A 'religious test' in Texas?

Texas can boast the heroes of the Alamo, Sam Houston’s victory at San Jacinto that gave Texas its independence, World War II hero Audie Murphy and three presidents.

Hopefully, Peter Morrison and Ray Myers do not reflect today’s average Texan. Morrison and Myers exposed themselves as sloppy, insensitive nitwits, if not rabid anti-Semites, by raising concerns about a Jewish politician’s fitness to hold public office.

If Myers and Morrison believe that a Jew should be barred from some or all public offices, they are defying Article VI of our nation’s Constitution. It states: “No religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.”

As Texas newspapers describe the matter, state House Speaker Joe Straus was subject to several e-mails emphasizing his religion in the midst of a furious re-election contest for the speaker’s post. State representatives Warren Chisum and Rep. Ken Paxton are challenging Straus on grounds that he is not conservative enough. All three are Republicans.

Morrison and Myers were publicly identified as prominent writers of some e-mails, but other writers are not publicly known. Morrison, who is treasurer of the Hardin County Republican Party, wrote in his Nov. 11 newsletter that Straus’ rabbi is involved with Planned Parenthood.

He also wrote, “Both Rep. Warren Chisum and Rep. Ken Paxton, who are Christians and true conservatives, have risen to the occasion to challenge Joe Straus for leadership.”

Myers, who chairs the Kaufman County Tea Party, praised another Republican lawmaker, Rep. Bryan Hughes, as “a Christian conservative who decided not to be pushed around by the Joe Straus thugs.”

Thugs? A remnant of the Jewish Defense League?

Myers subsequently told a Dallas Morning News reporter that “it never crossed my mind” that Straus is Jewish when he wrote the e-mail. “We’re going after the RINOs (Republican in name only),” he said.

Morrison sent the News an e-mail stating, “I was simply making factual statements about Rep. Chisum and Rep. Paxton.” He added that he opposed Straus on the basis of issues, not religion.

Their efforts to clarify their original statements were pitiful. A reasonable person could conclude from their words that they object to a Jew holding a leadership post in the House. However, their comments can be interpreted in a broader context.

Whatever these idiots sought to do, they were reckless to even hint or suggest that Straus’s religion disqualified him. It is certainly worse if they meant this.

Their ideas did not influence anyone with power. Both Chisum and Paxton quickly disavowed these thoughts. “These sorts of attacks on a man’s religion have absolutely no place in the race for Speaker,” Chisum wrote in a statement. “We certainly have our differences, but they are differences of public policy and organization of the House.”

While Texas is largely conservative with a Christian religious fervor, Paxton and Chisum did the right thing. It would be no surprise if they personally hate Straus, but it is not because he is Jewish.

Morrison and Myers still owe the public an explanation and a profuse apology. It begs the question if Morrison believes all Jews share the same political attitudes. It is true that many Jews are pro-choice on abortion, but Orthodox Jews and even some who are less observant oppose abortion.

Straus belongs to a Reform synagogue in San Antonio, Temple Beth-El, which was founded in 1874. Reform Jews are generally liberal, so it should be no surprise if Senior Rabbi Barry H. D. Block would be involved with a pro-choice organization - just as if an Orthodox rabbi participates in an anti-abortion group’s activities.

When the dense duo praises Straus’ enemies as Christians and conservatives, that takes some explaining: To apply Western parlance, is the only good liberal a dead liberal? Are all Jews and non-Christians liberals? That begs the next question: Is the only good Jew and non-Christian a dead Jew and a dead non-Christian?

Let’s not give Myers and Morrison the benefit of the doubt. We could excuse this as warped language, but they must explain this concern if they do not want to be branded as vile anti-Semites.

They must understand the obstacles that Jews and other minority groups overcame before laws were changed and the public became more accepting of their place in government and many other areas.

I recall from past readings that delegates to the Constitutional Convention added the clause barring a “religious test” for public office during the period that the Pennsylvania legislature considered adding such a test. The delegates did not openly clarify their reasons for this clause because of the secrecy clouding the convention’s deliberations.

Maryland barred Jews from holding public office until 1826. Since then, Marylanders have elected a Jewish governor and the Speaker of the House of Delegates from 1979 to 1986, Benjamin L. Cardin, is Jewish. Cardin is now Maryland’s junior U.S. senator.

Do Morrison and Myers want to turn Texas into pre-1926 Maryland? They still have us wondering.