Can't we lock this guy in a baptismal tub until he converts?
Or just agrees to go away and stop trying to impose his atheism on the rest of us?
The California lawyer who tried to have the phrase "under God" removed from the Pledge of Allegiance now wants to legally prevent President Bush from placing his hand on a Bible while being sworn in at his inauguration.
Michael Newdow, an atheist doctor and lawyer from Sacramento, has filed a complaint and a motion for preliminary injunction in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, seeking to remove prayer and all "Christian religious acts" from the January 20th inauguration.
Except, of course, that presidents have been placing their hands on Bibles while being sworn in for over two centuries (Teddy Roosevelt in 1901 being the lone exception). And President Bush is a Christian. While nothing in the Constitution requires him to use a Bible, neither is their anything in the text demanding that he renounce his faith in public.
More to the point, this is precisely the kind of petty persecution that is helping to grow "Jesusland" by leaps and bounds. If Newdow truly wants to stamp out Christianity in America - and remember that the Soviet communists couldn't do it in Russia with the worst police state the world has ever seen and over seventy-four years in which to try - he would be wise to try a less, shall we say, confrontational means. Or at least one that is substantially less obnoxious.
One has to love the irony of Newdow's language in his December 17th filing, that such practices as the prayers of Christian ministers, the singing of Christian songs, and the swearing of the oath of office while placing a hand on the Bible "turn people into second-class citizens and create division on the basis of religion," he said yesterday.
Looks to me like it's Christians that Newdow wants to turn into "second-class citizens," and that it is he who is creating a "division on the basis of religion." Or, more to the point, his bigoted hatred of it.
[Hat tip: Blogs for Bush]
UPDATE: U.S. District Judge John Bates said Michael Newdow had no legal basis to pursue his claim because he could not show he would suffer any injury from hearing the prayer.
Perhaps as a goodwill, "no hard feelings" gesture, Mr. Newdow can rent a limousine to take the invited clergymen to the Capitol....
The California lawyer who tried to have the phrase "under God" removed from the Pledge of Allegiance now wants to legally prevent President Bush from placing his hand on a Bible while being sworn in at his inauguration.
Michael Newdow, an atheist doctor and lawyer from Sacramento, has filed a complaint and a motion for preliminary injunction in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, seeking to remove prayer and all "Christian religious acts" from the January 20th inauguration.
Except, of course, that presidents have been placing their hands on Bibles while being sworn in for over two centuries (Teddy Roosevelt in 1901 being the lone exception). And President Bush is a Christian. While nothing in the Constitution requires him to use a Bible, neither is their anything in the text demanding that he renounce his faith in public.
More to the point, this is precisely the kind of petty persecution that is helping to grow "Jesusland" by leaps and bounds. If Newdow truly wants to stamp out Christianity in America - and remember that the Soviet communists couldn't do it in Russia with the worst police state the world has ever seen and over seventy-four years in which to try - he would be wise to try a less, shall we say, confrontational means. Or at least one that is substantially less obnoxious.
One has to love the irony of Newdow's language in his December 17th filing, that such practices as the prayers of Christian ministers, the singing of Christian songs, and the swearing of the oath of office while placing a hand on the Bible "turn people into second-class citizens and create division on the basis of religion," he said yesterday.
Looks to me like it's Christians that Newdow wants to turn into "second-class citizens," and that it is he who is creating a "division on the basis of religion." Or, more to the point, his bigoted hatred of it.
[Hat tip: Blogs for Bush]
UPDATE: U.S. District Judge John Bates said Michael Newdow had no legal basis to pursue his claim because he could not show he would suffer any injury from hearing the prayer.
Perhaps as a goodwill, "no hard feelings" gesture, Mr. Newdow can rent a limousine to take the invited clergymen to the Capitol....
posted by JASmius at 7:35 PM
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