Judge to Church: "The Constitution is Not a Suicide Pact"
You know things are bad when someone has to tell you this.
Of all the pardons President Trump handed out this week, one in particular highlights why you shouldn’t assume someone is trustworthy because he’s Christian. Former GOP Rep. Duncan Hunter was pardoned for stealing up to $250,000 in campaign funds, which he took bit by bit disguised as wholesome write-offs, such as “donation to church family” and “a Christian thing.”
We live in the worst timeline.
According to POLITICO, Trump’s 2017 executive order weakening the ability for the IRS to enforce the Johnson Amendment set the stage for Liberty University to become an all-out Trump campaign machine.
Trump issued the order in 2017. The following year, under Falwell’s leadership, the university directed more than $3 million to conservative organizations. In 2019, it created a think tank that purchased Facebook ads featuring Trump’s image and the slogan “Pray For Our President,” produced a podcast that amplified Trump’s claims of a stolen election, and recently staged a strategy session for the 2021 elections that featured only Republican politicians.
Rick Scarborough is in a tizzy over SANTA being an anagram of SATAN, but I’m just remembering all the fun that was had last year when a misplaced “N” summoned the other man in red.
Churches all across the U.S. have been crying persecution about their in-person church services being limited or cancelled due to the pandemic— and in many cases they get what they want. But not in U.S. District Judge Jesus Bernal’s court! Bernal pulled no punches in his ruling against California’s Harvest Rock Church.
Plaintiffs paint a stark picture. They claim that Tier 1 “totally prohibit[s] religious worship services of any kind and any number”… This is not true. The First Amendment has not taken a sabbatical. Californians may still worship, attend services, pray, and otherwise exercise their religious freedoms. They just may not do so in ways that significantly increase the likelihood of transmission of a virus which has claimed more than three hundred thousand American lives in less than one year. The Constitution is not a suicide pact. The First Amendment may not be used to make it one.
Just look at it.
A North Carolina wedding venue may have the legal right to discriminate against a lesbian couple, but the social fallout for their bigoted business practices may be punishment enough.
On a happier note, it looks like the Trump loyalists are starting to accept the reality of the election… at least when it comes down to betting their own dough.
