Two More Strong Arguments for the Separation of Church and State:

Michigan, a Blue state that stupidly elected a Red government, is learning just how stupid its voting choices were. The Michigan House of “Representatives” has passed a religious oppression “freedom” bill that pretty much gives the finger to our Constitutional rights as guaranteed by the Establishment Clause:

The Michigan House of Representatives, led by Speaker Jase Bolger (photo, above, left, with Gov. Rick Snyder,) just passed a bill that would allow discrimination to become sanctioned by the state. The Religious Freedom Restoration Act, akin to one that made nationwide headlines in Arizona but was vetoed, appears to merely force the government to step aside if a person’s “deeply-held religious beliefs” mandate they act, or not act, in a certain manner.

Supporters of these bills claim they allow people of faith to exercise their religion without government interference, but in reality, they are trojan horses, allowing rampant discrimination under the guise of religious observance.

For example, under the Religious Freedom law, a pharmacist could refuse to fill a doctor’s prescription for birth control, or HIV medication. An emergency room physician or EMT could refuse service to a gay person in need of immediate treatment. A school teacher could refuse to mentor the children of a same-sex couple, and a DMV clerk could refuse to give a driver’s license to a person who is divorced. 

Fundagelicals who support such “religious freedom” laws claim that the Founders were all about having a theocracy, but that argument would wash a lot of hogs. The author of the First Amendment himself (Thomas Jefferson) said it himself, time and again:

Be it enacted by General Assembly that no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or burthened in his body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief, but that all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of Religion, and that the same shall in no wise diminish, enlarge or affect their civil capacities.

And, of course, he was not alone:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; 

That bit being written by one Mr. Ames, wih help from James Madison and others. Add in the Supremacy Clause, and you can see that what Michigan’s Teapublican government is attempting to do is not just unconstitutional, it’s extraconstitutional. Perhaps you could say “treasonous and seditious” instead. Or, how about “un-American and illegal as all Hell”?

This writer has occasional need to travel to the Thumb State, and would prefer not to be left to die by, say, a Nazarene physician from Michigan who doesn’t like Presbyterians and refused to work on me based on his religious objection. That would be allowed if the law in question were to be enacted.

People, here we have two reasons for the Separation of Church and State: the law itself, and what would happen if we did not have that law to protect us. It is time to run these Teapubbies out of office on an elctoral rail. And that soon.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

American “Christians”, you are NOT being oppressed. Repeat, NOT BEING OPPRESSED.

Here is the latest in a flurry of non-reality-based memes on the subject:

How wrong is it? Let us count the ways:
Number A: they are free to say grace over their meal. Nobody ever said they couldn’t. But the meme falsely implies that they are bravely taking a stand against some mythical oppressor who seeks to stop their prayer. There is, of course, no such oppressor, but that fact matters not at all to the Fundagelicals.
Letter 2: see anybody there pelting these hard-working public servants with atheistic tracts? Nope. Most Americans don’t much care who you pray to, when, how or why.
Thirdly: assuming that the promulgators of this meme consider themselves to be Christians, they should read Rebbe Yeshuah bar Joseph’s words in Matthew:6. You know, the words about not being phony and ostentatious in their prayer.

Odds are, the people depicted had nothing to do with the meme: just people saying grace before a meal. Good on them. It’s their right to do so.

The problem is with the yahoo prostletyzers who are using this ordinary picture to try and enforce their wingnut agendas on the rest of us. This writer wishes they’d spend more time reading their Constitutions and less trying to subvert it.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

Hobby Lobby is a threat to your religious freedom. And your health. And your wallet.

One year ago, this writer wrote a prophetic post about Hobby Lobby’s attempts to use their personal religious beliefs to screw over their employees. Here’s a brief excerpt:

However, there is a very scary paradigm emerging amongst the Religious Right. Example: Hobby Lobby tried to claim a religious exemption in order to undermine the care that their employees could get under the ACA. They said that the owners of the company had a religious objection to certain kinds of gynecological care, and so should be able to opt out of providing them to their workers.

Consider a more extreme (but highly probable) scenario: the First Church of Christ, Scientist. These people do not believe in medicine: they are faith-healers. So if your employers were Christian Scientists, they could deny you any and all health care coverage. You’d get nothing. Except, perhaps, for a bunch of nimrods praying by your bedside as you died of appendicitis.

Now they have made it to the Supreme Court,  which seems sympathetic to the religious loons’ point of view. And that means there could be a ruling that would take away employees’ rights to birth control, and any other health care offerings that your employer may object to on religious grounds.

In addition, there is a deeper matter to consider: whether your employer’s religious beliefs are allowed to control yours. You see, Hobby Lobby doesn’t believe in birth control. And if you, as an employee, DO believe in birth control, well, tough rocks pal: your religious freedom is not as important as that of your employer.

Remember Animal Farm, where everyone was equal, but some were “more equal than others”? That is what the Supreme Court is all too likely to decide. Don’t scoff, they did it before with the Citizen’s United ruling, in which they decreed that while we all have the right to freedom of speech, rich people have more free speech than do the rest of us.

We are talking about a potential assault on the very principles on which our nation was founded, and on which our Constitution was based. The idea that your boss’s religious beliefs can overrule yours is not all that different from having your government’s religious beliefs likewise trump yours. This would completely take away our constitutional freedom of religion as hitherto guaranteed under the Establishment Clause.

The Supreme Court has the power via this ruling to take away your personal religious freedom, deny you access to health care, and potentially bankrupt you by taking away that access: pushing us further towards an Orwellian dystopia, all at a single stroke.

Not scared? Then you’re an idiot.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

150 Years Ago, The Battle of Gettysburg Started. Today, Some Americans are So S*** Stupid, They Want Another Civil War.

The Battle of Gettysburg was an example of Stupid America at its stupidest: a load of greedy, narrow-minded, ideological, partisan s***sacks decided to wage war on the other half of the country so they could be free to oppress a group of people (slaves, in that case). In the end, those the Confederates wanted to enslave won their freedom, the Yanks beat the Rebels’ asses like a drum, and a lot of innocent schmucks got their lives ruined or ended: all so a bunch of fat cats could get even fatter at the expense of their constituents. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Gettysburg

But just in case you think America has gotten over its affliction of Stupid Syndrome, you should know that we have a new and even dumber load of greedy, narrow-minded, ideological, partisan s***sacks who want to, yep, wage war on the rest of us so as to be able to oppress a group of people (broadly speaking, anyone who is not a while male Dominionist “Christian” “Republican”). Then as now, these people are treasonous, anti-American scumbuckets who want to overthrow our government. And then as now, all too many of us are not paying attention.

Here, in their own words, you can read their call to arms. And this is a literal call to arms – they mean to grab weapons and start killing people so as to make America into a theocracy. Don’t believe the Cranky One? Read these quotes from David Lane, an adviser to Michele Bachmann, Newt Gingrich, Rick Perry, and Rand Paul:

“You ask, “What is our goal?” To wage war to restore America to our Judeo-Christian heritage with all of our might and strength that God will give us.”

Or perhaps you’d prefer some Peter J. Leithart:

“If America is to be put in its place – put right – Christians must risk martyrdom and force Babel to the crux where it has to decide either to acknowledge Jesus an imperator and the church as God’s imperium or to begin drinking holy blood.”

Yes, that’s right: these “Republicans” want to force you to “drink holy blood”. And lots of you voted for them. Lots of you will vote for them AGAIN. That is Stupid America raised to levels of stupidity hitherto unimagined.

Today we should remember the brave Civil War soldiers who were killed on behalf of ideological extremists who had built their fortunes of the bones of people they had enslaved. Ask yourselves this question: what is the best way to honor their sacrifice? Is it:

Number A: repeating the errors of the past by launching a second civil war and attempting to overthrow a duly constituted government, or

Letter 2: coming together as a nation by rejecting these calls for violence, inequality, hatred, treason and wholesale bloodshed.

This writer picks the second option, and hopes you will also.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

WV High School Uses Secret Funds to Hire Insane Fundagelical who Verbally Abuses Students

Sometimes you have to wonder if there is a single law-abiding public servant left standing, ya know? Here’s a strong argument saying there aren’t any: some school officials in West Virginia used a secret slush fund to pay a “Christian” speaker to intimidate, abuse, scare and shame students at an alleged “sex education” assembly.

So, Gentle Reader, we have:
Number A: financial shenanigans,
Letter 2: a potential Constitutional violation ,
Thirdly, a complete and utter betrayal of the trust put in the the school boards in the communities involved.

All in the course of a single high school assembly.

On the yardstick of corrupt, crooked, slimy “public servants”, this crew has got to be right up there at the top. Such criminality, raised to such a level is pure genius. Evil genius, yes, but genius nonetheless.

Here’s a link to the lunatic “Abstinence Prophet”: Pam Stenzel. This maniacal shrieker is truly bugf*** insane. She tells kids things like “If you take birth control, your mother probably hates you”, and that birth control makes girls “10 times more likely to contract a disease than if she were not taking that drug”, among other lies and distortions. We’re not exaggerating, here’s a link to one of her YouTube videos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jq1YJRsLsuE And yes, she has quite a few. And by the bye, she rakes in north of a quarter million bucks a year peddling this tripe.

But a single loony-tune screecher is only part of the problem. The larger issue is what we said at the outset: people who are entrusted with the health, well-being and education of our children are failing miserably at all three: their health is being compromised by the schools’ insistence on telling them lies about their bodies; their well-being is wrecked by screaming orators who belittle, shame and abuse them in school-approved activities; and they are not being educated at all. Not if this is any indicator of what they are being taught, at any rate.

Add to that the clumsy attempt to skate around the Constitutionally-mandated separation of Church and State, and the potentially illegal use of a slush fund to pay some jackalope to abuse their students, and it is safe to say that this school has one helluva big problem. And so must lots of other schools. Do the math: this one example of the breed makes $268,799.00 a year, and gets an average of 5 grand a speech, so she has to give an average of a speech a week to make that kind of cash. And since there are lots more of these “speakers” out there doing the same thing, the odds are pretty fair that a school district near you has had a similar experience/committed similar crimes.

This writer suggests you act to protect your community, your kids and your wallet. Get in the faces of your local school board and make sure they aren’t using secret slush funds in your town; make sure they aren’t teaching your kids a pack of bald-faced lies; and make sure, above all, that your kids are safe at their school.

Because at Washington High School in West-By-God-Virginia, the locals are f***ing up on all three counts.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

Do You REALLY Think God Wants Morons for Followers?

Mr. Blunt and Cranky suspects that many religious people think so. At least, when they forward and share things like this:

It is hard to come to any other conclusion. Seriously, people, if God is all-powerful, then there is no way on Earth that we humans could “not allow Him in  schools”; for that  matter, there isn’t any way we could stop Him from going anywhere He wants to go.

Also, God IS “allowed” in schools: prayer has NEVER been outlawed in any school in our nation. What is not allowed is teachers forcing kids to pray in  a certain manner that the kids may not agree with. (You may have heard of this before – it is called “religious freedom”.

God gave us brains so that we may use them. Let’s all do so.

Mr. B & C

Another Strong Argument for The Separation of Church and State

Remember these Christian Soldiers?

Yep, the ones who think Jesus wants us to pack hidden heat so as to waste each other as needed. Them are the ones.

This week, they’re running a “Constitution Class”. The good Lord knows what they’re  teaching each other, but if their “understanding” of Constitutional law is anything like their “understanding” of Holy Scripture, this is some pretty scary stuff.

No picture of the Church sign this time: we considered the wisdom of pulling into the parking lot of a church full of gun-crazed Fundagelical loons, any number of whom are likely carrying weapons, and we decided that was NOT the prudent course of action. Kind of like driving by an Al-Quaida training camp – do you REALLY want to drop in on them?

Mr. B & C

P.S. A point of clarification: These zeebs are free to use their First and Second Amendment rights, as we see them doing (Mr. Blunt and Cranky is a Presbyterian who uses all of his Constitutional rights, after all). The reason separation of church and state was brought up here is this: entirely too many Americans (including elected and appointed “representatives” and officials at all levels and in all branches of government) want to trash the Establishment clause and make our nation into a Fundagelical Theocracy.

One thing our Founders knew well were the dangers of such a form of government, but too many of us have forgotten. So when we see churches like this one arming themselves and seeking political power, we need to be aware of the threat they pose

Two Strong Arguments for the Separation of Church and State:

This picture taken at the Marengo Christian Church in North Wherethehell, Ohio:

This church has a shooting range out back, which is crazy enough right there: also, it freaks out the neighbors and has raised their homeowner’s insurance premiums (and lowered their property values into the bargain). But that’s all OK by the Marengo Churchies, because evidently Jesus wants us all to pack hidden heat so as to blow each other away. Mr. Blunt and Cranky has read a good deal of Bible, and cannot find any verse in which He said that.

Do you really want to have a government run by a load of homicidal, fundagelical loons?  Because this Christian Patriot Militia would dearly love to run your life. If that doesn’t scare you, you’re pretty much in a coma.

This picture taken at the Bible Baptist Church in West Wherethehell, Ohio:

Evidently, they don’t read enough of the Bible they named their church after: anyone who has knows that God has not governed in person since Adam and Eve got evicted from Eden. Every ruler since who claims to be ruling according to God’s will (like Jim Jones, Pope Innocent III, Khomeini and so on) is just another schmuck like the rest of us. So there really isn’t any way to have God rule us here on earth (which, by the way, Jesus Himself said).

These people really need to have their legal wings clipped, and kept from imposing their Sharia-On-Steroids laws on the rest of us.

Mr. B & C

Thought for Your Sunday: Theocracies Suck

As has been writ before, Mister Blunt and Cranky does not like Theocracies. His ancestors fled two of them to get here, where (among other things), there would be no government sponsorship of religion. And a few years later, when the government’s founding documents were written, they expressly forbade any state sponsorship of any variety of sky pilotry. Whew. Finally, safe to worship (or not) in any manner we choose.

Today, a load of Christians (mostly from Johnny-come-lately denominations) are working to undermine the law of the land, as laid down in clear, unambiguous language by the Founders. Other term for these activities include “sedition”, “treason”, and “crooked”. The people who promote these activities are then, seditious, treasonous, lying, cheats. They are also stupid f***s who apparently  cannot read history books.

Other notable societies who thought they enjoyed  the endorsement of God (by whatever name): Crusaders, Ancient Egypt and Babylon, Kings Solomon and David, the Nazis and the Russian Empire, to name but a very few.

None of these nations/states/empires are recalled for their piety. Rather, they are remembered for the atrocities and crimes they committed, and the horrible, fiery, bloody manners in which they collapsed.

So as you go to church, remember your history. And please, don’t try to tell the rest of how to worship: there is nowhere left to run, and we will have to make a stand right here. And that would pretty well destroy the nation that promised us freedom of worship.

Mr. B & C

P.S. But then, the same people who propose to limit our religious freedoms also propose the unilateral abrogation of other aspects of the social contract, so it should not surprise us that they have no respect for law or existing agreements. More on that during the week.