In Which Bill Maher Gets Points (Apologies To Any Who Don't Like It)
New rule: just because the Constitution doesn’t have a religious test for office, doesn’t mean I can’t.
This past Monday was Constitution Day in the US, and while I was going over the Constitution with my two adopted kids, Zack Ono and Mogadishu - I’m home-schooling them - I was struck again by Article 6 Section 3... it says no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office. And I agree. No one should ever be disqualified for their religion. Even the funny ones. Like all of them.
But the problem is that there is a religious test in this country. According to a recent poll, 7 in 10 say it’s important to have a president with strong religious beliefs. The other three couldn’t take the poll because it was Friday night and Yahweh wouldn’t let them answer the phone.
But fair is fair, so for myself and the other 15 to 20% of americans who the majority call "non-believers" but who I call "rationalists," here is our religious test for office. If you believe in Judgement Day I have to seriously question your judgement. If you believe you’re in a long-term relationship with an all-powerful space daddy, who will, after you die, party with your ghost forever, you can’t have my vote even for Miss Hawaiian Tropic. I can’t trust you with the levers of government because there’s an electrical fire going on in your head.
Maybe a president who didn’t believe our soldiers were going to Heaven might be a little less willing to get them killed.
Candidate Mitt Romney, a Mormon, believes in spiritually blessed underwear that can protect him. He seems like a nice man, and so do his sons, Wally and The Beav. But I’m sorry, their religion is bats**t. It’s like scientology without the celebrities. And he has every right to run for president while believing in magic underwear, and believing that Jesus survived his own death and will return during an Osmonds concert in Branson. And I have every right to take that into consideration in the voting booth.
And at the end of the day, is magic underwear really that much crazier than giant arks or virgin births or talking bushes? You’re either a rationalist or you’re not, and the good news is that a recent poll found twenty percent of adults under 30 say they are rationalists, and have figured out that Santa Claus and Jesus are really the same guy.
Now twenty percent is hardly a majority. But it’s a bigger minority than blacks, jews, homosexuals, NRA members, teachers, or seniors, and it’s certainly enough to stop being shy about expressing the opinion that WE'RE NOT THE CRAZY ONES.
Just because the vote is 4 to 1 doesn’t mean the minority is wrong. People who were against this war from the start were a minority. The majority used to believe the world was flat, but if you believe that today you’d either be packed off to Bellevue or asked to co-host “The View.”
This past Monday was Constitution Day in the US, and while I was going over the Constitution with my two adopted kids, Zack Ono and Mogadishu - I’m home-schooling them - I was struck again by Article 6 Section 3... it says no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office. And I agree. No one should ever be disqualified for their religion. Even the funny ones. Like all of them.
But the problem is that there is a religious test in this country. According to a recent poll, 7 in 10 say it’s important to have a president with strong religious beliefs. The other three couldn’t take the poll because it was Friday night and Yahweh wouldn’t let them answer the phone.
But fair is fair, so for myself and the other 15 to 20% of americans who the majority call "non-believers" but who I call "rationalists," here is our religious test for office. If you believe in Judgement Day I have to seriously question your judgement. If you believe you’re in a long-term relationship with an all-powerful space daddy, who will, after you die, party with your ghost forever, you can’t have my vote even for Miss Hawaiian Tropic. I can’t trust you with the levers of government because there’s an electrical fire going on in your head.
Maybe a president who didn’t believe our soldiers were going to Heaven might be a little less willing to get them killed.
Candidate Mitt Romney, a Mormon, believes in spiritually blessed underwear that can protect him. He seems like a nice man, and so do his sons, Wally and The Beav. But I’m sorry, their religion is bats**t. It’s like scientology without the celebrities. And he has every right to run for president while believing in magic underwear, and believing that Jesus survived his own death and will return during an Osmonds concert in Branson. And I have every right to take that into consideration in the voting booth.
And at the end of the day, is magic underwear really that much crazier than giant arks or virgin births or talking bushes? You’re either a rationalist or you’re not, and the good news is that a recent poll found twenty percent of adults under 30 say they are rationalists, and have figured out that Santa Claus and Jesus are really the same guy.
Now twenty percent is hardly a majority. But it’s a bigger minority than blacks, jews, homosexuals, NRA members, teachers, or seniors, and it’s certainly enough to stop being shy about expressing the opinion that WE'RE NOT THE CRAZY ONES.
Just because the vote is 4 to 1 doesn’t mean the minority is wrong. People who were against this war from the start were a minority. The majority used to believe the world was flat, but if you believe that today you’d either be packed off to Bellevue or asked to co-host “The View.”