Category: Entanglement - Page 14

January 30, 2015

Removing Restriction On Electioneering Might Be A Good Thing

Earlier this month, as soon as the Republican party took full control of both houses of Congress, Rep. Walter Jones [R-NC-3] introduced a bill that would remove the electioneering prohibition for churches and other 501(c)3 tax-exempt groups. This is a good and bad bill so I’m torn over it. While it would open a Pandora’s box of electioneering for churches, the current language of the bill would remove the restriction for all tax-exempt groups.

The American Humanist Association is sounding the alarm:

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January 27, 2015

Mormons Will Stop Fighting LGBT Rights As Long As They Get A Free Pass On Their Bigotry

Today the Mormon church held a press conference to announce they plan to give up fighting LGBT equality. There is a string attached. They want special treatment to express their bigotry in public. The problem is religious people can’t demand special protection for beliefs that can hurt people.

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December 25, 2014

Using Zoning Laws To Protect Religious Privilege

I’m sure there are plenty of believers in a strip club

One tool local governments use to protect religious privilege are zoning laws. They are regulations that spell out what people can and can’t do with their property. Many zoning regulations specifically spell out protections for religious property like churches while other zoning laws are used more subtly like getting a Zombie Nativity removed.

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December 17, 2014

Governor Kasich’s Stealth Religious Tactics Draw Complaints

Ohio Governor John Kasich

A new Ohio law gave tax money to groups who mentored public school children, which is a good thing. However Gov. Kasich decided to force mentoring programs to partner with faith-based groups. Kasich believes, wrongly, that the public school should be where children get their religious education.

House Bill 483 was ‘legislation that makes appropriation changes and minor policy changes as part of the Mid-Biennial Review (MBR), a package of bills that strives to initiate reforms to state spending, agency operations, and state policies and programs.’ Tucked inside HB 483 was a new program called “Career Advising And Mentoring Program” that would grant tax payer money to groups who helped mentor public school children.

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November 21, 2014

Group Starts Petition To Remove Ohio’s Religious Exemption For Child Abuse

Did you know that many states, including Ohio, have religious exemptions for child abuse written into law? Short of killing the child, parents and people having custody of children can harm the health or safety of the child, by violating a duty of care, protection, or support – like refusing to get proper childhood vaccines or in the extreme, refusal of medical treatment for the child – as long as the abuse is due to the person’s religion. There is a new group collecting signatures on an online petition to get that exemption removed.

Here is one of the religious exemptions:

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November 16, 2014

Why ‘Sticking It To Islam’ Is The Best Solution To Religious Privilege

cartoon showing a line through a Christmas tree

After being asked to add an Islamic holiday to its official calendar, a Maryland school board instead decided to remove all religious references from the calendar. Not only was it a slap to Muslims but is actually the best solution to the problem of religious privilege in public.

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