Posted on 03/20/2015 7:10:24 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
A crowd of naysayers that ranged from her cousin in the state of Washington, to Buddhist leaders in Boise, Colo., to a rabbi in Nevada has called on Idaho Sen. Sheryl Sherry Nuxoll (R) to apologize for calling Hinduism a false faith with false gods.”
While the self-described mother, housewife and co-manager of a farm/ranch in Cottonwood, Idaho, has admitted she could have turned a better phrase, she has refused to say the words many people want to hear: Im sorry.
Nuxoll and two other Republicans refused to attend the opening of an Idaho Senate session March 3 that was scheduled to include the first Hindu prayer ever heard in that legislative venue. The invocation was delivered by Rajan Zed, the president of the Universal Society of Hinduism.
Republican senators Steve Vick, Lori Den Hartog and Nuxoll returned to the floor of the Senate when Zed finished his prayer. Vick and Den Hartog made it clear that they were not happy with the Senate session being opened with a Hindu prayer.
Other senators also expressed their unhappiness with the decision to open the session with the first Hindu prayer ever heard on the floor of the state Senate. But no one other than Nuxoll came close to saying they were objecting to a false faith.
Hindu and Buddhist leaders have accused Nuxoll of adding insult to injury in an interview with a reporter from the Idaho Statesman.
Hindu is a false faith with false gods, she said. I think its great that Hindu people can practice their religion, but since were the Senate were setting an example of what we, Idaho, believe.
And the firestorm was lit.
More than one billion people in the world describe themselves as followers of Hinduism. It is one of the worlds four largest religions. More than 1.2 million people are believed to be practicing Hindus in the United States.
Being a public official, it was highly inappropriate and insensitive for Ms. Nuxoll to call a major religion false, Dan Black, the director of the Boise Institute for Buddhist Studies, and other Buddhist leaders in Idaho said in a joint statement.
To show responsibility, respect and understanding that her words were hurtful to the Hindu community, Ms. Nuxoll should apologize, they added.
Christian leaders have also said Nuxoll needs to apologize.
An apology certainly seems to be in order . . . we believe that truth is best discovered where all viewpoints can be expressed, Dan Thomas Edwards, the Episcopal bishop of Nevada, wrote in a letter to the Idaho Legislative Services Office.
As a former Idahoan who dearly loves the Gem State, I was pleased that the Idaho State Senate invited Rajan Zed to say the invocation at a recent session. . . . It was therefore disappointing to me that certain senators protested his prayer and spoke disparagingly of his faith, he also wrote.
Father Charles T. Durante, a senior Roman Catholic pastor, said it was sad that some legislators in Idaho could not respect the importance of religious diversity by their presence at a brief prayer.
Rabbi Elizabeth Beyer, a Jewish leader in California and Nevada, crossed state lines to say Nuxoll should be called upon to offer a public apology and perhaps even be sanctioned by the Senate for her inappropriate, insensitive and insulting remarks.
One of Nuxolls cousins even got in on the act.
Joan Kopczynski wrote a letter to the editor of the Spokesman-Review in Spokane, Wash., to put it on the record that she had been embarrassed by what Nuxoll had said.
Not long ago, Idaho gained a bad reputation for being racist and intolerant by virtue of the Aryan Nations locating there. Now, its receiving negative publicity again over Sheryls anti-Hindu remarks and actions, Kopczynski wrote.
Although we all have the right to our own bigoted beliefs, the question is whether an elected official has a right to voice those beliefs publicly. I dont think so.
Yet through it all, Nuxoll is standing as tall as an Idaho firefighter during the states inferno-producing wildfire season.
This is not the first time the winds of controversy have blow against her. Nuxoll compared Obamacare to the Holocaust in 2013, and raised the possibility of an Electoral College boycott because of President Obamas re-election in 2012.
She didnt hesitate to tell her fellow legislators that her decision to leave the Senate floor during the Hindu prayer was not an issue of religious freedom.
“Our state Constitution and federal Constitution are based on Christianity, and that we have a Christian prayer every day, and that I was really opposed to having prayer that wasn’t Christian in the Senate that morning, she told OneNews Now.
Nuxoll also said that she was not about to apologize for her deeply held beliefs.
“I may not have been politically correct in my terminology, on one little sentence, but how can I apologize for what I believe in?”
I think he should listen to the will of his constituents - whatever that may be.
I’d ask, “What would an apology accomplish”? Would she believe more in Hinduism? Would it make the Hindu community feel better? Would they like her more?
Sacred elephants, cows - whatever. At least they’re not staying up nights trying to figger out how to behead us all...
There is only one true faith.
I may not have been politically correct in my terminology, on one little sentence, but how can I apologize for what I believe in?
oh that more people would defend their simply stated beliefs in such a manner
How about this guy concentrate on the false religion that is actively trying to kill both Christians and Hindus?
Smile nicely, and be polite. You dont have to participate, nor should you be expected to. But Hindus aren’t the ones trying to eradicate Christianity from the planet.
My mistake. I see now this is a religion thread.
The only truth is the set of things I believe in. Everyone else is stupid until they admit that I am right about everything.
RE: I may not have been politically correct in my terminology, on one little sentence, but how can I apologize for what I believe in?
oh that more people would defend their simply stated beliefs in such a manner
_____________________________________
How about this:
“I may disagree with what you believe, but i will defend to the death your right to believe it.”
Whoever suggested an apology should apologize.
Good for her. The truth she is speaking is far more important than political office.
Gaffer, you misunderstand the role of an elected legislator in a republic - she should represent her district but not violate her principals. If her constituents don’t approve of her principals, they need to vote her out.
Having said what she has said, it would be a clear violation of her Christian principals to now say that she was wrong, that Hinduism is indeed a true religion.
The woman’s cousin is an imbecile - anybody, ANYBODY!, has the right to speak out. I get sick and tired of these prissy, butt-hurt idiots who are “embarrassed” by someone else’s actions. The cousin is so stupid, she obviously has plenty to be embarrassed about from her own actions. She shouldn’t be running around trying to take on embarrassment from anybody else. Besides, the cousin is not at all embarrassed - she is only too eager to grandstand to show all the politically correct morons that she is so much holier than her cousin (and for THAT she should be embarrassed and ashamed).
I have a couple of cousins who are gay. I don’t agree with their behavior, but I am never embarrassed by them or their behavior...they are responsible for their behavior, and I mine. I have plenty to be embarrassed about myself.
BTW, Hindus might not say it out loud, but by believing in Ganesh and the rest of their pantheon of gods, they implicitly tell other religions that believing in only one God is wrong.
As a Christian, I am NOT INSULTED.
That’s just the way different religious beliefs are. Logically, You can’t believe in one and not say that the other is wrong.
At least no actual Christian opposed her statement...
that works too!!
She. Read the article.
So only allow Catholic priests to say the opening prayer?
And everyone else has the right to call her an idiot for what she said.
Anywhere but in the Idaho statehouse?
He, she, it - doesn’t really matter, does it?
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