PrintOctober 12, 2011
Bill Bennett's Finest Hour
He did it again. Bill Bennett strode into Washington's Omni Shoreham hotel on Saturday and taught us all a lesson in American history and civics. He drew the sharpest line between acceptable political opposition and ugly religious bigotry.
Bennett was a featured speaker at the Values Voter Summit. And he invoked President Washington's famous Letter to the Hebrew Congregation at Newport in rebuking a Christian minister who had tried to enlist support for his preferred candidate against another presidential hopeful who is Mormon. The minister had the day before filled the itching ears of CNN listeners with his views on the LDS Church.
Bennett quoted from Washington's 1790 Letter to the Hebrew Congregation at Newport. Washington had carefully prepared a reply to the Jews for his first presidential visit to Rhode Island. He delivered it in person on August 17 to a delegation from Congregation Yeshuat Israel.
It is now no more that toleration is...(Read Full Article)
