Rep.-elect Keith Ellison, D-Minn., is the first Muslim elected to Congress, and he's opted to be sworn in on a copy of the Quran that belonged to Thomas Jefferson. Idiotic Republican Congressmen like Rep. Virgil Goode (R-Va) have espoused the unconstitutional belief that US elected officials must be sworn in on a Bible.
As Lessig points out, "Congressman Goode: The Constitution which you studied as a law student at Virginia, and swore to defend as a member of the “105th, the 106th, the 107th, 108th and the 109th Congress” says this: 'but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States' (Article VI, section 3) Does your oath to the Constitution not include this section? Or do you simply not take the oath you took seriously?"
"It demonstrates that from the very beginning of our country, we had people who were visionary, who were religiously tolerant, who believed that knowledge and wisdom could be gleamed from any number of sources, including the Quran," Ellison said in a telephone interview Wednesday.
"A visionary like Thomas Jefferson was not afraid of a different belief system," Ellison said. "This just shows that religious tolerance is the bedrock of our country, and religious differences are nothing to be afraid of."
(via Lessig)
Update:
T sez, "Congressman Goode is probably still upset about what Jefferson did to his Bible:
Jefferson wished to extract the doctrine of Jesus by removing sections of the New Testament containing supernatural aspects as well as perceived misinterpretations he believed had been added by the Four Evangelists.
Update 2: Someone has stenciled the word BIGOT on the window of Virgil Goode's constituency office. (Thanks, Xeni!)
