Friday, December 14, 2007

Congress and Christmas

One of the more controversial stories being reported on Capital Hill this week deals with Christmas. On Tuesday, December 11, H.Res. 847, a bill recognizing the importance of Christmas and the Christian faith was passed by the House of Representatives. The bill in and of itself doesn’t seem controversial since it overwhelmingly passed 372-9 with 10 voting “Present” and 40 representatives not voting. The controversy to some including the bill’s lead sponsor, Rep. Steve King (IA-5), is the fact that the nine that voted in opposition have also voted to support similar resolutions honoring the holidays of Islam and Hinduism – all of which passed without any Nay (NO) votes. In an interview with Fox News Rep. King said "The [nine] naysayers didn’t make it to the floor to debate. I would like to know how they could vote Yes on Islam, Yes on the Indian Religions and No on Christianity when the foundation of this nation and our American culture is Christianity…I think there’s an assault on Christianity in America.”

While I agree with most of what Rep. King said – Christians need not the approval of Congress to justify their faith. The politics of America will change when the heart of America changes.

1 comment:

Swearengen said...

It would be interesting if you did a follow-up on the nine dissenters and what their public justification was.

Also, that last line is pretty poignant and you should expand on that.