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

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

“Religious Freedom Day” Proclaimed by President Obama

Yep. THAT Obama, the one who (supposedly) hates religion and wants to destroy our freedom to worship. That “evil” man has just endorsed the Freedom of Religion as enshrined in the Constitution:

http://m.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/01/16/presidential-proclamation-religious-freedom-day

Just sayin’.

Mr. B & C