Sunday, February 4, 2007

To Quran or Not To Quran

The recent controversy concerning the swearing into office of a duly elected official who happens to be Muslim, who chose to take his oath of office upon a Quran, misses the point. Religious freedom exists because the Judeo-Christian ethic demands that man's right to choose who or what he will worship be held inviolate by all governments. That must be acknowledged, but the principle of religious freedom means that all men can choose their allegiances. All that is required for good governance is for the office holder to affirm the basic principle of Natural Law, that our rights are bestowed upon us by a Supreme Being and not by the hand of fallible man; that government exists to protect the basic rights to life, liberty, and property. All elected represenatives cannot properly do their job unless they recognize this principle. The Bible itself counsels against oath-taking, but rather that one's word be one's bond (James 5:12 KJV). The swearing into office upon any volume of scripture, or no volume, should be seen as a personal expression of a man's sincerity, his subsequent actions proving or disproving his integrity.