143 Comments
User's avatar
Troublesh00ter's avatar

Once again, what part of "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion..." don't these dips get? Oh, I suspect that they DO get it. They just want to drink from the public trough anyway.

And the courts should tell them 𝗡𝗢 ... in no uncertain terms.

Expand full comment
Joe King's avatar

They are so desperate for SCOTUS to declare that the Establishment Clause only demands that Congress can't declare one particular denomination to be the official Church of the United States. They know what it actuallu means, they just want to force their preferred meaning.

Expand full comment
Troublesh00ter's avatar

It occurs to me that I would love and I mean dearly LOVE to see Andrew Seidel argue this before SCOTUS. Based on his writings, he would present solid arguments and bring it HARD, hard enough not to be ignored.

Again, probably never happen, but the man is qualified, no doubt.

Expand full comment
Linda's avatar

Yep, they are emboldened by SCOTUS which is corrupt so…

Expand full comment
PhillyT's avatar

I mean the fact that it they may actually rule in favor is concerning imo.

Expand full comment
XJC's avatar

How dare the Supreme Court deny omniscient, omnipotent God his right to teach children to believe he exists.

Expand full comment
Troublesh00ter's avatar

If the bastard can't be bothered to show up in court, why should we listen to it at all?

Expand full comment
Bensnewlogin's avatar

The problem is in the phrase that you wrote: “ CONGRESS shall make no law….”

That is the real problem. There isn’t an actual strict separation of church and state, there was only the interpretations of the last 200 years.

Expand full comment
Troublesh00ter's avatar

I dunno. That phrase always struck me as being pretty straightforward. The problem from where I sit are the "interpretations" by people who want to twist the words to their purposes.

Yeah, I know, the wording is intentionally vague. Considering those 200+ years past, it shouldn't have been.

Expand full comment
Whitney's avatar

I feel like I should mention here that these are the very same people who often have five or six interpretations on what their own religious work says at any given point.

Expand full comment
Joe King's avatar

The 14th Amendment extends that to all levels of government.

Expand full comment
Bensnewlogin's avatar

But that’s the problem. They are trying for religious privilege and exceptionalism overriding any 14th amendment concerns.

Expand full comment
Runfastandwin's avatar

In order to preserve what we have built over the last 150 years, SCROTUS must be expanded and lifetime tenure ended, indeed for all federal judges. Because we all know SCROTUS is just looking for a vehicle to allow this. Too many people think that idea is a non-starter but it really is the only way to end this nightmare of minority rule.

Expand full comment
Linda's avatar

I prefer impeachment for treason and bribery

Expand full comment
Troublesh00ter's avatar

As long as that corrupt asshat Thomas goes first!

Expand full comment
Bensnewlogin's avatar

It was on my list of around 20 or so constitutional reforms that must happen. And end to lifetime appointments. And a formal declaration of separation of church and state: no purely theological concerns may invest the civil of the governs all of us, no role of the church in government whatsoever, no public money supporting religion. The only interaction must be that the government ensures freedom of religion, defined as freedom to believe whatever you wish, but not to include other people who don’t share your religious beliefs.

Expand full comment
Runfastandwin's avatar

Agreed

Expand full comment
Linda's avatar

Absolutely. Time to buckle TF up. Never bring a knife to a gunfight.

Expand full comment
Holytape's avatar

This well be a great school. Just look at their entrance exam.

Name three causes for the Second Punic War?

1. Jesus

2. Jesus.

3. Trans people are demonic.

Find the value of x, 13-x=x(x+1)

Answer: Gay people are going to hell.

Finish this sentence. Jesus ______

Jesus jesusing in the Jesus Jesus.

Name two things that Jesus promoted?

1. Capitalism

2. Free markets

Expand full comment
larry parker's avatar

The cause of the Second Punic War was state's rights.

Expand full comment
OwossoHarpist's avatar

Spoiler alert: Rome wins.

Expand full comment
larry parker's avatar

Damnit, I haven't seen the movie yet.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/pg6ic9PHhW0

Expand full comment
Die Anyway's avatar

Woohoo! I passed.

Expand full comment
dammit barry's avatar

By the authority vested in me by the church of holey jeezybitch, I now ordain thee a minister in my church.

CONGRATULATIONS!

Expand full comment
Val Uptuous NotAgain's avatar

I wonder if, when this (not if, because they will fight this forever) case gets to SCROTUS will Roberts recuse himself like Coney-Barrett did, since the law firm all worked for him. I doubt he has the integrity. I doubt the integrity of all the conservative justices, as they’ve all shown themselves to be thoroughly corrupt.

I really think that we need to stop with the charter schools altogether. They seem like little more than backdoor attempts to defund public schools. They have a terrible track record, the closure rates are astronomical and their policies tend to leave children behind. While I see some of the benefits they might offer, the profit driven approach undermines any good they might do. Instead of throwing money at the charter schools, we should use that money to develop plans for the public schools to incorporate what makes the charters so desirable. Because I know that not every kid learns the way the public schools teach, but the public schools are teaching the way they do because they have too little funding in the first place. They are trying to be innovative, and they’re doing what they can, but if they had the money that we spend on charter schools they could focus more on student needs for learning, rather than just the bare minimum to keep the schools operating.

This school knows it’s not eligible to be a charter school. They know they will be rejected. They ought to just open a private school if it means that much to them, but what they really want is the taxpayer money. If your mission is to teach children through godly instruction, then do it, but do it on god’s dime, not everyone else’s.

And I take serious issue with the implication that a secular education is inferior when the fucking religious education is simple rote memorization and regurgitation of basic concepts without critical thought. The religious schools and curriculum that they keep pushing is extremely simple and unchallenging. It is pretty much preschool level type thinking even at the higher grades. They can’t have bright students posing questions they can’t answer without undermining their faith based thinking. There’s nothing superior about it.

Expand full comment
Boreal's avatar

And that is the intent: grooming unquestioning, uninterested zombies to join the zombie death cult.

https://ibb.co/7xrBffvd

Expand full comment
avis piscivorus's avatar

They just want to escalate this until it reaches the SC where Alito will try to find in some obscure ancient vaguely related legalese writings, sufficient arguments to justify his ruling that the free exercise clause overrules the establishment clause.

Expand full comment
NOGODZ20's avatar

SCOTUS, to date, has never overridden the EC. What they HAVE done is "reinterpret" it to allow for more religious expression in public spaces (Kennedy v. Bremerton (2022).

More relevant to Wilberforce is Carson v. Makin (2022) requiring states to fund religious schools.

Expand full comment
avis piscivorus's avatar

After Scalia was allowed to declare the militia part of the second amendment to be non existant, I will no longer be surprised with any other far fetched rulings of the current injustices.

Expand full comment
Val Uptuous NotAgain's avatar

Predjustices? Injustices works too. Morally corrupt political pawns also apt.

Expand full comment
Val Uptuous NotAgain's avatar

"Without judicial confirmation of its rights, no religious charter school can safely apply, open, or operate without an inevitable lawsuit by outside groups or a cutoff of funding by the State."

Without judicial confirmation of its rights no man can safely rape a woman without an inevitable lawsuit… (okay, it’s not inevitable that a rapist will see the inside of a courtroom, and they’ve gotten away with this shit for centuries)

Without judicial confirmation no corporation can safely operate a factory that pours its pollutants directly in the rivers without an inevitable lawsuit from outside groups…

Or a murderer can’t kill

Or a thief steal

You don’t have a right to operate a charter school. Full stop. Especially if the charter school in question doesn’t line up with the laws governing charter schools. Get over yourselves.

Expand full comment
Sinclair's avatar

As an oldster, these relentless attempts to secure taxpayer-funding for religious schools continue to amaze me.

I attended a Catholic school K-8 and there was never the slightest question that the tuition would be paid by parents. In fact, our small town referred to the school as often as not as "private" (not Catholic), as indeed it was.

There were no vouchers for us nor were there taxpayer-funded buses. My parents were poor, but they scrimped and went without to send four us to Catholic school.

Even with the majority of the Court comprising theists, it's shocking (and infuriating) to see the deliberate perversion of the Constitution engendered by recent decisions (e.g., Maine).

Another random thought:

If religious education is so important to these parents, why aren't they willing to pay for it?

The real agenda, as is so often called out here, is christian nationalism.

Expand full comment
Guerillasurgeon's avatar

I loathe charter schools on general principle. Firstly they take money away from public education, and secondly they pick and choose their students, often refusing to take any one who might be the least bit problematic. And I don't know about the US but here they have pretty much no oversight from the bureaucracy that make sure that schools are fit for purpose they don't have to keep proper records, so they can pretty much claim success without actually achieving it. And they have a reputation overseas for folding and leaving hundreds of kids in the lurch.

Expand full comment
Kay-El's avatar

How many lawsuits are these bullshit artists going to file before one of them sneaks in to SCROTUS? If it’s this one, will Coke Can Clarence have to recuse himself because of his ties to many of the attorneys? Hahaha, of course not. They’ll all high five each other afterwards. SMDH

Expand full comment
Boreal's avatar

I have asked xtians on more than one occasion:

'Why does god need a middleman (shaman) if he is omnipotent?'

Responses received:

"You are going to hell."

Complete silence

Subject change

Walk away.

Expand full comment
oraxx's avatar

Ever the victims, the religious right excels at playing the 'poor me' game. They do this in spite of the fact the law doesn't even come close to being on their side. They are also the people whose heads would explode at the mere suggestion any non-Christian religious school get public money. If there was any evidence to support their claims, they wouldn't need to brain-wash children to keep their religion alive.

Expand full comment
Sinanju06's avatar

I said it once and I'll say it again: If public money and resources can be siphoned to a Christian charter school, then public funding must also go to a Satanist based educational facility.

Expand full comment
Troublesh00ter's avatar

But-but-but ... that's SATAN! EEEWWWWW! 🤣🤣🤣

Expand full comment
dammit barry's avatar

Satan does not have a book clling for my murder. Satan does not threaten me with eternal hell. Only hypocrite gods of "unconditional love" threatem me with murder and eternal pain.

Expand full comment
Troublesh00ter's avatar

You know that, and I know that. These christers, though, can't deal with the idea that Satan is anything other than the bad guy ... but you knew that, too.

Expand full comment
XJC's avatar
4hEdited

That's what Christians call "love." Repeat after me: Jesus loves you.

Expand full comment
NOGODZ20's avatar

Once again...

"When a Religion is good, I conceive that it will support itself; and when it cannot support itseld, and God does not care to support, so that its Professors are oblig'd to call for the help of the Civil Power, 'tis a Sign, I apprehend, of its being a bad one."

-- Benjamin Franklin, in a letter to Richard Price (a Christian) dated October 9th 1780

Franklin's words to Price never stop ringing true.

Expand full comment
Boreal's avatar
4hEdited

"Above all, Christ serves as the cornerstone of Wilberforce Academy’s mission."

Why isn't 'christ' paying for it then? Pony up, death cult zombie.

Expand full comment
Whitney's avatar

One does wonder just how awful a religion has to be for its primary recruitment tactic to be lying to children.

Honestly, these articles on how religious people are trying to insert themselves into education have become disturbing. Christians attempt to get into education so often most media outlets don't even consider it newsworthy most of the time. The worst part is this has been going on for many years now and we now have proof that these people will always come back again. One presumes this means this tactic has been successful in the past and will therefore stands a good chance of succeeding again. Religion does not exist for the purpose of educating the public and we would all do well to remember that.

Expand full comment
NOGODZ20's avatar

They pretend to be moral. Lying to children about supernatural phantasms and realms is wholly amoral.

Expand full comment