Sometimes, the only reason I see things is that former students send them to me. Unfortunately, the things they send tend to be infinitely depressing.
A few days ago, a former student sent me a link to a story about crazy Alabama Judge Roy Moore. You’ll remember Moore from his previous term as Chief Judge of the Alabama Supreme Court (note to self: never, ever move to Alabama), when he commissioned a five-ton stone engraved with the Ten Commandments and had it installed at the Courthouse door. It was removed after the Federal Courts ruled it a gross and obvious violation of the First Amendment religion clauses–something you’d expect a judge to know.
Moore subsequently ran unsuccessfully for President on a Christian-Theocrat ticket of some sort. Most recently, he ran for–and won–his old seat on Alabama’s high court. (Note to self: remember this example of why we should not elect judges).
So, like Jaws (only more scary), he’s baaack.
Speaking at the Pastors for Life Luncheon, which was sponsored by Pro-Life Mississippi, Chief Justice Roy Moore of the Alabama Supreme Court declared that the First Amendment only applies to Christians because “Buddha didn’t create us, Mohammed didn’t create us, it was the God of the Holy Scriptures” who created us.
Moore had more:
Discussing Thomas Jefferson’s use of “life” in the Declaration of Independence, he said that “when [Jefferson] put ‘life’ in there, it was in the womb — we know it begins at conception.”
He later said the “pursuit of happiness” meant following God’s law, because “you can’t be happy unless you follow God’s law, and if you follow God’s law, you can’t help but be happy.”
And I bet Roy Moore will be happy to explain exactly what God wants. Which just happens to be what Roy Moore–in his twisted little mind–wants.
(Note to self: uncurl from fetal position–it’s bad for the back.)
For an even scarier portion of the story…a future chapter perhaps. Would our current Supreme Court agree with the prohibition of Roy’s Rock? After all its historic and no one is forced to worship in the lobby of the Alabama Supreme Court. After 5 Justices said OK to Greece’s town council prayer as introduction of town business, because it was a separate portion of the meeting….would a separate portion of the building be so far fetched.
When we mix government and religion we damage both spheres.
Oh how I miss James Madison, “We must separate religion from government and government from religion.”
And this week in Africa, we see the handiwork of OTHER dumb folks who are doing Gods work for him, except this group is taking girls from their schools and selling them off. It is their God that instructs them to do such work. Very similar to our fundamentalists. They can make sense of anything if they can twist the words in their holy books to justify doing what they want to do anyway. Dumb people + Guns + “Holy” books. What could possible go wrong? Yee Haw Bang Bang
Well, if Sheila is a far lefty, then I’m so happy to read her blog every day. What does that make this person that goes by “Freedom”? Oh yeah, CRAZY.
PatMcC is onto a great train of thought there that I have had myself recently.
I haven’t had time to research the origins of the kidnapping group, but have heard enough about them on NPR during my long commute to and from the office every day lately to get a pretty good feeling that their inception was likely a lot like thise religious crazies that come onto the IUPUI quad a couple times a year and call all young women who are receiving an education there whores (of course they also bash the gay student population as well to make sure they offend all the potential sinners on campus.
One such incident caused me to write a Thank You letter that was published as an editorial in the student paper. Some of the students present were just outraged and offended. (A fellow female classmate actually swung on the lead jerk who was speaking) but I chose to take the opportunity to remind my fellow students that this shit still exists in the world and it really is in our own backyards. It renewed my passion for education and for that I was weirdly grateful.
Other reactions were more disappointing. I had a long break between classes once when this was occurring and the rest of the religious group was standing off to the side pamphleting and inviting anyone who expressed interest to join their cause.
I like to think that their efforts on campus were in vain, but they seemed to come back year after year so I have to wonder if they actually did get a little return on the time invested there.
I am certain that campus is not the only place they lecture and that- in Indiana and many of the surrounding states – their message is actually far more welcome than we want to imagine.
The beliefs of the Boko Haram are not that dissimilar to the beliefs of a growing number of evangelical Christians. They just haven’t taken the same actions yet. When the day comes that one of those extremist groups does something equally appalling I hope to hell people remember that it’s guys like Judge Moore who gave credence & validation to those views.
While I was not Sheila’s student (more’s the pity!), I must tell you that Stacey Campfield (R-TN) is back with his worst rant yet. You know the rant _du jour_ from last week…he compares Democrats counting the number of signees to Affordable Healthcare to Germans counting the number of Jews signing up for those notorious train rides. Even his party has denounced his outrageous statement. He is just unbelievable! Still more bad news: He is running for re-election.
On the brighter side, Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI) appeared on a Sunday morning talk show today and sounded lucid, logical, and on target. Your neighbor to the north wound up in the wrong party, it seems to me. He made ‘way too much sense to be a Republican. They need a guy like that! I took note and will paraphrase something profound that he said and that I will use again. Essentially, Mike said, “Life is more than hashtags and selfies!”
He’s right! We’ve been reduced to hashtags and selfies, and that’s not at all what we should be about. I’m tellin’ ya, the man is a Republican with a brain! Hard to imagine, I know. Rush and Sean will try their best to burn him and bury him, but I hope he makes it in the Fox world of talk shows.
Like they say, a fanatic is a believer who forgot the reasons for the belief. The chances of this guy making an objective and fair judgment are slim, and nobody is going to convince him that he might be mistaken. Now he has the ability to nail people who disagree with him with contempt of court. I suspect we haven’t heard the last of Roy Moore, and the end may not be good.
I now have another good reason to stay out of Alabama.
I think this guy also said last week (or thereabouts) that the First Amendment applies “only to Christians.”