Paxton has done a SPECTACULAR job of advertising some of the Commandments - his adulteries are legend, and so are his lies trying to conceal the adulteries and block access to divorce legal records. Way to go!
Hey Christian Nazionalists! Secular does not now mean, and never has meant atheistic or anti-Christian. It has always meant neutrality towards religion. When applied to the government, that means that your religion does not get oppressed, neither does it get privilege. It must stand on its own. Christianity, while in decline now, has flourished here in the US thanks to that secular government.
Why are you so afraid of fair and equal treatment? Are you afraid that given actual fair treatment alongside other religious ideas yours will be found wanting, thus accelerating the decline? Are you afraid that if you don't have the power of the majority, you will be treated badly? We are not like you. We don't care who you worship or if you worship. We don't care what religious rules you want to follow. We just do not want to be forced to follow your religious rules.
Put up the Ten Commandments anywhere you want that actually belongs to you. Just don't put them in shared spaces that we all own. If your argument is "tradition", then the 5 pillars of Islam should be posted next to those, since the evidence shows that there were very likely at least 2 Muslims who fought against England inf th Revolutionary War. Jefferson owned at least one Koran.
Indeed. The Five Pillars of Islam ... and right next to that, the Seven Tenets of The Satanic Temple. Jubal Harshaw said it a long time ago: "All names belong in the hat."
I also think that if they - the evangelical christians - are going to force this down everyone else's throats, they should offer up some proof. If their god is so all fired powerful, let him come down here and wiggle his nose and put those posters in all the classrooms himself. He might also tell everyone exactly how he expects to be worshipped and maybe why. End all dispute. Why does the World have to contend with over 45,000 different sects of christianity. There should be only one - and just one true gospel instead of 4. edit - added 'one'.
I have noticed that while evangelical Christians are hot to trot about having Christian prayer at the beginning of school, football games, city council sessions, etc. -- they get really, REALLY bent out of shape when I pray the "Salve Regina", a prayer of devotion to the Virgin Mary, in the Mother Tongue -- LATIN.
Or, occasionally I do the "Shema Y'Israel" (in Hebrew) or the first Surah of the Qur'an (in English, because my Arabic is atrocious).
They're not afraid of fair and equal. They're just religious theocrats that want the interpretation of their particular faith to be thrust upon the public. Simple.
I don't get it. What is forcing school districts to display the Ten Commandments supposed to accomplish? How this is going to improve test scores or find more money to put toward education? This is a fool's errand, being advocated for by fools. This isn't about kids at all - it's about adults and their fucking fragile egos.
This is the real reason. They want permission to silence and bully other people they don't like. This is the same tactic as the "don't say gay" laws and age-appropriate sex education laws that emphasize the importance of consent and right to refuse, as opposed to "don't do it". The "abstinence only" approach is ideal for pedophiles in positions of authority who want to molest prepubertal children and teens, and then blame the youth into silence.
It’s to make kids like me (when I was a kid) feel left out or that something was wrong with you. Most of my friends got showered with gifts, money, and pretty dresses at their First Communions. I didn’t understand it at all.
I cannot say this loudly or emphatically enough: GOOD!!! This is the brand of blowback I've been aching to see, in Texas, one hopes in Oklahoma and my home state of Ohio (which is now giving thought to the same 10Cs BS), and anywhere else that wants to try to sneak religion in where it doesn't belong. It's a shame that this had to happen at all: the lawsuit and the attendant waste of public money and time and effort, that could go in many more deserving directions.
But Paxton has decided that this is the hill he wants to die on. Again I say, good. Someone call the coroner.
The blowback should have personal consequences. Teeth. Penalties. Especially when this behavior is recurring. It will again and again. There's not much hope for adults to modify their behaviors especially ones deep into fundamentalist beliefs. And so to make the suffering less, the courts need to be cruel. Within the confines of the law of course.
Not just yes, but HELL, YES! Make that PERSONAL penalties, penalties that impact Paxton and anyone else supporting this illegal proposition. Shuffling fines off onto the government is too easy. He should be staring down the same barrel that Kim Davis is with the penalties and fines she is currently facing for failing to do her job.
I used to be Christian. I used to believe in the bs and I really did believe that being a good person meant following God's law and the law of the land. I also believed that our fine country was founded on certain principles. One principle was that we were tired of being governed by monarchs who ruled by divine right. I also believed that we were free to worship in our own way and there were other people in the US who worshipped in their own way. I believed that government should stay out of the business of our church.
Today, I am better. I am better for leaving all of the magical thinking behind and I think our nation would be better if we all did the same thing. In the meantime, the idea that a sizable portion of our nation wants to go back to living under divine rule is a completely foreign concept to me. As far as I'm concerned, people like that are traitors to the principles of our nation.
The Ten Commandments don’t make a difference in the churches, why would they make a difference in schools? Oh wait, the difference in the schools is that they get to proselytize to children they don’t already have access to, that’s what.
It also helps the GOPeePee defund public education by using the money set aside for education on these ridiculous lawsuits. The Repubelicans are trying to make the USA a hellscape for all but the 1%. But in the words of Dee Snider, “we’re not gonna take it.”
Jesus-following seemed like a good idea in the very beginning, at least in a few aspects in a few communities, but then Emperor Constantine made it the state religion of Christianity, and corrupted all aspects.
As an aside, it has always amused me that school districts in Texas all have Independent School District as part of their name. I assume that is to make locals think they can control their local schools whereas the state tells them what to do.
This school district thing is so strange, a kind person here on Substack explained it to me a while ago. Because it just seems so daft (to me) that managing schools is not a function of (normal) local government, just like street lighting and bin collections. Why have a separate local structure? Why?
Perhaps for specialized expertise? The managers who ensure that the trash is hauled and potholes filled may not have the skill set needed to hire and oversee the people who actually run schools.
Thankyou for your response, but I think that the reason might be historic, that people in American villages got a public school organised well before they founded other local government structures. County councils are probably much younger than the school districts. But I am guessing, does anyone know anything more concrete?
Maybe they should just let them post these 10 Commandments all over the place. If you look at them rationally they’re kind of ridiculous. To counteract the display, they could put a board next to it and post all the Bible verses that they never teach in the church because they’re so violent and disgusting. It’s the best way to create atheists.
Seriously though, it’s a violation of the first amendment’s establishment clause and this crap has no place near anywhere kids are being educated.
Funny how it's all about parental choice until parents decide they don't want their children in church every Sunday.
It seems to me that the time and money being spent on these posters would be more usefully used on making sure kids can get breakfast and/or lunch every day at school. Where was the state of Texas when the local school teacher had to go buy their own supplies for the year out of a meager paycheck? Where were you, Ken Paxton, when the local elementary school needed to replace their playground equipment? Any number of other, more pressing, more helpful, less controversial ways for schools to use money and resources they might receive, and yet the fight is over posters because Christians can't take 'no' for an answer.
Pardon me, I think I'll go scream into the bathroom walls for a bit. (Probably what I get for listening to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8wB0tOL2L0 while I'm reading here.)
This is one of those annoying “pat myself on the back” comments so i apologize in advance. The elementary school my kids attended 20-25 years ago included some of the richest and poorest areas of my city. Every year I asked the teachers what classroom supplies they needed. The unspoken assumption was what would the poor families be unable to provide that might be expected of parents. Every year the teachers gave me a list and our family quietly provided it. We were not part of the richest part but I would be damned if I let the teachers pay for stuff we could more readily afford.
The school offered breakfast to all students. (Title 1?). And we discussed with our kids how some of their friends/classmates dashed in to eat breakfast and what that probably meant.
Come now, I’m a registered Republican and have been for most of my life. I just don’t vote for Republicans.
Over on Christian Post someone just asked me how I was conservative. And I honestly replied that I thought individuals knew their best interest better than did government. And that I favored the lowest possible tax rates and the broadest possible tax base. And that government should not privilege any group over any others.
I’m just waiting for the chance to say that Planned Parenthood and churches should not be exempt from property taxes.
I have to disagree on two points. Tax rates* and taxing Planned Parenthood**.
* FDR
** If you tax PP, quid of the poorest women who are the more in need of their service ? Money is a limited ressource, and the part for the taxes would have to come from somewhere.
My point there is that there are MANY more churches than PP and the churchists would never agree to tax PP if it meant that churches also had to pay taxes. Also, it’s just plain fun to suggest that churches and abortion clinics* are equivalent.
*I know full well that PP does far more than provide abortion services. My bride and I are monthly financial supporters.
If the evangelical Christians are so hot to trot about having the 10 Commandments posted in every classroom and every public building, it would help if these same evangelical Christians actually FOLLOWED those Commandments.
I'm from Austin, Texas. Anyone from Austin knows that sex workers in East Austin do a booming business every time the Lege is in session. Sex work is such a booming business that Austin police turn their heads, and only rarely enforce the law because of the income which sex works generates during sessions of the Legislature. If the laws against prostitution were enforced, most of the Republican legislators would be in jail!
Ken Paxton's wife is leaving him, after being repeatedly humiliated by Paxton's numerous extramarital affairs. Oops: that breaks Commandment No. 7. Greg Abbott has become a millionaire many, many times over since becoming Governor, especially with his "pay to play" approach to owners of the state's electricity and gas utilities. That breaks Command No. 10. How many members of the Lege have dropped their parents off in Texas' miserable nursing homes, never to visit them again? That breaks Commandment No. 5. Do you have any desire to advance in Texas state government? Better get on the Trump/Abbot train. That breaks Commandments No. 1 and No. 2. During the Blizzard of 2022 and the Ice Storm of 2023, literally scores of Texans froze to death. What did Boss Abbot do? Allowed utilities to raise the utility rates exponentially, so that many thousands of people had five-digit monthly utility bills during those Februaries. Who did Boss Abbott give financial relief to? THE UTILITY COMPANIES. Many of these tens of thousands of people were forced into bankruptcy while the utility companies, and Boss Abbott, made off like bandits. That breaks Commandments 6 and 8. Boss Abbott prevented trucks from Mexico from entering Texas, leaving Texas grocery shelves empty. Who did Boss Abbott blame? Democrats. That breaks Commandment No 9.
I'm a Christian, though I'm "Not The Right Kind Of Christian™" (I'm Episcopalian, and a socialist.) "Taking the name of the Lord God in vain" is NOT about saying "God damn" when a five pound glass jar falls from the shelf and lands on the spot between your big toenail and your big toe (trust me, that hurt like a SOB; it fractured my big toe; and I think I may have been cussing in tongues!). It has EVERYTHING to do with using the Scriptures, and God, and conservative religious and social institutions to keep PoC, women, LGBTs, immigrants, non-evangelical Christians and non-Christians, and non-Republicans firmly in their place and allowing for no possibilities of advancement out of the place where they've been assigned. As I said: I'm from Texas, and I've seen just this very thing happen -- A LOT.
Fair question. For me, Christianity and socialism are not mutually exclusive. In fact, for me, they’re intertwined.
I place primacy on the actual teachings of Jesus (and his brother James), and much less on Paul and his “mystic conversations” with Jesus which contradict what Jesus actually taught. Some of Paul is good. Some of it is crap. Half the letters attributed to Paul weren’t written by Paul AT ALL.
There was no New Testament when Jesus lived, so we have to look to the Old Testament to find the context for his statements.
I’m not particularly concerned with what one believes as I am with how one acts. Frankly, there are atheists who are far better Christians just in terms of how they treat people; and you will never, ever see me denigrate atheists: one can be a very good, and a very moral person without believing in God.
I've seen, and we’ve all seen Christians who act like Satan incarnate. I’ve known self-professed Christians who were sociopaths: there are few things more dangerous than a sociopath who "gets religion" because underneath that veneer of religiosity, they're still sociopaths; and they will justify all the pain, the misery, the cruelty and the wanton sadism they inflict on others as "being appointed agents to implement God's will." Their behavior really does not have anything at all to do with God: these people are sociopaths, and as such they don't have consciences; and inflicting pain, misery, cruelty and wanton sadism on those unfortunate enough to be around these people is what sociopaths do.
FOR ME, what sums up Christianity is Matthew 25:31-46. If one claims to be a Christian, but isn’t willing to help feed the hungry, give water to the thirsty, welcome immigrants, comfort the sick, tend to the dying, or to confront bullies — then don’t call oneself a Christian. Faith only goes so far: if one says they have faith, but they’re not doing the work — then faith is irrelevant.
I know the Bible contradicts itself left and right. I am not a literalist. I am also NOT a “Christian exclusivist”: I know one can be a perfectly good person and not be a Christian — or not believe in a Supreme Being.
Some of Scripture is morally repugnant (Joshua, the many passages condoning genocide, the passages condoning the subjugation of women, condoning slavery). Some of Scripture gives us information about the time in which it was written. I've learned how to read Scripture in the historical, social, cultural, political, religious and linguistic context in which a particular passage was written to determine the author's original intent in writing the passage; and only when we’ve done that work can we make the determination if a passage can be applied to the here and now.
I am absolutely committed to socialism. (I’m also dealing with a terminal illness — it’ll be a while before I’m gone, but that train is coming through the tunnel.) My faith is what motivates me to go out and make “good trouble” each day. It's what helps me confront ICE; confront MAGA legislators; help people get to medical appointments or to the grocery, help pay for their food when people no money, organizing protests, helping organize labor unions and keeping me going when I'm feeling lousy and would rather rest.
I don’t “convert” people: we all are experts on our lives only; and if I’m trying “convert” you or anybody else, I’m saying that I’ve got it together better than you and you should live according to my dictates — which is sheer rubbish. Most of chance very good reasons for believing what we happen to believe. We ALL have a right to be here, and I am in no position to tell anyone else how they should live or what they should believe.
Our country is desperately ill with the cancer of “MAGA” and “Q”; and people of good will, be they Christian, Jewish, Muslim, pagan, agnostic, atheist, straight, gay, male or female MUST organize and work together to eradicate the disease (Trumpism) which is killing us.
Let me know if that answers your question, or not.
Jesus said a lot of things that contradict themselves, so how do you make sense of it. It seems to me that all Christians cherry pick what they are going to follow!
Yet, none has proven that their god even exist after more than 2000 years!
I agree. His answer seems honest and that was what I was looking for.
I don't understand choosing bits and pieces. When I read Matthew, I thought jeebus thinks a lot like me, not the other way around. Funny, jeebus rejected my religion. Maybe jeebus is a fake persona, or surely he would've selected my religion as the one true one, which it is.
If we're honest, we HAVE to cherry-pick. The Bible was written over so many centuries, by scores of authors -- each one of these authors having their own historical, social, cultural, political, geographical, religious and linguistic contexts in which they wrote their books that it's impossible to follow the Bible absolutely literally -- that even if it WERE possible to follow the Bible absolutely literally, do we want to:
- send our wives out to menstrual huts during their periods (Leviticus 15),
- stone our disobedient children to death (Deuteronomy 21),
- force women to marry their rapists (Deuteronomy 22),
- execute people who do any work on the Sabbath (Exodus 25),
- own slaves,
- kill entire cities and countries of people -- including every man, woman, child and infant, and all the livestock, keeping only a few of the women as concubines (Joshua 6-8).
I don't.
I'm also a gay man. Charlie Kirk may have thought it was great to stone gay people to death; but truth be told, I'm not terribly keen on being stoned to death, even if it is in the Bible. For the record, I'm not having sex with young temple prostitutes in service to Ba'al (for the planting, growing and harvesting of crops), the Roman goddess Venus (Romans 1), or the Greek goddess Aphrodite (1 Corinthians 5&6), nor am I having sex with angels (Jude) so those Biblical "clobber passages" used against gay people don't apply to me (which is also why context is *everything*!).
Also, as I stated, you will never, EVER see me write a disparaging word about either non-Christians or atheists. Sincerely followed, there is good in ALL religions. (There is also bad in each religion, *including Christianity*. One can be a very decent, and very moral person without God.) The world religions exist for OUR benefit, as a pathway towards God, should we choose to travel down that path. Our religions do not benefit God in any way. God doesn't need our religions, nor does God need our "praise". (A simple, heart-felt "Thank You" would suffice. Unfortunately, for too many people, very much including religious people, that's too much to ask.)
Terminal illnesses are diseases of gradual decline. I’m “fortunate” (I guess!) in that mine has a very slow decline.
The disease I have runs in my family: I’m the fourth blood-related person to have it. Fortunately there are treatments to slow the progress of the disease, which so far are working.
When I get down to 10-15 percent lung capacity, I plan to go the route of assisted suicide - AWAY from my evangelical Christian relatives who may drag my demise out to the very bitter end. I’ve seen what they have done to dying relatives — no pain killers for the dying “so they don’t get addicted” 😳 and “the sufferings of this life are but preparation for the glories of the next life” 🤮 and they are NOT doing that to me!
Maybe they should put up a copy of the Ten Commandments in Ken Paxton's office, seeing as how he's violated a few himself.
It's not his fault, it's Satan's !!!!
Could it be maybe ... SATAN?!?
https://media1.tenor.com/m/ywr1SmQbI54AAAAC/church-lady.gif
Or maybe …. Santa!
I want you to meet a good friend of mine: Liz Dexia! 😁
I’d stay away from her. She spells trouble.
Actually, Liz was a good friend of mine on a dial-up BBS, some 40+ years ago. Yes, she was dyslexic, but she managed, and she was a lot of fun!
NO Satan, jut ths asshole
Paxton has done a SPECTACULAR job of advertising some of the Commandments - his adulteries are legend, and so are his lies trying to conceal the adulteries and block access to divorce legal records. Way to go!
Indeed. That advice goes for pretty much all court office, police stations, etc..
I.e. If you're going to put up a 10C monument, turn it around, because it's not the visitors that have the systematic trouble following it.
They should start with putting it in churches first.
What, and ruin that track record for hypocrisy?
Yup!
On his desk facing him.
They won’t even put it in a church.
If it is not good enough to be put up in churches, why should it be put up anywhere else?
Guess that would really be preaching to the choir.
Hey Christian Nazionalists! Secular does not now mean, and never has meant atheistic or anti-Christian. It has always meant neutrality towards religion. When applied to the government, that means that your religion does not get oppressed, neither does it get privilege. It must stand on its own. Christianity, while in decline now, has flourished here in the US thanks to that secular government.
Why are you so afraid of fair and equal treatment? Are you afraid that given actual fair treatment alongside other religious ideas yours will be found wanting, thus accelerating the decline? Are you afraid that if you don't have the power of the majority, you will be treated badly? We are not like you. We don't care who you worship or if you worship. We don't care what religious rules you want to follow. We just do not want to be forced to follow your religious rules.
Put up the Ten Commandments anywhere you want that actually belongs to you. Just don't put them in shared spaces that we all own. If your argument is "tradition", then the 5 pillars of Islam should be posted next to those, since the evidence shows that there were very likely at least 2 Muslims who fought against England inf th Revolutionary War. Jefferson owned at least one Koran.
Indeed. The Five Pillars of Islam ... and right next to that, the Seven Tenets of The Satanic Temple. Jubal Harshaw said it a long time ago: "All names belong in the hat."
But he was speaking ex cathedra from his belly button. That should count for something.
Yeah, Jubal did that a lot, though a lot of what he said made a whole lot of sense. Then, too, his creator once said, "Common sense ISN'T."
I also think that if they - the evangelical christians - are going to force this down everyone else's throats, they should offer up some proof. If their god is so all fired powerful, let him come down here and wiggle his nose and put those posters in all the classrooms himself. He might also tell everyone exactly how he expects to be worshipped and maybe why. End all dispute. Why does the World have to contend with over 45,000 different sects of christianity. There should be only one - and just one true gospel instead of 4. edit - added 'one'.
I have noticed that while evangelical Christians are hot to trot about having Christian prayer at the beginning of school, football games, city council sessions, etc. -- they get really, REALLY bent out of shape when I pray the "Salve Regina", a prayer of devotion to the Virgin Mary, in the Mother Tongue -- LATIN.
Or, occasionally I do the "Shema Y'Israel" (in Hebrew) or the first Surah of the Qur'an (in English, because my Arabic is atrocious).
I’ve been watching the new Ken Burns, The American Revolution ;)
They're not afraid of fair and equal. They're just religious theocrats that want the interpretation of their particular faith to be thrust upon the public. Simple.
Fair and equal treatment, I meant.
That's Qu-ran, there, partner. Q-U-R-A-N.
I don't like the U, but murica don't like them Q words if a U ain't after it.
--Allah
al-Qur'an, Infidel!
Quit arguing and figure out how to type in Arabic! ;)
القرآن الكريم
Woohoo!
Coran.
Things were simpler ..............
https://www.geniimagazine.com/wiki/index.php/Al_Koran
Would anyone be allowed today?
"When You’re Accustomed to Privilege, Equality Feels Like Oppression"
I don't get it. What is forcing school districts to display the Ten Commandments supposed to accomplish? How this is going to improve test scores or find more money to put toward education? This is a fool's errand, being advocated for by fools. This isn't about kids at all - it's about adults and their fucking fragile egos.
It's marking territory. A "subtle" way to say, "This is Christian territory. You heathens need to convert or shut up."
This is the real reason. They want permission to silence and bully other people they don't like. This is the same tactic as the "don't say gay" laws and age-appropriate sex education laws that emphasize the importance of consent and right to refuse, as opposed to "don't do it". The "abstinence only" approach is ideal for pedophiles in positions of authority who want to molest prepubertal children and teens, and then blame the youth into silence.
It's all about conditioning children to accept a particular brand of religion.
Or, as many people who graduated from parochial K-12 schools will attest, inadvertently conditioning children to become atheists or "nones".
Haven't you heard? Putting up the 10Cs is supposed to make everyone like Ken Paxton!
EEEEWWWWWWW!
It’s to make kids like me (when I was a kid) feel left out or that something was wrong with you. Most of my friends got showered with gifts, money, and pretty dresses at their First Communions. I didn’t understand it at all.
Also, to instill fear at a young age.
It's is no different than a dog marking his territory.
Paxton, the top lawman in Texass, is urging districts to disobey federal rulings. Top Cop is demanding that people break the law.
His bible says otherwise.
Caesar is perplexed.
Paxton is the Attorney General, and has no role as a law maker.
He thinks he is the law.
He thinks he's Judge Dredd.
Where did you get this idea that he thinks?
Oops. Meant to say lawman. Fixed.
You definitely would not want Paxton making laws because he is as corrupt as they come.
Specifically, Romans 13:1-2. I can pick cherries with the best of them!
3-5 gives all the whys, too.
I cannot say this loudly or emphatically enough: GOOD!!! This is the brand of blowback I've been aching to see, in Texas, one hopes in Oklahoma and my home state of Ohio (which is now giving thought to the same 10Cs BS), and anywhere else that wants to try to sneak religion in where it doesn't belong. It's a shame that this had to happen at all: the lawsuit and the attendant waste of public money and time and effort, that could go in many more deserving directions.
But Paxton has decided that this is the hill he wants to die on. Again I say, good. Someone call the coroner.
The blowback should have personal consequences. Teeth. Penalties. Especially when this behavior is recurring. It will again and again. There's not much hope for adults to modify their behaviors especially ones deep into fundamentalist beliefs. And so to make the suffering less, the courts need to be cruel. Within the confines of the law of course.
Not just yes, but HELL, YES! Make that PERSONAL penalties, penalties that impact Paxton and anyone else supporting this illegal proposition. Shuffling fines off onto the government is too easy. He should be staring down the same barrel that Kim Davis is with the penalties and fines she is currently facing for failing to do her job.
Paxton should be no different.
I would be happy just seeing Paxton's divorce records unsealed and available to every reporter and citizen.
How much to just get a woodchipper?
Are you volunteering to pull a Buscemi?
Only if I can wear a hat with earflaps!
No, it's freezing out there. Hand it over.
This chipper can handle multiple bodies, just sayin'.
If you use a wood chipper remember to put Paxton in feet first! The reason is when the shit (Paxton) hits the fan there is no blowback on you ! 😁
I used to be Christian. I used to believe in the bs and I really did believe that being a good person meant following God's law and the law of the land. I also believed that our fine country was founded on certain principles. One principle was that we were tired of being governed by monarchs who ruled by divine right. I also believed that we were free to worship in our own way and there were other people in the US who worshipped in their own way. I believed that government should stay out of the business of our church.
Today, I am better. I am better for leaving all of the magical thinking behind and I think our nation would be better if we all did the same thing. In the meantime, the idea that a sizable portion of our nation wants to go back to living under divine rule is a completely foreign concept to me. As far as I'm concerned, people like that are traitors to the principles of our nation.
If churches want to be involved in politics, then fine - but first, tax 'em all.
Retroactively.
The Ten Commandments don’t make a difference in the churches, why would they make a difference in schools? Oh wait, the difference in the schools is that they get to proselytize to children they don’t already have access to, that’s what.
It also helps the GOPeePee defund public education by using the money set aside for education on these ridiculous lawsuits. The Repubelicans are trying to make the USA a hellscape for all but the 1%. But in the words of Dee Snider, “we’re not gonna take it.”
🤣🎯
Go to Paxton's wikipage and click on "Legal issues."
This is the LAST guy to be pushing religion on anyone.
WOOF! Just had a look. That man is up to his ass in alligators and shows not the least interest in clearing the swamp.
Got to be one of the most corrupt mofos on the planet. Another obituary I look forward to reading.
Why is it the most corrupt amoral persons are behind the efforts to push Christian religion into every aspect of our lives?
Xtianity isn’t about love and peace as xtians claim. It has always been about control of people’s lives.
Xtians call Jesus “Master.” What do they think that term means? Do they not realize that calling someone Master makes them slaves?
Jesus-following seemed like a good idea in the very beginning, at least in a few aspects in a few communities, but then Emperor Constantine made it the state religion of Christianity, and corrupted all aspects.
Well, sometimes it's fun for a few minutes.
No. I won't. Stop trying to make me.
As an aside, it has always amused me that school districts in Texas all have Independent School District as part of their name. I assume that is to make locals think they can control their local schools whereas the state tells them what to do.
This school district thing is so strange, a kind person here on Substack explained it to me a while ago. Because it just seems so daft (to me) that managing schools is not a function of (normal) local government, just like street lighting and bin collections. Why have a separate local structure? Why?
Perhaps for specialized expertise? The managers who ensure that the trash is hauled and potholes filled may not have the skill set needed to hire and oversee the people who actually run schools.
Thankyou for your response, but I think that the reason might be historic, that people in American villages got a public school organised well before they founded other local government structures. County councils are probably much younger than the school districts. But I am guessing, does anyone know anything more concrete?
"Independent school district" = "the state gives the district orders, the district has to pay for carrying them out."
Non-religious children should not be subject to religiousity of any kind while in school. It is their 1A children’s right.
Ken Paxton should follow his own damned Ten Commandments and stop coveting his neighbor's wife while he bears false witness.
Conservatives love hypocrisy.
Maybe they should just let them post these 10 Commandments all over the place. If you look at them rationally they’re kind of ridiculous. To counteract the display, they could put a board next to it and post all the Bible verses that they never teach in the church because they’re so violent and disgusting. It’s the best way to create atheists.
Seriously though, it’s a violation of the first amendment’s establishment clause and this crap has no place near anywhere kids are being educated.
Funny how it's all about parental choice until parents decide they don't want their children in church every Sunday.
It seems to me that the time and money being spent on these posters would be more usefully used on making sure kids can get breakfast and/or lunch every day at school. Where was the state of Texas when the local school teacher had to go buy their own supplies for the year out of a meager paycheck? Where were you, Ken Paxton, when the local elementary school needed to replace their playground equipment? Any number of other, more pressing, more helpful, less controversial ways for schools to use money and resources they might receive, and yet the fight is over posters because Christians can't take 'no' for an answer.
Pardon me, I think I'll go scream into the bathroom walls for a bit. (Probably what I get for listening to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8wB0tOL2L0 while I'm reading here.)
This is one of those annoying “pat myself on the back” comments so i apologize in advance. The elementary school my kids attended 20-25 years ago included some of the richest and poorest areas of my city. Every year I asked the teachers what classroom supplies they needed. The unspoken assumption was what would the poor families be unable to provide that might be expected of parents. Every year the teachers gave me a list and our family quietly provided it. We were not part of the richest part but I would be damned if I let the teachers pay for stuff we could more readily afford.
The school offered breakfast to all students. (Title 1?). And we discussed with our kids how some of their friends/classmates dashed in to eat breakfast and what that probably meant.
You ! You ! Soft-hearted liberal !
Come now, I’m a registered Republican and have been for most of my life. I just don’t vote for Republicans.
Over on Christian Post someone just asked me how I was conservative. And I honestly replied that I thought individuals knew their best interest better than did government. And that I favored the lowest possible tax rates and the broadest possible tax base. And that government should not privilege any group over any others.
I’m just waiting for the chance to say that Planned Parenthood and churches should not be exempt from property taxes.
I have to disagree on two points. Tax rates* and taxing Planned Parenthood**.
* FDR
** If you tax PP, quid of the poorest women who are the more in need of their service ? Money is a limited ressource, and the part for the taxes would have to come from somewhere.
My point there is that there are MANY more churches than PP and the churchists would never agree to tax PP if it meant that churches also had to pay taxes. Also, it’s just plain fun to suggest that churches and abortion clinics* are equivalent.
*I know full well that PP does far more than provide abortion services. My bride and I are monthly financial supporters.
Au temps pour moi.
If the evangelical Christians are so hot to trot about having the 10 Commandments posted in every classroom and every public building, it would help if these same evangelical Christians actually FOLLOWED those Commandments.
I'm from Austin, Texas. Anyone from Austin knows that sex workers in East Austin do a booming business every time the Lege is in session. Sex work is such a booming business that Austin police turn their heads, and only rarely enforce the law because of the income which sex works generates during sessions of the Legislature. If the laws against prostitution were enforced, most of the Republican legislators would be in jail!
Ken Paxton's wife is leaving him, after being repeatedly humiliated by Paxton's numerous extramarital affairs. Oops: that breaks Commandment No. 7. Greg Abbott has become a millionaire many, many times over since becoming Governor, especially with his "pay to play" approach to owners of the state's electricity and gas utilities. That breaks Command No. 10. How many members of the Lege have dropped their parents off in Texas' miserable nursing homes, never to visit them again? That breaks Commandment No. 5. Do you have any desire to advance in Texas state government? Better get on the Trump/Abbot train. That breaks Commandments No. 1 and No. 2. During the Blizzard of 2022 and the Ice Storm of 2023, literally scores of Texans froze to death. What did Boss Abbot do? Allowed utilities to raise the utility rates exponentially, so that many thousands of people had five-digit monthly utility bills during those Februaries. Who did Boss Abbott give financial relief to? THE UTILITY COMPANIES. Many of these tens of thousands of people were forced into bankruptcy while the utility companies, and Boss Abbott, made off like bandits. That breaks Commandments 6 and 8. Boss Abbott prevented trucks from Mexico from entering Texas, leaving Texas grocery shelves empty. Who did Boss Abbott blame? Democrats. That breaks Commandment No 9.
I'm a Christian, though I'm "Not The Right Kind Of Christian™" (I'm Episcopalian, and a socialist.) "Taking the name of the Lord God in vain" is NOT about saying "God damn" when a five pound glass jar falls from the shelf and lands on the spot between your big toenail and your big toe (trust me, that hurt like a SOB; it fractured my big toe; and I think I may have been cussing in tongues!). It has EVERYTHING to do with using the Scriptures, and God, and conservative religious and social institutions to keep PoC, women, LGBTs, immigrants, non-evangelical Christians and non-Christians, and non-Republicans firmly in their place and allowing for no possibilities of advancement out of the place where they've been assigned. As I said: I'm from Texas, and I've seen just this very thing happen -- A LOT.
Amen!
Question: if you are a socialist, what about christianity makes you refer to yourself as a christian? I don't get that.
Fair question. For me, Christianity and socialism are not mutually exclusive. In fact, for me, they’re intertwined.
I place primacy on the actual teachings of Jesus (and his brother James), and much less on Paul and his “mystic conversations” with Jesus which contradict what Jesus actually taught. Some of Paul is good. Some of it is crap. Half the letters attributed to Paul weren’t written by Paul AT ALL.
There was no New Testament when Jesus lived, so we have to look to the Old Testament to find the context for his statements.
I’m not particularly concerned with what one believes as I am with how one acts. Frankly, there are atheists who are far better Christians just in terms of how they treat people; and you will never, ever see me denigrate atheists: one can be a very good, and a very moral person without believing in God.
I've seen, and we’ve all seen Christians who act like Satan incarnate. I’ve known self-professed Christians who were sociopaths: there are few things more dangerous than a sociopath who "gets religion" because underneath that veneer of religiosity, they're still sociopaths; and they will justify all the pain, the misery, the cruelty and the wanton sadism they inflict on others as "being appointed agents to implement God's will." Their behavior really does not have anything at all to do with God: these people are sociopaths, and as such they don't have consciences; and inflicting pain, misery, cruelty and wanton sadism on those unfortunate enough to be around these people is what sociopaths do.
FOR ME, what sums up Christianity is Matthew 25:31-46. If one claims to be a Christian, but isn’t willing to help feed the hungry, give water to the thirsty, welcome immigrants, comfort the sick, tend to the dying, or to confront bullies — then don’t call oneself a Christian. Faith only goes so far: if one says they have faith, but they’re not doing the work — then faith is irrelevant.
I know the Bible contradicts itself left and right. I am not a literalist. I am also NOT a “Christian exclusivist”: I know one can be a perfectly good person and not be a Christian — or not believe in a Supreme Being.
Some of Scripture is morally repugnant (Joshua, the many passages condoning genocide, the passages condoning the subjugation of women, condoning slavery). Some of Scripture gives us information about the time in which it was written. I've learned how to read Scripture in the historical, social, cultural, political, religious and linguistic context in which a particular passage was written to determine the author's original intent in writing the passage; and only when we’ve done that work can we make the determination if a passage can be applied to the here and now.
I am absolutely committed to socialism. (I’m also dealing with a terminal illness — it’ll be a while before I’m gone, but that train is coming through the tunnel.) My faith is what motivates me to go out and make “good trouble” each day. It's what helps me confront ICE; confront MAGA legislators; help people get to medical appointments or to the grocery, help pay for their food when people no money, organizing protests, helping organize labor unions and keeping me going when I'm feeling lousy and would rather rest.
I don’t “convert” people: we all are experts on our lives only; and if I’m trying “convert” you or anybody else, I’m saying that I’ve got it together better than you and you should live according to my dictates — which is sheer rubbish. Most of chance very good reasons for believing what we happen to believe. We ALL have a right to be here, and I am in no position to tell anyone else how they should live or what they should believe.
Our country is desperately ill with the cancer of “MAGA” and “Q”; and people of good will, be they Christian, Jewish, Muslim, pagan, agnostic, atheist, straight, gay, male or female MUST organize and work together to eradicate the disease (Trumpism) which is killing us.
Let me know if that answers your question, or not.
Jesus said a lot of things that contradict themselves, so how do you make sense of it. It seems to me that all Christians cherry pick what they are going to follow!
Yet, none has proven that their god even exist after more than 2000 years!
I agree. His answer seems honest and that was what I was looking for.
I don't understand choosing bits and pieces. When I read Matthew, I thought jeebus thinks a lot like me, not the other way around. Funny, jeebus rejected my religion. Maybe jeebus is a fake persona, or surely he would've selected my religion as the one true one, which it is.
If we're honest, we HAVE to cherry-pick. The Bible was written over so many centuries, by scores of authors -- each one of these authors having their own historical, social, cultural, political, geographical, religious and linguistic contexts in which they wrote their books that it's impossible to follow the Bible absolutely literally -- that even if it WERE possible to follow the Bible absolutely literally, do we want to:
- send our wives out to menstrual huts during their periods (Leviticus 15),
- stone our disobedient children to death (Deuteronomy 21),
- force women to marry their rapists (Deuteronomy 22),
- execute people who do any work on the Sabbath (Exodus 25),
- own slaves,
- kill entire cities and countries of people -- including every man, woman, child and infant, and all the livestock, keeping only a few of the women as concubines (Joshua 6-8).
I don't.
I'm also a gay man. Charlie Kirk may have thought it was great to stone gay people to death; but truth be told, I'm not terribly keen on being stoned to death, even if it is in the Bible. For the record, I'm not having sex with young temple prostitutes in service to Ba'al (for the planting, growing and harvesting of crops), the Roman goddess Venus (Romans 1), or the Greek goddess Aphrodite (1 Corinthians 5&6), nor am I having sex with angels (Jude) so those Biblical "clobber passages" used against gay people don't apply to me (which is also why context is *everything*!).
Also, as I stated, you will never, EVER see me write a disparaging word about either non-Christians or atheists. Sincerely followed, there is good in ALL religions. (There is also bad in each religion, *including Christianity*. One can be a very decent, and very moral person without God.) The world religions exist for OUR benefit, as a pathway towards God, should we choose to travel down that path. Our religions do not benefit God in any way. God doesn't need our religions, nor does God need our "praise". (A simple, heart-felt "Thank You" would suffice. Unfortunately, for too many people, very much including religious people, that's too much to ask.)
It does. Thank you.
You have my condolences and I hope you get better soon!😇
Thank you - I really appreciate that.
Terminal illnesses are diseases of gradual decline. I’m “fortunate” (I guess!) in that mine has a very slow decline.
The disease I have runs in my family: I’m the fourth blood-related person to have it. Fortunately there are treatments to slow the progress of the disease, which so far are working.
When I get down to 10-15 percent lung capacity, I plan to go the route of assisted suicide - AWAY from my evangelical Christian relatives who may drag my demise out to the very bitter end. I’ve seen what they have done to dying relatives — no pain killers for the dying “so they don’t get addicted” 😳 and “the sufferings of this life are but preparation for the glories of the next life” 🤮 and they are NOT doing that to me!
Congratulations, President Biden...
https://scontent.foma1-2.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/591744413_1396151805202032_3624447211271622709_n.jpg?stp=dst-jpg_s640x640_tt6&_nc_cat=1&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=127cfc&_nc_ohc=zuCCxpMlnFIQ7kNvwExptZX&_nc_oc=AdlhQY1dggQofV_URq5xfS9yhTf480WMx02HEPgbUFDLuXOFQbAHotbr3PPrG0tV_5w&_nc_zt=23&_nc_ht=scontent.foma1-2.fna&_nc_gid=l2ZstqpTO9TfHvNSTxN0Sw&oh=00_Afk7SmtsIyM5enCALdTY4NvDToRjqd3RzPRuFtveOCcJGw&oe=69362693
Drumpster meltdown in 5... 4...
There are way too many school kids boiling goats in their mother's milk. Something has to be done.