OPINION:
Democrats, as recent headlines show, are planning to amend the requirement that those testifying before the House Committee on Natural Resources will swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth — without the “so help you God” finish line.
Anything to get God out of government, right?
Here’s the oath that’s being proposed, as reported by Fox News: “Do you solemnly swear or affirm, under penalty of law, that the testimony that you are about to give is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?”
Omitted is the phrase “so help you God.” Added is the phrase “under penalty of law.”
The committee’s rules package also strips all the gender-specific pronouns from its text, replacing the likes of “chairman” with “chair” and so forth.
“Oddly enough,” the Daily Caller wrote, “the proposal to remove references to God comes just two months after Democrats proposed to remove a 181-year-old restriction on wearing religious headgear on the House floor in order to accommodate newly-elected Muslim women members.”
Apparently, then, it’s just the Christian God that offends.
But this is not surprising. The Democrats have been waging a war against God — against Christianity’s God — for some time. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi may talk about the Democrats “doing the Lord’s work,” as she said back in 2017. But that talk isn’t matching the party’s walk.
In the lead-up to the 2012 convention, Democratic leaders outright removed mention of God and of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel from the party’s proposed platform. When faced with backlash, they offered up a resolution in Charlotte to reverse the removals. The vote was contentious; several delegates outright opposed.
Ultimately, convention leader Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa took three voice votes on the resolution before finally declaring, somewhat dubiously, the “ayes” won, the majority wanted God and Jerusalem put back into the party’s platform. But headlines screamed this, just the same: “Democrats BOO GOD At Convention,” noted one YouTuber.
Another, also from YouTube: “Democrats Boo God and Jerusalem.”
HuffPost, meanwhile, wrote in its piece on the 2012 convention vote: “Even though the no’s were again as loud if not louder than the aye’s on the third vote, Villaraigosa said he had determined that two-thirds of those present had voted in favor. Boos filled the arena in response.”
In other words: Had the Dems gone with a ballot vote, the results may have been completely different.
The Democrats’ public image problem with God repeated at the party’s 2016 convention — though in fairness, the boos that came there were protests of Hillary Clinton by Sen. Bernie Sanders’ fans. They just came during prayer — unfortunate timing for the party; completely fortunate for headline writers.
“Democrats heckle preacher during opening prayer,” Fox News wrote then.
And this, from Mashable: “Opening prayer at Democratic convention halted by booing crowd.”
All that, and more, then prompted the New York Post to opine in 2017, “Democrats still haven’t faced their God problem.”
Well, here it is in 2019, and it’s like the repeat button’s been hit.
Democrats still have a problem with God. And with 56 percent of Americans “professing faith in God as described in the Bible” and another 33 percent professing belief “in another type of higher power or spiritual force,” according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted in April of 2018 — that means voters have a problem with the Democratic Party.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley.
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