At this point in this ridiculous saga over the manufactured controversy regarding an “anti-Christian” provision in the stimulus bill, I don’ t know whether to laugh or cry.
Check out this video of Sen. Jim DeMint flat-out lying on the Senate floor as he discusses the need to pass his amendment to strip this provision from the legislation, as he proclaims that Christians would be locked out of opportunities for higher education and proclaims that it was inserted into the bill by some nefarious cabal of people who are intent on silencing “traditional, freedom-loving Americans” and who are “so hostile to religion that they are willing to stand in the schoolhouse door, like the infamous George Wallace”:
Here is a rough transcript of some of the highlights:
This is a provision “that would make sure students could never talk openly and honestly about their faith … what this means is that students can’t meet together in their dorms if that dorm has been repaired with federal money and have a prayer group or a Bible study. They can’t get together in their student centers. They can’t have a commencement service where a speaker talks about their personal faith.” The people who wrote this provision want “to intimidate the free speech of traditional, freedom-loving Americans … [and] put a chilling effect on religious freedom in our country.” Student groups would be banned and “classes on world religions and religious history, academic studies of religious texts could be banned … Someone around here thinks it’s a good idea to discriminate against people of faith, to deny them the educational opportunities and access to public facilities. Someone is so hostile to religion that they are willing to stand in the schoolhouse door, like the infamous George Wallace, to deny people of faith from entering into any campus building renovated by this bill. This cannot stand! It is in hard times that our society most needs faith. It provides the light that no darkness can overcome. This provision is an attempt to extinguish that light from college campuses and the lives of our youth.”
