The Year of the Bible

2/9/2012—Republican Representative Rick Saccone wrote an op-ed in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Tuesday, 2/7/2012, defending the January 24 Pennsylvania House Resolution declaring the “Year of the Bible.” Saccone was the prime sponsor. Unfortunately, the Resolution passed unanimously.

Curiously, Saccone defended the Resolution by references to God. The op-ed even was entitled, America Owes Much to God. Does Saccone believe that God and the Bible are the same? Does he not realize that there are pious believers who do not?

Let’s assume the “Bible” means the Old and New Testament. Then Jews do not think that the New Testament is the word of God. Would Saccone have submitted a resolution that stated that the Jews are wrong?

But Muslims do not believe that the Old Testament is the word of God, at least not in full. The Qur’an is the word of God. So they’re wrong, too.

But Hindus and Buddhists don’t believe any text is the word of God in the sense that Saccone means it. Well, they’re wrong.

So Saccone’s Resolution meant to say that Christianity is the best religion. He should have just written that. If he had, he would have had to see that this was precisely the issue before the framers of the Constitution and just what they rejected in the Establishment Clause and forbad government from saying.

That’s right. They forbad government from even saying that Christianity is the right religion.

There are many other matters here—the meaning of God, the role of nonbelievers, the nature of human authorship of the Bible. But this much is clear. Representative Saccone has defiled the vision the framers of the Constitution had for the role of government. It’s kind of sad that he does not realize this.