You will though. Because these people will be so used to their privileges, that any limit, any (!) limit on those privileges will feel like persecution.
Which is all the more reason to spank their sorry asses with the phrases I cited elsewhere in this post. As you well know, the US was conceived as a SECULAR NATION, and for anyone to attempt to assert otherwise is, particularly in this instance, a case of purposeful ignorance.
If you consider that what you call ‘purposeful ignorance’ is coming from the same people who’d be waving their pocket constitutions around, they’d be calling federal civil servants ‘jackbooted thugs’ and considered Mr Biden’s student loan changes governmental overreach - then really all I can do is shake my head!
Every imaginable horror has been perpetrated in the name of deeply held religious beliefs, and they happen every day. Some people keep insisting this is a virtue. This isn’t about religious liberty, it’s about institutionalizing Christian privilege in this country. The churches know they’re losing the long game, and they’re desperate to have government backstop their religion and keep them in business. Make no mistake, they are businesses.
It is all about the money. How unchristlike is megachurch pastors owning multiple high-end luxury cars and living in multi-million dollar 'parsonages'? And, tRump knows the religious right are part of his loyal base because he gives them everything they want. And, he told his toady Blanche to 'make it so'.
It's about the money, all right ... AND THE INFLUENCE on government and its decisions. In the final analysis, THAT is what Blanche and the rest of the Christian Nationalist toadies are after. Boil it down, what they are talking about ultimately is a Christian theocracy in the United States.
"... it becomes necessary to kick the asses of Christian Nationalist wannabes who would trade our imperfect democracy for a far worse Christian theocracy..."
A second American Revolution would be a damned ugly affair, and I hope like hell we can avoid that. It will take WORK and a lot of it, but the alternative would be tragic in the extreme.
“While the 2017 memo didn’t say much about parental rights, the 2026 memo says the government can’t interfere with a parents’ desire to raise kids with their religious beliefs.”
Only for Christian’s parents though. Because you know good and well there will be repercussions for any minority religion to pull out of enforced prayer or bible classes or having to look at the Ten Commandments posters.
I know if they didn’t have double standards they would t have standards at all and they live for hypocrisy and lying. But, it still needs to be pointed out.
“While the 2017 memo didn’t say much about parental rights, the 2026 memo says the government can’t interfere with a parents’ desire to raise kids with their religious beliefs.”...
So grooming is good now? lol That's the only way the churches and the republican party survive!
Further Thought: "Historical practices and understandings" notwithstanding, the Freedom From Religion Foundation, American Atheists, the ACLU, and every other organization dedicated to State / Church separation need to go after Blanche and this dangerous proposal, hammer and tongs. For the umpti-umpth time, the United States is NOT a Christian nation, never has been, and if the Constitution and the Treaty of Tripoli aren't enough to convince Todd & Co. of the error of their ways, then they need to have their noses rubbed in it until they can't escape the smell.
This IS a hill worth dying on, because if we don't, State / Church separation dies.
"the United States is NOT a Christian nation" Agreed, unfortunately with phrases like "In God We Trust" printed on its currency and "God bless The USA" permutating in its culture the country may look and act like a theocracy.
And in virtually 100% of cases, the word "God" was being pushed on our government by representatives of the Christian religion! Did Jews ever do such a thing? Not to my knowledge. Muslims? GET SERIOUS!
The problem with Christians being able to trample all over the rights of other people and their religious beliefs/non-belief is that it never stops with non-Christians. Sooner or later, as is their wont, Christians will start going after other Christians. It's part of their "historical practices and understandings."
Their motivation is based in their mistaken idea that WE'RE RIGHT AND EVERYONE ELSE IS WRONG. It has never occurred to them that ALL OF THEM could be wrong.
I know they're awful and a small number of them were inclined to nullify the birthright citizenship clause, but actually going after the establishment clause is a different order of magnitude.
They would go there. They don't necessarily want to eliminate the Establishment Clause altogether, they just want it to be officially declared that it means Congress can make Christianity the official religion as long as they don't establish one particular sect to be the official Church of the United States.
Once you open the door, though, I suspect that they'll eventually start bringing back state churches and the like. As I've said before, if your faith requires the support of the state to survive then it's already dying.
I have said this many times and I’ve been saying it for years. We need a strict and explicit separation of church and state: no religion gets privileged over any other religion because the government is entirely neutral to religion other than ensuring that everyone can worship as he wants to. But that means that no one can force other people and religions to believe what they want under color of law and that’s because purely theological concerns do not belong in this law that governance all of us.
Freedom of religion must also include freedom from religion, freedom of no religion, no religious test for office, no exceptions for religion being privileged in laws of general applicability.
My only hope that what comes out of this religio-fascist agenda and overreach/reach-around is that this is finally encoded into law, not vaguely implied by it.
Pre-freaking-CISELY. Blanche must know that his favorite religion is on the decline, and it scares him shitless, so he's going to do everything in his power to backstop his failing belief system, regardless if it steps on other people's rights. Why? Because ... because ... CHRISTIANITY! Because it's the BEST, doesn't everyone know that.
As for the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment? Meh. Todd thinks that's old hat. He needs to be disabused of that misguided notion.
It also allows other groups to boycott. I buy my groceries at ethnic family owned stores and none of my circle buys at Hobby Lobby. A definite escalation in culture wars.
Hobby Lobby needs to take a long walk off a short pier. I won't go near one if I can at all avoid it, any more than I would patronize a Chik-fil-A. So long as they maintain their attitude, they are poison to me.
Candida Moss, who gave us “The Myth of Persecution: How Early Christians Invented a Story of Martyrdom” also co-wrote “Bible Nation: The United States of Hobby Lobby.” An investigative look into HLs owners (the Green family) and how they try to shape Amercan religious politics, higher education and their *ahem* biblical antiquities collecting.
If and when we ever get a different administration, the Federal Courts need to be stacked with progressive justices, religious "liberty" needs to be redefined by law to neutrality, a "de-Nazification" needs to be done to every Federal agency, a new VRA needs to be passed, the DoJ needs aggressive consumer attorneys breaking up vertical integration and monopolies with real punishments, CEOs need to go to jail for the crimes they oversee, and political churches and propaganda outfits need their tax exempt status pulled.
And frankly, the people who run those "churches" and propaganda mills should be grateful we're only going that far and not reverting to bloody sectarian persecution for their attempt to overthrow our Democratic Republic.
Sheeesh y'all. It's so simple. All religions other than Christianity are fake, erroneous or heretical. Therefore their tenets and rules are invalid and do not qualify for religious protection. Religious protection is for True religions of which there is only one. MAGA!*
Christians...particularly Republican ones...don't seem very afraid of their god. They violate his commandments with impunity. They ignore the teachings of that god's own son.
I’m waiting for someone who is NOT Christian to try to use this change for their benefit…and the howls to begin. (Perhaps a staunch Muslim merely asking for time and space to pray during the working day? It appears that this change would have to cover that) I mean, the NatC’s want this all for themselves, not for *other* religions!
Our bud John Smith has some thoughts on the topic:
Christianity has never been co-opted by government/empire, it is a willing partner with government! Christianity has no problems supporting any authoritarian regime in return for free and complete (sole control) control over the nation state’s religious institutions and people! Just look at the history of Christianity and its relations with government!
The christains are going to regret ever doing this. The protections they strip away won't be there for them when it's time for them to pay for their many crimes.
Wow! We have a landline. It rings from time to time. No one in the house has answered it in at least a decade. It’s part of the cable, internet, phone “triple play” from Comcast.
I never want to hear Christians whine about being persecuted in this country ever again.
Unfortunately, you will.
Sad but true.
Every. Damn. Day.
It’s like they have some kind of kink.
Yes, Martyrbation.
You will though. Because these people will be so used to their privileges, that any limit, any (!) limit on those privileges will feel like persecution.
Which is all the more reason to spank their sorry asses with the phrases I cited elsewhere in this post. As you well know, the US was conceived as a SECULAR NATION, and for anyone to attempt to assert otherwise is, particularly in this instance, a case of purposeful ignorance.
Which this nation can no longer tolerate.
If you consider that what you call ‘purposeful ignorance’ is coming from the same people who’d be waving their pocket constitutions around, they’d be calling federal civil servants ‘jackbooted thugs’ and considered Mr Biden’s student loan changes governmental overreach - then really all I can do is shake my head!
Hey, Zorgin is back.
Yup. Noticed it yesterday. I worry about him and how he's getting on.
Every imaginable horror has been perpetrated in the name of deeply held religious beliefs, and they happen every day. Some people keep insisting this is a virtue. This isn’t about religious liberty, it’s about institutionalizing Christian privilege in this country. The churches know they’re losing the long game, and they’re desperate to have government backstop their religion and keep them in business. Make no mistake, they are businesses.
It is all about the money. How unchristlike is megachurch pastors owning multiple high-end luxury cars and living in multi-million dollar 'parsonages'? And, tRump knows the religious right are part of his loyal base because he gives them everything they want. And, he told his toady Blanche to 'make it so'.
It's about the money, all right ... AND THE INFLUENCE on government and its decisions. In the final analysis, THAT is what Blanche and the rest of the Christian Nationalist toadies are after. Boil it down, what they are talking about ultimately is a Christian theocracy in the United States.
And that is intolerable.
Money and power are an ouroboros.
Certainly, the two are ultimately self-destructive. The problem is that they could take our democracy along with them if nothing is done.
"When in the course of human events..."
"... it becomes necessary to kick the asses of Christian Nationalist wannabes who would trade our imperfect democracy for a far worse Christian theocracy..."
A second American Revolution would be a damned ugly affair, and I hope like hell we can avoid that. It will take WORK and a lot of it, but the alternative would be tragic in the extreme.
Religion is an MLM racket.
“While the 2017 memo didn’t say much about parental rights, the 2026 memo says the government can’t interfere with a parents’ desire to raise kids with their religious beliefs.”
Only for Christian’s parents though. Because you know good and well there will be repercussions for any minority religion to pull out of enforced prayer or bible classes or having to look at the Ten Commandments posters.
I know if they didn’t have double standards they would t have standards at all and they live for hypocrisy and lying. But, it still needs to be pointed out.
“While the 2017 memo didn’t say much about parental rights, the 2026 memo says the government can’t interfere with a parents’ desire to raise kids with their religious beliefs.”...
So grooming is good now? lol That's the only way the churches and the republican party survive!
Further Thought: "Historical practices and understandings" notwithstanding, the Freedom From Religion Foundation, American Atheists, the ACLU, and every other organization dedicated to State / Church separation need to go after Blanche and this dangerous proposal, hammer and tongs. For the umpti-umpth time, the United States is NOT a Christian nation, never has been, and if the Constitution and the Treaty of Tripoli aren't enough to convince Todd & Co. of the error of their ways, then they need to have their noses rubbed in it until they can't escape the smell.
This IS a hill worth dying on, because if we don't, State / Church separation dies.
"the United States is NOT a Christian nation" Agreed, unfortunately with phrases like "In God We Trust" printed on its currency and "God bless The USA" permutating in its culture the country may look and act like a theocracy.
https://allthatsinteresting.com/in-god-we-trust
Sad and embarrassing🤔😆🤪
And in virtually 100% of cases, the word "God" was being pushed on our government by representatives of the Christian religion! Did Jews ever do such a thing? Not to my knowledge. Muslims? GET SERIOUS!
"Democratic Congressman Charles E. Bennett of Florida sponsored the bill . . ."
Shoulda known a Floridian would be involved.
You’re back! NOGODZ noticed that you hadn’t commented in a couple of days. There was concern.
Nice to know I was missed. ☺️️ Unfortunately, my posting may be a bit sporadic for a while.
The problem with Christians being able to trample all over the rights of other people and their religious beliefs/non-belief is that it never stops with non-Christians. Sooner or later, as is their wont, Christians will start going after other Christians. It's part of their "historical practices and understandings."
Their motivation is based in their mistaken idea that WE'RE RIGHT AND EVERYONE ELSE IS WRONG. It has never occurred to them that ALL OF THEM could be wrong.
𝑇ℎ𝑒 2026 𝑚𝑒𝑚𝑜 𝑠𝑎𝑦𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐸𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑏𝑙𝑖𝑠ℎ𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝐶𝑙𝑎𝑢𝑠𝑒 𝑚𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑏𝑒 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑖𝑛 𝑟𝑒𝑓𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑡𝑜 “ℎ𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙 𝑝𝑟𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑐𝑒𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑢𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑟𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑠.” 𝑊ℎ𝑖𝑐ℎ 𝑖𝑠 𝑐𝑜𝑑𝑒𝑑 𝑙𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑢𝑎𝑔𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑏𝑒𝑛𝑒𝑓𝑖𝑡𝑠 𝐶ℎ𝑟𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑎𝑛𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑟𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑔𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠 𝑤𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑛’𝑡 𝑎𝑠 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑣𝑎𝑠𝑖𝑣𝑒 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑙𝑦 𝑦𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑡𝑟𝑦.
Just short of mandatory Christianity. I guess he's just waiting on the current SCOTUS to declare the Establishment Clause null and void.
Would they? Would they really go there?
I know they're awful and a small number of them were inclined to nullify the birthright citizenship clause, but actually going after the establishment clause is a different order of magnitude.
They would go there. They don't necessarily want to eliminate the Establishment Clause altogether, they just want it to be officially declared that it means Congress can make Christianity the official religion as long as they don't establish one particular sect to be the official Church of the United States.
The Constitution is already in the shredder.
Once you open the door, though, I suspect that they'll eventually start bringing back state churches and the like. As I've said before, if your faith requires the support of the state to survive then it's already dying.
I have said this many times and I’ve been saying it for years. We need a strict and explicit separation of church and state: no religion gets privileged over any other religion because the government is entirely neutral to religion other than ensuring that everyone can worship as he wants to. But that means that no one can force other people and religions to believe what they want under color of law and that’s because purely theological concerns do not belong in this law that governance all of us.
Freedom of religion must also include freedom from religion, freedom of no religion, no religious test for office, no exceptions for religion being privileged in laws of general applicability.
My only hope that what comes out of this religio-fascist agenda and overreach/reach-around is that this is finally encoded into law, not vaguely implied by it.
𝑊𝑒 𝑛𝑒𝑒𝑑 𝑎 𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑖𝑐𝑡 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑒𝑥𝑝𝑙𝑖𝑐𝑖𝑡 𝑠𝑒𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑜𝑓 𝑐ℎ𝑢𝑟𝑐ℎ 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑒: 𝑛𝑜 𝑟𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑔𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑔𝑒𝑡𝑠 𝑝𝑟𝑖𝑣𝑖𝑙𝑒𝑔𝑒𝑑 𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑟 𝑎𝑛𝑦 𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑟𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑔𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑏𝑒𝑐𝑎𝑢𝑠𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑔𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑛𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑖𝑠 𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑟𝑒𝑙𝑦 𝑛𝑒𝑢𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑙 𝑡𝑜 𝑟𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑔𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑛 𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑐𝑎𝑛 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑠ℎ𝑖𝑝 𝑎𝑠 ℎ𝑒 𝑤𝑎𝑛𝑡𝑠 𝑡𝑜.
↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑
THIS!!!!!
𝑇ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑠𝑜-𝑐𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑒𝑑 𝑟𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑔𝑖𝑜𝑢𝑠 𝑙𝑖𝑏𝑒𝑟𝑡𝑦 𝑔𝑢𝑖𝑑𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑖𝑠 𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑦 𝑎 𝑟𝑜𝑎𝑑𝑚𝑎𝑝 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑝𝑟𝑖𝑣𝑖𝑙𝑒𝑔𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑒𝑟𝑣𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑒 𝐶ℎ𝑟𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑎𝑛𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑎𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑒𝑥𝑝𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑡𝑢𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝑟𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑒𝑙𝑠𝑒.
Pre-freaking-CISELY. Blanche must know that his favorite religion is on the decline, and it scares him shitless, so he's going to do everything in his power to backstop his failing belief system, regardless if it steps on other people's rights. Why? Because ... because ... CHRISTIANITY! Because it's the BEST, doesn't everyone know that.
As for the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment? Meh. Todd thinks that's old hat. He needs to be disabused of that misguided notion.
It also allows other groups to boycott. I buy my groceries at ethnic family owned stores and none of my circle buys at Hobby Lobby. A definite escalation in culture wars.
Hobby Lobby needs to take a long walk off a short pier. I won't go near one if I can at all avoid it, any more than I would patronize a Chik-fil-A. So long as they maintain their attitude, they are poison to me.
Candida Moss, who gave us “The Myth of Persecution: How Early Christians Invented a Story of Martyrdom” also co-wrote “Bible Nation: The United States of Hobby Lobby.” An investigative look into HLs owners (the Green family) and how they try to shape Amercan religious politics, higher education and their *ahem* biblical antiquities collecting.
Same here.
If and when we ever get a different administration, the Federal Courts need to be stacked with progressive justices, religious "liberty" needs to be redefined by law to neutrality, a "de-Nazification" needs to be done to every Federal agency, a new VRA needs to be passed, the DoJ needs aggressive consumer attorneys breaking up vertical integration and monopolies with real punishments, CEOs need to go to jail for the crimes they oversee, and political churches and propaganda outfits need their tax exempt status pulled.
And frankly, the people who run those "churches" and propaganda mills should be grateful we're only going that far and not reverting to bloody sectarian persecution for their attempt to overthrow our Democratic Republic.
Sheeesh y'all. It's so simple. All religions other than Christianity are fake, erroneous or heretical. Therefore their tenets and rules are invalid and do not qualify for religious protection. Religious protection is for True religions of which there is only one. MAGA!*
* Make America God-fearing Again.
More like Make America GAG Again! 🤢🤮
Christians...particularly Republican ones...don't seem very afraid of their god. They violate his commandments with impunity. They ignore the teachings of that god's own son.
“The ignore the teachings of that god's own son.”
Maybe he (sorry, He) was adopted.
You’ve been visiting Christian post, haven’t you? This very argument gets advanced without irony.
I have not, but as the saying goes...this is not my first rodeo. I've been around.
I’m waiting for someone who is NOT Christian to try to use this change for their benefit…and the howls to begin. (Perhaps a staunch Muslim merely asking for time and space to pray during the working day? It appears that this change would have to cover that) I mean, the NatC’s want this all for themselves, not for *other* religions!
(NatC = Nationalist Christians)
Our bud John Smith has some thoughts on the topic:
Christianity has never been co-opted by government/empire, it is a willing partner with government! Christianity has no problems supporting any authoritarian regime in return for free and complete (sole control) control over the nation state’s religious institutions and people! Just look at the history of Christianity and its relations with government!
The christains are going to regret ever doing this. The protections they strip away won't be there for them when it's time for them to pay for their many crimes.
Todd Blanche. The man who is facing Senate confirmation hearings even as he is breaking laws. SMDH.
Someone wrote a substack a few days ago, saying that Blanche would be confirmed by the senate and that he would also be disbarred.
That would be an interesting development, the country's highest legal officer not having a law licence .....
He wants to be Top Cop and yet he’s a criminal. Sounds about right for this crime family in power.
OT: Just got a phone call from an AI bot. It cleared its throat. The bots are getting more sophisticated/devious.
AI BOT: “Sorry. I have a cog in my throat.”
Byte me, bot!
Tell the bot to get a life! 😝
You answer your phone?!
Land line even.
Wow! We have a landline. It rings from time to time. No one in the house has answered it in at least a decade. It’s part of the cable, internet, phone “triple play” from Comcast.