c. 2007 Religion News Service
(UNDATED) Americans have recently witnessed some historical events, but we frequently fail to recognize their importance. It’s only looking back years later when we realize, “Hey, that was significant, but we didn’t know it at the time.”
For that reason, I want to fast-forward the lengthy recognition process called history and cite some real-time historical milestones.
Keith Ellison: The first Muslim elected to Congress, former Catholic Keith Ellison, D-Minn., took a private oath of office on the Quran, Islam’s sacred text. Both his election last November and his use of the Quran created a storm of criticism from some Christians and Jews _ including Rep. Virgil Goode, a Virginia Republican who suggested tougher immigration laws were needed to keep more Muslims like Ellison out of Congress.
Often lost in the controversy is the fact that swearing upon the Hebrew Scriptures, the New Testament, a prayer book or any other religious text is not required to serve as an elected official; only the public oath to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution.” Even the phrase “So help me God” is an add-on many political leaders have appended to their oaths within the last century.
Ellison, however, had the last laugh on his critics. He did not use his personal Quran, but rather one owned by none other than President Thomas Jefferson, a fierce defender of freedom of conscience as well as the author of the 1786 Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom and the famous phrase about “a wall of separation” between church and state.
Jews in Congress: Jews outnumber Episcopalians in both the House (30 to 27) and the Senate (13 to 10). For Jews, this is a sign of growing political maturity for a religious community that only a few decades ago was satisfied, even elated, to see its members serve in appointed, not elected, public positions. But Episcopalians shouldn’t be downhearted. After all, George H.W. Bush, Gerald Ford, Franklin D. Roosevelt and George Washington were all Episcopalians.
Tom Lantos: Rep. Tom Lantos, D-Calif., the only Holocaust survivor serving in Congress, is the new chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Lantos’ remarkable odyssey from his native Hungary to the halls of Congress is a tribute to both him and America. In many ways, he is a witness to the horrific Holocaust years of 1933-1945 and a living refutation to the obscene Holocaust deniers, including Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
James Clyburn: Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., is the new majority whip in the House and only the second African-American to hold that position. Clyburn ranks just behind newly elected Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. _ the first woman to be elected to that position _ and Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., the majority leader, in the House leadership.
Zalmay Khalilzad: President Bush has nominated a Muslim, Zalmay Khalilzad, to serve as the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Khalilzad, currently our ambassador in Iraq, was born in Afghanistan. In past years the top American officials at the U.N. have included two ordained Christian ministers, John Danforth and Andrew Young; a Jewish Supreme Court justice, Arthur Goldberg; a Roman Catholic university professor, Jeanne Kirkpatrick; and a defeated Unitarian presidential candidate, Adlai Stevenson.
Barack Obama: “The Audacity of Hope” is No. 1 on the New York Times best-seller list. Its author, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., the child of a black Kenyan father and a white Kansas mother, was born in Hawaii. While Obama’s middle name is Hussein, he is a Protestant who spent some of his early years in Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim nation.
Obama is a likely candidate for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination. Yet I am old enough to remember when “miscegenation” was a crime in some states in America.
Mitt Romney: Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney recently raised $6.5 million in one day to aid his campaign to capture next year’s GOP presidential nomination. If elected, Romney would be the nation’s first Mormon president. While political pundits and pollsters ponder “whether America is ready for a Mormon in the White House,” Romney’s fast-growing church is now the fourth largest in the U.S., trailing only Roman Catholics, Southern Baptists and Methodists.
New York: How about this trifecta historical milestone in 2008? Three New Yorkers (potentially) running for the White House. The Republicans nominate Rudolph Giuliani (Catholic), Democrats select Hillary Clinton (Protestant), and Michael Bloomberg (Jewish) runs as an Independent. Could it happen? Stay tuned.
(Rabbi Rudin, the American Jewish Committee’s senior interreligious adviser, is the author of the recently published book “The Baptizing of America: The Religious Right’s Plans for the Rest of Us.”)
KRE/PH END RUDIN
Editors: To obtain a photo of Rabbi Rudin, go to the RNS Web site at https://religionnews.com. On the lower right, click on “photos,” then search by subject or slug. If searching by subject, designate “exact phrase” for best results.
