Sunday, January 14, 2024

A new front in American religious wars?; Trump stuff

The Freedom From Religion Foundation raises the specter of a form of potential religious war in the US. What triggered it is the usually successful efforts of TST (The Satanic Temple) to try to match the presence of Christianity on government properties. TST is a legal religion, but it is secular and does not worship Satan as a religious deity. The presence of TST in public places infuriates many Christian zealots who deny that TST can or should be a religion. The FFRF writes:
FFRF Action Fund is taking to task Michigan state Rep. Josh Schriver for his comments asking for the removal of tax-exempt status of churches he disfavors.

In a recent appearance on a conservative Christian podcast, “Your Defending Fathers,” Schriver announced he was working on a policy to establish a legal distinction between Christian churches and what he referred to as the “Church of Satan,” actually the Satanic Temple – West Michigan, which erected a holiday display outside the Michigan Capitol in December. The display, intended to “celebrate the year and celebrate our own achievements and celebrate religious plurality,” according to a spokesperson for the temple, was met with predictable outrage by seven state representatives, who signed a letter to the Michigan Capitol Commission demanding its removal.

Schriver said his proposed policy would “really focus on making a distinction between the church — the church of Jesus Christ — and this, quote unquote Church of Satan. …You really have an issue where they’re seen as equal in the eyes of the state, and that doesn’t seem right to me for many, many legitimate reasons.”  
Schriver shows abysmal ignorance of the constitutional prohibition of a religious test for public office by saying, “We have a duty to lead people as representatives who are appointed by God to make sure that we have a state that is not just good, not just great, but godly.” He also displays arrogance in grandiosely parading himself as answering only to “Jesus Christ”: “Honestly, I work for God not for man. And so at the end of the day, I answer to one person and that’s Jesus Christ.” 
“In fact, Schriver’s paycheck is provided by the good people of Michigan, so he works for them, and his duty is to uphold his oath of office to ‘support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of this state,’” notes FFRF Action Fund President Annie Laurie Gaylor. “The U.S. Constitution is a godless document, whose only references to religion are exclusionary.”
Once Christians legislate the power for themselves to decide what is a “valid” church and what isn’t, there will be great temptation to do more housecleaning. Once the TST is gone, Christian zealots will not be able to resist the temptation to put other invalid religions in their place. Islam, Scientology, Judaism, Hinduism and Mormonism come to mind as early potential wipeout targets. 

Also note that Mr. Shriver cites many, many legitimate reasons for wanting to do this. I suspect he cannot cite many, much less many, many reasons for killing TST as a legal religion.

Time will tell how this plays out. Catholic vs Protestant? 
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DJT is asking for a delay in his defamation trial by E. Jean Carroll against him. Some distant relative died and Trump wants to reschedule a court proceeding to attend the trial. As usual, DJT is lying through his teeth to the court. This letter to the judge from Carroll’s attorney calls out Trump’s insulting lie:


One peanut gallery commenter snarked: Hilarious, of course he did this. Question is, will he blow off his dear mother-in-laws funeral?

The Hill reports about an interesting poll: 56 percent in new poll willing to see Trump disqualified from ballots in all or some states -- A majority of Americans in a new survey say they would support the Supreme Court either disqualifying former President Trump from presidential ballots across the country or letting states decide whether to include him on their ballots.

The Hill reports about another poll with two pleasant surprises surprise in it: 
Just under half of likely Iowa GOP caucusgoers who support former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley indicated that they would make a crossover to the Democratic party, saying that they would rather vote for President Biden over former President Trump.

A new NBC News/Des Moines Register/Mediacom poll released just one day before the Iowa caucus found that 43 percent of Haley backers in the state said they would vote for Biden if Trump is the GOP nominee while 23 percent say they would vote for the former president. Nineteen percent said they would vote for Independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
Given his crackpottery, I suspected that RFK Jr would probably draw more votes from DJT than Biden. This data accords with that possibility at least in Iowa. Bigger surprise is that 43% of Haley backers would vote for Biden. I didn’t expect that.  

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