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.
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.
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.
"Historical practices and understandings?" The overwhelming majority of people who had the biggest influence on our form of government were Deists, not Christians.
Historical practices and understandings started early in the History of US settlement and one of them was the concept of “terra nullius”, or nobody’s land https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/terra_nullius which is a very convenient, even if illogical, way to legitimise land theft. It was certainly useful in Australia later. The relationship between occupier and land, if it did not explicitly include ownership but rather use and stewardship, could be conveniently ignored.
So, a business owner in the Soith, who is also a member of the Klan, would be able to get away with refusing to hire or serve anyone who isn't a straight, white, Christian man. The official stance of the Regime's "Justice" Department is that it is religious discrimination to prevent a Christian from violating anti-discrimination laws.
My reaction to this piece was Jesus f..ing Christ.
Blanche has out blanched himself.
I wish him a very unpleasant Thursday at his Senate committee nomination consideration and at the Court ordered production of non-redacted Epstein documents for Judge review. Oh my, what a day.
“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.
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.
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 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.
These new policies are religious people's thirty pieces of silver in return for loyally supporting Trump and trashing the separation of church and state.
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..."
I never want to hear Christians whine about being persecuted in this country ever again.
Unfortunately, you will.
Sad but true.
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.
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.
"Historical practices and understandings?" The overwhelming majority of people who had the biggest influence on our form of government were Deists, not Christians.
Historical practices and understandings according to David Barton et al.
Historical practices and understandings started early in the History of US settlement and one of them was the concept of “terra nullius”, or nobody’s land https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/terra_nullius which is a very convenient, even if illogical, way to legitimise land theft. It was certainly useful in Australia later. The relationship between occupier and land, if it did not explicitly include ownership but rather use and stewardship, could be conveniently ignored.
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.
The buried hinge here isn't “religious people have rights.” It's that the loss imposed on a third party does not necessarily defeat the exemption.
⠀
That changes religious liberty from a shield against government coercion into a possible mechanism for exporting the cost of belief.
The believer receives the accommodation. Someone else may receive the invoice.
⠀
Under that paradigm, “my religion doesn’t allow me to do that” can become “your rights must yield to my religion” very quickly.
𝑇ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑚𝑒𝑚𝑜 𝑡𝑒𝑙𝑙𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐽𝑢𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑐𝑒 𝐷𝑒𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑡𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑦 𝑐𝑎𝑛 𝑤𝑒𝑎𝑝𝑜𝑛𝑖𝑧𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑒𝑟𝑣𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑒 𝐶ℎ𝑟𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑎𝑛𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑖𝑛 𝑜𝑟𝑑𝑒𝑟 𝑡𝑜 𝑢𝑠𝑒 𝑖𝑡 𝑎𝑔𝑎𝑖𝑛𝑠𝑡 𝐿𝐺𝐵𝑇𝑄 𝑝𝑒𝑜𝑝𝑙𝑒, 𝑤𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑛, 𝑟𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑔𝑖𝑜𝑢𝑠 𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑜𝑟𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑒𝑠, 𝑎𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑠, 𝑒𝑡𝑐. 𝐴𝑛 𝑎𝑔𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑦 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡’𝑠 𝑠𝑢𝑝𝑝𝑜𝑠𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑑𝑒𝑓𝑒𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑡𝑢𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝑟𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝐴𝑚𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑛𝑠 𝑖𝑠 𝑛𝑜𝑤 𝑚𝑎𝑛𝑢𝑓𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑙𝑒𝑔𝑎𝑙 𝑎𝑟𝑔𝑢𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑠 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝐶ℎ𝑟𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑎𝑛 𝑝𝑟𝑖𝑣𝑖𝑙𝑒𝑔𝑒.
So, a business owner in the Soith, who is also a member of the Klan, would be able to get away with refusing to hire or serve anyone who isn't a straight, white, Christian man. The official stance of the Regime's "Justice" Department is that it is religious discrimination to prevent a Christian from violating anti-discrimination laws.
My reaction to this piece was Jesus f..ing Christ.
Blanche has out blanched himself.
I wish him a very unpleasant Thursday at his Senate committee nomination consideration and at the Court ordered production of non-redacted Epstein documents for Judge review. Oh my, what a day.
“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.
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.
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 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.
This is what you get when you elect a demented toddler as president. Great job MAGATs.
These new policies are religious people's thirty pieces of silver in return for loyally supporting Trump and trashing the separation of church and state.