Articles

Rep. Goode’s intolerance toward Muslim Congressman is misdirected

Opinion by John Baker Brown Jr.
Faith And The City e.Newsletter
January 5, 2007

Rep. Virgil Goode, the uninformed Republican Congressman from Virginia, sees a “threat to the nation’s traditional values” in the election to Congress of Keith Ellison, a Minnesota Democrat and Muslim American. I believe Rep. Goode’s intolerance is misdirected. As a member of Congress, he could better serve our nation by concerning himself with the moral turpitude of a disturbing number of his congressional colleagues of both parties, whose ethical lapses pose the real threat to America’s traditional values – at least the values that really count. Frankly, I believe the need for campaign finance reform and legislative lobbying reform are at least as urgent as any need for immigration reform.

As a child of the 1950s and 1960s, I am reminded that not so long ago the furor might well have been over Mr. Ellison’s race, which is African American. I also recall the concerns expressed by many over the presidential candidacy of John F. Kennedy, who became in 1961 the nation’s 35th chief executive and the first Catholic to occupy the Oval Office. But, of course, times have changed. Well, at least for most of us.

After all, we have a Mormon, Harry Reid, serving in the U.S. Senate and a woman, Nancy Pelosi, as Speaker of the House. There are countless examples daily of our nation’s increasingly diverse population – diversity that must be reflected in our democratic institutions if they are to become truly and finally democratic.

One more thing: What a great opportunity for President George W. Bush to publicly admonish Rep. Goode and personally welcome Rep. Ellison to Washington. That could convey an important message to Americans and to the world about our nation’s ideals and the true spirit of the democracy that we are so desperately seeking to introduce in Afghanistan and Iraq at such a staggering cost to the people of those nations and our own.

The writer serves as director of communications for Faith And The City and editor of the Faith And The City e.Newsletter. He can be reached at jbrown@faithandthecity.org.

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