Mitt Romney mentioned God in Wednesday night's debate; Barack Obama didn't. This inspire Sally Quinn to essentially declare that atheists are non-citizens at The Washington Post's On Faith blog:
This is a religious country. Part of claiming your citizenship is claiming a belief in God, even if you are not Christian.. We've got the Creator in our Declaration of Independence. We’ve got "In God We Trust" on our coins. We've got "one nation under God" in our Pledge of Allegiance. And we say prayers in the Senate and the House of Representatives to God.But atheists aren't the only people who should be insulted by Quinn's ignorant post. Here's her lede:
An atheist could never get elected dog catcher, much less president. (Democratic Rep. Pete Stark of California is a nontheist but doesn't talk much about it).
Up until now, the idea of being American and believing in God were synonymous.
When Mitt Romney mentioned the "Creator" in the debate Wednesday, he owned it. "We're all children of the same God," he said."That should have been President Obama's constituency"? What does she mean by that?
That's about 85 percent of the country he was talking to. That should have been President Obama's constituency but he let Romney have it as he let Romney have the debate.
I think what she means is that Barack Obama identifies himself as a Christian -- a real Christian, not, y'know, a Mormon. I think what Sally Quinn is saying is that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is not really a Christian church.
I don't have a dog in this particular hunt -- I'm an atheist, so it's Quinn decision to read me out of America that insults me personally. Nevertheless, I'm used to that. The entire mainstream D.C.-based political establishment does that.
But I think Quinn has insulted the Mormons, and even if I don't have any great love for the Mormons, I think the Mormon church deserve the same status as other Christian denominations.
I thought it was mostly religious-right hatemongers who felt this way about Mormons. Guess Quinn's no different.
(Also see BooMan and Wonkette.)
9 comments:
Peggy "Is It Noon Yet?" Noonan had better change the locks on her liquor cabinets - it looks like "Not So Mighty" Quinn got into her stash of 100 year old Absinthe!
Why is it that I think that a Mormon and a Muslim will both have been elected President before an Atheist is even considered a contender?
Sally, STFU and go back to gumming rum-soaked pound cake, and stop embarrassing yourself and your... Oh, wait, it's the WaPo, so it can't possibly be embarrassed any more than it already it is.
NEVER MIIIIIIIND...
It's hard to come up with fresh ideas for an idea-bankrupt candidate and party – so leave poor Sally alone, Goddamnit!
Crankily yours,
The New YOrk Crannk
I would hope she also insulted true Christians. As Cervantes wrote, "the devil lies behind the cross."
"You've got the Creator in my peanut butter!"
Sally should be changing Ben Bradlee's diapers or doing something else useful.
"Part of claiming your citizenship is claiming a belief in God", eh, Ms. Quinn? Funny, I've voted every chance I got since November 1972, registered for the draft, and have paid a hell of a lot of taxes, so I don't think I've exactly failed to "claim my citizenship" - but I've never "claimed a belief in God".
If this is the best that the East Coast cognoscenti can come up with, maybe I'm not missing so much living in Texas. Quinn would fit right in with Rick Perry and our State Board of Education.
Remember when Mark Halperin bragged to Hugh Hewitt that he'd hired interns from Bob Jones University? This is more of the same. This is a Beltway elitist looking at our Christianist-lite overlords and saying, "Yes, I'm with the program!"
On the "constituency" quote by Quinn, a "charitable" (i.e., not anti-Muslim) interpretation would be that people who believe in social justice, etc. and Democratic ideals are Obama's constituency consists .
Bush pere was running for president.
What's her excuse?
I for one would gleefully vote regardless the position or affiliation for the first to publically tell the adherents to The Jew/"Christian"/Muslim/Mormon Cult of Male Domination to eat shit, fuck off, and die.
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