

Fried Bibles and Waffles

The eyes of a Muslim. Courtesy AP.

God help the United States. Was I surprised to learn that in the backwaters of our nation, the very states that find Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich to be suitable candidates for President, where even vegetables are fried in grease and holy water, people still are worried that President Obama is a closet Muslim? That they manage to do this while still denouncing evolution makes me wonder how many hours are in their day. Aside from my general dislike of the Deep South, where everyone thinks they’re just a millionaire in a slump, even as they trudge to the outhouse at three in the morning, there has to be serious discussion because of the latest Public Policy Polling numbers.

A poll in Mississippi found that over sixty percent of all respondents (more than half, for those of you from the South) believe Barack Obama is, wait for it, a Muslim. Let’s forget the fact that he doesn’t pray towards Mecca five times a day, is fine eating pork, feels free to wreak havoc of predominately Muslim countries in the Middle East, and, here’s the kicker, attended a church. Let’s forget he’s said he’s not a Muslim. Let’s forget there is no proof that he is a Muslim. Because that’s the name of the game, isn’t it? Who needs facts when you can just throw them out the window?

We’ve reached a point in the national conversation that’s quite precarious. In previous administrations, even reckless policies were based on some foundation of logic. People had some basis for their ideas, however misguided. Look at us now. We consider ourselves to be a progressed nation, built on emerging technologies, a force to lead the world. Yet we still have people clinging to their Bibles like David Koresh is pulling the strings. I have to wonder if Pat Robertson sends out talking points to the deeply religious and deeply misinformed people, not only in the South, but across the country. First President Obama was from Kenya, then he was a Muslim, then he was a sympathizer with Al-Queda, and now he’s still all three, according to the glorious people of Mississippi, Alabama, and anywhere else that has more gun stores than libraries.

Can we change this course? We can’t solve social ills and progress as a country when people still shout at the top of their lungs, point to the Bible, and say “screw you reason! I got Jebus!” When I’m more likely to hear someone say “It’s in the Bible” than “It’s in the Constitution,” we’re probably not doing so well. If we want it to change, it’s going to require people who know how to reason stepping up and confronting this ridiculous logic.

Devin Wallace

7 Responses

  1. Robert says:

    God help the United States where even backwater states like New York and California might someday see the light. If the author for even one second thinks that states like NY and CA are somehow more sophicated or it’s citizens more intelligent than others…well, he should read the national news. The REST OF THE COUNTRY would not live in these two states if you paid them, especially NY. How anybody in their right mind would voluntarily live in a city as overpopulated and miserable as NYC is absolutely beyond the rest of us. I have actually driven down our wonderful roads (with miles and miles of openness) and felt great pity for those stuck in the cities.

  2. Robert says:

    and don’t know friend vegetables until you have tried them. Food elitist.

  3. Robert says:

    so I get you don’t believe in god. Well, that’s your choice. You CANNOT just say that he doesn’t exist just because you say so, though. Talk about ignorance. You are really full of it.

  4. Will says:

    Robert: King of the strawmen

  5. etc says:

    Devin – A lot of people in NYC think that the denizens of Coxsackie-Athens are no different from those in Alabama and Mississippi.


  6. Devin Wallace says:

    @etc: They wouldn’t be too wrong. 😉

  7. Anne-Marie Sheehan says:

    Funny, I never pegged you for a food elitist!