Judge: West Virginia can't require incarcerated atheist to participate in religious programming
Judge: West Virginia can't require incarcerated atheist to participate in religious programming
A federal judge in West Virginia has ruled that the state corrections agency can’t force an incarcerated atheist and secular humanist to participate in religiously-affiliated programming to be eligible for parole.
A federal judge in West Virginia has ruled that the state corrections agency can’t force an incarcerated atheist and secular humanist to participate in religiously-affiliated programming to be eligible for parole.
The fact it's had to go that far is psychotic. Country was founded on freedom of religion. What do the Christians do? "Oh this means freedom from other religions" and proceed to take systemically take everything over and force their religion down everyones throats. While at the same time claiming that the LGBTQ community is the ones doing the shoving.
Single most dangerous cult on the planet is Christianity.
yeah, it seems what they meant is freedom to be a christian without the pope and absolutely nothing else. no nonbelievers, no non-abrahamics, hell, not even any abrahamic believers who believe in other religions. protestant, mormon, or cringe catholic, take your pick or go to literal hell.
and the best part is when they use the excuse of religious freedom as a shield for their bigotry. like i'm sorry, if your holy book literally calls for gays to be stoned to death that's a call to violence, it doesn't deserve to be protected or tolerated.
No, what they meant was freedom to worship whatever religion you please.
It's the people who have come since that have corrupted it. And recently too. If you go back to the 70s or 80s, religious tolerance was pretty common in both political parties. One of those just has happened to shift violently to the right, and I mean violently. In doing so they've weaponized their religion and are now twisting the words of the constitution.
yeah, it seems what they meant is freedom to be a christian without the pope and absolutely nothing else. no nonbelievers, no non-abrahamics, hell, not even any abrahamic believers who believe in other religions. protestant, mormon, or cringe catholic, take your pick or go to literal hell.
If by "they" you're referring to the folks who wrote the Constitution (many of whom were Deists, not Christians), that's very much historical revisionism. The religious right certainly thinks that's what they thought, but it isn't true.
The fact it's had to go that far is psychotic.
This reminds me of one of my favorites quotes, which is about the 2020 US presidential election, and I'm not even from the USA, but it's suitable in so much scenarios in life: "It shouldn't be this close."
Even as a Christian myself, I agree with you. Separation of Church and State. Politics mixing with religion has been terrible for both.
Politics mixing with religion has been terrible for both.
No it hasn't. Religions benefit almost immeasurably from infiltrating politics in so many ways, ranging from exemption from all discrimination laws, to having their private schools funded by tax money, to controlling the majority of hospitals in the country, to being allowed to rape and marry children consequence free.
Let me try a different argument:
The separation of church and state has forced American denominations to compete in a marketplace for souls/money, and they have become ruthlessly efficient corporatized entities, using marketing and business-process management, and exploiting tax advantages and high switching costs.
Meanwhile, in Europe, you have official state Catholicism or Protestantism-flavors, which are moribund, inspire little passion, and most everyone is either atheist, agnostic, or un-passioned.
Politics mixing with religion has been terrible for both.
This statement presupposes that religion hasn't always been inherently political. Religion is nothing if not a tool for control.
The country was founded of freedom of religion by the fanatics who were too fanatical for England.
No certain colonies were founded by zealots too fanatical for England and the Netherlands, the country was founded by slave owning wealthy people
When will this myth die
Which is the line perpetuated by England and hardly based in reality.
In reality they were pretty moderate Christians who just believed that religion was a private matter and the governments involvement in it was abhorrent. Did they use their religion to beat anyone to death who got in their way? Yeah. But so did everyone else. They were no more fanatical than the Church of England. They just had a different opinion of how religion should go about being made.
They were fairly puritan however. That much is true. That's why most of white North America freaks the hell out at seeing nipples on a woman in public.
Don’t conflate a religion with the religious extremists.
All religion is extremist.
Don't criminalize abortion and I won't.
One man's extremist is another man's hero.
In the “Big Book,” the foundational document of these programs, “Chapter 4: We Agnostics” tells atheists and agnostics that they are “doomed to alcoholic death” unless they “seek Him.” The chapter characterizes non-believers as “handicapped by obstinacy, sensitiveness, and unreasoning prejudice.”
This really jumped out at me. What a horrible thing to say about someone, especially someone looking for help.
"Unreasoning prejudice" ain't that just the richest projection you've ever seen🤣🤣🤣
Alcoholic death? That's weirdly specific. I barely even drink. If I do, then I do it to get drunk, but not to comatose type of levels.
Great now punish them for trying
As a Latin American, it seems to me that Christian fanaticism is so wide spread in the US it almost feels cartoonish, like the sort of general impression one gets from any cult or fundamentalist religious group. And I’m from Latin America!
It always reminds me of North Korea, or China. No matter what else you do, you must be seen to believe in the right thing or else you are some kind of evil deviant.
What the religion or belief system is actually is is about is almost irrelevant. The important thing is to believe, understanding it is entirely not required and almost frowned upon.
The United States was founded by people who were already upset they couldn't be as fanatical/evangelical as they wanted.
No, a few North American colonies were founded by people who were already upset they couldn't be as fanatical/evangelical as they wanted.
The United States was founded mostly by Deists and folks influenced by Enlightenment philosophy, several hundred years later.
So while I'm all for this, think about the person trying to get a parole board to write off on their parole. Even if the person is in the right I can only imagine that it's still in that person's best interests to at least act the good christian because the parole board can deny them for any reason with no need to explain.
American society is so fucked.
Yeah, but it sounds like they already crossed that line. Once that happens, may as well stick up for your rights. Regardless of whether they went through the program. The corrupted parole board will already prejudge them as a bad person for not believing in their version of their god.
You also get special privileges if you're religious in prison, like better food if you're keeping Kosher or Halal and being let out of your cell to go to religious services. Even if you're an atheist, I could see why you would pretend.
We have more work to do than I used to think.
Good. I have grown tired of the brainwashed reformed criminal that spends all his time being overly aggressive about religion and downright hateful with it.
I fucking love this guy. Fuck RSAT and fuck the WV DOC. The whole thing is a mess. Prison reform, now!