Bosma rapped over offensive comments to Jewish group at State House

[IndianaGreen]

Friday, February 17, 2006

Bosma Rapped Over Offensive Comments To Jewish Group At State House

House Speaker Brian Bosma stumbled badly when he spoke dismissingly of the concerns of Jewish voters over his zealous pursuit of the right to conduct Christian only prayers at the opening of business for the House of Representatives while addressing the Indianapolis Jewish Relations Committee at the State House according to an e-mail account of one of the attendees.

Defending Christian prayers in the House, Bosma shockingly asked the assembled Jewish group this jaw-dropping question: "How many Jews are there in Indiana? About 2%? There are at least 80% Christians in Indiana."

Oddly, noone in the group brought up the matter of the prayer issue, which is currently on appeal to the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals after Judge David Hamilton ordered the House to refrain from conducting Christian only, sectarian prayers. Instead, Bosma raised the issue to the group on his own. The House's only Jewish member, Rep. David Orentlicher (R-Indianapolis), has been very vocal in his criticism of the way Speaker Bosma has handled the issue. He walked out of the House of Representatives last year when Speaker Bosma allowed a Christian minister to lead the House in singing a Christian song.

A hat tip to Masson's Blog for picking up on a post at the Daily Pulse reporting on the incident. The Daily Pulse, with the permission of the writer, posted an e-mail one of the attendees sent describing the disturbing encounter with Speaker Bosma, which can be found below.

This incident raises serious questions about Speaker Bosma's fitness to serve as Speaker for all of the people. He's already demonstrated his legislative zeal in making sure that gays and lesbians are treated in this state as second class citizens. Now others are rightfully wondering if their rights are safe as well.

http://advanceindiana.blogspot.com/2006/02/bosma-rapped-over-offensive-comments.html

[hippiechick]

1. Welcome to the GOP's Amerika ... Seig Heil ...

:mad: The idiotically insane leading the intolerant and ignorant ... :scared:

[izzybeans]

2. The sad thing is that Bosma represents the mindset of many hoosiers

on these matters, I'm coming to find out. They will ask "What's the big deal? It's true ain't it?" Majoritarian populism pervades this issue. It's the same for all religious issues and its the reason why our founding fathers emancipated the government from religion. Idiots like Bosma need to pass some form of civics exam before being allowed to speak in public.

[salin]

3. Hey Brian - stop using me as a "statistic"...

Yes I am a hoosier, and I am a Christian - but I am not a far right, reactionary Christian who believes it is my "right" to cram my beliefs down anyone else's throat; I am tired of being lumped in with extremist bullies so that they can claim "80%". Get a clue - a whole lot of that 80% who are Christian are not with you in your offensive stance for theocracy, stop claiming a majority by including a whole lot of folks in your statistics.

[Philo]

4. I met him

...when I worked for the ICLU this summer. He's an ignorant git who thinks all non-Christians (and only his particular stripe of Christian counts) are amoral infidels.

In short: I'm certainly not surprised