Good speech. Tolerance and pluralism are hard. Right wing Christians are fools to undermine our pluralistic social virtues and our religious neutrality. The demographic trends should make them tremble. Pro-religion oppression can become anti-religion oppression.
Given the fact only about 47% of American adults now claim any kind of religious affiliation, and that there are more atheists than Jews, all political parties had better start paying attention. The religious right has gotten far too much favor for far too long. They should have never gotten any attention, because they are the people who would use the power of government to force their beliefs on others. If they want to play politics, then they can start paying taxes.
"No, no, no. You guys don't understand that 'religious freedom' means that we religious are free to do whatever we want and you guys have to obey otherwise you're oppressing us!"
The blunt fact is that if any political party wants to serve ALL people, including those with religious beliefs as well as those with NO religious beliefs, their first priority must be NOT to push their own personal beliefs onto others! I've said it multiple times: any governmental employee, from the cop walking a beat to the president, has an obligation solely to the law and NOT to their own personal beliefs, however closely or sincerely held they may be. The Democrats at least attempt to recognize this. The Republicans, with damned few exceptions, have utterly sold out to the Religious Reich and indeed, make no secret that they have.
In that regard, the United States has one political party and one religious cabal, and that desperately needs to change!
OT 11,000-year-old statue of giant man clutching penis unearthed in Turkey. Alahu Akbar? Oh well, there goes the 6,000 year old planet belief plus most of the Family Values for Christianity.
Democrats also need to take back the "Pro-life" descriptor (pro-choice, pro-women, pro-LGBTQIA+, pro-sensible gun legislation, anti-death penalty and so on).
The zeal to vote, a great phrase. One that can be ambiguous because in this day in age language is fraught with ambiguity, used to conceal rather than reveal, very literally used as a weapon against persons or movements. Zeal by definition means partisanship. But going deeper, I think zeal reveals something that most voters off the conservative bloc dont think of, deny, or rather not countenance as a possibility - fear. The enthusiasm of the conservative bloc, the evangelical bloc, and the supremacist bloc is driven by the fear that they will be washed away if they don't act. Nothing could be further than the truth, evidenced by the lackadaisical approach most other blocs use in voting. It's a live and let live mentality that wrongly is ascribed to others, that if I treat you fairly, you'll treat me fairly.
But that's not the starting point - the starting point for the conservative bloc is one of hierarchy, authority, power, and control. Whether from an imaginary being, law, culture, or even hoax, their starting point is corrupt. Any argument following might be sensical, but it itself is corrupt.
C'est-à-dire, vote like you mean it, otherwise it's meaningless.
Nice to see that she mentioned reproductive rights in that. I'm surprised that the Democrats aren't hammering it a little more given that it seems to me to be a bit of a vote winner. More than some vague stuff about religious freedom anyway.
Good speech. Tolerance and pluralism are hard. Right wing Christians are fools to undermine our pluralistic social virtues and our religious neutrality. The demographic trends should make them tremble. Pro-religion oppression can become anti-religion oppression.
Given the fact only about 47% of American adults now claim any kind of religious affiliation, and that there are more atheists than Jews, all political parties had better start paying attention. The religious right has gotten far too much favor for far too long. They should have never gotten any attention, because they are the people who would use the power of government to force their beliefs on others. If they want to play politics, then they can start paying taxes.
"No, no, no. You guys don't understand that 'religious freedom' means that we religious are free to do whatever we want and you guys have to obey otherwise you're oppressing us!"
The blunt fact is that if any political party wants to serve ALL people, including those with religious beliefs as well as those with NO religious beliefs, their first priority must be NOT to push their own personal beliefs onto others! I've said it multiple times: any governmental employee, from the cop walking a beat to the president, has an obligation solely to the law and NOT to their own personal beliefs, however closely or sincerely held they may be. The Democrats at least attempt to recognize this. The Republicans, with damned few exceptions, have utterly sold out to the Religious Reich and indeed, make no secret that they have.
In that regard, the United States has one political party and one religious cabal, and that desperately needs to change!
OT 11,000-year-old statue of giant man clutching penis unearthed in Turkey. Alahu Akbar? Oh well, there goes the 6,000 year old planet belief plus most of the Family Values for Christianity.
https://www.livescience.com/archaeology/11000-year-old-statue-of-giant-man-clutching-penis-unearthed-in-turkey
I love the irony of a speech about religious freedom in a city named from a king who launched 2 crusades and persecuted French Cathars and Jews.
Democrats also need to take back the "Pro-life" descriptor (pro-choice, pro-women, pro-LGBTQIA+, pro-sensible gun legislation, anti-death penalty and so on).
Also, remember it was Republicans, not Democrats, who wanted to ban ALL Muslims from entering the United States.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/16/tennessee-abortion-ban-lawsuit-allie-phillips-representative
a very interesting read
The zeal to vote, a great phrase. One that can be ambiguous because in this day in age language is fraught with ambiguity, used to conceal rather than reveal, very literally used as a weapon against persons or movements. Zeal by definition means partisanship. But going deeper, I think zeal reveals something that most voters off the conservative bloc dont think of, deny, or rather not countenance as a possibility - fear. The enthusiasm of the conservative bloc, the evangelical bloc, and the supremacist bloc is driven by the fear that they will be washed away if they don't act. Nothing could be further than the truth, evidenced by the lackadaisical approach most other blocs use in voting. It's a live and let live mentality that wrongly is ascribed to others, that if I treat you fairly, you'll treat me fairly.
But that's not the starting point - the starting point for the conservative bloc is one of hierarchy, authority, power, and control. Whether from an imaginary being, law, culture, or even hoax, their starting point is corrupt. Any argument following might be sensical, but it itself is corrupt.
C'est-à-dire, vote like you mean it, otherwise it's meaningless.
So a hospital in Gaza was hit by an air strike. At least 500 dead. Israel IMMEDIATELY goes “Not Me” and blames islamists.
This is my skeptical face.
all the atheists I know are already democrats!
At the Veterans & Military Families Council meeting we did have a POW table. No Bible required. That's progress.
dncvmfc.org/POWTableAtDNCFall2023VMFC.jpg
Nice to see that she mentioned reproductive rights in that. I'm surprised that the Democrats aren't hammering it a little more given that it seems to me to be a bit of a vote winner. More than some vague stuff about religious freedom anyway.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x49sHFMzpFc
Interesting.
hope "god" bring the t̶e̶n̶t̶ house down on pastor church again.
https://twitter.com/DarkElfZombie1/status/1713603431867302312