This is interesting news.
Rep.-elect Keith Ellison, the first Muslim elected to Congress, found himself under attack last month when he announced he'd take his oath of office on the Koran -- especially from Virginia Rep. Virgil Goode, who called it a threat to American values.
Yet the holy book at tomorrow's ceremony has an unassailably all-American provenance. We've learned that the new congressman -- in a savvy bit of political symbolism -- will hold the personal copy once owned by Thomas Jefferson.
From what I've been able to gather, Jefferson and the other key Founders believed the Muslim religion contained the same basic Truth as Christianity and was thus a valid way to God. Why? Because it taught, in Franklin's words:
I believe in one God, Creator of the Universe. That He governs it by his Providence. That he ought to be worshipped. That the most acceptable Service we can render to him, is doing Good to his other Children. That the Soul of Man is immortal, and will be treated with Justice in another Life respecting its Conduct in this.
2 comments:
Mohammadeanism is usually referred to by the Founders' happy talk in an inchoate soup along with other non-Christian religions.
It is doubtful they knew much about it. Certainlythat benevolent, providential God they took for granted as a result of their Judeo-Christian acculturation is scarce to be found there. Neither is natural law.
As much as some Founders tried to modify or edit the God of the Bible into one more of their liking, theirs (He) conforms to no other belief system than the Judeo-Christian one. But, for the sake of happytalking ourselves, we could in theory go with "Abrahamic."
(Altho there were few Jews in America at the founding, Judeo- is often appended to "Christian" in these discussions, precisely to obviate the question of Jesus' divinity, which is immaterial to the central issue.)
I don't know Tom. The Old Testament God says some pretty harsh things along the line of Allah. Indeed, many of the brutal rules in Sharia come straight from the OT.
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