Just when you think they get it right, they go off the deep end. By getting it right, I mean overturning Roe V Wade was the right thing to do. First, a little explanation. I’m conservative, and not particularly religious. And I’m not Catholic either – never have been. My point is that liberals have miscalculated and they ought to understand that not everyone who is conservative is a cutthroat alt-right religious zealot.
Which leads me to say, the already established trend and now the recent rulings by the Supreme Court that violate Church and State separation do not meet with my approval. It concerned me greatly in the less recent Hobby Lobby case when the court lead by John Roberts determined that the for profit company doing business in the public sector could declare the business to have have religious rights. The result was that Hobby Lobby denied standard insurance provisions for abortion services to their employees based on the religious objections of the company owners. It wasn’t about abortion, it was about separation of Church and State. My view… the SCOTUS got it wrong and it is egregiously so.
One of the more recent cases says the State of Maine has to provide funding for religious education to individuals in rural areas where there are no brick and mortar schools run by the state. Wrong again SCOTUS. In my book the argument is totally nonsensical and again an egregious violation of Church and State separation and a very dangerous slippery slope.
What’s the difference? The state cannot provide public money for religious education when they set up brick and mortar schools, so if parents want a religious education they have to send jr. to a private religious school and pay for it themselves. That’s the way it ought to be. So, in rural Maine they have to set up homeschooling or maybe barnyard schools for several families. The state can pay for that if it’s secular. Why should the difference allow for violating Church and State separation? It shouldn’t. Public money should never go to religious institutions. Same difference. If parents want jr. to get a one room school religious education they can also pay for that themselves.
Maybe the worst of the recent cases where SCOTUS has approved violating Church and State separation is the one where the zealot football coach prays on the 50 yard line immediately following high school football games. Don’t get me wrong, if he wants to mumble a few words to the almighty when he heads to the head to take whiz – I guess that’d be alright. But that isn’t what he’s doing. He’s an influential authority figure who has knowingly and deliberately created a public display to coerce his players into participation. I’m pretty sure that’s called proselytizing by definition. This is a brazen violation of Church and State separation and another dangerous precedent.
Here’s the warning. No rational citizen of the United States could possibly see these cases as anything but what they are. They aren’t just violations of Church and State separation, the SCOTUS is obviously taking the side of religious cult authoritarianism. The SCOTUS has transcended the sensible understanding that ending the life of an unborn baby is wrong at face value, and turned it into religious cult jihad against the American people.
These discussions are nothing new. I can remember conversations with well meaning people saying things like don’t you think with all the problems and violence etc. etc. etc. that if a little Jesus will help keep the peace, isn’t that a good thing? My reply… goddammit mother f*cking HELL NO!
I am Christian, protestant, and really do love Jesus. So why the vitriol? Because I’ve personally seen and been victimized by the religious cult extremism. I have no compunction in saying that 99% of all religious cults today are not even what they say they are, the hypocrisy is amoral turpitude, certainly they are not Christian in my book, and they all have ulterior motives of greed, power and control.
Further, the SCOTUS is giving undue latitude to all the other non-christian extremist religious cults as well. This Supreme Court is enabling an extremely dangerous pathology that will lead to the total destruction of democracy, liberty and freedom if it stays the course unchecked. It’s just the beginning of woes because in all likelihood the court won’t change it’s tone for at least forty years and by then they will have created a positive loop propagating more of their own kind.
Another old discussion rings in my ear. The liberals and the diversity and the LGBTQ saying the dark ages are upon us. I’m not LGBTQ either by the way. (I am single again and available…) Ringing in the other ear a familiar religious zealot that proclaims the dark ages are behind us and we’re headed toward the new age of enlightenment. Bullshit. I’m not 100% with LGBTQ rights either largely because it’s a complex equation that can include ulterior motives and victimization of it’s own. Nevertheless, the religious cults are not about enlightenment and they don’t have a right to impose their personal morays on other innocuous individuals not a part of whatever affinity cult it happens to be.
The unfortunate bottom line is that the SCOTUS has indeed crossed lines that indicate they can, and will, and already have abandoned legitimate constitutional jurisprudence in order to advance a decidedly un-American and unconstitutional authoritarian agenda.
Now, please excuse me. I’m going to spend some time in my, uh, closet praying for the SCOTUS hetherns.
©2022 – Jim Casey
