Repubs To Read Bible On House Floor
Glappy Dick printable version print page     Bookmark and Share
Wed Jan 26, 2011 at 07:26:03 AM EST

 In the wake of their recent reading of the Constitution of the United States on the floor of the House of Representatives, Republican lawmakers have announced they intend to do the same with the entire Bible.

 
    “It’s about time that this legislative body, the people’s house, openly recognized the Christian principles this nation was founded upon,” said John Boehner, the new Speaker of the House.  Standing at Boehner’s side, majority leader Eric Cantor hastily added “The Judeo-Christian principles this country was founded upon.”  Speaker Boehner immediately tearfully apologized to his colleague.

Mindful that some Americans might find a public reading of the Bible as irresponsibly time consuming in an era of economic downturn and war, Republicans were quick to assure, off the record, that they would be editing the Bible even more aggressively than they did the Constitution.

 
    “In the beginning, you've got all this begetting," said a Congressional staffer.  "And all this 'wink wink' knowing," he continued.  “Cain knew his wife, and this person knew that person.  Now, we all know...I mean we all recognize what was really going on, and as Republicans we believe it is a beautiful and sacred act between a man and his mistress or prostitute, but not something to be blabbing about in a public forum.” 


    “Then you’ve got the whole slavery issue,” the staff member continued.  “Now, a lot of our Southern delegation, justifiably proud of the one hundred and fifty year anniversary of the founding of the Confederacy, have pointed out that the Bible implores us to treat our slaves well.  But we’ve decided to just drop all passages that pertain to the issue, just as we did with the Constitution.” 


    Similarly, the House GOP will be highly selective in their reading of Old Testament admonishments.  “You better believe we’re going to be highlighting how homosexuality is an abomination,” a staffer of a veteran Republican congressman  said.  “But as to a lot of those other abominations, such as working on Sunday?  Well, I’ve been here for years, and I can tell you that as far as my party’s congressmen and senators are concerned, working any more than Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday is considered an abomination.  But by the same token, if it's a Sunday and the lawn needs mowing or the house needs cleaning up from last night’s cocktail party, we don’t want Hector and Maria throwing any holy admonishments in our face when there’s work to be done.” 


    An anonymous aide to Speaker Boehner spoke of the difficulty the Republicans were having with the issue of marriage as portrayed in the Old Testament.  “I mean, we’ve campaigned against gay marriage by saying it runs contrary to traditional marriage as portrayed in the Bible.  But it turns out that while there is some stuff about wives submitting  to their husbands, which is pure gold mind you, marriage in the Bible is all about men impregnating their dead brother’s wives.  I mean, who would take the child tax credit in such a situation?  And having  multiple wives?  I mean, as Republicans we’re all in favor of having several wives, but consecutively, not concurrently!  You know, it sounds positively Muslim, although when I said that within earshot of Senator Hatch he looked genuinely pissed off at me for some reason.” 


    A source close to Representative Cantor, the only Jewish Republican in Congress, indicated that the Congressman has expressed concern that he not be called upon to read any New Testament passages pertaining to Jesus as the messiah. 
    The source indicated that Cantor's request will likely be quite easy to accomodate, as those sections of the Bible dealing with Christ are slated to be the most heavily redacted.   


    “Be your brother’s keeper?  Turn the other cheek?  If a man asks you for his shirt, give him your coat as well?  I mean Jesus, give me a break!" said the staffer.  "Frankly, we’ve got a lot more trouble with this sort of commie crap than we do the whole slavery thing," he continued.   "And ‘Render unto Ceasar that which is Ceasar’s?’  Now if that isn’t a tacit approval of taxation I don’t know what is.  As Republicans, we believe there is no justification for taxation, ever, except of course to provide support to our brave fighting defense contractors.” 


    An aide to an incoming Republican freshman, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said that members would concentrate their attention on the story of Christ’s birth, which, he said,  “We all love, especially the part with the little drummer boy.  We figure we can divvy up the ‘parum pa pa pums’ between a good dozen and a half representatives.” 


    Continuing, the aide indicated that when the House member reads aloud the section of the Gospels detailing how one of the wise men presented the Christ child with a gift of gold, “We’re all going to turn our heads up to face the gallery, where Glenn Beck and representatives from one of his major sponsors will be seated.  It will be great theater.” 


    “After we’re through the Gospels, it will be pretty quick sailing” said an assistant to a high ranking Republican committee head.  “We can’t be reading Paul’s letter where he says that marriage is only preferable as an alternative to burning.  As Republicans, we love marriage, which is why so many of us have been married several times.” 


    The Bible’s final book, Revelations, will be left out completely from the public reading. “It’s weird, psychedelic stuff,” said a member of Speaker Boehner’s staff.  “We don’t want anybody taking it as an endorsement of using any drugs that weren’t manufactured by our friends in the pharmaceutical industry.” 


  While the public reading of the Bible from the well of the House of Representatives is unprecedented, the same Boehner staff member was adamant that the Bible itself was commonplace within the chamber.  “Most of our Republican members like to stand on the Bible, in an effort to make themselves look taller,” he said. If you ever wanted to live in a wonderful part of the planet then it doesn't get better than Costa Rica. You can actually get real estate costa rica very easily and you can get more information at www.Costa-Rica-Real-Estates.com today. And you can also get information on costa rica vacation rentals if you just want to go there temporarily to enjoy your vacation. But otherwise, costa rica real estate isn't far out there because it's affordable and wonderful.

It is estimated that there are over 500,000 blogs and websites started a day so there is a great demand for unique domain names. At companies like Domain Match Makers they offer there clients great customer service and to prove this they recently completed a survey from their customers where they posted the reviews. That is transparency! This one stop shopping can help those that are looking to consolidate your services and simplify your blogging and website needs. They can help you register and acquire the most popular top level domain extensions and manage those properties in one easy to use account.



Display:
All of the references I have seen to this are exactly the same and read like a spoof.

by Rachel Tabachnick on Wed Jan 26, 2011 at 10:55:44 AM EST
The Religious Right would NEVER NEVER leave out one jot, one iota of the Bible.  Some of those statements sound like they're right out of the Republican playbook, but others almost sound like a slap at liberals.

While I wouldn't put it past Republicans to try to violate the separation of church and state - they've been trying (and have in some instances succeeded in this state), and reading from the Bible wouldn't surprise me either (seems to me I've heard of that actually happening a number of times), this doesn't fit their M.O.

The language certainly doesn't fit.

I'd keep my eyes on Snopes about this one!

by ArchaeoBob on Wed Jan 26, 2011 at 01:29:27 PM EST
Parent


I think they are going to have to cut out large parts of Isaiah and the minor prophets, also. The requirement to "...do justice, love kindness, walk humbly..."? Nope, that will never get read. What a fine satire! It's good to see that the spirit of Jonathan Swift lives on.

by MLouise on Wed Jan 26, 2011 at 03:01:56 PM EST
Parent


Yes, a funny spoof. But in seriousness, if they really were going to do this, why not just read the Golden Rule? After all, it is a summation of all the Law and the Prophets.
But 'do unto others as you would have done unto you' would be too disruptive for a body that routinely does harm unto others.

by COinMS on Thu Feb 10, 2011 at 09:00:42 AM EST


WWW Talk To Action


Cognitive Dissonance & Dominionism Denial
There is new research on why people are averse to hearing or learning about the views of ideological opponents. Based on evaluation of five......
By Frederick Clarkson (375 comments)
Will the Air Force Do Anything To Rein In Its Dynamic Duo of Gay-Bashing, Misogynistic Bloggers?
"I always get nervous when I see female pastors/chaplains. Here is why everyone should as well: "First, women are not called to be pastors,......
By Chris Rodda (203 comments)
The Legacy of Big Oil
The media is ablaze with the upcoming publication of David Grann's book, Killers of the Flower Moon. The shocking non fiction account of the......
By wilkyjr (111 comments)
Gimme That Old Time Dominionism Denial
Over the years, I have written a great deal here and in other venues about the explicitly theocratic movement called dominionism -- which has......
By Frederick Clarkson (101 comments)
History Advisor to Members of Congress Completely Twists Jefferson's Words to Support Muslim Ban
Pseudo-historian David Barton, best known for his misquoting of our country's founders to promote the notion that America was founded as a Christian nation,......
By Chris Rodda (113 comments)
"Christian Fighter Pilot" Calls First Lesbian Air Force Academy Commandant a Liar
In a new post on his "Christian Fighter Pilot" blog titled "BGen Kristin Goodwin and the USAFA Honor Code," Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan......
By Chris Rodda (144 comments)
Catholic Right Leader Unapologetic about Call for 'Death to Liberal Professors' -- UPDATED
Today, Donald Trump appointed C-FAM Executive Vice President Lisa Correnti to the US Delegation To UN Commission On Status Of Women. (C-FAM is a......
By Frederick Clarkson (126 comments)
Controlling Information
     Yesterday I listened to Russ Limbaugh.  Rush advised listeners it would be best that they not listen to CNN,MSNBC, ABC, CBS and......
By wilkyjr (118 comments)
Is Bannon Fifth-Columning the Pope?
In December 2016 I wrote about how White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, who likes to flash his Catholic credentials when it comes to......
By Frank Cocozzelli (251 comments)
Ross Douthat's Hackery on the Seemingly Incongruous Alliance of Bannon & Burke
Conservative Catholic writer Ross Douthat has dissembled again. This time, in a February 15, 2017 New York Times op-ed titled The Trump Era's Catholic......
By Frank Cocozzelli (64 comments)
`So-Called Patriots' Attack The Rule Of Law
Every so often, right-wing commentator Pat Buchanan lurches out of the far-right fever swamp where he has resided for the past 50 years to......
By Rob Boston (161 comments)
Bad Faith from Focus on the Family
Here is one from the archives, Feb 12, 2011, that serves as a reminder of how deeply disingenuous people can be. Appeals to seek......
By Frederick Clarkson (177 comments)
The Legacy of George Wallace
"One need not accept any of those views to agree that they had appealed to real concerns of real people, not to mindless, unreasoning......
By wilkyjr (70 comments)
Betsy DeVos's Mudsill View of Public Education
My Talk to Action colleague Rachel Tabachnick has been doing yeoman's work in explaining Betsy DeVos's long-term strategy for decimating universal public education. If......
By Frank Cocozzelli (80 comments)
Prince and DeVos Families at Intersection of Radical Free Market Privatizers and Religious Right
This post from 2011 surfaces important information about President-Elect Trump's nominee for Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos. -- FC Erik Prince, Brother of Betsy......
By Rachel Tabachnick (218 comments)

Respect for Others? or Political Correctness?
The term "political correctness" as used by Conservatives and Republicans has often puzzled me: what exactly do they mean by it? After reading Chip Berlin's piece here-- http://www.talk2action.org/story/2016/7/21/04356/9417 I thought about what he explained......
MTOLincoln (253 comments)
Fear
What I'm feeling now is fear.  I swear that it seems my nightmares are coming true with this new "president".  I'm also frustrated because so many people are not connecting all the dots! I've......
ArchaeoBob (107 comments)
"America - love it or LEAVE!"
I've been hearing that and similar sentiments fairly frequently in the last few days - far FAR more often than ever before.  Hearing about "consequences for burning the flag (actions) from Trump is chilling!......
ArchaeoBob (214 comments)
"Faked!" Meme
Keep your eyes and ears open for a possible move to try to discredit the people openly opposing Trump and the bigots, especially people who have experienced terrorism from the "Right"  (Christian Terrorism is......
ArchaeoBob (165 comments)
More aggressive proselytizing
My wife told me today of an experience she had this last week, where she was proselytized by a McDonald's employee while in the store. ......
ArchaeoBob (163 comments)
See if you recognize names on this list
This comes from the local newspaper, which was conservative before and took a hard right turn after it was sold. Hint: Sarah Palin's name is on it!  (It's also connected to Trump.) ......
ArchaeoBob (169 comments)
Unions: A Labor Day Discussion
This is a revision of an article which I posted on my personal board and also on Dailykos. I had an interesting discussion on a discussion board concerning Unions. I tried to piece it......
Xulon (180 comments)
Extremely obnoxious protesters at WitchsFest NYC: connected to NAR?
In July of this year, some extremely loud, obnoxious Christian-identified protesters showed up at WitchsFest, an annual Pagan street fair here in NYC.  Here's an account of the protest by Pagan writer Heather Greene......
Diane Vera (130 comments)
Capitalism and the Attack on the Imago Dei
I joined this site today, having been linked here by Crooksandliars' Blog Roundup. I thought I'd put up something I put up previously on my Wordpress blog and also at the DailyKos. As will......
Xulon (331 comments)
History of attitudes towards poverty and the churches.
Jesus is said to have stated that "The Poor will always be with you" and some Christians have used that to refuse to try to help the poor, because "they will always be with......
ArchaeoBob (149 comments)
Alternate economy medical treatment
Dogemperor wrote several times about the alternate economy structure that dominionists have built.  Well, it's actually made the news.  Pretty good article, although it doesn't get into how bad people could be (have been)......
ArchaeoBob (90 comments)
Evidence violence is more common than believed
Think I've been making things up about experiencing Christian Terrorism or exaggerating, or that it was an isolated incident?  I suggest you read this article (linked below in body), which is about our great......
ArchaeoBob (214 comments)

More Diaries...




All trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their respective companies. Comments, posts, stories, and all other content are owned by the authors. Everything else © 2005 Talk to Action, LLC.