Congress reminds us that Christians are awesome.

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Congress passed a resolution "Recognizing the importance of Christmas and the Christian faith."

       "Resolved, That the House of Representatives--

            (1) recognizes the Christian faith as one of the great religions of the world;

            (2) expresses continued support for Christians in the United States and worldwide;

            (3) acknowledges the international religious and historical importance of Christmas and the Christian faith;

            (4) acknowledges and supports the role played by Christians and Christianity in the founding of the United States and in the formation of the western civilization;

            (5) rejects bigotry and persecution directed against Christians, both in the United States and worldwide; and

            (6) expresses its deepest respect to American Christians and Christians throughout the world."

Passed a few days ago with 372 ayes, 9 nays, 10 present, and 40 not voting.
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=hr110-847

Nays:
Gary Ackerman (D-NY)
Yvette Clarke (D-NY)
Diana DeGette (D-CO)
Alcee Hastings (D-FL)
Barbara Lee (D-CA)
James McDermott (D-WA)
Robert Scott (D-VA)
Pete Stark (D-CA)
Lynn Woolsey (D-CA)

Present:
John Conyers (D-MI)
Barney Frank (D-MA)
Rush Holt (D-NJ)
Donald Payne (D-NJ)
Mike Pence (R-IN)
Janice Schakowsky (D-IL)
Allyson Schwartz (D-PA)
Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL)
Peter Welch (D-VT)
John Yarmuth (D-KY)

Kucinich voted Aye, Ron Paul didn't vote.

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Congress also just passed a bill to ban waterboarding.  Which was already illegal.

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Hallelujah, AMEN!!  I LOVE THIS RESOLUTION.  Finally!!!  Something good that I can say about this Congress!!

Typical American voter.

Peter King (R-IA), who introduced the resolution, said:
"I recognized that we're a Christian nation founded on Christian principles, and we're coming up to Christmastime. ... It's time we stood up and said so, and said to the rest of America, Be who you are and be confident. And let's worship Christ and let's celebrate Christmas for the right reasons."

Alcee Hastings (D-FL), who voted against:
    "America is not a Christian nation," Hastings said. "It is a nation of Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists and everyone in between. Our diversity is our strength and those who seek to use religion as a litmus test are doing a disservice to all of us."

    As for the "assault on Christianity," Hastings said, "all someone has to do is visit a shopping mall, turn on the radio or TV or look at the Christmas trees sitting on the front lawns of the White House and the United States Capitol to realize that no such assault is underway."

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WTF with Mike Pence

Maybe he thinks that, despite his own beliefs, America doesn't need to be told how important his religion is.

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It's funny sad how the other resolutions for the various religions in the nation received a higher yea vote. 

Watch what happens if a resolution was introduced affirming the contributions of the non-religious.

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Correct, if this was resolution on the Importance of Hanukkah and the Jewish faith and a congressman voted NO, they would be called anti semitic.

Do you really think either resolution is necessary??

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This whole thing (resolution and thread) is a waste of time.

Whose time am I wasting with this thread?  Congress passed a resolution to ass-kiss the religion that 75%+ of America subscribes to.  I'm just notifying the forum about it.

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9 Dems Say No to Christmas Resolution

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: December 13, 2007

Filed at 2:51 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Rep. Jim McDermott says he is no Grinch, even though he voted against Christmas.

The Democrat from Washington state says he was protesting an expected veto of a children's health insurance bill when he voted against a resolution recognizing the importance of Christmas.

''While the Republicans are passing a resolution celebrating Christmas, the president was vetoing health care for children. There's a little bit of irony going on around here,'' McDermott said Thursday.

The Christmas measure was approved 372-9 on Tuesday night. Democrats cast all the no votes. Beside McDermott, the other dissenting votes came from Reps. Gary Ackerman and Yvette Clarke of New York; Barbara Lee, Pete Stark and Lynn Woolsey of California; Diana DeGette of Colorado; Alcee Hastings of Florida; and Bobby Scott of Virginia.

Ten lawmakers, including Republican Mike Pence of Indiana, voted ''present.'' Forty lawmakers were absent for the vote.

McDermott said President Bush's veto Wednesday meant that ''10,000 kids in my state'' would be left without health coverage. The veto was the second time Bush rejected a bipartisan effort in Congress to dramatically increase spending for the popular program.

''I guess I'm the only guy left in Congress who still gets angry, but there are some things that are just not right,'' McDermott said.

On that last point, at least, Republicans agreed.

''I think there's an anti-Christian bias,'' said Rep. Steve King, who sponsored the resolution. ''I would not have thought that five or 10 years ago that we'd need to make a statement'' affirming the importance of Christmas and Christianity.

King's resolution stated that Christianity was the predominant faith in the United States and contributed greatly to the development of the country and Western civilization.

''I've watched Christ be eradicated by ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) lawsuits and people be afraid of confrontations. They wish (people) 'happy holidays' but not 'Merry Christmas' because they might be offended,'' King, R-Iowa, told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

McDermott, in his 10th term, is revered by many of his liberal constituents in Seattle for his anti-war stance and other votes. But he is loathed by many conservatives, who call him ''Baghdad Jim'' in honor of his prewar trip to Iraq, where he said he believed Saddam Hussein but not Bush.

McDermott said Thursday that he expected to take political heat for his actions, but if it forces a discussion of Bush's veto, ''then it was a good protest vote.''

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Congress-Grinch-Democrats.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

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I no longer support Kucinich for President.

Kucinich is easily the best candidate running.

Gravel has some really nutty ideas, including his tax reform proposal.

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That implies that Kucinich does not have nutty ideas, which is, of course, incorrect, even compared to your positions.

Kucinich's positions are essentially mainstream liberal.  Just because he's short or claims to have seen a UFO are not valid rebuttals of his policies.

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What's wrong with this?

It's completely pointless.

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Alcon: who are the 6 non-religious Reps?  Are you counting Pete Stark (who's officially a UU)?

DWDL: LOL!  Rich white Christian males are persecuted?!  If you're rich, you can buy your way out of anything, and have automatic access to all sorts of benefits in a system where the poor can never become rich and the rich become richer; if you're white, you're much less likely to be targeted by law enforcement (and if you are, again, you can just buy your way out of it).  You don't even need to be Christian and/or male to get all of those benefits, although I'm sure it helps.

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In America, you have the ACLU, which I call the Anti Christian Litigation Unit, tries to stamp out all forms of Christianity there is and would even be overjoyed at every person that professes to know Christ be thrown in jail and executed.

Actually, the ACLU has defended Christians before (such as a case where a girl wanted to sing "Awesome God" at a public school talent night, and the ACLU came to her defense).

They are simply against what they see as any religious intervention in political affairs.  They have been strong defenders of various religious groups, including the Rastafarians and even the Westboro Baptist Church.

They try to take Christ out of Christmas (Yes, Christmas is a Christian holiday).

You're still calling it Christmas, aren't you?

They took prayer out of our schools.

Anyone who wants to pray in school can still do it if they want to.  As far as I'm aware, prayer is a private conversation between yourself and God.  No one's stopping you from praying anywhere you want on school grounds.

They take the Ten Commandments off our courtroom walls.

Uhh, the fact that the Ten Commandments would even be on courtroom laws illustrates just what an advantage you have.  Imagine if a court tried to post the Muslim pillars of faith on the wall!  You would be screaming bloody murder, not freedom of religion.

What does having the Ten Commandments in a courtroom help anyway?

They throw you in jail for praying on the steps of the US Capitol.

lol.  Yeah I doubt it.