Dennis Prager - Views and Opinions

Views and Opinions

Prager states that the U.S. is engaged in a "second non-violent civil war" "culture war" over the fundamental moral values on which he believes American society was built. Prager argues that many influential American institutions (including universities, trial lawyers, labor unions, the American Civil Liberties Union, civil rights groups, and most large newspapers and television networks) are dominated by "secular leftists," who, he says, attack and misrepresent Judeo-Christian values and their positive historical effect upon America and the world. In 2005, 24 of his columns were devoted to explaining those values and how he believes they make the United States special.

On November 28, 2006, he wrote that Keith Ellison, the first Muslim elected to Congress, should not be allowed to take his Congressional oath using a Koran because "the act undermines American civilization." The Anti- Defamation League wrote that Prager's position was "intolerant, misinformed and downright un-American." On December 4, in an interview with Prager, Tucker Carlson criticized this, saying: "I'm no great defender of the Koran but I'm not sure why America is imperiled by Keith Ellison's taking the oath on it." In response, Prager explained, "It‘s not imperiled by his taking the oath on it, it‘s imperiled for substituting the Bible for the first time since George Washington had a Bible at his inauguration. ... The question is not what he believes in. The question is what is the central text of the American value system? That‘s why I think this is important. Otherwise I couldn‘t care less."