More than four million people live in Harris County, Texas, which includes the city of Houston—home to the largest Muslim population in Texas and one of the largest in the southern U.S., according to the Houston Chronicle. It has more than 1,000 precincts, each of which is represented by a chair, nominated by committee and voted on by the local party. Syed Ali, 62, who the Washington Post reports has been a Republican since the Reagan administration, was tapped to be one of those precinct chairs, before Gordon interrupted with his motion…. “Islam and Christianity do not mix,” Gordon said. “During my prayer, this man did not bow his head. During the pledge of allegiance, he did not utter a word. He didn’t even try to fake it and move his lips.”…. “If you believe that a person can practice Islam and agree to the foundational principles of the Republican Party, it’s not right. It’s not true. It can’t happen. There are things on our platform that he and his beliefs are total opposite.”
Having lived in Harris County for 10+ years (repeat after me: “3722 days…not that I was counting”), this story barely surprises. The Houston metropolitan area may be home to many wonderful things and people, though not nearly enough to keep me there. Sadly, it also has the highest concentration of “kill-‘em-and-grill-‘em” Christians, those “holier than thou” sorts who wield their Christianity like a club to bludgeon those not enlightened enough to accept the Prince of Peace as the personal Lord and Savior. These arch-Conservative Christian soldiers live their lives with two unshakable beliefs:
- God’s a Republican.
- If you ain’t got Jesus, you ain’t shit.
That may seem a harsh judgment, but if you’d spent a decade living under the umbrella of the American Taliban, I suspect you probably wouldn’t be feeling especially magnanimous. Houston is home to a number of megachurches, most notably Joel Osteen’s Lakewood Church, which spend millions on everything except what Jesus would have done. These faux-Christians are big on spending large sums on the trappings of religiosity…while also doing comparatively little to heal the sick, feed the hungry, and house the poor.
‘Cuz that would be socialism…and giveaways only create dependence and stifle personal initiative, don’tchaknow?
Those assembled on Monday debated Gordon’s motion, the Post reports. When one man pointed out that it was against the law to discriminate on the basis of religion; in turn, precinct chair Mike Robertson actually asked whether Islam is, in fact, a religion. “Can I have a point of information?” Robertson said. “Has there been any factual information provided that Islam is a religion?”
The motion was voted down, and Ali was instated as precinct chair. “It doesn’t bother me at all, as a Republican, as an American, as a Muslim,” he told the Post. “Everyone’s entitled to their view.”
That a Christian pastor, an alleged “man of God” could in all seriousness advocate against allowing a Muslim the same entree in political involvement he takes as his birthright is as offensive as it is unAmerican and unChristian. The idea that a man who chooses not to recite the Pledge of Allegiance or bow his head during a prayer is somehow not a “real” American is absurd. That this argument was made by a Christian pastor- a man who made a commitment to the teachings of Jesus Christ and to leading a Christ-like life- is astonishing in its arrogance and self-righteousness. Not that I’m at all surprised it happened in Harris County.
So much for the separation of Church and State, eh? More like the separation of tolerance and simple human decency. Besides, to the American Taliban’s way of thinking, the separation of Church and States is for losers and godless Liberals.
When a person who’s committed to spreading the Gospel- and it’s teachings, which include love, tolerance, inclusion, and acceptance- is the one cranking up the hate…well, it’s not hard to see why I consider myself good without God, eh?
