Rep. Mary Miller ― a Republican from Illinois who once praised Adolf Hitler ― wrote, edited and ultimately deleted a social media post decrying “a Muslim” speaking in Congress.

“It’s deeply troubling that a Muslim was allowed to lead prayer in the House of Representatives this morning. This should have never been allowed to happen,” she wrote Friday. “American was founded as a Christian nation, and I believe our government should reflect that truth. May God have mercy!”

The man leading the prayer was guest chaplain Giani Singh, a follower of the Sikh faith, not Islam. Miller’s Republican colleague Rep. Jeff Van Drew (N.J.) introduced him as such on Friday.

  • EndOfLine@lemmy.world
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    23 days ago

    American was founded as a Christian nation

    – Every American Christian Bigot

    Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof

    – First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States

    🤔

    • hume_lemmy@lemmy.ca
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      23 days ago

      Don’t forget:

      The government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion.

      – John Adams

      • barneypiccolo@lemm.ee
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        23 days ago

        Thomas Jefferson had his own personally edited version of the Bible that focused on the philosophies and stories in the Bible, and left out the supernatural mythology and fairy tales. There were parts of the religion he liked, but he was clearly uncomfortable with the actual religious parts of it.

        And he actually WROTE the founding documents.

      • Boddhisatva@lemmy.world
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        23 days ago

        “As the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion, as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religious or tranquility of Musselmen [Muslim peoples], and as the said States never have entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mehomitan [Muslim] nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.” - Treaty of Tripoli, signed 1797.

    • barneypiccolo@lemm.ee
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      23 days ago

      It literally says “Congress,” of which she is a member.

      Every newly elected Congressional Rep and Senator should have to pass a difficult, graduate-level test on the history of the United States, and the Constitution, before being sworn into office. You can’t be sworn in until you pass the test. These people are tasked with leading our country. Knowing the basics is the least we can demand of them.

      • wolfpack86@lemmy.world
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        22 days ago

        I’m with you in your frustration, but this only furthers a class of elites being eligible to govern. The test needs to be at a level that anyone going through compulsory education could pass. Eg 8th grade.

        Additionally, I would do the test at candidate registration. There is no pass fail, but the electorate can decide if they’re qualified enough (as it’s the right of the electorate).

        Maybe it doesn’t fix it fully but we can directly point to who is a moron, and who voted for said morons.

        • barneypiccolo@lemm.ee
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          22 days ago

          Valid suggestions. My suggestion was just a starting point, and yours offers some good adjustments. I worry the educational standards being different in all states may make it harder for those in some states to pass the test.

          Besides, I don’t think we want some schlub off the street that barely knows an 8th grade level of history/civics running our country. I want people who take it seriously, and have sought further knowledge, education, and insight into the government. I don’t see anything wrong with experts managing the country. Part of the problem we have now is that we have evil morons whose entire political and historical education has come from the Conservative Propaganda Machine, and believe that Intolerance is a virtue.

          I have always had a problem with the word “elites.” Somehow it has become a term of disparagement, often a dog whistle for Jews. Oxford dictionary defines it as:

          a select group that is superior in terms of ability or qualities to the rest of a group or society.

          Isn’t that who we want running our country?

    • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
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      21 days ago

      These dumbasses still have not figured out that the very first of the Ten Commandments and the Bill of Rights are in direct conflict, LOL. If they want a xtian nation, they should fuck off and move to the Vatican.

    • grue@lemmy.world
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      23 days ago

      Well you see, the thing about conservatives is that they are fucking stupid self-serving liars.

      FTFY

      This bitch knows damn well America isn’t a “Christian nation,” but she’ll shout it from the rooftops if she thinks she can get away with it in order to advance her hateful, bigoted agenda.

      Do. Not. Give. Her. Any. Benefit. Of. The. Doubt.

      • Sunflier@lemmy.world
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        23 days ago

        Well you see, the thing about conservatives is that they are fucking stupid self-serving liars evil.

        Fixed it for you. Some of the old school Republicans are that, true. But, this new Republican party adopted their sinister mindset because “god said so”. While a few of them are motivated by greed, this shit-fest is motivated by legitimate belief. Incidentally, this is the same minset that motivated the crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, the Salem witch trials, 9/11, and ISIS. Its a fundamentalist mindset where they can jusify evil in god’s name.

        This bitch knows damn well America isn’t a “Christian nation,”

        Maybe, or maybe she actually believes the lie. Or, maybe, she thinks it her mission to turn the United States into the holy land (ISIS thought the same thing about the middle east, and probably the world).

        she’ll shout it from the rooftops if she thinks she can get away with it in order to advance her hateful, bigoted agenda.

        Yep. She’s a true believer.

        • grue@lemmy.world
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          23 days ago

          Counterpoint: none of the beliefs you mentioned, from the Crusades to the Inquisition, were ever “legitimate.” Evil is never legitimate, by definition.

  • fluxion@lemmy.world
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    23 days ago

    Dumbfuck can’t even get her religions straight, and apparently she thinks America was founded to be a Christian theocracy. Astoundingly ignorant and misinformed, yet there she sits Congress, governing the nation with her 2 brain cells.

    • rottingleaf@lemmy.world
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      23 days ago

      But social media are garbage because of the platform. It’s just built the way to present it as how the users are.

      It’s like saying that gasoline is not the cracking process, it’s the oil.

    • billwashere@lemmy.world
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      22 days ago

      Sometimes I really wish the founding fathers were around to just say, “Yeah, we were all atheists when we did this America thing. It just wasn’t fashionable at the time. So this idea that American was founded on Christianity, is well, just bullshit”

      I mean they were literally fleeing religious persecution. Why would they bake religion into what they were creating?

      • Critical_Thinker@lemm.ee
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        21 days ago

        they were literally fleeing religious persecution. Why would they bake religion into what they were creating?

        Because everyone thinks their opinions are the right ones.

        Someone persecuting you doesn’t mean you’ll go somewhere else and not persecute others who are not on your side.

    • bss03@infosec.pub
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      21 days ago

      the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion

      – Treaty of Tripoli, 1797

  • barnaclebutt@lemmy.world
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    23 days ago

    Pepperidge farms remembers when bigots were shamed away from talking not their target minorities.

  • ChonkyOwlbear@lemmy.world
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    23 days ago

    Mary Miller represents district 15 which surrounds but does not include both Springfield and St. Louis. It is 90% white, 2.9% black, and 2.8% Hispanic. There are basically no non-Republican elected officials above the county level and voted overwhelmingly for Trump. This district became home of the second resurgence of the KKK in Illinois in the 1920s and has stayed their home through resurgences in the 1950s and 1990s.

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      23 days ago

      One of the most insufferable people I have ever known lives in her district. He moved there willingly because of politics. I cut ties entirely over a year ago and it’s been great.

      I almost feel less bald for it. (A lie.)

  • MehBlah@lemmy.world
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    22 days ago

    The US was founded as a secular state… No getting around that. There were only a few devout christians in the original group of founding fathers. Most were deist. They had the recent memory of the thirty years wars where catholic and protestant armies had rampaged back and forth across Europe stealing the peoples food. Raping and burning out anyone who wouldn’t convert. They did this to many who did convert. It was said at the time that they everyone kept two sets of bibles. They just hid one or the other depending on who had taken over at the time. That asshole regressive wouldn’t ever be willing to admit that. Because she is too stupid to learn it.

    • Zenith@lemm.ee
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      22 days ago

      A secular nation shouldn’t be having in house prayers from any denomination.

    • billwashere@lemmy.world
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      22 days ago

      I would take it one step further and say they (founding fathers) were possibly even atheists, or at the extreme, very agnostic theists with the idea that IF god does exist, he doesn’t care or bother about us (which of course is deism). It would have been very unpopular back then to say god doesn’t exist, so deism was a step in that direction. Just my theory.

      • MehBlah@lemmy.world
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        22 days ago

        In some cases sure. Hamilton was very religious. He was also tolerant of other. The main consensus among the founding fathers was tolerance of differing beliefs. Something these ignorant fools today never learnt or most probably ignore.

        • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
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          21 days ago

          Today’s reactionaries hate the (actual) American project as much as Tories way back when did.

          They hate it with every fiber of their being. All their rhetoric about “America first” and the flag-waving and the pearl-clutching over “the troops”…all performative bullshit. They hate liberal democracy, they hate the Constitution, they hate the rule of law, and they hate freedom.

    • SkunkWorkz@lemmy.world
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      22 days ago

      Then why is a chaplain leading prayer in Congress? A secular nation wouldn’t even have opening prayers at any branch of government.

      • crusa187@lemmy.ml
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        21 days ago

        Because religious zealots have infiltrated and subverted our government into something barely recognizable. Separation of church and state is a vital part of the US constitution, it’s quite sad to see that forgotten or ignored by our supposed “leaders” in Congress in order to appease radical religious fundamentalists.

    • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
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      21 days ago

      Yeah, that’s the really fucked up part of all of this. Being a USian, I knew this kind of thing, though.

      This Karen is just miffed that xtianity is not given maximum unwarranted special privileges: “oh, we’ll allow you people who have not opted in to our chosen lifestyle to exist (for now), but at every opportunity, we’ll rub your noses in it that we think our chosen lifestyle’s adherents are special little snowflakes that deserve praise for their lifestyle, and use the government to do it.”

  • LordCrom@lemmy.world
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    22 days ago

    GOP keeps saying ‘this is a Christian nation’, but they don’t want understand separation of church and state.

    There is no state religion. If you open a state body to prayer, then all prayer is allowed, not just the prayers you want.

    Long live the satanic temple.

    • Zenith@lemm.ee
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      22 days ago

      There should be no prayer in a secular institution

      It’s a place for running a government not magical thinking

    • CalipherJones@lemmy.world
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      22 days ago

      Oh they understand perfectly well. Hence why they’re trying to destroy the separation of church and state.

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    22 days ago

    This is indeed deeply troubling. Whoever voted for that racist piece of shit should be ashamed

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    22 days ago

    The thought path of a short-minded individual: Turban->Muslim.

    I’m all for a minimum IQ to enter politics. This would probably disqualify 50% of Congress & Senate. And 100% of the cabinet.

    • epicstove@lemmy.ca
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      21 days ago

      I heard somewhere that one of the first hate crimes against Muslims following 9/11 was against a Sikh person…

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      21 days ago

      IQ is a poor metric (for just about anything).

      We do need to work on election reform so that our elected representatives are more representative. Getting more people to vote (turn out in the U.S. is fairly low), avoiding partizan gerrymandering, using something other than FPtP.

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        21 days ago

        That notwithstanding, but being as stupid and uneducated as US politicians regularly appear, such a regulation would be helpful regardless of how they are elected.

        • bss03@infosec.pub
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          I disagree that an IQ restriction would be an improvement. It would just be another tool used by authority to marginalize. Competency tests have been used as such in both the U.S. South and Nazi Germany.

          Improving the electorate and having the output of the voting process reflect their will is the only way forward.