A Republican legislator, in Arizona, introduced a bill that would require high school students to take a loyalty oath before being allowed to graduate. The oath includes the usual invoking of God clap trap we see in the Pledge of Allegiance. The requirement is stupid, doesn’t help educate kids, and could be used to discriminate against people who either don’t believe in such oaths, like Jehovah Witnesses, or who don’t believe in the God part like Atheists.
Here is the text of the proposed high school graduation loyalty oath introduced by Rep. Bob Thorpe:
Tag: church and state
Woman who spoke out against the Jesus Portrait was booed by crowdTuesday evening almost 300 people witnessed the Jackson Ohio school board agree to be sued over an unconstitutional portrait of Jesus hanging in a lobby of the middle school. The story had more typical Christian privilege talking points and actions including booing a person who publicly voiced opposition to the portrait. Stay classy Jackson.
WBNS 10TV in Columbus had the story during their 11 PM newscast. The school board meeting was where the Jesus portrait issue was discussed. They had received a letter from the Freedom from Religion Foundation informing them that the portrait, that has hung in the middle school for 65 years, had to be removed or the school district could be sued. This story continued to highlight the typical Christian privilege talking points and actions we see in these church and state battles.
Jesus Portrait in Jackson Ohio Middle SchoolA story, at the top of the 6 PM newscast on WBNS 10TV in Columbus, about a complaint over a Jesus portrait hanging in an Ohio middle school hit all the false talking points over religious symbols in a public school. The report missed or ignored an opportunity to give accurate information on the 1st amendment and instead spent a majority of time trying to defend an obvious illegal act.
WBNS 10TV is the top ranked news station in Columbus Ohio. It’s owned by the company that also owns the only print newspaper in town, The Columbus Dispatch. 10TV gave 3 minutes at the top of their premiere 6 PM newscast, on Monday 01/07, about a complaint lodged against a portrait of Jesus hanging in the public area of the middle school in Jackson Ohio. Chuck Strickler, who is also an anchor at the station was the reporter on the story. The fact they gave the story 3 minutes of time on the primary newscast and had one of their veteran anchor/reporters doing the story shows how important 10TV believed the story to be.
December isn’t the Christmas season – it’s the ‘War on Christmas’ season. It’s the time when the religious right and their propaganda machine called FOX “news” whine and complain if they aren’t allowed to shove their religion down your throat through the use of a diorama of the fictional birth of the savior of said religion based in a public spot like a park or a court house. Listening to the religious right one would assume God would quit if he didn’t see said dioramas in said park. Yeah, right?
In the news recently was a press release from American Atheists announcing they had appealed a court case to the US Supreme Court. The case, American Atheists, Inc. v. Kentucky Office of Homeland Security, is against a Kentucky law that would require state training materials to proclaim a reliance on God for protection of the state. One response I read about the appeal on an e-mail list I’m on wondered why American Atheists would waste time on such a case that was, in their view, giving lip service to believers. Unfortunately, many believers live for such lip service so those of us who want to protect the separation of church and state have to file law suits against what on the surface looks like minor offenses.
Here is some detail on the case American Atheists, Inc. v. Kentucky Office of Homeland Security:
On Monday, a federal judge ruled against a group of Christian churches who had sued the City of Santa Monica California to reopen a park for Christmas displays. The 60 year old tradition was ended after a fight between atheists and Christians over displays last Christmas. The city took the action it thought necessary but the churches argued the city was violating its free speech rights. Like usual, the churches don’t know what freedom of speech really means.