10 March 2011

Pot, Meet Kettle

After Rep. King's hearing yesterday, and in the interest of fair and balanced coverage of the issues he was attempting to raise, I request — no, I demand — that he call the following individuals and organizations and require them to give testimony under oath on radicalization of religious beliefs and the invidious effect that has on both individuals and society:

  • On behalf of the Westboro Baptist Church, Fred Phelps, to be questioned on the relationship between his religious beliefs and the personal and religious beliefs of the families of slain soldiers, sailors, and airmen;
  • Scott Roeder and his victim's widow, Jeanne Tiller, to be questioned on religious justification for not civil disobedience against legal activities disapproved on sectarian grounds, but on violence and assassination;
  • Warren Jeffs and a few of his cronies, to be questioned on the status of women and children in modern Christianity;
  • Seán Patrick O'Malley and a few of his cohorts, to be questioned on screening and behavioral standards for church leaders and on washing one's hands of responsibility for one's subordinates' misconduct;
  • Tim & Rebecca Wyland, Dale & Leilani Neumann, and Herbert & Catherine Schaible, to be questioned on health-care and child-care standards for parents and children;
  • The ghost of Meir Kahane, to be questioned on the relationship among the arts, radical Zionism, and moderately effective high explosives... and on the price paid by bystanders

Rep. King, Islam is not the problem. Fundamentalism is the problem, regardless of religion; or, more broadly, the insertion of religion into politics... explicitly including your own use of the process of the House of Representatives in bad faith to advance your own personal agenda through bigotry.