March 03, 2006

Emboldened

From Crooks and Liars, a bill in the Missouri legislature:

Missouri legislators in Jefferson City considered a bill that would name Christianity the state's official "majority" religion.

House Concurrent Resolution 13 has is pending in the state legislature.

Many Missouri residents had not heard about the bill until Thursday.

This is why what Armand and I were talking about is so important. People don't know what is going on in their state legislatures, and assume that their elected representatives are actually representing mainstream american values.

Karen Aroesty of the Anti-defamation league, along with other watch-groups, began a letter writing and email campaign to stop the resolution.

The resolution would recognize "a Christian god," and it would not protect minority religions, but "protect the majority's right to express their religious beliefs.

The resolution also recognizes that, "a greater power exists," and only Christianity receives what the resolution calls, "justified recognition."

This is why I don't trust the rhetoric of Judeo-Christian values. It turns out that the "judeo" part is fine as long it means "the people who gave s the old testament," but not in respecting their religious practice today. Much as with the support of Israel, only insofar as that support will lead to its destruction in the end times, and bring on the Rapture.

State representative David Sater of Cassville in southwestern Missouri, sponsored the resolution, but he has refused to talk about it on camera or over the phone.

So, the elected representative in unacountable to the people when they catch him playing fast and loose with the Constitution.

KMOV also contacted Gov. Matt Blunt's office to see where he stands on the resolution, but he has yet to respond.

This is the same Blunt that Fired Up Missouri has criticized for his opposition to birth control: "Governor Matt Blunt believes that "The Pill" is the same thing as an abortion. He equates ordinary birth control with abortion."

They are all crawling out of the woodwork. They're not hiding in the dark anymore, emboldened by the control of the federal government, and the appointments to the supreme court. As I've been urging recently, this is exactly the time to shine the full light of democratic discussion and participation on what is being done in our names. It's time for the majority of citizens to speak up for our values of freedom and tolerance, and reject the extremists' ideology of exclusion.

Posted by binky at March 3, 2006 01:53 PM | TrackBack | Posted to Extremism


Comments

See, Binky, you and I don't always have to disagree. I can't imagine this standing up to a Supreme Court test, if it should get that far. And somehow I think they're using someone else's words (not Christ's) to justify such an exlusionary law. It's too bad pillars of wisdom and compassion get dumbed down by the not so enlightened next generation. And of course after fifty generations, it does at times get pretty dumb.

Posted by: Morris at March 3, 2006 10:34 PM | PERMALINK

maybe we can all line up on this one. here's my problem: these people have good lawyers working for them, state legislatures, the dominos jack-ass, and so on, and those lawyers must be telling them that none of this stuff stands a snowball's chance in hell of surviving constitutional scrutiny. so then what's the point? it's a complete waste of time and the public fisc, transparent ineffectual grandstanding, aimed at the 8 or 10% of the margin who actually would like for things like this to come true. and so the 60+% who are really rather moderate on all of this stuff can watch their money get thrown in a hole while states' real problems are neglected.

(i excluded from this south dakota, because with two new GOP-appointed justices, one can at least claim in good faith that they want to test the law. i don't think they win in this Court, but it's at least not unthinkable and thus not patently a waste of time.)

Posted by: moon at March 4, 2006 10:00 AM | PERMALINK
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