I'm not racist, but MAN, those Blacks and Jews!

In the grand tradition of whitewashing one's bigotry by prefacing one's bigoted remark with a declaration that said person is not a bigot...

"I think that it's important that we are tolerant as a people of all faiths, but that doesn't mean we have to endorse all faiths, and that was my decision."

This was Republican (notice that it's always Republicans that do stuff like this?) Texas State Senator Dan Patrick, explaining why he boycotted the first prayer delivered in the Texas Senate by a Muslim cleric, who then then praised religious tolerance (eh?) and freedom of speech in an address at the end of the day's session.

That reminds me of something very similar that happened in my former home of Washington State.

In the latter case, letters sent to the Honorable legislators resulted in apologies from both. Perhaps we should send Senator Patrick a few reminder emails that he represents Texans of ALL faiths, not just the Evangelical Christans.