It's time for Ken Paxton and the rest of the Texan Christiian Nationalists to read the room. Texas public schools DO NOT WANT PRAYER MANDATED in their classrooms. Not just a majority but a near-totality of Texas school districts said a resounding NO to Paxton's proposal for prayer time set aside during the school day.
Sadly, I'm pretty sure Kenny will find an excuse for ignoring the will of Texans. That's sorta his thing.
And btw, in Norway the government just decided that schools has to let pupils "enjoy" church service before xmas holiday, during school day. It is up to the pupils to decide, but the reality is group pressure.
Dallas and Fort Worth started out as 2 small communities, widely separated by vacant prairie but just kept growing and growing until they finally made contact and kept spread outward from their common borders. The same sort of thing happened multiple times in the US. There are about 30 different communities packed in wall to wall in the greater Los Angeles metropolitan area. New York City is famously 5 separate boroughs that at one time were independent of each other. Minneapolis and Saint Paul in Minnesota is basically one big city (surrounded by a dozen other ones that you can pass into and out of without realizing there was a border there).
Saint Petersburg — Clearwater in Florida is another famous pair of twin cities. (Completely trivial aside: When I was a kid growing up in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, we had a really good semi-pro softball team. They'd make it to the nationals every year, and they usually ended up playing against Clearwater for the title. Everybody was amused to note that Eau Claire, after the river named by early French voyageurs, also meant "clear water".)
DFW = Dallas / Fort Worth, one of the largest metropolitan areas in Texas and where I did a whole lot of field service work, mostly for Texas Instruments.
And whatever few churches there are in those areas, 5 will get you 50 that they are evangelical baptist or assemblies of god or something very similar. With the pastors or preachers preaching TRUMP from the pulpit practically every Sunday.
It wouldn't surprise me if those 15 districts that are going along with the NSGOP nonsense wre all very rural, very religious, and with at least half of the teachers going along with the mandate from administration because they are afraid of being fired.
How else would an omnipresent and omnipotent God hear the prayers of believers without a dedicated place and time for prayer? God you expect God to be listening just in case you pray? He has better thing to do with his time.
Public prayer is performative piety pushed by pusillanimously political, pimpled pigs like Paxton, practically pissing preemptively on parental property.
I didn’t need prayer to teach me to say that. But it does help to prove what I have long maintained: prayer is what you do when you don’t want to do anything at all, but you don’t want to be called out for it. Maybe someday the people of Texas will realize that their pastors and politicians are doing nothing for them.
I am cautiously optimistic that the harder the Christian nationalists try to force their religion into the public schools, the more they will alienate today's young people.
"I am cautiously optimistic that the harder the Christian nationalists try to force their religion into the public schools, the more they will alienate today's young people."
I get the feeling that it is a last hurrah. They realise that that their power, and they desperate to try something, anything to preserve it.
A similar attempt in the UK has simply seen congregations disappearing one funeral at a time.
It's taken a while, but I think that people may be waking up to the BS the Nat-Cs are attempting to lay on them. The very fact that an overwhelming majority of school districts thumbed their collective noses at Paxton speaks volumes.
What I wonder is whether this story has made it out to the general news media in Texas. That would make a significant difference, all by itself.
Paxton is as corrupt as they come, and he will go with what ever he sees as politically popular. Always with his arrogant smirk. The Texas Senate did not acquit him on the charges that got him impeached because he was innocent. They circled the wagons and acquitted him because he's a Republican. Period.
I'm not wild for Cornyn, but he and Paxton will apparently be in a runoff election later this year, then up against Talarico in the general ... where I'm HOPING that maybe-just-maybe we can turn the Lone Star State just that little bit PURPLE.
I think Nat-C’s are doing long-term harm to how people view Christianity and religion generally and they don’t care one bit. In terms of young people (young men especially) I believe they are looking for an alternative sense of belonging/community and just not finding those options currently. I believe it is our duty to help create/offer those spaces to them.
Their own savior told his followers that anyone who makes a show of their faith to be seen by non-followers will have no reward by his father in heaven.
"None of this will stop Republicans from trying to shove religion into public schools but maybe it gives them a moment of pause before they decide which battle to fight next."
So the GOP ballot wants to teach k-12 that life begins at fertilization. Only biologists agree with that. Presumably going for fetal personhood? They ban Sharia law. And I shit you not, they ban Dems from leadership and committees in the state! Let’s hear it for TEXBANISTAN!!
Having lived in Texas for nearly 40 years (before we escaped!), all I can say is this doesn’t surprise me in the least.
It’s pretty obvious to me that Christian Nationalists have never taken a music theory or an organic chemistry exam.
The most fervent and sincere prayers I ever heard, across a BUNCH of religious traditions, Christian and non-Christian alike, came before those exams; and we all knew that the median score (the top of the curve) was going to be somewhere in the mid to high 40s.
(1. “Create invertible counterpoints at the intervals of a fifth and a twelfth on the following subject, then create a figured bass line and harmonize the four lines using figured bass.”
(2. “Using that subject as a theme, create the exposition of a four-voiced fugue in the style of Bach.”
Ken Paxton is a Texas-size Troll. That’s his job description.
I was delighted to see Mr. Talarico win the Democratic primary yesterday (although I love both candidates). A lot of hard work ahead to pull this one off.
I would have preferred to see Jasmine Crockett make it to the general election. She's a firebrand who doesn't tolerate bullshit in her presence and calls it out without flinching. Still, I suspect it was Talarico's Christianity-on-his-sleeve approach that got him the nod in the primary.
I just hope he's willing to fight hard in the general. We NEED him to.
I’m afraid of Talarico becoming another Fetterman or Sinema. I know Crockett’s history, her stances that she fights for and how she will perform in the position. I don’t know how Talarico will actually perform once he’s in position. Fetterman was a firebrand and even with his switching priorities, he was better than Dr Oz at the time, but now he’s just another Nazi drone.
From where I sit, Talarico is doing the "nice guy" routine with a side order of Christianity. I really don't know how much fight he has in him, and these days, we need Democrats who are ready to get down and dirty, if necessary.
I'm not sure I see that in him, and that is a problem.
I was skeptical of Mamdani at first and my main reason was that he might not be able to perform once in office. I told myself he’s young/energetic, willing to take needed risks, and will surround himself with very smart people. That’s what did it for me and I voted for him. Both Mamdani and Talarico are progressives (in their respective states). Fetterman was never a progressive to me. Just a nobody with no point view. He also gave nobody hope of better days ahead.
I’m just rambling now. Cheers to hope in all its forms ✨
That’s fair. I personally think we need both of them and their distinct brands represented. What I like about Talarico is his main message has been that we are focusing on the wrong 1%. I believe he is also a fighter, just in a different way.
“Class-consciousness” is also what helped Mamdani secure a victory as mayor.
Personally, I'm hoping this has a Streisand Effect/poke the bear effect. I.e. by forcing school boards and voters to pay attention to what they're doing, they may find those folks get actively annoyed and opposed to these theatrics where before they were just passive about it.
It's time for Ken Paxton and the rest of the Texan Christiian Nationalists to read the room. Texas public schools DO NOT WANT PRAYER MANDATED in their classrooms. Not just a majority but a near-totality of Texas school districts said a resounding NO to Paxton's proposal for prayer time set aside during the school day.
Sadly, I'm pretty sure Kenny will find an excuse for ignoring the will of Texans. That's sorta his thing.
This is especially true in the big cities. I live in the DFW metro, and it's about as diverse as it gets.
Norwegian here. What is DFW metro?
And btw, in Norway the government just decided that schools has to let pupils "enjoy" church service before xmas holiday, during school day. It is up to the pupils to decide, but the reality is group pressure.
My apologies for odd writing.
Dallas and Fort Worth started out as 2 small communities, widely separated by vacant prairie but just kept growing and growing until they finally made contact and kept spread outward from their common borders. The same sort of thing happened multiple times in the US. There are about 30 different communities packed in wall to wall in the greater Los Angeles metropolitan area. New York City is famously 5 separate boroughs that at one time were independent of each other. Minneapolis and Saint Paul in Minnesota is basically one big city (surrounded by a dozen other ones that you can pass into and out of without realizing there was a border there).
Saint Petersburg — Clearwater in Florida is another famous pair of twin cities. (Completely trivial aside: When I was a kid growing up in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, we had a really good semi-pro softball team. They'd make it to the nationals every year, and they usually ended up playing against Clearwater for the title. Everybody was amused to note that Eau Claire, after the river named by early French voyageurs, also meant "clear water".)
It’s the Dallas-Fort Worth (Texas) metropolitan area.
DFW = Dallas / Fort Worth, one of the largest metropolitan areas in Texas and where I did a whole lot of field service work, mostly for Texas Instruments.
And whatever few churches there are in those areas, 5 will get you 50 that they are evangelical baptist or assemblies of god or something very similar. With the pastors or preachers preaching TRUMP from the pulpit practically every Sunday.
But they're not going to since they have their heads stuck up their asses. They need to be removed from office.
𝑌𝑜𝑢 𝑘𝑛𝑜𝑤 𝑤ℎ𝑎𝑡 15 𝑑𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑖𝑐𝑡𝑠 𝑚𝑒𝑎𝑛𝑠 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑐𝑎𝑠𝑒? 𝐼𝑡 𝑚𝑒𝑎𝑛𝑠 𝑝𝑟𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑦 𝑛𝑜 𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑤𝑎𝑛𝑡𝑠 𝑡𝑜 𝑝𝑙𝑎𝑦 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑅𝑒𝑝𝑢𝑏𝑙𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑛 𝑔𝑎𝑚𝑒.
Republicans try to force their religion on schoolchildren. Professional educators reject that for the unconstitutional nonsense it is. Film at 11.
When it comes to mandatory prayers, they must think their god is only available during school hours.
If that were true then why all the school shootings, which their god refuses to avert?
Jesus AND a Gun
https://youtu.be/mKvKNLvpo4c?si=JbxJPgtvGhzDiyhs
From the way the guy is depicted in his book, the bastard 𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘴 the school shootings.
You are definitely not wrong about that.
Grooming young vulnerable minds because your mythology is so easily debunked by critical thinking skills.
Fanatigelicals molest children in more ways than one.
It wouldn't surprise me if those 15 districts that are going along with the NSGOP nonsense wre all very rural, very religious, and with at least half of the teachers going along with the mandate from administration because they are afraid of being fired.
How else would an omnipresent and omnipotent God hear the prayers of believers without a dedicated place and time for prayer? God you expect God to be listening just in case you pray? He has better thing to do with his time.
Voice mail.
Public prayer is performative piety pushed by pusillanimously political, pimpled pigs like Paxton, practically pissing preemptively on parental property.
I didn’t need prayer to teach me to say that. But it does help to prove what I have long maintained: prayer is what you do when you don’t want to do anything at all, but you don’t want to be called out for it. Maybe someday the people of Texas will realize that their pastors and politicians are doing nothing for them.
See wreck's reference to Theodoric of York.
Unfortunately, I have to agree.
I am cautiously optimistic that the harder the Christian nationalists try to force their religion into the public schools, the more they will alienate today's young people.
"I am cautiously optimistic that the harder the Christian nationalists try to force their religion into the public schools, the more they will alienate today's young people."
I get the feeling that it is a last hurrah. They realise that that their power, and they desperate to try something, anything to preserve it.
A similar attempt in the UK has simply seen congregations disappearing one funeral at a time.
"they will alienate" Praying this will happen. LOL
It's taken a while, but I think that people may be waking up to the BS the Nat-Cs are attempting to lay on them. The very fact that an overwhelming majority of school districts thumbed their collective noses at Paxton speaks volumes.
What I wonder is whether this story has made it out to the general news media in Texas. That would make a significant difference, all by itself.
Paxton is as corrupt as they come, and he will go with what ever he sees as politically popular. Always with his arrogant smirk. The Texas Senate did not acquit him on the charges that got him impeached because he was innocent. They circled the wagons and acquitted him because he's a Republican. Period.
I'm not wild for Cornyn, but he and Paxton will apparently be in a runoff election later this year, then up against Talarico in the general ... where I'm HOPING that maybe-just-maybe we can turn the Lone Star State just that little bit PURPLE.
The big cities in Texas already tilt blue. A lot of people don't realize that two of the five largest cities in the US are in Texas.
I think Nat-C’s are doing long-term harm to how people view Christianity and religion generally and they don’t care one bit. In terms of young people (young men especially) I believe they are looking for an alternative sense of belonging/community and just not finding those options currently. I believe it is our duty to help create/offer those spaces to them.
And once again, some xtians in the Lone Brain Cell State insist on violating Matthew 6:5-6.
But-but-but ... they want EVERYONE to know how CHRISTIAN they are!
Their own savior told his followers that anyone who makes a show of their faith to be seen by non-followers will have no reward by his father in heaven.
Oops.
You know that and I know that. They conveniently IGNORE that, I suspect because their egos won't let them acknowledge that.
I suspect that, if they could see this situation the way WE see it, they'd lose their minds.
Who else wants to know, who are the 15?
me too.. can't find a list online anywhere. And can't find anything on my hometowns's school website either.
"None of this will stop Republicans from trying to shove religion into public schools but maybe it gives them a moment of pause before they decide which battle to fight next."
In the immortal word of Theodoric of York:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIWJlU2eBpw
So the GOP ballot wants to teach k-12 that life begins at fertilization. Only biologists agree with that. Presumably going for fetal personhood? They ban Sharia law. And I shit you not, they ban Dems from leadership and committees in the state! Let’s hear it for TEXBANISTAN!!
Life does not begin at fertilization; sperm and ova are both alive long before that.
Having lived in Texas for nearly 40 years (before we escaped!), all I can say is this doesn’t surprise me in the least.
It’s pretty obvious to me that Christian Nationalists have never taken a music theory or an organic chemistry exam.
The most fervent and sincere prayers I ever heard, across a BUNCH of religious traditions, Christian and non-Christian alike, came before those exams; and we all knew that the median score (the top of the curve) was going to be somewhere in the mid to high 40s.
(1. “Create invertible counterpoints at the intervals of a fifth and a twelfth on the following subject, then create a figured bass line and harmonize the four lines using figured bass.”
(2. “Using that subject as a theme, create the exposition of a four-voiced fugue in the style of Bach.”
(Yeah: *riiiiiight* . Actual exam question.)
I took and passed organic chemistry. Never prayed once.
I prayed and then dropped the course.
You were probably very good at it! 😁
Nope.
Ken Paxton is a Texas-size Troll. That’s his job description.
I was delighted to see Mr. Talarico win the Democratic primary yesterday (although I love both candidates). A lot of hard work ahead to pull this one off.
I would have preferred to see Jasmine Crockett make it to the general election. She's a firebrand who doesn't tolerate bullshit in her presence and calls it out without flinching. Still, I suspect it was Talarico's Christianity-on-his-sleeve approach that got him the nod in the primary.
I just hope he's willing to fight hard in the general. We NEED him to.
I’m afraid of Talarico becoming another Fetterman or Sinema. I know Crockett’s history, her stances that she fights for and how she will perform in the position. I don’t know how Talarico will actually perform once he’s in position. Fetterman was a firebrand and even with his switching priorities, he was better than Dr Oz at the time, but now he’s just another Nazi drone.
Fetterman is a big disappointment.
From where I sit, Talarico is doing the "nice guy" routine with a side order of Christianity. I really don't know how much fight he has in him, and these days, we need Democrats who are ready to get down and dirty, if necessary.
I'm not sure I see that in him, and that is a problem.
I was skeptical of Mamdani at first and my main reason was that he might not be able to perform once in office. I told myself he’s young/energetic, willing to take needed risks, and will surround himself with very smart people. That’s what did it for me and I voted for him. Both Mamdani and Talarico are progressives (in their respective states). Fetterman was never a progressive to me. Just a nobody with no point view. He also gave nobody hope of better days ahead.
I’m just rambling now. Cheers to hope in all its forms ✨
To a Norwegian, read Straw, your rambling gave me some hope.
That’s fair. I personally think we need both of them and their distinct brands represented. What I like about Talarico is his main message has been that we are focusing on the wrong 1%. I believe he is also a fighter, just in a different way.
“Class-consciousness” is also what helped Mamdani secure a victory as mayor.
Next up: Republican sponsored bill mandating preying on children in public schools.
The Catholic Church is already in favor of it.
Geez, a 99% rejection rate in Texas. You know you're out on the fringe when...
𝑁𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑝 𝑅𝑒𝑝𝑢𝑏𝑙𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑛𝑠 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑡𝑟𝑦𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡𝑜 𝑠ℎ𝑜𝑣𝑒 𝑟𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑔𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑜 𝑝𝑢𝑏𝑙𝑖𝑐 𝑠𝑐ℎ𝑜𝑜𝑙𝑠 𝑏𝑢𝑡 𝑚𝑎𝑦𝑏𝑒 𝑖𝑡 𝑔𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑚 𝑎 𝑚𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑝𝑎𝑢𝑠𝑒 𝑏𝑒𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑦 𝑑𝑒𝑐𝑖𝑑𝑒 𝑤ℎ𝑖𝑐ℎ 𝑏𝑎𝑡𝑡𝑙𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝑓𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡 𝑛𝑒𝑥𝑡.
Personally, I'm hoping this has a Streisand Effect/poke the bear effect. I.e. by forcing school boards and voters to pay attention to what they're doing, they may find those folks get actively annoyed and opposed to these theatrics where before they were just passive about it.