Galveston ISD resisted the state’s Christian mandate for a year, but Ken Paxton and a Republican judge have ordered the district to put up the Christian signs
Every day in every way, rethugs are making an excellent case for voting them out of office. Article 11 of the Treaty of Tripoli specifically states “ the United States is not founded on the Christian Religion”. It was affirmed unanimously by the Senate. John Adams was President. There were many Founders still floating about. The cost of righting the nonsense and prevarications of christian nationalism is mounting up. We need widespread state constitutional amendments requiring state reviews for constitutionality before any law can be passed.
Someone needs to tell Paxton that his assertion that the 10 Commandments are foundational to the laws and structure of this nation is utterly MISTAKEN. Yeah, I know, he won't listen. He still needs to be told that ... REPEATEDLY.
"Who does not see that the same authority which can establish Christianity, in exclusion of all other Religions, may establish with the same ease any particular sect of Christians, in exclusion of all other Sects?" --James Madison, Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments
That's precisely what the Establishment Clause was designed to prevent. People of the founding generation were well aware of the long, ugly history of religious warfare and persecution that had taken place in Europe - and imported here with religious establishments in most colonies early on. Madison wrote his Memorial and Remonstrance to make the case that government and religion MUST be kept separate for everyone's benefit.
That's what they're counting on. Now that they've overcome the wall of separation, it's a race as to which denomination becomes the power broker, with all others sucking up to them in their governmental cult of personality.
It never occurs to these fools that "If I can criminalize all other denominations, they can criminalize mine." Their thinking ends at "I get to criminalize all other denominations."
They start with the idea that the Establishment Clause only prohibits Congress from declaring one specific sect of Christianity to be the official Church of the United States. Then they start narrowing the definition of what counts as Christianity until only their sect is left.
I make it 6½. Neil Gorsuch was raised conservative Catholic and still behaves like one, even tho he nominally converted to Episcopalianism (Catholicism lite) to keep his wife happy. It's a real quirk of history that Catholics are so dominant on our Subprime Court. For the longest time there weren't ANY. Now they constitute 72% of its members, despite being only 21.8% of the adult population in the US.
The history of Europe is replete with religious wars and persecution that went back and forth between catholics and protestants for hundreds of years. You would be protected by one regime, but if a king died and his successor professed a different faith, the hunter became the hunted. People who fail to learn the lessons of history will doom us all to repeating them.
There's a saying that "Intelligent people learn from their mistakes. Wise people learn from others." Christians are neither, and hence doomed to repeat them. They've spent so long white washing christianity's bloody history* that they've forgotten it themselves.
*Or they shift the blame onto homosexuals. I remember learning in church that Rome fell because of the rampant homosexuality. Christianity was in charge for over a century before it fell. One could say that 11 centuries of rampant homosexuality prevented Rome's collapse.
As recently as 9/11, christians were still trying to lay off blame on 'the gays.' LGBT citizens have been christianity's most reliable scapegoats, other than Jews.
There is a very secretive church that is behind the anti-abortion crusade. They unified all the different denominations against a common enemy, women. Just like how Al Qaida unified all the warring factions of Islam against a common enemy, US.
They are also the organizers of the Christian nationalists. Instead of being a denomination, they could be thought of as a dominion-nation. Since they are also the ones behind the dominion movement.
Well, interesting how sans-serif fonts work. If I'd seen "Al Qaeda" any time in the previous decade up until last year, I would've understood it immediately, but today I looked at it and wondered "What's this Artificial Intelligence Qaeda thing?".
Same thing happened the other day when reading the comic strip "Jesus and Mo", in which Jesus refers to Mo's preferred deity as "Big Al".
Who, at minimum, has been violating the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution, virtually from the moment he took office, back in 2017! His second term has only seen those violations expand exponentially!
Not that Disaster Pumpkin gives a rat's ass about the Constitution any more than he does any other laws, but take a look at how the emoluments clauses (plural) are actually worded. They still allow for unlimited graft, grift, and corruption as long as it's not coming "from any King, Prince, or foreign State" or "from the United States, or any of them". Millionaires and billionaires, line up right outside the O-O and take a number.
OT: I tried to go home to see my parents after almost a year and it did not go well. My dad is MAGA and there is almost nothing left to him now but anger, hate, and fear. I had to cut the trip short because he kept rage baiting right wing rhetoric into every conversation even after years and years of no politics rules and boundaries created to make visits possible. Some of it becomes personal attacks and some of it is just parroting talking points for I don’t know, some sort of validation? The defense afterwards is always I just have “different opinions”. Ok you can have different opinions all you want, but if they are hateful there are social consequences for that. It’s very sad out there folks. My parents are aging rapidly right now and this is how they are choosing to spend their last years.
Seth Andrews and Matt Dillahunty both went through similar situations with their parents, though more on religious grounds. Both of them finally had to lay down boundaries to defend their own integrity. It may be that you may have to do something like that.
Of course, that is entirely your call. I wish you luck.
Yes thank you. I’ve tried creating boundaries many times over the past decade+, but they are always broken. I think you have to constantly reinforce them and that takes a lot of time and energy. Not sure that’s where I want to spend the little energy I have anymore.
Seth reported that he had to block phone numbers at one point. Hard to believe from a man as gentle and soft-spoken as he is, but apparently, things devolved to that. Matt may have done something similar.
It's not pretty and it's not easy, but it may be necessary.
That sucks. I’m glad my parents have not gone down that path, I have family that are MAGA but I don’t have to visit them.
Have you seen the podcast where a brother and sister discuss politics with their MAGA parents? They are providing the parents with information they aren’t otherwise exposed to listening to NewsMax (Fox is too liberal for them) and the mother seems to be softening a bit. The dad is digging in though. The snippets I have heard are quite interesting. And it is exposing the moral bankruptcy of the MAGA movement as the parents do throw their own children under the bus quite frequently to prop up Trump and MAGA.
The good news is that Trump is not long for this world and once he’s gone, the cult will fall apart. It’s already kneecapped any element that might allow it to last beyond the death of the cult leader. All the skinny white ladies have been ousted, the mission of exposing the Epstein files has been essentially completed, promises of space travel are complete — Space Force has been established. Anything else is just nonsense, and his followers have copped onto the reality that he’s made their lives markedly worse, Vancey Pants isn’t respected enough by the cult to be able take up the mantle, and there aren’t others who might. So, he will be gone, the veil will lift, and we might be able to correct course, but the MAGA cultists will run from the evil as much as they can. You might be able to get your dad back then.
I have heard that podcast or snippets from it. The thing is no amount of debating or bringing facts or getting emotional about hurtful things they say or do actually makes a difference (that’s why it is a cult). There is no self awareness or empathy. I honestly don’t know how those kids continuously do that (but maybe it helps them in some way to cope with it). It’s pretty typical for the mom to open up a bit more, but in reality they usually fall right back in line to their place in the hierarchy of the family structure. My dad also grew up a Baptist so this was ingrained in him even before the Orange Caligula (your wife is property and your children are just an extension of you, not autonomous human beings). I think once Dear Leader dies or is gone, perhaps there will be more (at least) social accountability for terrible behavior, but I’m not sure how quickly it will take place? Fingers crossed, there aren’t many years left for my parents at least.
Apparently, there's no such thing as leading by example in christian world. If all the people bleating about putting up ten commandments posters instead spent their time living them, they wouldn't need to force their religion on everyone else. It's so ironic that serial adulterer Ken Paxton is behind this effort that Irony called in sick with a migraine.
I doubt seriously he believes any of the things the Jesus of the Bible preached. That is why James Talerico is getting so much traction. He comes across as a genuinely nice guy trying to actually live up to his religious beliefs. I watched a YouTube video where he was interviewed by Ezra Klein - a religious Jew - I don’t share either of their religious views, but I can live and let live with people like them.
I don't see where the district argued that the directions for stroking Yahweh's ego are harmful. They just said that they shouldn't be displayed because posting them actively promotes conservative Christianity in violation of the Establishment Clause. Whether or not they are harmful is an exercise for the reader. My take is that most of them are, as they push for blind obedience to authority figures and not rational thought.
Well, the whole situation is harmful because the school has to spend time, money and effort they ought to be using to educate their students on defending against this unconstitutional law and even just to display the posters. Like the man said, it’s a distraction for the schools, whether they’re following the law or not. None of it is necessary and there’s better things to do with the educators’ time and resources.
This is a violation of the First Amendment and it's disgusting! Would they allow decorations representing Islam, Judaism, or Wicca to be publicly displayed at the school?
The solution is simple. All we have to do is display the original ten Bill of Rights right next to their ten commands. If they object they show they hate America. Then teach children what should be obvious, their ten commands directly violate our Bill of Rights. At least 8 or 9 of them depending on a couple interpretations, but most are undeniable. The only one that is real is the one about not stealing.
Compare them for yourselves. People seem to be brainwashed into believing they are somehow good rules for living. NO, they are laws punishable by death.
--------------------------
#1. "No other gods"
You can have all the gods you want.
#2. "No graven images"
Graven images are completely legal. They are even popular considering
that a CROSS constitutes a graven image.
#3. "Don't take the Lords name in vain"
Freedom of speech allows taking the lards name in vain.
#4. "Keep the Sabbath day"
We don't have to have any Sabbath day, let alone Sunday.
#5. "Honor mom and dad"
We don't have to honor our parents, whether they are good or bad.
#6. "Thou shalt not kill/murder"
The 2nd amendment is specifically for killing with militia's during war. The
police are licensed to kill. Prisoners are sentenced to death.
#7. "Thou shalt not commit adultery"
Adultery is not actually a crime. Felony or misdemeanor. It is a reason for
divorce. But Jesus said divorce was adultery.
#8. "Thou shalt not steal"
The only one that is actually against the law. You just need a good lawyer.
#9. "Thou shalt not bear false witness" (witnessing is NOT preaching or
believing)
If lying were against the law then all preachers and politicians would be
in jail.
#10. "Thou shalt not covet"
If coveting were a crime capitalism would not exist.
As always, I want to see the ACTUAL Ten Commandments (which bear scant resemblance to Paxton's set) displayed in Aramaic/Proto-Hebrew (with an English translation on said display) and read right to left.
This is maybe one of the pettier things I could say about this article, but Middleton's claim that "Don't lie" is one of the Ten Commandments is just wrong. The closest one is "Don't make up false accusations," which is not only different in substance from "Don't lie," it's also what Middleton was doing in that very statement.
The evangelicals are desperate to have government backstop their religion because they know full-well they're losing the long game. I have no idea what they think will be accomplished by forcing the Ten Commandments into the public-school classrooms paid for by everyone's tax dollars. They try to sell the idea this country was somehow based on the Commandments, in spite of the fact eight of them would be unconstitutional should anyone try writing them into law.
“Attorney General Paxton further stated that, “There is no valid legal basis to prevent Texas schools from honoring a foundational framework of our laws, especially under the misconception that a ‘separation of church and state’ phrase appears in the Constitution. It does not.””
No one, not one person, ever, claims the phrase “separation of church and state” exists in the constitution. The phrase was used in other documents that are part of the establishment of our laws, to describe the intent and correct interpretation of the Constitution, expressly the first amendment. He lies because he knows he’s wrong.
As though the adultrous, ever-corrupt Paxton gave a damn about following the Ten Commandments himself.
Those are for others. Not him, the hypocrite.
He was following the commandment from the "Evil bible:" "Thou shalt commit adultery."
Every day in every way, rethugs are making an excellent case for voting them out of office. Article 11 of the Treaty of Tripoli specifically states “ the United States is not founded on the Christian Religion”. It was affirmed unanimously by the Senate. John Adams was President. There were many Founders still floating about. The cost of righting the nonsense and prevarications of christian nationalism is mounting up. We need widespread state constitutional amendments requiring state reviews for constitutionality before any law can be passed.
𝑇ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑖𝑠 𝑛𝑜 𝑣𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑑 𝑙𝑒𝑔𝑎𝑙 𝑏𝑎𝑠𝑖𝑠 𝑡𝑜 𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑇𝑒𝑥𝑎𝑠 𝑠𝑐ℎ𝑜𝑜𝑙𝑠 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 ℎ𝑜𝑛𝑜𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎 𝑓𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑑𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝑓𝑟𝑎𝑚𝑒𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑘 𝑜𝑓 𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑙𝑎𝑤𝑠, 𝑒𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑐𝑖𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑦 𝑢𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑚𝑖𝑠𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑐𝑒𝑝𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑎 ‘𝑠𝑒𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑜𝑓 𝑐ℎ𝑢𝑟𝑐ℎ 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑒’ 𝑝ℎ𝑟𝑎𝑠𝑒 𝑎𝑝𝑝𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑠 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐶𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑡𝑢𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛. 𝐼𝑡 𝑑𝑜𝑒𝑠 𝑛𝑜𝑡.
Perhaps not, but what about this:
... 𝑏𝑢𝑡 𝑛𝑜 𝑟𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑔𝑖𝑜𝑢𝑠 𝑡𝑒𝑠𝑡 𝑠ℎ𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟 𝑏𝑒 𝑟𝑒𝑞𝑢𝑖𝑟𝑒𝑑 𝑎𝑠 𝑎 𝑞𝑢𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑓𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑎𝑛𝑦 𝑜𝑓𝑓𝑖𝑐𝑒 𝑜𝑟 𝑝𝑢𝑏𝑙𝑖𝑐 𝑡𝑟𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑢𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑈𝑛𝑖𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑆𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑠.
-- US Constitution, Article VI, paragraph 3
𝐶𝑜𝑛𝑔𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝑠ℎ𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑚𝑎𝑘𝑒 𝑛𝑜 𝑙𝑎𝑤 𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎𝑛 𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑏𝑙𝑖𝑠ℎ𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑟𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑔𝑖𝑜𝑛...
-- "Establishment Clause, First Amendment to the Constitution
And that long-time favorite:
𝐴𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑔𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑛𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑈𝑛𝑖𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑆𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝐴𝑚𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑐𝑎 𝑖𝑠 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑖𝑛 𝑎𝑛𝑦 𝑠𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑒 𝑓𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑑 𝑜𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐶ℎ𝑟𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑎𝑛 𝑅𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑔𝑖𝑜𝑛...
-- Treaty of Tripoli, Article 11
Someone needs to tell Paxton that his assertion that the 10 Commandments are foundational to the laws and structure of this nation is utterly MISTAKEN. Yeah, I know, he won't listen. He still needs to be told that ... REPEATEDLY.
Maybe he will listen if he is told during Talarico's victory speech.
Wouldn't THAT stick in his craw! [Yeah ... it WOULD!]
"Who does not see that the same authority which can establish Christianity, in exclusion of all other Religions, may establish with the same ease any particular sect of Christians, in exclusion of all other Sects?" --James Madison, Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments
The very LAST thing we need to do in the US is create a religious "US vs THEM" argument where the government takes a side.
There is enough polarization in my homeland as it is.
That's precisely what the Establishment Clause was designed to prevent. People of the founding generation were well aware of the long, ugly history of religious warfare and persecution that had taken place in Europe - and imported here with religious establishments in most colonies early on. Madison wrote his Memorial and Remonstrance to make the case that government and religion MUST be kept separate for everyone's benefit.
That's what they're counting on. Now that they've overcome the wall of separation, it's a race as to which denomination becomes the power broker, with all others sucking up to them in their governmental cult of personality.
It never occurs to these fools that "If I can criminalize all other denominations, they can criminalize mine." Their thinking ends at "I get to criminalize all other denominations."
They start with the idea that the Establishment Clause only prohibits Congress from declaring one specific sect of Christianity to be the official Church of the United States. Then they start narrowing the definition of what counts as Christianity until only their sect is left.
They have done that in the military. Once that's normalized, cut again and rationalize.
Whiskey Pete needs to go.
Except that 6/9 SCOTUS justices are members of the RCC. They don’t word the Decalogue the way TX does.
I make it 6½. Neil Gorsuch was raised conservative Catholic and still behaves like one, even tho he nominally converted to Episcopalianism (Catholicism lite) to keep his wife happy. It's a real quirk of history that Catholics are so dominant on our Subprime Court. For the longest time there weren't ANY. Now they constitute 72% of its members, despite being only 21.8% of the adult population in the US.
One of the multiple reasons we need to change how SCOTUS Justices are appointed.
The history of Europe is replete with religious wars and persecution that went back and forth between catholics and protestants for hundreds of years. You would be protected by one regime, but if a king died and his successor professed a different faith, the hunter became the hunted. People who fail to learn the lessons of history will doom us all to repeating them.
There's a saying that "Intelligent people learn from their mistakes. Wise people learn from others." Christians are neither, and hence doomed to repeat them. They've spent so long white washing christianity's bloody history* that they've forgotten it themselves.
*Or they shift the blame onto homosexuals. I remember learning in church that Rome fell because of the rampant homosexuality. Christianity was in charge for over a century before it fell. One could say that 11 centuries of rampant homosexuality prevented Rome's collapse.
As recently as 9/11, christians were still trying to lay off blame on 'the gays.' LGBT citizens have been christianity's most reliable scapegoats, other than Jews.
There is a very secretive church that is behind the anti-abortion crusade. They unified all the different denominations against a common enemy, women. Just like how Al Qaida unified all the warring factions of Islam against a common enemy, US.
They are also the organizers of the Christian nationalists. Instead of being a denomination, they could be thought of as a dominion-nation. Since they are also the ones behind the dominion movement.
Well, interesting how sans-serif fonts work. If I'd seen "Al Qaeda" any time in the previous decade up until last year, I would've understood it immediately, but today I looked at it and wondered "What's this Artificial Intelligence Qaeda thing?".
Same thing happened the other day when reading the comic strip "Jesus and Mo", in which Jesus refers to Mo's preferred deity as "Big Al".
Ooooo, THAT just became the Quote of the Day on Atheist Universe! Many thanks!
Sorry, I should have read down before I posted. Mea culpa!
Oh, PIFFLE!
“Our laws are not optional or suggestions,"
Tell that to your orange pedo lard and savior.
Who, at minimum, has been violating the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution, virtually from the moment he took office, back in 2017! His second term has only seen those violations expand exponentially!
You've pretty much described just about every single politician.
Not that Disaster Pumpkin gives a rat's ass about the Constitution any more than he does any other laws, but take a look at how the emoluments clauses (plural) are actually worded. They still allow for unlimited graft, grift, and corruption as long as it's not coming "from any King, Prince, or foreign State" or "from the United States, or any of them". Millionaires and billionaires, line up right outside the O-O and take a number.
OT: I tried to go home to see my parents after almost a year and it did not go well. My dad is MAGA and there is almost nothing left to him now but anger, hate, and fear. I had to cut the trip short because he kept rage baiting right wing rhetoric into every conversation even after years and years of no politics rules and boundaries created to make visits possible. Some of it becomes personal attacks and some of it is just parroting talking points for I don’t know, some sort of validation? The defense afterwards is always I just have “different opinions”. Ok you can have different opinions all you want, but if they are hateful there are social consequences for that. It’s very sad out there folks. My parents are aging rapidly right now and this is how they are choosing to spend their last years.
I’m so sorry for you.
Possibly the worst thing the Orange Caligula did was show everyone that you can be like me and there are zero consequences for it.
Seth Andrews and Matt Dillahunty both went through similar situations with their parents, though more on religious grounds. Both of them finally had to lay down boundaries to defend their own integrity. It may be that you may have to do something like that.
Of course, that is entirely your call. I wish you luck.
Yes thank you. I’ve tried creating boundaries many times over the past decade+, but they are always broken. I think you have to constantly reinforce them and that takes a lot of time and energy. Not sure that’s where I want to spend the little energy I have anymore.
Seth reported that he had to block phone numbers at one point. Hard to believe from a man as gentle and soft-spoken as he is, but apparently, things devolved to that. Matt may have done something similar.
It's not pretty and it's not easy, but it may be necessary.
That sucks. I’m glad my parents have not gone down that path, I have family that are MAGA but I don’t have to visit them.
Have you seen the podcast where a brother and sister discuss politics with their MAGA parents? They are providing the parents with information they aren’t otherwise exposed to listening to NewsMax (Fox is too liberal for them) and the mother seems to be softening a bit. The dad is digging in though. The snippets I have heard are quite interesting. And it is exposing the moral bankruptcy of the MAGA movement as the parents do throw their own children under the bus quite frequently to prop up Trump and MAGA.
The good news is that Trump is not long for this world and once he’s gone, the cult will fall apart. It’s already kneecapped any element that might allow it to last beyond the death of the cult leader. All the skinny white ladies have been ousted, the mission of exposing the Epstein files has been essentially completed, promises of space travel are complete — Space Force has been established. Anything else is just nonsense, and his followers have copped onto the reality that he’s made their lives markedly worse, Vancey Pants isn’t respected enough by the cult to be able take up the mantle, and there aren’t others who might. So, he will be gone, the veil will lift, and we might be able to correct course, but the MAGA cultists will run from the evil as much as they can. You might be able to get your dad back then.
I have heard that podcast or snippets from it. The thing is no amount of debating or bringing facts or getting emotional about hurtful things they say or do actually makes a difference (that’s why it is a cult). There is no self awareness or empathy. I honestly don’t know how those kids continuously do that (but maybe it helps them in some way to cope with it). It’s pretty typical for the mom to open up a bit more, but in reality they usually fall right back in line to their place in the hierarchy of the family structure. My dad also grew up a Baptist so this was ingrained in him even before the Orange Caligula (your wife is property and your children are just an extension of you, not autonomous human beings). I think once Dear Leader dies or is gone, perhaps there will be more (at least) social accountability for terrible behavior, but I’m not sure how quickly it will take place? Fingers crossed, there aren’t many years left for my parents at least.
Apparently, there's no such thing as leading by example in christian world. If all the people bleating about putting up ten commandments posters instead spent their time living them, they wouldn't need to force their religion on everyone else. It's so ironic that serial adulterer Ken Paxton is behind this effort that Irony called in sick with a migraine.
I doubt seriously he believes any of the things the Jesus of the Bible preached. That is why James Talerico is getting so much traction. He comes across as a genuinely nice guy trying to actually live up to his religious beliefs. I watched a YouTube video where he was interviewed by Ezra Klein - a religious Jew - I don’t share either of their religious views, but I can live and let live with people like them.
[𝑇]ℎ𝑒 𝑑𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑖𝑐𝑡’𝑠 𝑎𝑟𝑔𝑢𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑇𝑒𝑛 𝐶𝑜𝑚𝑚𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑠 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑠𝑜𝑚𝑒ℎ𝑜𝑤 ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑚𝑓𝑢𝑙 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑠ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑏𝑒 𝑑𝑖𝑠𝑝𝑙𝑎𝑦𝑒𝑑.
I don't see where the district argued that the directions for stroking Yahweh's ego are harmful. They just said that they shouldn't be displayed because posting them actively promotes conservative Christianity in violation of the Establishment Clause. Whether or not they are harmful is an exercise for the reader. My take is that most of them are, as they push for blind obedience to authority figures and not rational thought.
Well, the whole situation is harmful because the school has to spend time, money and effort they ought to be using to educate their students on defending against this unconstitutional law and even just to display the posters. Like the man said, it’s a distraction for the schools, whether they’re following the law or not. None of it is necessary and there’s better things to do with the educators’ time and resources.
Amazing that Texas has got so much money to spend to foist its religion on children but so little to educate them.
Or perhaps it isn’t.
This is a violation of the First Amendment and it's disgusting! Would they allow decorations representing Islam, Judaism, or Wicca to be publicly displayed at the school?
The first commandment violates the First Amendment.
Not only that, it's a violation of the 2nd Commandment.
If someone tried to display items associated with other religions, they would suddenly remember the function of the Establishment Clause.
The solution is simple. All we have to do is display the original ten Bill of Rights right next to their ten commands. If they object they show they hate America. Then teach children what should be obvious, their ten commands directly violate our Bill of Rights. At least 8 or 9 of them depending on a couple interpretations, but most are undeniable. The only one that is real is the one about not stealing.
Compare them for yourselves. People seem to be brainwashed into believing they are somehow good rules for living. NO, they are laws punishable by death.
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#1. "No other gods"
You can have all the gods you want.
#2. "No graven images"
Graven images are completely legal. They are even popular considering
that a CROSS constitutes a graven image.
#3. "Don't take the Lords name in vain"
Freedom of speech allows taking the lards name in vain.
#4. "Keep the Sabbath day"
We don't have to have any Sabbath day, let alone Sunday.
#5. "Honor mom and dad"
We don't have to honor our parents, whether they are good or bad.
#6. "Thou shalt not kill/murder"
The 2nd amendment is specifically for killing with militia's during war. The
police are licensed to kill. Prisoners are sentenced to death.
#7. "Thou shalt not commit adultery"
Adultery is not actually a crime. Felony or misdemeanor. It is a reason for
divorce. But Jesus said divorce was adultery.
#8. "Thou shalt not steal"
The only one that is actually against the law. You just need a good lawyer.
#9. "Thou shalt not bear false witness" (witnessing is NOT preaching or
believing)
If lying were against the law then all preachers and politicians would be
in jail.
#10. "Thou shalt not covet"
If coveting were a crime capitalism would not exist.
Let us also note that the 10th commandment criminalizes THOUGHT.
As always, I want to see the ACTUAL Ten Commandments (which bear scant resemblance to Paxton's set) displayed in Aramaic/Proto-Hebrew (with an English translation on said display) and read right to left.
Hilarity ensues.
"Teacher, what's the Feast of Weeks, and why can't we cook baby goats in milk?"
Ignore the court ruling. Trump does it all the time.
Following illegal orders is still illegal.
Exactly what I was thinking.
I assume the Republic of Gilead will be based in Texas?
This is maybe one of the pettier things I could say about this article, but Middleton's claim that "Don't lie" is one of the Ten Commandments is just wrong. The closest one is "Don't make up false accusations," which is not only different in substance from "Don't lie," it's also what Middleton was doing in that very statement.
The evangelicals are desperate to have government backstop their religion because they know full-well they're losing the long game. I have no idea what they think will be accomplished by forcing the Ten Commandments into the public-school classrooms paid for by everyone's tax dollars. They try to sell the idea this country was somehow based on the Commandments, in spite of the fact eight of them would be unconstitutional should anyone try writing them into law.
I repeat: What do a set of rules meant only for the Chosen People have to do with Christianity?
“Attorney General Paxton further stated that, “There is no valid legal basis to prevent Texas schools from honoring a foundational framework of our laws, especially under the misconception that a ‘separation of church and state’ phrase appears in the Constitution. It does not.””
No one, not one person, ever, claims the phrase “separation of church and state” exists in the constitution. The phrase was used in other documents that are part of the establishment of our laws, to describe the intent and correct interpretation of the Constitution, expressly the first amendment. He lies because he knows he’s wrong.