Why did I drive 5 1/2 miles to donate some things to Goodwill today, when Salvation Army is only about 1 1/2 miles from my house?I'll tell ya why, and I told the phone solicitor who called me requesting money for SA: Because SA discriminates against non-evangelical Christians in its hiring. In New York, in 2004, when born-again Bush gave them the go-ahead, they fired many on their staff, including a Jewish woman who had worked there in social service for 22 years. That's reason number one. Number two is that they preach their version of religion to the poor souls who come to their soup kitchens, shelters, and so on.
I drive farther to donate to Goodwill because they don't do that. It simply gives jobs to those who need them: the developmentally disabled, the poor who can't find other work, etc. Goodwill is all about true goodwill, not goodwill in exchange for your own dignity. So there. Give to Goodwill and help people down on their luck make a living. Without having to listen to preaching they may not agree with.
Another place religion should not be forced on people is prison. Chuck Colson, former Watergate criminal, now makes a bundle, part of it consisting of your tax dollars, coercing prisoners to get into his Bible-based program. Americans United has a few words to say about that.
4 comments:
All religion-owned business/charity/church workers are exempt from anti-discrimination statutes.
The Salvation Army was formed by a Methodist minister in London in 1865. Its founders William and Catherine Booth sought to bring Christian salvation to the poor, destitute and hungry by meeting both their physical and spiritual needs.
George Bernard Shaw's play, Major Barbara, debuted in 1905 and skewered the SA with humor and logic.
UNDERSHAFT. I save their souls just as I saved yours.
BARBARA [revolted] You saved my soul! What do you mean?
UNDERSHAFT. I fed you and clothed you and housed you. I took care that you should have money enough to live handsomely--more than
enough; so that you could be wasteful, careless, generous. Thatsaved your soul from the seven deadly sins.
BARBARA [bewildered] The seven deadly sins!
UNDERSHAFT. Yes, the deadly seven. [Counting on his fingers] Food, clothing, firing, rent, taxes, respectability and children.Nothing can lift those seven millstones from Man's neck but
money; and the spirit cannot soar until the millstones are lifted. I lifted them from your spirit. I enabled Barbara to become Major Barbara; and I saved her from the crime of poverty.
CUSINS. Do you call poverty a crime?
UNDERSHAFT. The worst of crimes. All the other crimes are virtues beside it: all the other dishonors are chivalry itself by comparison. Poverty blights whole cities; spreads horrible pestilences; strikes dead the very souls of all who come within
sight, sound or smell of it. What you call crime is nothing: a murder here and a theft there, a blow now and a curse then: what do they matter? they are only the accidents and illnesses of life: there are not fifty genuine professional criminals in London. But there are millions of poor people, abject people,
dirty people, ill fed, ill clothed people. They poison us morally and physically: they kill the happiness of society: they force us to do away with our own liberties and to organize unnatural cruelties for fear they should rise against us and drag us down
into their abyss. Only fools fear crime: we all fear poverty.
Pah! [turning on Barbara] you talk of your half saved ruffian in West Ham: you accuse me of dragging his soul back to perdition. Well, bring him to me here; and I will drag his soul back again to salvation for you. Not by words and dreams; but by thirty-eight shillings a week, a sound house in a handsome
street, and a permanent job. In three weeks he will have a fancy waistcoat; in three months a tall hat and a chapel sitting; before the end of the year he will shake hands with a duchess at a Primrose League meeting, and join the Conservative Party.
BARBARA. And will he be the better for that?
UNDERSHAFT. You know he will. Don't be a hypocrite, Barbara. He will be better fed, better housed, better clothed, better behaved; and his children will be pounds heavier and bigger. That
will be better than an American cloth mattress in a shelter, chopping firewood, eating bread and treacle, and being forced to kneel down from time to time to thank heaven for it: knee drill,
I think you call it. It is cheap work converting starving men with a Bible in one hand and a slice of bread in the other. I will undertake to convert West Ham to Mahometanism on the same terms. Try your hand on my men: their souls are hungry because their bodies are full.
BARBARA. And leave the east end to starve?
UNDERSHAFT [his energetic tone dropping into one of bitter and brooding remembrance] I was an east ender. I moralized and starved until one day I swore that I would be a fullfed free man at all costs--that nothing should stop me except a bullet, neither reason nor morals nor the lives of other men. I said
"Thou shalt starve ere I starve"; and with that word I became free and great. I was a dangerous man until I had my will: now I am a useful, beneficent, kindly person. That is the history of most self-made millionaires, I fancy. When it is the history of
every Englishman we shall have an England worth living in.
You do realize you are just as much a fanatic as the fundies, don't you?
What is it about the First Amendment you don't understand?
james matoon scott said...
You do realize you are just as much a fanatic as the fundies, don't you?
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." USCA 1st.
State of Kansas
Kansas Bill of Rights
§ 1. Equal rights. All men are possessed of equal and inalienable natural rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
§ 2. Political power; privileges. All political power is inherent in the people, and all free governments are founded on their authority, and are instituted for their equal protection and benefit. No special privileges or immunities shall ever be granted by the legislature, which may not be altered, revoked or repealed by the same body; and this power shall be exercised by no other tribunal or agency.
§ 3. Right of peaceable assembly; petition. The people have the right to assemble, in a peaceable manner, to consult for their common good, to instruct their representatives, and to petition the government, or any department thereof, for the redress of grievances.
§ 4. Bear arms; armies. The people have the right to bear arms for their defense and security; but standing armies, in time of peace, are dangerous to liberty, and shall not be tolerated, and the military shall be in strict subordination to the civil power.
§ 5. Trial by jury. The right of trial by jury shall be inviolate.
§ 6. Slavery prohibited. There shall be no slavery in this state; and no involuntary servitude, except for the punishment of crime, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted.
§ 7. Religious liberty. The right to worship God according to the dictates of conscience shall never be infringed; nor shall any person be compelled to attend or support any form of worship; nor shall any control of or interference with the rights of conscience be permitted, nor any preference be given by law to any religious establishment or mode of worship. No religious test or property qualification shall be required for any office of public trust, nor for any vote at any elections, nor shall any person be incompetent to testify on account of religious belief.
§ 8. Habeas corpus. The right to the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless the public safety requires it in case of invasion or rebellion.
§ 9. Bail. All persons shall be bailable by sufficient sureties except for capital offenses, where proof is evident or the presumption great. Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel or unusual punishment inflicted.
§ 10. Trial; defense of accused. In all prosecutions, the accused shall be allowed to appear and defend in person, or by counsel; to demand the nature and cause of the accusation against him; to meet the witness face to face, and to have compulsory process to compel the attendance of the witnesses in his behalf, and a speedy public trial by an impartial jury of the county or district in which the offense is alleged to have been committed. No person shall be a witness against himself, or be twice put in jeopardy for the same offense.
§ 11. Liberty of press and speech; libel. The liberty of the press shall be inviolate; and all persons may freely speak, write or publish their sentiments on all subjects, being responsible for the abuse of such rights; and in all civil or criminal actions for libel, the truth may be given in evidence to the jury, and if it shall appear that the alleged libelous matter was published for justifiable ends, the accused party shall be acquitted.
§ 12. No forfeiture of estate for crimes. No conviction within the state shall work a forfeiture of estate.
§ 13. Treason. Treason shall consist only in levying war against the state, adhering to its enemies, or giving them aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason unless on the evidence of two witnesses to the overt act, or confession in open court.
How are our taxes used without violating the Kansas Constitution?
"nor shall any person be compelled to attend or support any form of worship"
Money=support where I come from.
What would happen if Kansas became the theocracy that Utah is - with one overriding faith guiding the entire state? What of that faith deemed it proper to put all blasphemers to death?
Are you ready to be stoned to death, Mr. Scott? The last time I looked, EVERY Christian faith had these precepts in place in the Bible and few actually followed them.
Perhaps you are a fan of literature?
Shirley Jackson's The Lottery:
The story contrasts commonplace details of contemporary life with a barbaric ritual known as the "lottery." The setting is a small American town (pop. 300) where the locals display a celebratory mood as they gather on June 27 for their annual lottery. After a person from each family draws a small piece of paper, one slip with a black spot indicates the Hutchinson family has been chosen. When each member of that family draws again to see which family member "wins," Tessie Hutchinson is the final choice. She is then stoned by everyone present, including her own family and the young men as well as young girls.
Your kind of Kansas, no doubt? Born of sinners we all must atone for Original Sin. What better way than to let the Scotts and Phelps stone their neighbors?
What's the Matter With Kansas? Would be replaced with, "Fence Kansas!"
Shall we fence YOU in, Mr. Scott?
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