{"id":11887,"date":"2008-01-08T14:22:03","date_gmt":"2008-01-08T21:22:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2008\/01\/08\/affirmative-fiat-2.html"},"modified":"2008-01-08T14:22:03","modified_gmt":"2008-01-08T21:22:03","slug":"affirmative_fiat_2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/01\/08\/affirmative_fiat_2.html","title":{"rendered":"Affirmative fiat"},"content":{"rendered":"

Back in my debating days in high school, “affirmative fiat” was the assumption that the proposed legislation by the affirmative side (the one debating in favor of the resolution) would pass.  The arguments had to be about the merits of the specific proposal to implement the resolution, not whether Congress would pass it or the President would sign it.  It’s a wave of the hand to “make it so.”<\/p>\n

In a parallel vein, at least one Congressman is trying to use legislative fiat to simply “make it so” with some historical blather related to how the US is really a Christian Nation from its very beginnings and throughout its history (and so, by extension, ought to be a Christian Nation today)..<\/p>\n

HR 888<\/a>, by Rep. Randy Forbes (R-VA), would declare all sorts of things “so” via a laundry list of whereas clauses, then concludes with a call for “American Religious History Week,” and a symbolic rejection of attempts to deny Christian history.  It’s historical revisionism by legislation, academic argument by assertion, and declaration of the facts by fiat.<\/p>\n

While it’s “only” a House resolution (it doesn’t spend any money or pass any laws), exercises like this are not just rhetorical point-earners for political careers.  These sorts of resolutions in turn get pointed at by folks actually passing laws — “See?  Congress declared it, so it must be true!” — on a federal and state and local level, as well as by folks writing (bad) text books looking for support for their views.<\/p>\n

The annoying thing is that the “whereas” clauses are a mixture of the obvious and the fallacious.  The obvious items — there are, in fact, many famous buildings and monuments in this land with religious symbolism and expressions on them — makes it clear that religion has been part of our national heritage, but are taken beyond that to interpret it as the cornerstone, <\/em>along the lines of saying, “This building has a quote by Thomas Jefferson mentioning God.  Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence.  Therefore this is a Christian Nation, QED.”<\/p>\n

In multiple other cases, though (lovingly dissected here<\/a>) the historical facts asserted in HR 888 are misleading  and contextually dubious at best, just plain wrong at worst, and are all pretty much recycled from often-refuted Christian nationalist web sites.<\/p>\n

The problem is that the intent here is not to actually assert that there is, in fact, a religious heritage in this country, or that religious expressions have been part of private and public life since the founding of the Republic — nobody<\/em> out there denies that, not even the most “rabid atheist.” <\/p>\n

But there’s a huge leap from there to the assertion that this nation was founded as a Christian one, or, put as the resolution does in its second item,<\/p>\n

the religious foundations of faith on which America was built are critical underpinnings of our Nation’s most valuable institutions and form the inseparable foundation for America’s representative processes, legal systems, and societal structures.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

America was built on far more than just “religious foundations of faith,” and America’s “representative processes, legal systems, and societal structures” owe much to many non-explicitly-religious impulses, especially if by “religious” one’s speaking of specific sectarian doctrine.<\/p>\n

And it is a sectarian resolution.  The examples given are Christian, explicitly (as the only religion mentioned by name) or implicitly (there are some Old Testament quotes, and a few references to Moses, but everything else is Christian).  That’s not altogether surprising, since Christianity in some form or another has been the majority religion in this country since its founding.  But the generic “religion” spoken of here is misleading, since it’s actually Christianity<\/em> being discussed.<\/p>\n

Worse, the argument from history prove nothing about the value<\/em> of religious (or, more specifically, since those are the cases whereas<\/em>ed, Christian) faith. One could, looking at history (and literature, and architecture) argue as well that this country was founded by and for white<\/em> people.  Or men<\/em>.  Or property-holders<\/em>.  While there are folks out there who might go for it, I doubt most people would support a “National Men’s History Week” where we are all taught that maleness was the foundation of our nation and its institutions.<\/p>\n

Now, I wouldn’t actually mind a “religious history week” per se<\/em> — it’s difficult to actually understand American history without understanding the religious component of the past 200-500 years.  The problem is that such a week isn’t being presented here to discuss, or educate, or understand, or even recognize the role of religion in our society, past and present, but to glorify<\/em> it inappropriately (and, for that matter, unBiblically) as something it’s not — the font from which all other aspects of what made this country flowed.<\/p>\n

Preaching bad history is certainly not a virtue.  Passing it into law is certainly not good government.  But, I fear, it may be good politics.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

(via Les<\/a>)<\/p>\n

<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Back in my debating days in high school, “affirmative fiat” was the assumption that the proposed legislation by the affirmative side (the one debating in favor of the resolution) would…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9,27,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics-law","category-religion","category-zt-pc"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":723,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2001\/11\/20\/affirmative_fia.html","url_meta":{"origin":11887,"position":0},"title":"Affirmative fiat","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 20-Nov-01 2:34pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Back in my high school debating days, this was the principle that the affirmative side (the one proposing a solution to a problem) did not have to worry about whether,...","rel":"","context":"In "Homeland Security"","block_context":{"text":"Homeland Security","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/homeland-security"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":29930,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/08\/23\/the-medicare-debate.html","url_meta":{"origin":11887,"position":1},"title":"The Medicare Debate","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 23-Aug-12 7:36am","format":false,"excerpt":"To the extent that you can pin down what Romney, Ryan, or Romney\/Ryan want to do (and assume affirmative fiat that laws will be passed just they way tey are now proposing them), how do their fixes to the \"Medicare Crisis\" stack up against the current Obama plans?Well, fine, if\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":20340,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/02\/27\/fiat-lux.html","url_meta":{"origin":11887,"position":2},"title":"Fiat Lux","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 27-Feb-11 2:21pm","format":false,"excerpt":"In case of a loss of lighting, light fixtures will drop down from the ceiling above you ...","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":26629,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/02\/22\/fiat-lux-2.html","url_meta":{"origin":11887,"position":3},"title":"Fiat Lux!","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 22-Feb-12 11:24am","format":false,"excerpt":"It bugs the heck out of me when I can't find the \"incandescent wattage equivalent\" on non-incandescent bulbs. Yes, looking for the lumens works, but that's not the mental benchmark I have (\"Honey, do we have any 1400 lumen bulbs in the basement?\"). #ddtbReshared post from +Les JenkinsHandy. Embedded Link\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":132538,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/01\/10\/tweetizen-trump-2016-01-10-ford-and-fiat-and-photos-oh-my.html","url_meta":{"origin":11887,"position":4},"title":"Tweetizen Trump – 2016-01-10 "Ford and Fiat and Photos (Oh, My)"","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 10-Jan-17 7:38am","format":false,"excerpt":"After burning out on the weekend and Monday's blather, what have you been tweeting about lately, Donald?Actually, it's been relatively quiet ...\u25ba It's finally happening - Fiat Chrysler just announced plans to invest $1BILLION in Michigan and Ohio plants, adding 2000 jobs. This after...Ford said last week that it will\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/C1wz4lXXEAAvBTI5B15D.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/C1wz4lXXEAAvBTI5B15D.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/C1wz4lXXEAAvBTI5B15D.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":134027,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/08\/02\/yes-lets-make-sure-that-the-unqualified-arent-admitted-ahead-of-the-qualified.html","url_meta":{"origin":11887,"position":5},"title":"Yes, let's make sure that the "unqualified" aren't admitted ahead of the "qualified"","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 2-Aug-17 10:38pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Because admitting \"less qualified\" people is clearly wrong because it discriminates against students who are \"more qualified,\" which is why Affirmative Action is (according to a new Trump Administration policy) evil and disciminatory and must be stopped, because only Testing Scores and GPAs and Academic Merit should be involved in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11887\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}