Drive-by Posting: 232 Years
Among the Democratic challengers which won in yesterday's Democratic takeover of the United States House of Representatives is Keith Ellison, now the new US Representative from the Minnesota 5th District.
He is also the very first Muslim member of the Congress of the United States in the 232 years it has met.
The First Ammendment of the United States Constitution was one of mankind's greatest achievements. And among it's elements is the separation between church and state. Countless efforts have been made to try to weaken that separation, going right up to the present day. But the ideal of a separation between organized religion and governmental power -- as weakened as it has become at times -- still remains encoded (for now) in the very heart of American law.
Someday, perhaps, it really won't matter what religion a Congressman espouses. That day, frankly, has not yet arrived; and the more cynical side of me wonders if that day will ever come. But those thoughts are not for now. For now, I think, a moment to reflect on another triumph of the great vision of freedom the American Founding Fathers dared to embrace.