Tag: religious bigotry

June 9, 2017
image of Dr. Paul de Vries
Dr. Paul de Vries

Dr. Paul de Vries, a columnist at The Christian Post, tries to make an argument that the Secular Left and Radical Islam have the same aims even if they go about it in different ways. He poses the question, ‘What could these two divergent groups have in common that enables their frequent, seeming public harmony?’. Although de Vries tries to compare the two he can’t help but offer a false equivalence and looking at his points leads to a different conclusion.

de Vries starts off his Op-Ed by trying to say that Kathy Griffin’s photo holding a bloody head “in ISIS style solemnity” is similar to the efforts to build a mosque in lower Manhattan which was labeled a “victory mosque” at Ground Zero by opponents.

June 30, 2016
image of Serial Liar Todd Starnes
Serial Liar Todd Starnes

Religious conservative and FOX news contributor Todd Starnes wrote on June 29th that the recently released US House Republican’s Benghazi report noted that members of President Obama’s administration bullied a Christian pastor about a film he promoted that insulted Islam. Starnes claims that breeched the church and state wall. For a ‘reporter’ with a history of ethics problems, Starnes unsurprisingly gets this so-called ‘violation’ wrong.

Starnes writes on his FOX news website column:

June 20, 2016
Sarah Fowler

The Ohio State Board of Education, although not as bad as some state boards like in Kansas, has had it share of religious conservatives. Most of the time these people try to push a religious agenda into the public schools like creationism. A member from North East Ohio tried to get the board involved in the issue of transgendered people using public school bathrooms. It makes me wonder how someone who distrusts the government so much would want to work for it

March 22, 2016
image of Ohio House of Represenatives in session
Ohio House of Represenatives in session. Photo by Joshua Rothaas Used with permission.

In Ohio, Substitute HB 425, also known as the Ohio Student Religious Liberties Act seems to codify rights in state law that public school students currently enjoy from the 1st amendment of the US Constitution and that have been affirmed through various court cases over the years. Why would a GOP majority seem to want to protect religious freedom for students? To give cover to discriminate and bully LGBT students of course.

A majority of the HB 425 just rehashes current legal precedents covering religious freedom in the public schools. As the Columbus Dispatch put it:

February 4, 2016
September 24, 2015
screencap of video of Dr. Ben Carson in Findlay Ohio on Wednesday 9-23-2015
Dr. Ben Carson in Findlay Ohio on Wednesday

Dr. Ben Carson, who is running for the GOP nomination for President in 2016, stopped in my hometown for a visit on Wednesday. WTOL in Toledo had video and a reporter on the scene and she asked about his recent comments about Muslims. He didn’t back down and in fact according to Ben Carson, Ben Carson can’t be President.