Category: Religious Intolerance

December 25, 2014
photo of the inside of a strip club
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.

December 17, 2014
photo of Ohio Gov Kasich
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.

November 16, 2014
October 15, 2014
October 2, 2014
photo of Justice Antonin Scalia
Justice Antonin Scalia

Justice Antonin Scalia, one of the members of the conservative block on the United States Supreme Court, gave a speech Wednesday where he seemed to be supporting the separation of church and state. Which is odd because he has been one of the justices who wants to limit the scope of the 1st amendment so narrowly that it really means nothing. Is Justice Scalia warming to separation of church and state?

September 17, 2014
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President Obama gave a speech about his plans to deal with the latest Middle East based terrorist group called ISIS or ISIL depending on how much fear mongering you need. While ISIL is based on a perverted version of Islam, the President shouldn’t be using a ‘No True Scotsman’ argument to point it out. It isn’t his job to decide if a group is following a particular religion correctly or not.

The President spoke on September 10th in a nationally televised address about his plans to “to degrade and ultimately destroy the terrorist group known as ISIL.” However one part of his speech really bothered me.