In any country other than the U.S.—save perhaps in the Middle East—this headline would be assumed to be a spoof. But here in the U.S. it’s business as usual, especially in the South. The Johnson City Press in Tennessee reports that state representative James (Micah) van Huss, who has a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Pensacola Christian College (a fundamentalist school), has proposed a state constitutional amendment, presumably derived from a revelation.
[The amendment is] an addition to the the Constitution of Tennessee that would recognize absolute governance by the Christian god rather than the government. And it’s to that very god that Van Huss beseeches passage of the resolution.
”I’m praying about it,“ Van Huss said.
The joint resolution would acknowledge a higher power giving rights and laws, rather than democratically elected officials.
“We recognize that our liberties do not come from governments, but from Almighty God, our Creator and Savior,” is the passage Van Huss has proposed be added to Article I in House Joint Resolution 71.
Not just God, but the Christian God! Now riddle me this, dear readers—what party do you think van Huss represents? Yep, you’re right.
This bill would never pass, I think, even in Tennessee, for it would immediately be struck down as a violation of the First Amendment, even by our conservative Supreme Court. So why does van Huss want it?
The reason Van Huss says he sees this as a positive course for action has everything to do with trends he sees across the country.
“As a nation, we are drifting from the morals of our founding, and I think it’s important to reaffirm that our liberties do not come from the King of England,” Van Huss said. “They do not come from Barack Obama. They come from God.”
. . . According to Pew Research’s Religion Map, Tennessee boasts an 84 percent rate of people who believe in the Christian god. Van Huss agreed his beliefs are on par with the vast majority of his fellow Tennesseans.
Why didn’t God give the same liberties to other countries, then? Did He vouchsafe our liberties uniquely to the United States?
The Johnson City paper gets some reactions from legal experts, including one at the Freedom from Religion Foundation who is concerned about the amendment. But van Huss doesn’t see it as illegal:
Van Huss admits he’s no legal expert, but he said he believes HJR71 would not be unconstitutional because it would give Tennesseans a choice brought forth through the democratic process.
“Again, we the people are a representative democracy and we vote on all kinds of things people don’t agree with,” Van Huss said. “That’s why this is a vote of the people of Tennessee who’ve been given an opportunity to make that statement.”
That’s why we have the Bill of Rights, for crying out loud—precisely so democratic voting can’t overturn what the Founders saw as Americans’ “inalienable rights”! If a legislator doesn’t understand that the Constitution places limits on democracy, not only in its Bill of Rights but in the power of the President to veto, and of the Supreme Court to declare democratically voted laws unconstitutional, then he has no business governing Tennessee, much less a d*g pound.
Here are two pictures of the man from his website, which is a blast—so long as you don’t think about the fact that he was actually elected:
Oh, and if you think that revised law is nuts, check out this one, calling for the criminalization of sodomy—with the death penalty!
Looks like a BMG .50 caliber anti-material rifle.
Yep. I believe Barrett manufactures it in Tennessee. Van Huss recently introduced a bill that would make this the official state firearm.
Darn- my darling son is named Barrett and he has nothing to do with these horrific guns
Nor does your daughter, Winchester.
But what about cousin Colt?
b&
I see from the empty magazine slot they didn’t trust this man to hold a gun with bullets in it. ‘Nuff said.
Yes, you are correct, sir.
American Taliban!
When schoolgirls get acid in the face in Shreveport, let me know.
Do bombs in Birmingham count?
b&
Sub
Hell, why not. God already controls access to civil office in TN. See Article 9, Section 2 of the TN Constitution. “No person who denies the being of God, or a future state of rewards and punishments, shall hold any office in the civil department of this state.” I drive through Dayton every weekend on my way home up I-27… sometimes I get a laugh at the posters for the scopes trial celebration reenactment, sometimes I get depressed. Bryan College always seems to do both.
Do civil servants still act accordingly? Surely, nobody dares to put this law into practice? The ACLU would have a field day.
Couldn’t tell you. I’ve jestingly discussed mass atheist applications for notary public at the Rhea County court house in Dayton with some of my godless brethren. It costs like $12 after you consult an attorney and you have to swear on some questions, etc. which is most likely where the catch would occur. Becoming an atheist civil office member is a bit higher on the priority list over becoming a pastafarian minister. I won’t belive in His Noodly Power unless he changes the TN Constitution… or puts me in a position to defy it. Doing it in Dayton would really take the cake for me. Anything to spite their celebration of an unconstitutional achievement and repression of education in favor of religion.
That used to be the case in Maryland, but one case by an atheist changed the law. Now, thankfully, no such oath to God is required.
I’m a Minister of Pasta. But I rather doubt that I’m qualified to stand (sit, squat, demean myself, whatever it is you need to do in America) for pubic office, so I’ll stand you the Ministry post and let you free to pursue the crabs of pubic office.
Van Huss is scary. But, hell, the whole state of Tennessee is scary.
Apart from Graceland, of course. That’s just sad.
Don’t forget the Gibson guitar factory!
One of many places of musical significance in a magnificent state (knuckledragging Repug grifters notwithstanding). Beale Street is hallowed ground.
My rosewood Southern Jumbo was made in Bozeman, Montana, and of course my Gretsch Nashville was made in Japan. It used to bother me that they were somehow “inauthentic,” but I got over that. Vanity. And for all the time I spend playing them they may as well be decorative wall hangings. Which, they are.
Or that portion of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park located in TN.
Clearly, this guy should not be allowed to play with guns or the law. The gun, by the way, is a Barrett .50 caliber sniper rifle. It looks like an M82A1. It was designed to kill cattle at 1,000 yards. Why else would you need a .50 caliber sniper rifle?
There’s a rifle “designed to kill cattle at 1000 yards”? Really? I can see having a rifle to shoot deer or elk at 1000 yards, but cattle? Really? Why not drive up a little closer?
That was sarcasm. It’s .50! Can you imagine the damage done to a human being from something designed for large game? I doubt there is much in the way of large game in in the Tenn. statehouse.
You shoot a deer with that thing and it’s going to be pre-tenderized.
Possibly even pre-hamburgerized.
One needs to get the cattle dead as quick as possible to save the grass from being devoured, silly.
^ +1 So true. You don’t want to get too close. They can be vicious.
They’re close relatives of well-known sister biters.
b&
Do the guns carry “Sponsored by MacDonalds” stickers?
No, but they do give them out with the supersized Happy Meals.
b&
As ChrisKG clarified, joking.
It was designed to be able to take out targets from humans up to trucks from 1000 meters, and more. In addition to a standard round it can fire armor piercing, incendiary and explosive rounds and has an effective range of 1,800 meters. And it is very accurate. The energy of the round is such that no matter where an animal, like a human, gets hit, if nothing else the hydrostatic shock will cause catastrophic damage.
He looks just like the sort of person who shouldn’t be allowed unsupervised use of a pencil sharpener
The religious right people I’ve known would answer yes to this question. Isn’t this, in part anyway, the source of American Exceptionalism?
No, not unless you want to concede men like Jefferson, Madison, and Washington were conventional christians. I don’t think they were.
It’s an article of faith among conservatives that the founding fathers were all, in Rush Limbaugh’s words, “orthodox, Bible-believing Christians.” Limbaugh made that assertion in one of his books, warning the reader not to believe these modern revisionist historians who try to tell you otherwise.
The “morals of our founding” included the freedom to own black people as slaves and treating women as second class citizens. Morals are better now.
Well now, that’s a matter of opinion, I’d say.
If you’z wan of dem liberal commie hippies freein’ dem slaves and takin’ Gawd out of mah state, you ken GIT OUT, coz da Babble iz agin it. Dis iz ‘Murica and ‘Murica belongz to Gawd.
Why doesn’t a stunt like this immediately disqualify one for office? If you so flagrantly trample the Constitution?
This stunt will only *increase* his electability in the US, particularly in Tennessee.
Ugh.
Because Tennessee.
Tennessee- the governor proposed that all HS grads will get a 2 year college education. Not sure if it passed, but I remember being impressed that it was Tennessee!
It did pass and this year’s graduates will be the first to benefit from it. I am a born and raised Tennessean, I live in east TN. If I lived in his district I would not vote for him. I know many who would not. We aren’t all bible thumpers here, thank goodness.
Hope there’s not a high dropout/failure rate, as has generally obtained in the community college system. If there is, watch out for the majority of the responsibility for that being laid at the feet of faculty, not students. We’ve all met students who don’t know why they’re in college.
Right, and I am taking advantage of the community college offer. Don’t paint all of us with the same brush just because we’re from Tennessee. I’m not a Christian, though I used to be, and there’s no way I’d vote for that man or anyone like him. Like any other state, there is good and bad, with lots of in between.
Certainly this does not say anything for the lovely Pensacola Christian College and the degrees they shovel out the door.
Tennessee, the state where everyone looks like Kentucky. Looks like a pretty close race between how little this guy knows about computer science, the law or American history. He is correct about one thing — we have drifted a long way from our founding. In the case of Tennessee it is still Tennessee 1 and Scopes 0.
Of course he went to Florida for college! Where was he supposed to go? Tennessee? Vanderbilt insists on seeing your board scores, and that’s an infringement on LIBERTY: try and spell “Satan” without “SAT” – you can’t do it!
O-B-A-M-A
Although if he’s the anti-Christ, that does require SAT.
Actually, I saw a newspaper the other day had printed a retraction for calling Obama the anti-Christ – apparently he’s “only” the seventh king!
Oh, America, you have some problem children. 🙂
From the state the brought us the Monkey Trial. What a palpable waste of time and energy. This has no more meaning than passing a law that says Christmas presents come from Santa. At the end of the day, we have to do it ourselves, and there’s no one in the background to appeal to.
Moonkeh Trall. There, I Cunkified it for you.
Moonkeh Trall +2
God can have a limited degree of sovereignty over the government after he gets his name on the ballot; wins the election; and personally shows up to put his hand on the Bible for the swearing-in ceremony. And, even then, if it’s a legislative position, he should expect to wait a while to get any decent committee memberships.
b&
I swear to me….?
God is most likely an agnostic.
…so help me…me…?
b&
.. so help me I?
So help me us (don’t forget the trinity)
That would be myself, since we’ve already got me and I.
b&
I guess that his Christian god is the reason his state joins Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana as ranking at the bottom of just about every known list.
I would laugh at these fools because they are proud of their ignorance and their self-directed failures, but, unfortuately, children get screwed for life in those states.
Why is it the ones with the fewest morals are always proclaiming their morality as superior.
I’m guessing, in Tennessee or Alabama, g*d would not pass the religious test.
Is there anyone educated enough to administer the test?
Certainly, he has a degree from Pensacola Christian College.
So, I’ll ask it again…lol
Just think. If it wasn’t for air conditioning, the population of the south would be a tiny fraction of what it is today. Now, the south constitutes most of an entire national party. If we could make air conditioning illegal…or something…
Damn solar and wind power! Without sustainable energy, climate change would be on track to depopulated the South!
That second picture – there are so many things to say about it. If I didn’t know who the guy was and where he was from, I’d say it was making fun of him – the poor photo and lame typography – it’s like it was made by a 12 year old. I guess that’s the level of intelligence and maturity with which we’re dealing here.
“Can you make it look like a movie poster? Like, maybe a Jean Claude Van Damme movie?!?”
Well in that case, God told me that he wants Tennessee to provide single-payer healthcare.
That’s first rate Republican goonery right there. he even managed to work i a shot at Obama.
You’re not a real Republican unless you can manage to work in a cheap shot against Obama into whatever you’re saying.
From the man’s campaign website:
A man who does what he knows is right instead of what he thinks is popular is a man worth following
… And until such a man is found in District 6, we’ve got Michael Huss, who promises he will “never vote for a law that supports abortion.” I mean, talk about swimming against the tide! That is some bold, full some pro-life verbiage right there.
He’s also firmly against the government attempting to “create jobs.” Except the one he has. And the one he had before that.
During his six years in Afghanistan, he noticed America was in decline. And he’s against “one-size fits all” public education. He’s blowing so many racist dog whistles my Shih Tzu just brought me my slippers!
Is it any mystery one of the Fundies’ favorite books is titled Left Behind … ?
Sounds like you may want to ditch those slippers for some high top boots. It’s very deep back there in the hills of Tennessee.
You’re right! Suede with fringes like Daniel Boone wore (the Fess Parker one, not the real one).
Hollywood’s improvements on Daniel Boone:
http://www.boonesociety.org/images/the_making_of_daniel_boone_scan_small.jpg
Ol’ Dan’l’s got a nasty looking scar on his face. Was that from a duel, a bar-fight, or trying on a wolverine-skin hat without taking the wolverine out first?
LOL!
Oh ho ho. Yes, this would be a violation of the Constitution. But more than that, this would be the death of religion.
Sure, Mr. Van Huss. Let’s put spiritual truths of faith up for a vote. Let’s debate them, mock them, and pillory them in the public square, laying out the pros and cons in front of people who generally spend their whole lives listening only to the ‘pros’ and avoiding the ‘cons’ like the devil. Let’s officially, legally place the existence of God and the truth of Christianity onto the public ground of critical scrutiny just like any other controversial claim.
This proposition could and would only be entertained by a Believer who 1.) lives in a bubble of fellow believers and 2.) thinks God will really ensure that this exclusive little clad of self-evident faith will extend across the State of Tennessee, now and forever more, amen. I don’t think Van Nuss has thought this one through.
Our rights are derived from We the People and our humanist heritage of reason and mutual agreements, not God. If we can vote God INTO the fact category, we can now vote it OUT of the fact category. We have the right to do so.
The religious put on a top hat and tap shoes and do the “It takes FAITH” dance for a reason, you fool. What would no doubt be a short-term victory will eventually turn into an astonishing debacle once God’s sovereignty has reduced to the ipso facto role of “President.” The Constitution places term limits on that, you know. There is no such thing as King for Life.
Well…it seems to be more of a symbolic proclamation than an operational law. On par with his other bill to name a state gun. IANAL but I’m not sure those ever really get struck down. If they tried to make it do something like create a religious test of office, then that operational aspect could be found unconstitutional. But stuff like naming the bible the state book or the state senate proclaiming God watches over them…do shennanigans like that ever even make it into a court? Not that I know of.
I am not familiar enough with American constitutional law to challenge you in that sense of what courts are likely to do if this nonsense become a law.
As a matter of reason, however, assuming that there is at least one resident of Tennessee who is not “Christian” (he is obviously thinking of a very specific Christian God) the government of the Tennessee stating its commitment to the rules of any religion is already operational. This basically turns Tennessee to a theocracy in the strictest sense imaginable.
In my country we have no separation of church and state and the law of the state is in some areas religious. And yet, while some legislators are stating their commitment to religion over the state, it’s hard to imagine any of them proposing such a bill.
Hmmm. ‘State’ anything is usually silly (with rare exceptions where some item is distinctive, unique and justifiably famous).
The lists
http://www.statesymbolsusa.org/
strongly suggest people kept inventing new categories at random. Tennessee has a state bird plus a state game bird, a state commercial fish plus a state sport fish, 11 state songs (!), two state insects plus a state agricultural insect…
I’d propose a few of my own – state noxious weed, state serial killer, state embarrassing disease…
11 songs, eh? I’m from there but I didn’t know that (though that would not be something I would wear myself out trying to find out). I gather that “The Ballad of Davy Crockett” from the Disney film would be one, inasmuch as its lyrics reference Tennessee as “the greatest state in the land of the free.” (Though one wouldn’t know that from listening to Texans and Carolinians.)
I wasn’t targeting Tennessee particularly, I think most states would have an equally curious list. I can understand having a state flower but, to me, a ‘state [anything]’ should be something distinctive and memorable. Which implies one shouldn’t have too many state things or the point is lost.
Would recommend, if you have not done so as yet, click on Pensacola Christian College and read through some of the info on this school. It will amaze and disgust you at the same time.
Some prohibited activities at this place – Fornication, Adultery, Homosexual behavior or other sexual perversions.
Fornication is now a sexual perversion? Cool, I like that. I am now a bad boy!
Are we evolving backward, or maybe there is a subspecies of human that is ,so far, unrecognized?
Evolution moves “forward” by definition whether or not the result is simpler of more complex, so maybe the latter option?
“Homo Republicus”, a subspecies of human that is obsessed by tea bags.
They seem more obsessed with tea bagging.
Anti-homosexual slur. The implication is the “receiver” in homosexual sex is degraded. This prjudice is age old.
Jesus Christ!
Images like those would make van Huss a non-runner in Sweden. Both images would be connect him with insanity and irresponsible, if not dangerous, activities.
“be connect” = connect.
Sweden, the number 11 arms exporting country in the world…seems a bit hypocritical.
Or you might say that the fact they are number 11 and would find this candidate insane speaks who just how batshit crazy we are in the United States.
Agenda for Mr. Huss:
1. Violate the constitution regarding separation of church and state. Check.
2. Vocally enforce a narrow interpretation of the constitution that allows anyone to own all the gunz they can carry. Check.
Elsewhere we have seen members of the far right calling for the rights of parents to let their sick children die by neglect. But those same individuals would fight tooth and nail to save the life of an unborn fetus, without question.
Bingo! (You nailed it.)
Somebody else’s unborn fetus. Their own unborn fetus would go straight in the trash if it was inconvenient to them. We have seen this over and over.
What’s that saying about most “Pro-lifers” also being, “Pro-death penalty”? They prefer to let people grow up, and THEN kill them! The fact that he’s holding a rifle specifically designed to kill human beings is quite telling…
They’re concerned with someone’s life as long as there’s a thin possibility that that individual might turn out to be a rich white person. As soon as it’s confirmed that it’s actually a poor brown person, well, they’re a thug. Or at the least no angel.
Just another day in the Tennessee Statehouse.
Ah, State politics: home of the moutebank, charlatan, entryist zealot, and all-round time-waster. If there was a sensible division of powers between state and federal levels, that wouldn’t matter quite so much. In the US, where states have far too much power, it’s a never-ending cause of serious and completely unnecessary problems.
I grew up in Elizabethton which is just to the east of Johnson City. This is the kind of culture I was raised in where there was no question about the existence of a Conservative Christian God who love guns and freedom. I had no choice about going to for religious indoctrination, in my case, to Hunter First Baptist Church. Our preacher would warn of eternal hellfire and damnation for those who did not accept right-wing Jesus as their personal savior. When I hit my teen years I started to wonder if what I was being taught as the “gospel truth” was legitimate but in the 70s & early 80s I didn’t have anywhere to turn to explore the alternatives.
Now we live in a different era. In 1997, I returned to Johnson City to start my MA in History at East Tennessee State University. I joined the local atheist group and attended a Regional Atheist Meeting of the American Atheists in Chattanooga. We were connected by the Internet which was a great help in being an active participant in the Freethought culture in East Tennessee. I was no longer alone and isolated as a nonbeliever!
This brings me to my point about Rep. van Huss & the other politicians who have so enthusiastically embraced the far-right spectrum of Christian fundamentalism. The changes I spoke of that allowed atheist, Freethought and Secular Groups to form and advocate for Church-State separation provoked a severe backlash by Conservative Christians in places like Tennessee who felt threatened by this evolution in the culture. I still have friends and family who live in East Tennessee and I visit there @3-4 times a year. I am saddened to find such reactionary behavior in the majority of residents in the region who fully support this assault on our Constitution because they live in fear of any challenge to their supernatural faith-based worldview.
The citizens of this region are constantly bombarded by right-wing religious rhetoric on TV, local talk & religious radio, on the Internet and in their churches. They have been told that there is a secular attack on their values that promotes all of the sinful behavior condemned by their religion, i.e., abortion, homosexuality, opposing prayer in schools, opposing the posting of the Decalogue in schools and government buildings, the teaching of evidence-based Evolution in schools, the teaching of evidence-based sex education in schools, etc.
This unrelenting fear and belief their culture is under attack is the catalyst for the citizens of East Tennessee to vote in right-wing Christian zealots like van Huss. They truly do not comprehend that the assault on the separation between church and state is unconstitutional or that we do not have majority rule on civil liberty issues. They want to fight back against our secular,, multicultural, pluralistic society because they have been indoctrinated to believe such a culture is an attack on their faith and their God. This goes on across the country but is most virulent in conservative states, especially those in the South.
It will take another generation (20-25 years) but this situation will improve because no matter how much these right-wing Christians oppose the forces of progress, it will come due to shifting demographics and the growing awareness that the right-wing Christian worldview is obsolete in the 21st Century.
“live in fear of any challenge to their supernatural faith-based worldview.”
Indeed. The irony of all this fear coming from people who claim to have The Boss on their side and immortality to look forward to makes my head feel explodie.
“It will take another generation (20-25 years) but this situation will improve because no matter how much these right-wing Christians oppose the forces of progress”
Yeah, I thought this in the 1970’s. Then the Moral Majority happened and they found their political muscle. Now I’m….less.. optimistic. Sometimes, when I see that cornered animal look in their eyes, I find that I just hope that in their terror of the future they don’t start using all those Barretts to purify America and make it acceptable for God.
“Yeah, I thought this in the 1970’s”
Yeah, I’ve said that a lot to optimists, too. And they say, “but now we’ve got the internet!” And I say, “and so do the fundies.”
Let’s face it, if the Enlightenment still hasn’t caught fire some four centuries after it began, what makes anyone think it’s gonna spark any second now?
Hopefully the Dominionists won’t do too much damage to the country as they try to burn it down on their way out.
The 1925 Butler Act redux. And as nutsy as this thing is, we must all remember that the Butler Act was not repealed until 1967.
Did Tennessee universities ever comply with the Act? Hard to believe this could happen in any country.
I don’t see the second picture as being that much of an issue. America has a long history of electing people who have been in the military or have been connected to the military in some way. This includes all but a handful of presidents. This, of course, is changing as more women get elected to office and perhaps it’s not as important among Baby Boomers…due to that Vietnam thing.
Candidates tend to give the voters what they want…the NRA and the bible are both pretty popular in Tennessee and having military cred is not necessarily a bad thing in any state.
Gotta love the campaign poster that looks like a movie poster for a cheap action flick.
He’s humble but ballsy. It’s just what I like to see in a leader (last, in a list of things I like to see in a leader).
…why is he wearing a G.I. Joe doll as an earing?
LOL
“Oh, and if you think that revised law is nuts, check out this one, calling for the criminalization of sodomy—with the death penalty!”
The more extremist the Christian, the more indistinguishable from the Taliban.
Following that link, the guy is highly confused about what he’s actually prohibiting.
“the crime known as buggery, also called sodomy, is a monstrous evil…”
BUT
“any person who willingly touches another person of the same gender for sexual gratification be put to death”
So if you (being male) bugger your girlfriend or even stray livestock that’s actually perfectly okay. But if you’re gay don’t dare give your friend a handjob…
And people accuse me of overstating the case when I talk about how stupid the average southerner is. I would have to portray them as unbelievable stupid to even approach reality. (currently residing in Alabama) Next time I’ll just show them that movie poster to prove my point.
I am soooooo thankful to live in a progressive blue state. I truly couldn’t handle living in a state with fools like van Huss making laws. I pity the citizens who must endure southern sensibilities (or lack thereof).
I was born, and raised in Massachusetts, and currently reside in Alabama. I think it’s the contrast that makes the lack of sense so obvious to me. It’s like the elephant in the room that people rarely seem to mention.
The sad thing is almost entire a lack of education problem, but the people in charge of making things better are the same ones who would lose their jobs if the electorate were better educated.
“Did He vouchsafe our liberties uniquely to the United Stares?”
Sure–it says so in the song: “America, America, God shed His grace on thee.”
He likes us better.
‘Grace’ is one of those animal-husbandry euphemisms, I presume. Eeww.
‘in response to Doug:
“Did He vouchsafe our liberties uniquely to the United Stares?” Sure–it says so in the song: “America, America, God shed His grace on thee.” He likes us better.’
Another verse says:
“God mend thine every flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law.”
But one will catch extremely few Amuricuns singing that verse, as it does not exactly reek of Amuricun Exceptionalism.
The two most dangerous things about most organized religions are: (1) The delusion that one is operating under the direct guidance of a god, or gods, and (2) The, “We are the chosen people” attitude that emerges in groups of people who agree on a particular #1, which makes it all too easy to “demonize” and dehumanize any whose beliefs differ from theirs.
I’m sure the “liberties” that Huss likes to mention don’t include the liberty to be gay, or the liberty for a woman to make decisions concerning her own body.
The idea that God is giving one directions often comes in the form of a “revelation”, but it makes you wonder why, if the Judeo-Christian “God” is the one TRUE God, He isn’t presenting these revelations to Hindus, or Buddhists, etc.- wouldn’t that speed Jesus’s return up a little bit? Why bother “preaching to the choir”?
…precisely so democratic voting can’t overturn what the Founders saw as Americans’ “inalienable rights”!
But didn’t the Founders side with Van Huss in (as you quote) “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness?”
That quote is from the Declaration of Independence. Though it’s a stirring piece of rhetoric, it has absolutely no legal standing whatsoever.
The Constitution is the supreme law of the land, and it makes explicit that Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. Treaties also are high up there in legal standing, and the Treaty of Tripoli of 1796 assures all and sundry that the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion.
Cheers,
b&
Don’t you think that the authors of the Treaty of Tripoli were motivated to be a bit disingenuous on that point? Is it really so much more definitive than any of the Indian treaties the US Govt wiped its bottom with?
No, I don’t at all think that. These are the same people who wrote the Constitution itself, which not only has no endorsement of any religion, but prohibits religious tests of office, forbids establishment of any religion, guarantees religious freedom for all, and on and on and on.
But even that doesn’t matter. Whatever their secret motivations, if any, they still wrote and ratified the treaty as it stands, making it the law of the land.
We are increasingly becoming a nation of men, not of laws, but that’s a bad thing. Our laws are sound, which is why our forebears of a quarter millennium ago tried to create a nation not of men but of laws. They knew full well what happened when men ruled the law rather than the law ruling men, and we’re in the process of painfully rediscovering those horrific lessons.
b&
“Even” by the current “conservative” supreme court? This is an intellectually lazy smear. Rarely have we had a court as absolutist on the first amendment as this one.
I don’t think it’s intellectually lazy, nor do I think it’s a smear. First Amendment absolutists? Without arguing the point, I would suggest Jerry’s “even” is about the court’s relatively activist, pro-religion decisions including: permitting Ten Commandments displays and crosses on public land, allowing sectarian prayers to open public meetings, permitting religious organizations to fire employees in defiance of labor laws, allowing the transfer of state and local tax to religious schools, and striking down contraceptive coverage for employees of religious corporations.
That’s the “even” part: even a conservative, activist pro-religion court would strike down an over-the-top establishment violation at the state level.
Hmmm…if I had to guess Van Huss’s favorite Bible verse, it’d be, “Turn the other cheek, then blow the bastards away with your Kalashnikov!”
That is in there right???
Actually, I think these non-adulterated verses are what you’re looking for:
And:
And even, for that matter, just a few verses before that bit you referred to:
…with lots and lots and lots and lots more in that vein…hell, you can practically just pick a page at random. It’s practically impossible to find a page in the Bible that doesn’t have some sort of really, truly, nasty, horrific shit on it.
Lots of fodder for the dung beetles in Talibama and spiritually neighboring counties to feast on.
b&
Ah yes, that pesky Bible and its “something for everyone” mentality.
Here’s a piece of sophisticated theology for you:
Q: What’s the meaning of the Bible?
A: It is the theory of everything, there’s something in it for any point of view if you just don’t look at the other parts.
Q: Well, what is it when you are looking?
A: It collapses into a manifestation of your own biases.
Therefore, the Bible predicted the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle! God is real!
Speaking of Schödiinger, there are so hilarious strips here:
http://abstrusegoose.com/7
and take an “i” out of Schrödinger…
Kalashnikov? That’s a _Russian_ gun! Terrorists use Kalashnikovs. Patriots use M16’s and Ruger Desert Eagles (or something…)
Hmmmm…do they use anything based on principles discovered by German Physicists? Uh oh…
Isn’t a Kalashnikov a Russian or Soviet weapon? If so, no, because “this is ‘murica”, or something.
Obviously, I am taking a lot of heat for mentioning a Communist weapon. I must retract my statement…yes, a Russian may have invented it, but by the Divine Grace of God, Murika improved it and we defeated Satan!
I hate to split hairs but Murika may or may not have improved it. The Murikan version is made by Century Arms or InterOrdnance. However it has also been produced in every country from (alphabetically) Albania to Yugoslavia. Zambia seems to have unaccountably neglected to produce any.
It started production so long ago the original version is out of copyright.
(One can deplore its purpose while still admiring a fine piece of production engineering).
Clearly you are lacking in allegiance and complete deference to American exceptionalism. You’d make a bad Republican.
Thank you. That implies I’d at least be alive.
(Corollary of the saying ‘The only good Republican is … ‘)
“What’s the matter with Kansas?” Isn’t this a question some were asking some years back about that state? Perhaps Representative Van Huss is looking to replace Kansas with Tennessee in that question.