Congresswoman Mary Miller (R, IL-15) posted on her official Facebook page video of a short speech to mark National Faith Month. The clip is prefaced by a declaration that “America is a Christian nation, and with God’s grace, it will always be.” Is it Christian nationalism yet? Yes, and with Mary Miller, it always has been.
What provoked me to write this post though is Miller’s invocation of Patrick Henry, or “Patrick Henry.” My transcription:
Patrick Henry acknowledged that it cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded not by religionists but by Christians, not on religions but on the gospel of Jesus Christ. For this very reason, peoples of other faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity, and freedom of worship here.The only problem is that Patrick Henry never said any such thing. That’s been established since at least 2009. (More background here.) None of that stopped the Missouri senator Josh Hawley from attributing the words to Henry in 2023, and Hawley’s blunder didn’t stop Miller from trotting the words out for her own use.
As Thomas Jefferson once said, “Apocryphal quotations are a dime a dozen.” Here are posts about two more, one attributed to Abraham Lincoln, another attributed to T.S. Eliot.
Related reading
All OCA Mary Miller posts (Pinboard)
[In case there is any doubt: Thomas Jefferson never said that apocryphal quotations are a dime a dozen. But speaking of the Revolutionary War, he did say that “It ain’t over till it’s over.”]
comments: 4
No he didn't. He said, "This war ain't over until the fat lady sings."
Good one! I stand corrected.
To add to our atlas of know-ledge (that precipice where foolishness used to plummer over) there’s:
“An exceeding large percentage of quotations attributed to me on the Interweb is woefully great. —Benjamin Franklin”
LOL!
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