Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) said this week that he has absolutely no plans of halting his daily practice of tweeting Bible verses, despite atheist activists’ demands that he stop.
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“I’ll continue to do it,” Rubio told CBN’s “Faith Nation” on Wednesday. “Twitter’s voluntary. People sign up and follow me on Twitter. If they don’t like it, they don’t have to follow me.”
Watch Rubio’s response at the 6-minute mark below:
Rubio also emphasized the importance of his Christian faith during the interview — and said that he feels called and compelled to share his beliefs.
“Faith is the single biggest influence on my life, and it’s a positive influence,” he said.
On Wednesday, Rubio tweeted text from Proverbs 18:2, which reads, “Fools take no delight in understanding, but only in displaying what they think.”
Fools take no delight in understanding,
but only in displaying what they think. Proverbs 18:2— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) October 18, 2017
As Faithwire previously reported, the Freedom From Religion Foundation, an atheist activist group, sent a letter to Rubio in August demanding that he stop sharing scripture on that platform and released a statement imploring the politician to “silence your bible verses.”
The group appealed to Matthew 6:5-6 in the Aug. 22 letter in an attempt to shame the politician into compliance.
“If the law and your oath to uphold the Constitution are not sufficient to convince you to stop, perhaps you might consider reading Matthew 6:5-6, in which Jesus condemns public prayer as hypocrisy in his Sermon on the Mount,” the letter read. “None of Jesus’s supposed words mentions Twitter — perhaps he wasn’t that prescient — but the condemnation of public piety is reasonably clear.”
Despite those swipes, the letter more generally attempted to accuse Rubio of violating the U.S. Constitution by sharing messages about his official government role as well as details and verses pertaining to his private, Christian faith.
……His invisible attributes of eternal power & divinity have been able to be understood & perceived in what He has made. Romans 1:20 https://t.co/G9ZGRCE3au
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) October 17, 2017
“We understand that you have been tweeting bible verses from @MarcoRubio to nearly three million followers. It appears that you began tweeting the bible in mid-May and have been doing so regularly ever since,” the letter reads. “This is not an errant bible verse or two, but more than 60 bible verses in three months. That’s enough verses to tweet the entire Book of Jude. Twice.”
While the FFRF said it has no problem with people reading or talking about the Bible, the group does take issue with the government promoting “one religious book over others” or promoting “religion over non-religion.”
When this unfolds, atheist activists argue that it poses a violation of the Establishment Clause of the Constitution. And, in the case of Rubio’s tweets, it appears the FFRF believes he crossed the line.
Into the bag the lot is cast, but from the LORD comes every decision. Proverbs 16:33
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) October 16, 2017
“Government officials cannot appear to endorse Christianity,” the letter reads, arguing that tweets from Rubio’s account are “government speech.” “By tying your government title to a social media page, you have intimately entwined your official position with the messages you send on that platform, creating the appearance of official endorsement.”
Read the FFRF letter in its entirety here.