Journalist Says Rep. Goode Wants to Preserve Nation's Christian Heritageby Jim Brown
January 5, 2007
(AgapePress) - - A former GOP official says a Virginia congressman is being unfairly criticized for his comments regarding the first Muslim elected to Congress.
The first Muslim elected to Congress has taken his ceremonial oath of office on a Koran that was owned by Thomas Jefferson. Democratic Congressman Keith Ellison of Minnesota borrowed Jefferson's personal copy of Islam's holy book from the Library of Congress for Thursday's ceremony with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Ever since Ellison announced his intentions to use the Koran during his ceremonial swearing-in, critics have objected that oaths of office should only be taken on a Bible. Among those critics was Virginia Republican Virgil Goode who last month denounced Ellison's plan and warned his constituents that unless American citizens "wake up and adopt the Virgil Goode position on immigration," there will be many more Muslim members of Congress "demanding the use of the Koran."
Goode, who represents the Fifth District in northern Virginia, has since been called a "bigot" and a "racist," and has even received condemnation from some within his own party -- Senators Lindsey Graham (SC) and John Warner (VA) among them. But John Lofton, a self-described "recovering Republican" who is editor of TheAmericanView.com, says Goode merely wants to preserve the Christian heritage of the United States.
"There's a sense in which [what Goode said is] not all that exciting a statement," Lofton says. "You'd think every Christian in America would want to preserve our heritage; that was his point."
Continuing in his defense of the Virginia congressman, the journalist says: "You've got to be careful who you let into your country or who you elect, because if they have different religions, then they have different gods -- and different gods mean that you can change a country, you [can] change its law."
In contrast, Lofton feels that critics who claim Goode is bigoted for making the remarks apparently are not overly concerned about protecting the nation's heritage. Senator Graham, he says, "eagerly attacked" Goode -- and Graham is "supposed to be a conservative, supposed to be a Christian," adds Lofton.
"He attacked Goode, saying that this is terrible, that what America is about is freedom and pluralism and diversity and all that stuff," claims Lofton. "Well, that's nonsense when it comes to religion [and] to gods. God Almighty says Himself in His Word, 'Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord."
Lofton adds that he finds it "just shameful" that, to his knowledge, no "so-called Christian leader" has come to the defense of Congressman Goode. He says Christian leaders and preachers who are unwilling to defend Goode's statements are comparable to what the Old Testament prophet Isaiah called "dumb dogs that were not barking." He also believes it is no coincidence that God's first commandment is "Thou shalt have no other gods before Me."
Just before the end of the year, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, an Islamic civil liberties group based in Washington, DC, called on all Muslims in northern Virginia to contact two other Republican congressmen from districts near Goode's, urging them to repudiate what it calls the congressman's "Islamophobic" remarks. The northern part of the state is reportedly home to a large Muslim population.
Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
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