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Jelly's avatar

What a coincidence. I just got home from hanging my No Kings banner in the main road out of my town when I read this. Should have put my banner on a main road in Oklahoma.

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cdbunch's avatar

The Donald J. Trump highway? Runs through the panhandle between Colorado and Texas.

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Val Uptuous NotAgain's avatar

So, a few weeks ago the Facebook page God asked what we should name for Trump since everyone was trying to get him on money, Mt Rushmore, airports and such. My response was to suggest one of the tire fires they can’t put out. (Like on the Simpsons). It seems the only appropriate honor for him.

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Claudia's avatar

My line has been 'The Donald J Trump Sewage Treatment Works' and 'The Donald J Trump Landfill Facility'.

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Val Uptuous NotAgain's avatar

Yeah, those are good to describe his personality.

But I’m describing his personality and also reminding people that he’s not done anything good and he’s only there because of other people’s poor decisions, laziness, and apathy. Sewage treatment is a beneficial system, it protects water, wildlife, while still eliminating the waste we cannot avoid. While tire fires are a failure of society to manage a waste we can find other uses for, but don’t.

Trump should be in a prison cell, not in the most powerful seat in the world. There’s no honor he deserves.

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Crowscage's avatar

It deserves to spend eternity as a public toilet.

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Crowscage's avatar

The public toilets made from concrete that his cremains have been mixed into.

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Joe King's avatar

“𝐼 𝑤𝑎𝑠𝑛’𝑡 𝑎𝑤𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡, 𝐼’𝑚 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑒 ℎ𝑜𝑤 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑟𝑒𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑠 𝑡𝑜 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑔ℎ,” 𝑠𝑎𝑖𝑑 𝑅𝑒𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑒 𝐽𝑖𝑚 𝑂𝑙𝑠𝑒𝑛, 𝑅-𝑅𝑜𝑙𝑎𝑛𝑑.

I'm calling bullshit. Even if Olsen wasn't aware of the g̶e̶n̶o̶c̶i̶d̶e̶ ̶ Indian schools, he knows perfectly well how it relates to the resolution:

𝑇ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑖𝑠 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑎𝑏𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑟𝑒𝑓𝑙𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑣𝑎𝑙𝑢𝑒𝑠 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑏𝑖𝑏𝑙𝑒, 𝑖𝑡 𝑖𝑠 𝑎𝑏𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑝𝑟𝑖𝑜𝑟𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑧𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑠𝑢𝑏𝑠𝑒𝑐𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝐶ℎ𝑟𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑎𝑛𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑠, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑟𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑔𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑂𝑘𝑙𝑎ℎ𝑜𝑚𝑎𝑛𝑠 𝑤ℎ𝑜 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑟𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑔𝑖𝑜𝑢𝑠.

It's all about power. It's all about sending the message to everyone who is not white conservative evangelical Christian that we are less than. That we are not full citizens. That we need to shut up and go hide while they get to run rough shod over our rights.

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Die Anyway's avatar

NO KINGS!!!!

Ha, ha... I'm just joking.

Joe King is ok.

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Stephen Brady's avatar

Imagine getting paid out of state monies to trumpet religious claptrap. That, in and of itself, should be unconstitutional. Republicans have completely given up all pretense of governing. They just spout nonsense and react (badly) when goaded by their constituents about some real problem.

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John Kinser's avatar

I see this as the old “give them an inch and they’ll take a mile” scenario. Wait 2 maybe 3 Years, Christianity will be the official religion of Oklahoma. Once again, it is just back dooring the lust for power and wealth.

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Ian D's avatar

I can assure you Christianity - grace, love, servants spirit, humility, material contentment, the welfare for the poor and needy, and self-control - will NOT dominate their agenda nor behaviour.

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Bridget Collins's avatar

I don't disagree that their personal religion will be declared the official religion.

But since they do not comfort the sick, feed the poor or welcome the stranger, it will bear little resemblance to the teachings of Christ in the New Testament.

They also call themselves good Americans and yet none of them have read the US Constitution or studied US history.

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Black Hole and DM mourner's avatar

Hey, give him some credit. Maybe he spent the last 5 years in a coma cut from any media in another galaxy.

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Claudia's avatar

No. No credit given.

He knows better and if he doesn't he jolly well SHOULD know better!

Joyeux Paques. (apologies for lack of umlauts)

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Sko Hayes's avatar

He was educated in Oklahoma public schools, perhaps.

They don't even fund most of the districts enough to run the schools 5 days a week. Most are on a 4 day schedule. They're like 44th in 4th graders reading at grade level.

It's criminal.

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Tinker's avatar

If Christ is King then he is NOT welcome in the U S of A. This is, and has been since the 18th century, a no kings zone. We are NOT a monarchy. Anyone who wants to declare a King or become a King needs to be shown the inside of a federal prison because they are traitors to the founding principles of the United States of America! Anyone who votes for these dictators are complicit.

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John Lake's avatar

Besides, Jesus wasn't WHITE!

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Ethereal fairy Natalie's avatar

They will never admit that, and he was Jewish!

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Psittacus Ebrius's avatar

I have to wonder if the crackpots behind this movement have read any of the teachings of Jesus in the NT. Nowhere does it suggest that a humble rabbi living in the first century Palestine who ministered to the poor, the marginalized, and the downtrodden aspired to be a King and lord over these people.

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oraxx's avatar

Our secular government cannot choose one religion over another, and rights are never matters of majority rule. The great historian Will Durant said he thought Christianity did a great deal to change people's thinking, but he could not see where it ever led to a significant improvement in behavior. This is just one more example of the religious right attempting to get government to backstop their religion, and thus stave off defeat in a battle they are doomed to lose in the long run.

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Sko Hayes's avatar

Robert Green Ingersoll:

It is contended by many that ours is a Christian government, founded upon the Bible, and that all who look upon the book as false or foolish are destroying the foundation of our country.

The truth is, our government is not founded upon the rights of gods, but upon the rights of men. Our Constitution was framed, not to declare and uphold the deity of Christ, but the sacredness of humanity. Ours is the first government made by the people and for the people. It is the only nation with which the gods have had nothing to do.

And yet there are some judges dishonest and cowardly enough to solemnly decide that this is a Christian country, and that our free institutions are based upon the infamous laws of Jehovah.

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oraxx's avatar

Great comment. I've read a lot of Ingersoll's work. A man far ahead of his time.

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Sko Hayes's avatar

A guy on Twitter used to post his quotes on Twitter all the time, but I haven't seen him in awhile.

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Matri's avatar

“Infamous laws of jehovah”

Hah! I like that!

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Joe King's avatar

𝐻𝑜𝑢𝑠𝑒 𝐶𝑜𝑛𝑐𝑢𝑟𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑅𝑒𝑠𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 1013 𝑠𝑎𝑦𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑝ℎ𝑟𝑎𝑠𝑒 “𝐶ℎ𝑟𝑖𝑠𝑡 𝑖𝑠 𝐾𝑖𝑛𝑔” 𝑟𝑒𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑠 “𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑖𝑔𝑛𝑡𝑦 𝑜𝑓 𝐽𝑒𝑠𝑢𝑠 𝐶ℎ𝑟𝑖𝑠𝑡 𝑎𝑠 𝑎 𝑠𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑐𝑒 𝑜𝑓 ℎ𝑜𝑝𝑒, 𝑢𝑛𝑖𝑡𝑦, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑚𝑜𝑟𝑎𝑙 𝑔𝑢𝑖𝑑𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒.”

Nope. Sovereignty of Jesus? Nope. Oklahoma and the United States are representative democracies. No sovereign over them. Source of hope? Not really. Remember the "hope" is that if you force yourself to believe, he won't torture you forever. Unity? Christianity has been splintered and not unified since Paul showed up in Jerusalem to argue with Peter. Moral guidance? See yesterday's comment section highlighting the child abuse scandals plaguing the entire religion. That doesn't even touch on the holy wars, the misogyny, the denial of human rights to the LGBTQ community, the racism...

And with all the pushback from Democrats pointing these things out, the NSGOP still passed it. Republicans are horrible by definition.

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painedumonde's avatar

By definition. Love it.

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Claudia's avatar

Actually, there is a sovereign in Oklahoma/US. The sovereign is the people.

Like in many other countries (but not England)

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Sko Hayes's avatar

That's what having a supermajority gets you.

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Lynn Veit's avatar

“It’s just a very warm, inspirational way to honor Christ."

Oh really? Then save it for church.

You can tell the difference between a church and a legislative floor, can't you? I ask because....."🎼Ooooooook-lahoma, where the wind comes whistling out their ears...." You and your ilk are a laughing stock to every sane and normal person on the planet.

You who just wasted everybody else's time aggressively shoving your religion in their faces when you should have been addressing Oklahoma's far more serious secular issues are not fooling anyone who isn't already blighted by your deluded fantasies.

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Layla Rose's avatar

When they could be working on education, proper education, not ecumenical accomplishments and bible bullshit, clean water, doing what's best for the actual citizens so we don't continue to be the slack-jawed yokels of the world. But no, by all means, vote on bullshit like this to waste everyone's time & wear us all out. They make me so enraged.

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David Hawksworth's avatar

When did Jesus Christ claim to be King?!? I must of missed that episode. 🫤

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Troublesh00ter's avatar

Wasn't him. It was his publicist. 😝

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Claudia's avatar

Made me laugh, thank you.

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Troublesh00ter's avatar

Nice to know I can still do that. Have a great day! 👍

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Claudia's avatar

Thank you, yes, I am having a good day. About to head out and a bottle of prosecco. And maybe an Easter Egg for a friend.

What about you?

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Troublesh00ter's avatar

Might head out with my wife this evening, have dinner, and likely a good single-malt later on.

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Claudia's avatar

Single Malt? From Scotland? Very good, I approve!

What are your favourites?

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Kevin Robinson's avatar

"My Kingdom is not of this world."

Their scripture says that he said that.

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David Hawksworth's avatar

“It’s a response to Pontius Pilate's question about Jesus being a king, signifying that Jesus' kingdom is spiritual, not earthly.”

I take that to mean Jesus clearly did not say he was king on earth. So again, Jesus himself did not claim to be a king. At least not on earth.

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Kevin Robinson's avatar

33

So Pilate went back into the praetorium and summoned Jesus and said to him, “Are you the King of the Jews?”

34

Jesus answered, “Do you say this on your own or have others told you about me?”

35

Pilate answered, “I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests handed you over to me. What have you done?”p

36

Jesus answered, “My kingdom does not belong to this world. If my kingdom did belong to this world, my attendants [would] be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not here.”q

37

So Pilate said to him, “Then you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say I am a king.* For this I was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”r

...................

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/john/18

The quotes both you and I used are from this section.

Remember when conservatives warned against attempts to "immanentize the eschaton?

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Ethereal fairy Natalie's avatar

Well, it's not like they read their book, they just bash others with what their hate-preacher tells them.

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Kevin Robinson's avatar

There's a lot of bible reading, but it is usually guided by a study group leader or a teacher in a religion or theology class. They usually give the denomination's official interpretation. The attitude of the RCC in my youth was that solitary, unguided bible reading leads to heresy, or apostasy!

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Ethereal fairy Natalie's avatar

I read the whole thing, and really found it tedious, contradictory, and indicative of the men who wrote it. And don’t get me started on “holy man” Lot raping his daughters. Incestuous fucking pervert. And blaming the victims, no less, so he looked less shitty. That whole tale reeks of lies.

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Kevin Robinson's avatar

I spent 12 years in Catholic school and earned a BA from a Catholic university. My U required 3 theology & 4 Philosophy courses. The logic I learned in PHI armed me to take apart what they taught in THEO. Contradictions, everywhere.

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Layla Rose's avatar

Dude my BFF told me as an adult what that story was really about. I didn't really know. When I was a kid, they made it seem really PG like it was a story about obedience or something (when the wife turns back & gets turned into a pillar of salt). I didn't really get it. I knew there was sodomy, but I thought that was a form of rape or something, which is the term used when someone is anally raped. I read something like the Atheists annotaed bible to get the story straight in my head, like OMFG WTAF?! They're angels, they weren't in any real danger, right? Why did they have to hide them & then the whole Lot & his daughters stuff, yeah, so fucking sick, warped, & twisted. I'm surprised they even decided to keep that story in the bible at all.

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Ethereal fairy Natalie's avatar

They saw nothing wrong with Lot pimping his “virgin daughters” (he even had a pimp-spiel to sell them, so, to me, it’s obvious he was doing that for some time.) to an angry crowd to be raped, and torn apart, because that is what happens to another woman in the bible. I read between the lines, and think the mom (who is such a victim she doesn’t even rate being named) got angry with him and told him to not do that, and her killed her and dumped her in a lime pit (because those translating the bible didn’t understand that’s how you get rid of a body, so it got translated as “pillar of salt” which is really stupid and could never happen. He then seals himself in a cave with his daughters and rapes them repeatedly, until one of them figures out the world didn’t end. Lot is like Krastor the daughter raping monster, in Game of Thrones. Even white-washing him by blaming the victims (how did they get him drunk? did they remember to bring flasks of wine when they fled from the disaster?) Even a couple of teen-aged girls analyzing it on you-tube tweaked to how full of holes that story is.

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Zizzer-Zazzer-Zuzz's avatar

Some watery tart lobbed a scimitar at him.

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cdbunch's avatar

Still not sure watery tarts handing out swords wouldn't have a better outcome than last November.

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Bensnewlogin's avatar

My kingdom is not of this world. Jesus said that..

Pilate therefore said to Him, "Are You a king then?" Jesus answered, "You say rightly that I am a king. For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth.

I think that that is as close as he got to the subject.

However, that was then and this is now.

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phelpsmediation's avatar

We have no real evidence that Jesus said anything! Just claims that he did!!!

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Bensnewlogin's avatar

We’ve got better than that. We have no evidence that he actually ever existed.

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RegularJoe's avatar

Real Americans™ don't suffer kings.

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NOGODZ20's avatar

We fought a revolution to get away from kings, didn't we?

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Don Hawkins's avatar

TAX ALL CHURCHES.

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Crowscage's avatar

into oblivion

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painedumonde's avatar

I said, what does God need with a resolution anyway?

Jim!

C'mon Bones, isn't he the highest already?

The very fact that the resolution was brought before the voting body is the undoing of its intent: to place God as the highest through voting means God wasn't the highest. I would say it was sacrilegious, blasphemous, and downright dumb. As all those in opposition said.

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Bagat's avatar

It fucks over my mind that giving to charity is considered noble and praiseworthy, but creating an economic system that doesn't require charity is considered socialist and evil.

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Matri's avatar

How else are the marks supposed to know how “virtuous” they are without any opportunity to virtue signal?

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Richard S. Russell's avatar

“Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest.”

—Denis Diderot (1713-1784), French encyclopedist and philosopher, "Dithyrambe sur la fe te des rois"

“Let a crown be placed thereon, by which the world may know, that so far as we approve of monarchy, that in America the law is King. For as in absolute governments the King is law, so in free countries the law ought to be King; and there ought to be no other.”

—Thomas Paine (1737-1809) American revolutionary, pamphleteer, and atheist

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Kevin Robinson's avatar

Deist?

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Val Uptuous NotAgain's avatar

“With all kinds of caveats meant to stave off lawsuits, insisting this is merely honoring Christians rather than establishing a theocracy,”

They put in the caveats because they know what they’re doing is unconstitutional. Same goes for the “I don’t see how this applies to the resolution” talk when confronted by the democrats. La la la I can’t hear you. These aren’t the droids you’re looking for. They’re playing dense to avoid accountability for their corruption.

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Joe King's avatar

The caveats are there for plausible deniability. They 𝗮𝗿𝗲 establishing a theocracy, they are just pretending not to.

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Val Uptuous NotAgain's avatar

Well, it is an attempt at plausible deniability, but there’s nothing plausible about it.

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cdbunch's avatar

Jedi, they are not.

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Val Uptuous NotAgain's avatar

No, but they’re trying to play mind games.

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Troublesh00ter's avatar

Cyndi Munson said it all when she rightfully noted that the entire "Christ is King" bill and debate was nothing more than a spurious waste of time and taxpayer dollars. Okay, so Christ is king. What does that do for the current price of eggs or the increasing summer heat or any one of a hundred substantial issues that the citizens of the Sooner State face?

The answer, of course, is NOTHING. All of that was performative, show, an exercise in virtue-signaling and territory-marking which does absolutely NOTHING for Oklahomans. Theological masturbation at its best.

Or, really ... worst.

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Claudia's avatar

Question - why is it called 'Sooner State'?

These descriptions always baffle me.

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Troublesh00ter's avatar

The short answer is that Oklahoma got the name The Sooner State due to the Land Run of 1889.

I got that and a lot more from asking Gemini about it, but it's explanation runs to several paragraphs, and I decided not to cut and paste that here.

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cdbunch's avatar

Actually it was from the settlers who cheated and settled before the start of the Land Run. But not the Native Americans forcibly relocated to what had been thought to be useless land that no American would want, so give it to the "Indians"

And the state tourism board had the gall to promote the slogan "Native America".

P.S. I still remember the mock Land Run we did in elementary school.

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Matri's avatar

They NEED the virtue signaling. How else are they going to show everyone how “virtuous” they are?

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Troublesh00ter's avatar

Maybe they could let their actions speak for themselves ... NAAAHHH!

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Troublesh00ter's avatar

A question for the Republicans who promoted this bill: what do you think the Jewish population of Oklahoma thinks of this bill? How about the Muslims? Mormons would probably go for it, but somehow I don't think Hindus or Buddhists would be too wild about it.

Point being, the idea of a secular government is, among other things, to treat all religions equally, rather than favoring one over another. Oklahoma may be a state with a lot of Christians, but not exclusively by any stretch. This fact is clearly lost on those who thought the "Christ is King" bill was a necessary piece of legislation.

It isn't.

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Val Uptuous NotAgain's avatar

They don’t care what the other religions think of it, they actually want them all to leave Oklahoma, and the USA altogether. That’s the point.

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Troublesh00ter's avatar

Yeah, true enough. The problem is, once they're all gone, the Christians will start setting on each other, and I think that's when the real ugliness happens.

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