Every once in a while, I worry that voters in Mississippi will grow up, maybe read something other than the bible, and join the 21st Century. That would be really bad for Indiana, since in so many categories, Mississippi is all that stands between Hoosiers and utter ignominy.
Silly me–I shouldn’t have worried.
Here’s an upcoming ballot initiative from the Magnolia state:
The State of Mississippi hereby acknowledges the fact of her identity as a principally Christian and quintessentially Southern state, in terms of the majority of her population, character, culture, history, and heritage, from 1817 to the present; accordingly, the Holy Bible is acknowledged as a foremost source of her founding principles, inspiration, and virtues; and, accordingly, prayer is acknowledged as a respected, meaningful, and valuable custom of her citizens. The acknowledgments hereby secured shall not be construed to transgress either the national or the state Constitution’s Bill of Rights.
Um–hate to tell you this, Mississippi voters, but saying this language shouldn’t be “construed” as violating the Bill of Rights would be a lot like saying that if I fatally shoot you, that shouldn’t be “construed” as murder.
“Principally Christian and quintessentially Southern….”
Too many Hoosier lawmakers would feel right at home.
With the new super duper majorities in the Indiana House AND Senate and our evangelical Governor, I anticipate similar legislation. I also look for all kinds of “religious freedom” bills passing with flying colors.
The political south is based in religion that insulates them from a bigger world, science and higher education. They are very much like the Tallaban clannish holding on to what was not the possibilities of what could be. They are firmly planted in the comfort of religious based ignorance and yet don’t live by the word but sure wants everyone else to.
Religion is very important to many people. Essential to the quality of their lives. It even defines them.
But, that’s not what this ballot initiative is about, is it.
This initiative is about the control of those to whom my first paragraph does not apply. Their faith (non-Christian) or culture (northern) defines them as enemies of the state of Mississippi.
It’s a good thing that the founders of our country were not Mississippians or America would be indistinguishable from a caliphate like ISIS proposes for the middle east.
Religion is very important to many people. Essential to the quality of their lives. It even defines them.
But, that’s not what this ballot initiative is about, is it.
This initiative is about the control of those to whom my first paragraph does not apply. Their faith (non-Christian) or culture (northern) defines them as enemies of the state of Mississippi.
It’s a good thing that the founders of our country were not Mississippians or America would be indistinguishable from a caliphate like ISIS proposes for the middle east.
“Whenever we read the obscene stories, the voluptuous debaucheries, the cruel and torturous executions, the unrelenting vindictiveness, with which more than half the Bible is filled, it would be more consistent that we called it the word of a demon, than the word of God. It is a history of wickedness, that has served to corrupt and brutalize mankind; and, for my part, I sincerely detest it, as I detest everything that is cruel.” – Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason.
” The Holy Bible is acknowledged as a foremost source of her founding principles.” No doubt here when the “Judeo-Christians” found America occupied by Native Americans they took Joshua’s approach at Jericho take what is valuable and kill the former inhabitants.
Or Number’s 31 in the Bible –
17 Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him.
18 But all the women children, that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves.
My personal Guru is Stephen King; I found a line in his newest release, “Revival”, that lit the proverbial lightbulb over my head and gave me a different insight into the pseudo religious base supporting the GOP and it’s followers these days. “They have set aside what brains they have – and many of them have quite a lot – and put their faith in that gigantic and fraudulent insurance company called religion.”
I am not debunking religion for I do understand the need for many who use it as their support system. I was there once, myself. But religion doesn’t come with guarantees any more than politics. It is when religion is the ruling factor in their lives and in the content of politicians campaign platforms, that it veers from reality and becomes dangerous. Look at the dangers we are facing as we have lost control of much of our lives due to the loss of civil and human rights now governed by the GOP, Tea Party, NRA, Hobby Lobby, “The Donald”, Koch brothers, etc., and the support provided to them by five old Catholic men on SCOTUS. How many followers are still hanging on Sarah Palin’s every word? Their reality – or their espoused reality – is based in their version of Christianity and cherry picked Bible quotes. The realities surrounding them are ignored; most of them are the money changers Jesus ran from the temple…their money is their religion. The Constitution and all Amendments have no place in their religion; yet they truely believe this country and the Constitution and Amendments were founded on Christianity rather than the freedom to embrace the religion of your choice – or not to embrace – as you believe. Mississippi does not stand alone; Indiana needs to remove Pence from the pulpit and put an intelligent replacement in that office to return this state to reality; this reality does include religious beliefs but should not be governed by them.
Let’s say that you were a business person in Mississippi. Perhaps the head person at a church. You would know that the financial well being of your enterprise depended on the number of folks buying your product and how much they were willing to pay for it. Like all business, growth could be pursued through advertising and marketing. The question is what advertising has the best blend of effectiveness and affordability. The answer in this case is the proposed ballot initiative. No cost, marketing giving your brand pretty much exclusive sales rights in your territory.
Sweet!
They don’t call it the Bible Belt for nothing.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/23/us/texas-approves-disputed-history-texts-for-schools.html?_r=0
I sure wish that the “R” half of America could get over this stupid phase. The rest of the world will be passing us by as the party of stupid clings to their guns and holy books. We have REAL issues to deal with. Real Energy Solutions. Rational crime solutions. Rational Drug solutions. Rebuilding America. Rebuilding the Middle Class. Bringing jobs back to America so that even our uneducated can have jobs. Put down the holy books and get to work. Pray on Sunday. WORK or Monday.
Sheila & Margaretha, I’m a Mississippi Deltan and look upon the Delta as the Buckle of the Bible Belt. And that’s not a honor I’m proud of.
JoAnn, there aren’t five old Catholic men on SCOTUS as A. Kennedy is a WASP. The fifth Catholic is Obama’s Sotomayor and I’m thankful for her.
Louie, I’m currently reading Harvey Kaye’s “Thomas Paine: Promise of America”. Paine is one of my many heroes so thanks for quoting him.
I am so thankful that someone introduced me to Sheila Kennedy, thank Buddha for that!! You all are so well informed and polite and make my day. Hope Sheila will write about the just released Republican report on Benghazi saying BHO, HRC and all the Dems were totally innocent. Am also thankful in this Thanksgiving week for Rachel Maddow who reported on Friday that Fox can now stuff a sock in their lying mouth about Benghazi and Darrell Issa no longer heads any committee!!
I read recently that 25% of the folks polled believed the sun revolved around the earth…hopefully they aren’t the ones that turn out to vote
Thorne; welcome to our jolly group and I apologize for my miscount on those Catholic old men on SCOTUS. We are always honest in speaking out if sometimes downright ugly in attitude but try to curb our language when expressing disfavor among ourselves. We don’t always agree with one another but rarely dispute Sheila’s views. I knew her slightly years ago when we worked for the City of Indianapolis; she doesn’t remember me but I vividly remember her. Voted for her when she made her bid for the Senate during her Republican days. We were honored to serve under Mayor Bill Hudnut; probably the last real Republican to serve this city and state. I voted for Sheila because of her outspoken way of dealing with people; have always had the utmost respect for her.
It must be painful to live in the Mississippi Delta; probably one of the most beautiful areas of this country and forced to deal with the same inept leadership we have here. Is your local government leasing and selling off your state as is being done here? Again; welcome and hope to see your comments often.
Nemaste
Two thoughts for today:
The gospel for this morning’s Mass.
Matthew, Chapter 25, verses 37 -39
Then the righteous will answer him and say, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink?
When did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you?
When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit you?’
How many good Christians heard this gospel this morning? Really heard it. The least of us are not only being ignored but actively spurned by the GOP. Talking the talk is easy. Walking the walk seems to be beyond many of the people who profess their belief in the message, especially on the questions of feeding the hungry and welcoming the stranger. Our governor is beginning to show his social policy biases for what they truly are. Perhaps he should be paying attention to this. There are no mentions of qualifications or restrictions in the verses.
The second thought is regarding willful, prideful ignorance worn as a badge of honor. At some time, the misplaced allegiance to those who urge others to embrace the lies will turn on the whole country, not just those who have allowed it to happen.
Indiana is becoming more and more willfully and pridefully ignorant with every election cycle. And so very self-righteous about it to our collective peril!
Remember I told you about my gay cousin that lives in the south? He’s in Mississippi working on a construction project and he is miserable there. He has been there for a few months now and he can’t wait to get out there. I feel bad for him.
Sorry to not have anything really worthwhile to add to the thoughtful ideas expressed. Just wanted to note that, for many years, I have called Indiana “the Arkansas of the Midwest.” Unfortunately, I think we have zoomed past Arkansas and are well on our way to Mississippi or Alabama.
I hope that Pence does run for President, and so does not seek another term as governor. He’ll get trounced, and with any luck, will become irrelevant.
I think we all agree that things are awful in Mississippi and Indiana, and that a number of these posts have preached to the choir. Courtesy of Pete and his experience, we know that many of these positions are not related to science knowledge or knowledge about one thing or another, but from cultural cognitions. We also know that folks have had, using some insights out of that knowledge, some positive experience with people in South Florida, changing opinions about climate change to something more realistic.
Before this state and others hit bottom, and the whole civilization goes belly up, it would be helpful to know how to address the cultural cognitions that produce the distortions that lead to the Mississippis and what is emerging in Indiana. Declaring people stupid just doesn’t seem to work very well. One way is to let Mississippi declare itself a country, but the outcome would be a third world country with all the accompanying problems. It’s like people can’t suffer enough from their cognitions to change. Something needs to happen in the way people talk to each other and the people outside their group.
It is much easier to develop this type of initiative than to do the hard work of governing. The folks elected to serve the public are increasingly intellectually lazy and seem truly uninterested in doing anything useful or productive. They seem to be dragging a willing voting public down into the hole that they are in. Indiana like Mississippi is completely lacking leadership.
Like so many extremists, many people use their religion as an excuse for treating people in an inhumane way. How else could they justify that sort of attitude and behavior? If you are an authoritarian who dislikes people who remind you of yourself? No problem. Check out the Bible or the Koran, find some out of context texts, and you are in business. Then you say that your religion is to blame for your mean spirited and nasty attitude. It’s God’s fault, not yours. Problem solved.