http://apologeticspress.org/APContent.aspx?category=7&article=2432
Another Muslim Elected to Congress
| by | Dave Miller, Ph.D. |
When Representative Julia Carson died in December 2007, Indiana voters were required to elect a replacement for the remainder of her term in the U.S. House of Representatives. So they selected her grandson, Indianapolis City Council member, Andre Carson. What is notable about the 33-year-old Carson is the fact that he converted to Islam about a decade ago (Cebula, 2008). That makes him the second Muslim elected to the U.S. Congress in two years, following closely on the heels of the election to the House of Keith Ellison of Minnesota (see Miller, 2006).
Many Americans—those who have been influenced by the social and political liberalism of the last few years—praise this diffusion of America’s historic values. They believe that such diversity is healthy and serves to strengthen the fabric of society. They have swallowed the politically correct propaganda, touted over the last 50 years, that pluralism is the superior ideology, and that all religions are equally valid, authentic, and true (see Miller, 2008).
Contrary to current claims that the Founding Fathers of America advocated “pluralism,” “diversity,” “multiculturalism,” and equal acceptance of all religions, ideologies, and philosophies, the truth is that they feared for the future of the nation should its Christian foundation be compromised. The Founders insisted that the Christian religion provided the beliefs and values that give cohesion to the American Republic. They well knew and believed that one’s religious beliefs affect his character and moral values. They insisted that the nation draws its strength from the God of the Bible and the moral precepts He enjoins on a people. The dissolution of those values via contrary religious encroachments will lead to the demise of the Republic. Pluralism, therefore, spells national suicide.
The Father of American Geography, Jedidiah Morse, cogently articulated the rationale of the Founders and most early Americans when he insisted:
The foundations which support the interest of Christianity, are also necessary to support a free and equal government like our own. In all those countries where there is little or no religion, or a very gross and corrupt one, as in Mahometan and Pagan countries, there you will find, with scarcely a single exception, arbitrary and tyrannical governments, gross ignorance and wickedness, and deplorable wretchedness among the people. To the kindly influence of Christianity we owe that degree of civil freedom, and political and social happiness which mankind now enjoy. In proportion as the genuine effects of Christianity are diminished in any nation, either through unbelief, or the corruption of its doctrines, or the neglect of its institutions; in the same proportion will the people of that nation recede from the blessings of genuine freedom, and approximate the miseries of complete despotism (1799, emp. added).
Americans would do well to sit up and pay attention to these sobering, prophetic words that forecast what is to come, should this nation continue down the path it is now treading in its disregard for God. Americans desperately need to heed the words of God via the psalmist: “Now consider this, you who forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver. Whoever offers praise glorifies Me; and to him who orders his conduct aright I will show the salvation of God” (Psalm 50:22-23). “Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it; unless the Lord guards the city, the watchman stays awake in vain” (Psalm 127:1). “The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God” (Psalm 9:17).
REFERENCES
Cebula, Judith (2008), “Second Muslim elected to Congress,” Reuters, March 11, [On-line], URL:http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080312/us_nm/usa_politics_muslim_dc;_ ylt=AoYm_wx0lWq7W4uyD7lpTyNH2ocA.
Miller, Dave (2006), “A Muslim Now In Congress?” Apologetics Press, [On-line], URL:http://www.apologeticspress.org/articles/3141.
Miller, Dave (2008), “U.S. House Honors Islam: The Destructive Corrosion of Diversity,” Apologetics Press, [On-line], URL: http://www.apologeticspress.org/articles/3587.
Morse, Jedidiah (1799), A Sermon, Exhibiting the Present Dangers and Consequent Duties of the Citizens of the United States of America (Hartford, CT: Hudson and Goodwin), [On-line]: URL: http://www.archive.org/details/sermonexhibiting00morsrich.