I have warned about the makeup of the Supreme Court. Most of the justices are Catholics and the remainder are Jews. Not one Protestant or Buddhist or Muslim or anything is nominated. This is done to gain support of religious based bribers of Congress and Presidents running for office. They then get their piece of meat which means warping the Constitution so it is increasingly leaning towards ethnic cleansing and religious warfare. Today’s ruling that religious pressure groups and force their religious prayers on the public in non-religious events is disgusting and will lead to riots and assassinations and hatred.
The Supreme Court’s city council prayer decision
1. The Court is unanimous in its view that, generally speaking, some legislative prayers are constitutionally permissible.
And inappropriate. The Separation of church and state in the United States –“Echoing the language of the founder of the first Baptist church in America, Roger Williams—who had written in 1644 of “[A] hedge or wall of separation between the garden of the church and the wilderness of the world”—Jefferson wrote, “I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should ‘make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,’ thus building a wall of separation between Church & State.”[1]”
In Marsh v. Chambers (1983), the Court split 6-3 on the subject, with Justices Brennan, Marshall, and Stevens arguing that such prayers generally violate the Establishment Clause (though 20 years before then, Justice Brennan — in voting to strike down school prayers — suggested that legislative prayers are allowed). But now all nine Justices agree with the Marsh result; even the dissent says, “pluralism and inclusion in a town hall can satisfy the constitutional requirement of neutrality; such a forum need not become a religion-free zone.” Indeed, the dissenters say they agree with Marsh, and don’t just follow it as a precedent:
And here is why this is all so insane: if anyone gets to pray to whatever entity is their private bed bug obsession, then everyone should have equal time. So instead of doing public business, we will have endless competing prayers from a wide range of lunatic fanatics who have some weird god thing to recommend. So we should have voodoo ceremonies, druids, 1,000 different Christian sects, Shi’te and Sunni Muslims, all sorts of Jewish groups, Hindus with 1,000 gods, pagans, American Indians, on and on and on.
Of course, the dark plan is for religious pressure groups like AIPAC or the Pope will monopolize this power to put on display their unlovely god. And we see the end result. Ukraine isn’t ‘NATO versus Russia’ it is Catholic versus Orthodox with the tiny Jewish minority migration from troubled Ukraine to Israel dramatically rises which is what the Zionists wanted due to fears there are too many Muslims who are ‘citizens’ of Israel and who could demand that hell hole change and give them full civil rights and the right to pray to their god in public the same way the Catholics in the Supreme Court wants to do here in the US.
Radicals shooting at people in Odessa’s burning building caught on tape: this is what a divided nation writhing over religious issues looks like:
in this video, Catholics are shooting at Orthodox trapped in a building the Catholics set on fire. See how ugly this is when we identify the people by religion? I said from day one, this is religious warfare raging there just as Violence grips Iraq in day of deadly bombings which has killed many thousands of people in the last three years.
2. Five Justices (Justice Kennedy, Chief Justice Roberts, and Justices Scalia, Thomas, and Alito) take the view that prayers before legislative bodies — including city councils as well as legislatures — are permissible even when they refer to theological concepts specific to particular religious traditions (such as Jesus Christ, or the resurrection).
The majority implies that the prayers might be impermissible if they “denigrate nonbelievers or religious minorities, threaten damnation, or preach conversion,” or if the prayer giver is chosen in a religiously discriminatory way.
ALL religions belief their gods are the best gods, the only gods, the mighty gods and anyone who believes anything even slightly different from the various tics, irritations, irrational hatreds and especially hatred of women, of various ‘gods’ then we have severe repression, dangerous emotional hysteria and this is always aimed at the more helpless victims (mainly, women, children and minorities of various kinds) and therefore has zero right to be imposed on us by the government.
The ‘vanilla’ national prayers are not attached to any religion yet even that crosses the religious Rubicon because a lot of us don’t believe in ANY of these upstart gods. Or if we insist on this sort of nonsense, then I say, let me pray to Thor in Congress. I can call upon lighting to smite the Capitol Building! Heh! Wham!
Dueling gods, let the others pray to their gods and see if they can throw lighting bolts. Or we can be civilized and keep religious knee jerk itches in private or in religious institutions that are not paid for by the general tax on the population.
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Voice of Russia says: “Kiev conceals deaths in Odessa fire, 116 killed – Ukrainian lawmaker”
“According to our data, there were 116 people killed in the House of Trade Unions in Odessa. Killed, not just “dead”. “We don’t use the word “burned” or “suffocated”, because autopsies are not being performed, since the people have bullet wounds to the head,” Vadim Savenko said.
http://goo.gl/D4TR3X
Kiev has fired all police chiefs in Odessa and installed their own men. They have also brought in neonazi goon squads (SA style stormtroopers) as reinforcements to the police. A large part of the real police simply threw their shields down and walked out when the new ‘chiefs’ came in.
Odessa has Ukraine’s by far most important port.
I, for one, am also a ‘strict separationist’ a la Jefferson. I thought Marsh v. Chambers was a load of crap.
But what about Christmas as a national holiday? I mean, the name of the god is in the name of the freaking national holiday! It is almost hard to imagine a more blatant infringement on the Establishment Clause.
It’s sure to be a hit in Oklahoma:
http://www.vice.com/read/heres-the-first-look-at-the-new-satanic-monument-being-built-for-oklahomas-statehouse
This leaning by the Supreme Court is a double edged sword. I was raised a Catholic in the 1960’s and 70’s. The clergy and nuns made it ever so clear that non-Catholics were not bad people (Jews for example), they were just misinformed (about Jesus being the son of God) and were therefore destined to spend the rest of their lives either in Purgatory (if they were otherwise good people) or Hell, where Jesus would hand them over to Satan’s fiery and everlasting inferno. Strange how these “Christians” are so fascinated with burning folks to death, and the glee that is derived from them having their flesh burn for an infinite amount of time.
@e sutton
I was raised Catholic in the 70’s in NY. The clergy and nuns were extremely fundamentalist. Non-Catholics were definitely outsiders and fallen people because they did not follow the true faith. My grandmother had to fight for me to attend Catholic school in our parish because the nuns did not want a child of divorce in their school.
The last time I spoke to a priest, he locked me in his office to scream at me that I lost faith and the Jews were taking over.
I know why many people feared JFK’s presidency. They should have kept that fear when so many catholic justices were put on the supreme court.
@Mel,
Yes, the Catholics are very much anti-women’s rights. The whole abortion rights thing shows their hypocrisy, caring so much for the “unborn”, yet once these children are born, it is okay for them to live in hovels and ghettos, begging on the street for spare change or food. Catholics believe in the literal sense of the Bible. What this means is that their view of God is all loving, caring, generous and kind, unless you piss him off. And then all bets are off. That’s how Satan got sent to the dominion of Hell, challenging God as to his power. Lesson to take away from this as a child (or adult): Do exactly as we say, because WE (the Pope and clergy) represent God. A nun once told me in high school about whether or not she really believed in God. Her response (she was quite old) was that empirically no mortal, not even she, could be absolutely certain in his existence, but given the threat of burning forever in Hell, she’d hedge her bets and believe, just to be on the safe side. I’m paraphrasing of course, but that was the jist of her response.
Catholicism, continued…My mother and dad got divorced in the early ’70s. I was told by a “friend” that meant she would be sentenced to an eternity in Hell. Forcing people to stay in unhappy, destructive, and painful marriages is another form of control, as is/was the admonishment of not using birth control, other than the rhythm method. Result being lots and lots of children/ future parishioners ($$$$$) to further their nefarious operations worldwide. One glance at Latin America completely reveals this truth. My dad was a pretty high level State Department official. He told me that the schools in Latin America (all Catholic) had priests who actively “groomed” young boys who showed exceptional intelligence and recruited them into the priesthood. The dim-witted boys were eventually sent out to the fields to pick crops. For the Church, it’s a win-win operation. Free sex for the pedophile priests and a never-ending supply of an army of young men who will do exactly as they are told, no questions asked.
The saddest part of all this is, Jesus absolutely hates these people. He hated priests.
He was kind to women, children and foreigners. So I seriously doubt he would populate his ‘Heaven’ with people he hates. And…
He hates rich people, too.
“…1,000 different Christian sects, Shi’te and Sunni Muslims, all sorts of Jewish groups…”
That’s the problem right there. The Jews cannot agree on a single prayer or ceremony to represent all of them, so they would monopolize the proceedings well into the night while non jews would just give up and go home. Of course, like you said, no real business of any import would be accomplished at such a meeting.
“ALL religions belief their gods are the best gods, the only gods, the mighty gods…”
Not so.
My wife is Buddhist and I follow old Irish religion, and there is no religious discord in my family. I was never told the patron goddess of my family was “better” than any other god, or that there were no other gods.
You are viewing all religion through the prism of Jewish religion, and that is not fair to non jews. We view the world differently, and what we see happening in the middle east and in Jewish lands leaves us speechless.
Not one story ever told in my family had anything to do with opposing religions. Not one. Invasions by foreigners? Yes. About their gods? No.
1) I’m not a Christian, but I seriously doubt Jesus hated anyone.
2) Freedom of religion does not mean freedom FROM religion.
3) Nowhere in the Constitution is there ANY guarantee of never being offended, or exposed to ideas with which you disagree.
4) Militant atheists are as bad as religious zealots, and any reasonable person ought to be impatient with all of them.
5) So long as a governing body doesn’t pass laws making non-believers into second class citizens, whether it has a prayer before meetings is of little concern to me.
It is not strictly necessary to pass laws in order to turn people into “second class citizens”. This concept is recognized by the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
The First Amendment to the Constitution prohibits state establishment of religion. The Establishment clause has been incorporated to the states through the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
What constitutes ‘establishment’ is not defined in the Constitution.
So, you may have your opinion. And so do lot of other people. Now, I am not a strict originalist when it comes to Constitutional construction, but there is historical evidence to support the argument that Jefferson would be “rolling over” here. So those of us that think this prayer business should be against the law likely at least have some credible company.
A government that allows ONLY Jewish religious ceremonies to be performed before government meetings, and REQUIRES that they be done before government meetings, is in clear violation of the Constitution and the separation of church and state as it is understood by the average person.
The next logical step is the posting of Jewish laws (the ten commandments, etc.) on the front lawns of our courthouses, our schools, and inside our local government buildings, and anywhere else they deem it necessary.
Theocracies are not suddenly created out of thin air. They are gradually imposed upon the people, who may at first be apathetic (like John), but later will be too afraid to protest for fear of imprisonment or death under laws that are religious in nature and were simply appended to the Constitution, or, under the new system, simply supercede it.
It is at this point that laws aimed at non jews will be passed and enforced, and no one will be able to do anything about it because they sat on their hands and did nothing at the beginning, before all the unconstitutional religious laws were passed one by one over many years.
Also, note the size of the monument in the story I linked above. By the time you put up monuments to the Zoroastrians, Buddhists, etc etc etc, you won’t have any public space left to conduct that meeting.
It’ll be a frickin’ museum by then.
Question about all the Catholics in Government, not just the ones on the (so-called) Supreme Court. Are these the Opus Dei Catholics? Also: John has a very good point, imho. Freedom of expression means you get to have your opinion and I get to have mine. This will remain true even if what I say offends you or what you say offends me. The US is a nation founded on Judeo Christian principles. That’s why you see the Ten Commandments inscribed on Court House buildings. Any and every individual who wants to disregard those Commandments is entirely free to do so. Elaine, if you want to pray to Thor in Congress, let me know. I’ll join you.
ΩΩΩ
ELAINE: The Chief Justice and Scalia, etc are Opus Dei fascists.
“The US is a nation founded on Judeo Christian principles.”
False. It was founded on principles associated with the Enlightenment.
This is the excuse that will be used, and is used, to toss the Constitution into the garbage can. (It’s already there, actually).
There are so many excuses to interject religion into government now that trying to stem the tide is futile. I am content to wait until the “no see, no hear” people wake up to find themselves in the middle of a theocracy.
Actually, seriously, a fair number that came over before 1700 were WITCHES so to speak which is why they got along with the natives here and why a number of them (MY OWN RELATIONS) moving inland far from authorities and the Church powers like say, the Pilgrims.
@DeVaul: Only partially true. Check out the pledge of Allegiance: “…one nation, under God, indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for all.” Or check out a US coin. What does it say on it? “In God We Trust”. Now the Pledge and the coins bit came after the Founding Fathers AND they were influenced by The Enlightenment…but they also were-or claimed to be-Christians. Yes, Tom Jefferson was a slave owner and I’m sure many of the other Founders were too. (Not very Enlightened of them, was it?). And the Salem witch hunters (pre-Founding Fathers) burned people at the Stake. Lots and LOTS of VERY non-Christian behavior from professed Christians. There’s no denying it. The Founders used the term ‘Creator’ to refer to their God. One could write a very interesting book on what our Founding Fathers believed as far as Christianity is concerned. Not so much what they professed to believe, but what they actually believed-and practiced. There’s usually a gap there. But in the end, imho, the US was founded on Judeo Christian values. With alot of hypocrisy and fraud and nothing much more than lip service being paid to it, but Christian values nonetheless.
@Petruchio
Why don’t you google when “under God” was added to the pledge of allegiance as well as when “In God We Trust” was added to coins?
They were NOT part of the founding of this republic, but step-stones toward theocracy. You are playing semantic games here by saying “a bit later”.
One of the reasons religion was left out of the founding of the republic was because there were already so many competing religous groups here, as Elaine pointed out, that any mention of religion other than “providence” and such would cause the new republic to arrive DOA.
I wonder if the new pope was just an “Obama” pope of “hope and change” used as a cover to bring back theocracy into the new fascist state that is emerging.
The US is becoming Latin America writ large.