry Reid.
Lowell chiming in . . .
Well, we are seeing here a mixture of hard-nosed politics and religion (used as a club). On the political side, Reid does not want his senators going home for Christmas and hearing from constitutents just how unpopular the Senate healthcare bill is. On the religious side, he knows Christmas celebrations are the most sacred of family traditions at one of the two most sacred times of year for all Christians. His behavior is indeed disgusting.
Posted in Political Strategy, Religious Bigotry, Religious Freedom | 6 Comments » | 
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ltngroup on 21 Dec 2009 at 4:17 pm #
Well said, John. Unfortunately, there are many Mormons, like myself, that cringe when it’s mentioned that Harry Reid is a Mormon. Like in every group, we have those who seem to be “Mormon” by record only. The idea that they hold votes at any time on Sunday (our Sabbath) has caused me some consternation… but the Christmas stunt that he’s pulling this week is proof that you are correct. Harry Reid appears to be a bigot of the worst sort. Power hungry and power happy by unrighteous dominion is his religion. I can’t believe that the people of Nevada have continued to re-elect him… hopefully that will come to an end this next election. He knows all of the tricks, though, and I have no doubt that he will absolutely stop at nothing to retain the power he has gained. By the way… Merry Christmas to you!
K.G. on 21 Dec 2009 at 6:46 pm #
Don’t blame Harry. He’s a zealot who would place staying in DC during Christmas akin to a soldier, fireman or doctor working on Christmas.
Blame all the so-called Christian Dems (and others who want to be with their families) in the Senate. They should just say no; we’re gonna go.
They needed their 60 votes. If even one took off, they would have all done it. Harry’s the head grinch, but he has willing accomplices whose priorities don’t include holy days or family get-togethers.
coltakashi on 22 Dec 2009 at 2:52 pm #
Reid is not playing hardball with the senators on his own. He is trying to support the Democratic team, including President Obama, who has insisted he wants the bill passed by the Senate before the end of the year (in the latest in a series of totally artificial deadlines). As noted, the urgency of passing the bill now is to do it before the public becomes more aware of what is in the bill (including the special tax breaks for certain states and certain companies) and tell their senators to back off.
Mr. Obama was highly critical of President Bush for “being in a hurry” to invade Iraq (even though the public discussion in Congress and the UN took months), yet Obama is rushing into an invasion of the US healthcare system, with almost no opportunity for members of Congress, let alone voters, to know what is in the language of the bill and the damage it will do to the positive aspects of the existing system. Obama and the Democrats just know that, once ANY bill is passed, they will create a constituency of people who have vested interests, and who will resist any attempt to repeal the bill and restore the status quo.
The most outrageous part of this rush to invade is Obama’s notion, which he stated explicitly to gatherings of rabbis and Christian ministers, that Americans are so wealthy (!) that we are morally obligated to provide health care for people who don’t have medical insurance under the current system. Apparently his language about the US undergoing the worst economic crisis since the 1930s doesn’t represent his real thinking. He just says whatever he needs to do to pass legislation. If he wants to intervene and control companies, we are in a financial crisis, but if he wants to take over health care, we are overflowing in wealth. Since he cannot be so unintelligent that he can’t remember what he says from one week to the next, the only possibility is that he is a con man, who will say whatever he thinks will persuade a particular audience.
The economic impact of the disruptions in the current health care system will not only extend the current recession, but will also inject so much uncertainty, and suck out so much capital, that there will be no visible benefit to health for years, if ever. This is in turn will ensure that there is a perpetual health care crisis that will be an excuse for government ratcheting up its control of medical care and medical insurance. Failure of government programs, at least for Democrats, does not mean that the programs are to blame, but only that the failing programs need more and more resources injected, and given more and more power to eliminate private sector competition that makes government look inefficient and inept.
The same can be said of Obama’s preposterous proposals to “combat” global warming by adding to the cost of energy, and thus of transportation, heating, and food. As Americans become poorer, their health will decrease. Meanwhile, since the program is guaranteed (according to EPA) to have negligible effect on climate, the need for increasing government intervention will become more evident. The fact that it was, according to the IPCC, government intervention that is the most direct cause of global warming (through limits on sulfate aerosols from power plants to fight “acid rain”, and substitution of non-CFC refrigerants that absorb prodigious levels of heat to fight the “ozone hole”) does not make governments confess that they need to admit their errors, but only encourages them to seize even more power, which they can abuse with even larger negative consequences for humanity and the environment.
coltakashi on 22 Dec 2009 at 5:00 pm #
Just saw this story: http://www.localnews8.com/Global/story.asp?S=11718082
Apparently Rex Rammell, running for governor in Idaho, is trying to have “Mormon only” meetings with potential supporters. This is a terrible idea because there is a determined anti-Mormon faction in Idaho that is not above raising conspiracy theories about Mormons taking over state government.
This was a tactic that was used by a previous Republican to smear Larry Echohawk, the Democratic gubernatorial candidate who was then the state Attorney General (The current Idaho AG is also a Mormon, and is rumored to have further political ambitions). Echohawk had a fundraiser in a rented reception room at a downtown office building that is owned by the LDS Church but has restaurants open to the public and rents rooms for wedding receptions and other functions. The reception was held during the lunch break of the Saturday session of the semi-annual LDS Church General Conference that is held in Salt Lake every April and October, and the Idaho news reports, and hnis opponent’s statements, portrayed it as an official LDS Church function endorsing Echohawk, which was the kiss of death for his candidacy. He already had two strikes against him for being a Democrat and an Indian. He is now head of the Bureau of Indian Affairs on leave from his professorship at BYU Law School.
Idaho has a history of 19th Century blatant discriminaiton against Mormons, including denial of all civil rights, including voting. Some of those laws were not even taken off the books until well into the 209th Century, even though enforcement had ceased.
Rammell makes things worse by announcing that he is running to fulfill the apocryphal, poorly attested “white horse prophecy” attributed to Joseph Smith, in which LDS elders will ride to the rescue of the US Constitution when it is “hanging by a thread”. He is clearly trying to make himself into the “Mormon” candidate, and he will undoubtedly come to the same end as Huckabee in trying to make religious affiliaiton the crux of his election when the people he needs to vote for him go way beyond the LDS Church membership and have to include people who need to be persuaded that he is not going to favor the LDS minority in Idaho. Rammell’s actions show a poor understanding of LDS doctrine, as well as of the policy of the Church leaders to avoid mixing Church membership with partisan politics. I would frankly not be surprised to learn that Rammell was taken aside by his local stake president and told to cease and desist from trying to imply an official Church endorsement of his candidacy.
Rammell has become notorious in Idaho over his run-ins with the State over his elk ranch. His politics appear to be pretty idiosyncratic and outside the mainstream of either party. That is his privilege, but all he will accomplish by trying to tie his candidacy to the LDS Church is to feed prejudice and paranoia among some Idahoans, and by people like Huckabee supporters and their left wing atheist counterparts.