263 replies to this topic

[LFC]

We have red states that have passed laws to ban LGBT adoptions while simultaneously failing to properly fund or address massive problems in their foster care system. These children need stability. Instead they get a Bible thrown in their faces.

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Both the Oklahoma and Kansas legislatures have passed laws barring LGBT people from adopting children in their states. They aren’t the first states, nor will they be the last and lawsuits have already been promised. However, the states have also completely mismanaged their existing foster care systems while both are woefully underfunded.

In 2013, it was discovered that the Oklahoma Department of Human Services lost 78 children that the state handed over to foster families. Late last year, Kansas announced it lost 70 children.

Over the years, drastic budget shortfalls in Oklahoma has resulted in funding cuts to the Department of Human Services, which oversees the foster care system. DHS director outright called the cuts “unthinkable” last year.

The Fox report cited DHS Director Ed Lake saying that the proposed cuts in 2017 meant the agency “would no longer be able to protect its child welfare services division from budget reductions.” Up until that point, the department had do whatever it could to cut everything from staff to clothing vouchers and everything in between simply to put the health and safety of the children first.

At the same time, fewer and fewer families were willing to take children in. Gov. Mary Fallin (R-OK) developed a program working to establish more homes for children. The program was overwhelmingly successful and resulted in over 1,000 new homes for Oklahoma children. Yet, just two years later, the program has been closed and the GOP-led legislature is trying to find ways to restrict homes for youth.

With fewer staff comes fewer monitoring of foster homes. One couple was arrested for child neglect for their nine foster children. Another couple was arrested after the death of a two-month-old baby placed in foster care. One report revealed the state has a high degree of abuse.

I guess it's OK if children die as long as their souls are "saved" from Satan's gay army.

[LFC]

Yes, practicing their religion really does mean that they require the ability to discriminate. What a horrible, hateful, group.

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Conservatives across the country are fighting several Democratic-sponsored non-discrimination bills that would protect LGBTQ people in Texas.

“If you want a sense of where the left is headed nationally, look at what progressive legislators in Texas are trying to do. They want to ban Christianity in all but name,” writes Georgia-based religious extremist and former Fox News pundit Erick Erickson, who now writes at The Resurgent. Erickson is perhaps best known (or should be) for comparing LGBT people to ISIS.

He points to six new non-discrimination bills filed in the Texas legislature. Among them, legislation that would require businesses in Texas to treat employees who are married to a person of the same sex the same way they treat employees who are married to a person of a different sex when allocating benefits packages.

Others require Texas businesses to allow transgender people to use the restroom with which they most-closely associate. Another would require physicians, “even against their conscience,” Erickson warns, to prepare birth certificates that conform to a person’s gender identity.

“Progressives in Texas also want to roll back state protections for faith based adoption agencies,” Erickson writes, warning that adoption agencies wouldn’t be allowed to ban same-sex couples or LGBTQ children.

“If the left is this emboldened in Texas, think about how far they’ll go in your state,” he fear-mongers once again.

KTBS reported in December there were 3800 children waiting to be adopted in Texas. And in 2016 “there were 28,732 children in foster care in Texas,” CBS 19 reports. Erickson would like to make it harder for those children to be adopted, by allowing agencies to reduce the number of possible homes and families they will consider.

Erickson sums up all these bills as the left wanting to “go after” Christian businesses.

Meanwhile, Pat Robertson’s Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) adds more fear-mongering, from Dave Welch, the president of the Texas Pastors Council. Welch appears to claim that being gay, lesbian, or bisexual is merely “sexual behavior,” and being transgender is “mental illness,” if we’re interpreting his bigotry accurately:

“The mad dash by some Democrat House and Senate members to push false narratives that sexual behavior is the same as skin color and that mental illness deserves the same honored status as religious belief is ominous evidence that the criminalization of religious faith and common sense are on the horizon.”

That’s of course, false.

And over at the far right wing website The Federalist, James Wesolek claims the bills Erickson warns about “would attack people of faith so aggressively that they can justifiably be described as ‘Ban the Bible’ bills,” which is astonishingly false. He calls wanting to protect LGBTQ people from discrimination “swamp sickness.”

Even though “Ban the Bible” is a lie, conservatives are all over it, even creating a #BanTheBible hashtag.

[pnwguy]

LFC, on 29 January 2019 - 05:14 PM, said:

Yes, practicing their religion really does mean that they require the ability to discriminate. What a horrible, hateful, group.

You could claim "Ban The Bible" about laws that prohibit human slavery. The biblical writers were fairly neutral and tolerable of chattel slavery, even describing what was proper behavior between master and slave.

[AnBr]

"ban Christianity in all but name"? Fitting for "Christians" who are Christians in name only.

[LFC]

The sickness among the Christianists isn't limited to LGBTQ. F***ing Arkansas.

[baw1064]

LFC, on 11 February 2019 - 01:01 PM, said:

The sickness among the Christianists isn't limited to LGBTQ. F***ing Arkansas.

Heaven for the climate, hell for the company.

[Beelzebuddy]

baw1064, on 11 February 2019 - 01:11 PM, said:

Heaven for the climate, hell for the company.

Thanks, I have my good points.

[LFC]

Another Republican Christianist who is filled with lies and hate. There seems to be an all too abundant supply of them.

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“I have tried to witness and preach the love of Christ to people that are homosexuals,” says Porterfield, who is also a Baptist minister
West Virginia Republican state lawmaker Eric Porterfield is responding to outrage over comments he made calling the LGBTQ community a a “terrorist group” and likening them to the KKK, and he’s not backing down.

In a nearly 20-minute interview with WVVA (partial clip below), Delegate Porterfield doubled-down on his attacks, calling LGBTQ people “bullies,” “tyrants,” and “oppressors.”

“They’re a political socialist group that really uses means like economic extortion about people’s sexual orientation,” Porterfield told WVVA’s Rachel Anderson. “And when people disagree with them, instead of respectfully letting people respectfully disagree, they persecute, attack.”

“It probably will not be long before they’re burning rainbow flags in peoples’ yards because they have no care for diversity of thought, and their message is simply hate. They are proving it with all of the things that they have done and they are the modern-day version of the KKK,” Porterfield said again.

Del. Porterfield makes extravagant – and entirely unsubstantiated – accusations against LGBT people throughout the interview. For example, he does not explain what he’s referring to when he says “all of the things that they have done.”

“The LGBTQ is not seeking freedom,” Porterfield continues. “The LGBTQ is suppressing the freedom of people that disagree with them and forcing their ideology – and if they do not get their way they cause chaos, apply pressure, intimidate, internet stalk.”

Again, he offers no proof, no examples.

“I’ve never been a ‘gay-basher,’ I’ve never done anything physically-harmful to gays, in any way, shape, or form,” says Porterfield, who is also the founder of Blind Faith Ministries.

Huh. That last part is a twist on "I'm not a bigot but..."

[JackD]

He's probably talking about their dictatorial refusal to allow others to discriminate against them thus interfering with the discriminators' "religious freedom".

[LFC]

A "Christian" on the death penalty.

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State Senator Lynn Hutchings ( R ) of Wyoming explaining her decision to vote against abolishing the death penalty: “The greatest man who ever lived died via the death penalty for you and me. I’m grateful to him for our future hope because of this. Governments were instituted to execute justice. If it wasn’t for Jesus dying via the death penalty, we would all have no hope.”

Wyoming is currently debating a bill that would abolish the state’s death penalty. The state’s last execution was in 1992.

[golden_valley]

LFC, on 15 February 2019 - 11:03 AM, said:

A "Christian" on the death penalty.

So the death penalty is good because some other Messiah might arise from it???

[LFC]

Christianists, putting the pulpit in bully pulpit.

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Whenever a church/state separation lawsuit lists the plaintiffs, it’s not unusual to see initials in place of their real names, if not a pseudonym like “Jane Doe.” That’s for good reason: If their names ever became public, they could be stalked or bullied (or worse) in their communities, many of which are extremely religious (which is why there are church/state separation problems in the first place).

Judges understand this. They may require the plaintiffs to appear before them or use their real names in sealed documents, but they usually allow the people to remain anonymous in the public record if there’s a legitimate reason for it.

Missouri State Rep. Hardy Billington, a Republican Baptist who recently said his goal in office was to “stand up for Christian values,” wants those atheists to suffer.

Billington recently filed a bill, HB 728, that would force adult plaintiffs to use their real names in any cases involving church/state separation… and only cases involving church/state separation. Apparently, if you sue over a Ten Commandments monument outside of a public school, everyone needs to know your real name.

Seriously, here’s the change he wants to make:

Read on for the changes and the real world outcomes that have occurred when the "righteous" harass and attack those who would stand up for the Constitution as the ruling document of America, not the f***ing Bible.

[baw1064]

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State Senator Lynn Hutchings ( R ) of Wyoming explaining her decision to vote against abolishing the death penalty: “The greatest man who ever lived died via the death penalty for you and me. I’m grateful to him for our future hope because of this. Governments were instituted to execute justice. If it wasn’t for Jesus dying via the death penalty, we would all have no hope.”

Forgive her, father, for she knows not what she does?

[LFC]

Another disgusting Trumpian / Republican judicial pick.

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The Senate has just confirmed Allison Rushing, a nominee who once interned with the Alliance Defending Freedom, as a judge for the Fourth Circuit. Rushing, 37, is the latest appeals court judge whom Republicans have been intent to push through, even as Democrats have criticized her limited experience as well as her past work with ADF, an organization that the Southern Poverty Law Center has labeled a hate group for its efforts backing the “recriminalization of homosexuality in the U.S.”

Rushing is among a wave of younger nominees that Senate Republicans have been keen to advance in recent days, HuffPost’s Jennifer Bendery notes. According to a Vox analysis from last December, President Trump’s judicial nominees overall have been whiter, more male, and slightly younger than those proposed by former President Barack Obama. Because many of Trump’s judges have been white men in their 40s, they’re expected to establish an enduring conservative presence on the courts that could last for decades.

[Rue Bella]

By using the contrived term 'christianist', 'real' Christians are able to distance themselves from this group. The all too numerous christianists call themselves Christians, so use the term they use for themselves. Just as we cant go back to the 'innocent' times of the 1950s that some fantasize about, we cant go back to whatever an 'ideal' Christian might be. There are millions of Christians who support Trump and all he stands for - and will vote for him and his ilk again. This is the face of Christianity in the US today.

Instead of giving 'real Christians' a thin semantic excuse for stepping back, let them step forward and (as Gandhi might suggest) try to remedy the situation by putting the actual teachings of Christ back into the equation.

[Rich T Bikkies]

Rue Bella, on 06 March 2019 - 01:43 PM, said:

There are millions of Christians who support Trump and all he stands for - and will vote for him and his ilk again. This is the face of Christianity in the US today.

Yes: real Christians who are not Christianists. People who are not unusually malevolent or bigoted, but just don't get it.

[LFC]

Rue Bella, on 06 March 2019 - 01:43 PM, said:

Instead of giving 'real Christians' a thin semantic excuse for stepping back, let them step forward and (as Gandhi might suggest) try to remedy the situation by putting the actual teachings of Christ back into the equation.

Ironically it's the type of thing that those very same people demand of Muslims on the daily. Every Muslim who isn't a radical has to screech about radicalism and denounce it over and over like a mantra because, after all, it's their responsibility. It's something that sputters from the lips of Christians ever so often but, as we see here in America, not too often and not very loudly.

[LFC]

This is the kind of disgusting behavior the Christianists want legalized. No matter what your view on the bathroom non-issue is there is no way to justify a school official doing this to a child. Thank heavens the county school board did the right thing after the county superintendent dropped the ball.

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“Not going to lie. You freak me out,” the asst. principal told the boy, in front of other students.
Just days after Thanksgiving last year students in Clarksburg, West Virginia’s Liberty High School band were told to go use the restroom before departing on a bus trip. 15-year old Michael Critchfield, a sophomore, went to use the boys restroom, and was soon followed in by the assistant principal, Lee Livengood.

Livengood waited for him to exit the restroom stall. He “kept asking me why I was in there,” Critchfield, who is transgender, told Metro News. He adds the assistant principal said “I shouldn’t be in there because I am not a guy, and I told him I am a boy, I identify with this bathroom, and it is my legal right to use this restroom.”

As if that were not shocking enough, what happened next is chilling.

“Critchfield said Livengood continued to harass and intimidate him, ultimately challenging him to use a urinal to prove that he was a boy,” Metro News reported.

“He was blocking the doorway so I couldn’t get out because if I tried to get out through the doorway he was in front of, he could’ve said that I hit him or something and got me in more trouble,” Critchfield said. “I was barricaded in the bathroom for three or four minutes, and then a band mom was coming down complaining that they could hear Mr. Livengood yelling at me in the bathroom from the cafeteria, from the hallways, and some could hear it from the band room so she came down to see what was wrong.”

Livengood then told the boy, “Not going to lie. You freak me out,” in front of the other students and the chaperone,” according to Critchfield.

“I felt really degraded and discriminated against,” Critchfield said, as the AP reported.

Three weeks after Livengood harassed and intimidated the student, he was suspended, for just four days. Harrison County Superintendent Dr. Mark Manchin said, “I don’t think more needs to be done.”

He added, “right now I do not believe the necessity of any additional policies or any protections for any students that we do not already have.”

The ACLU disagreed, saying the school district “needs to make significant changes to its culture.”

On Tuesday, the county school board voted to not renew Livengood’s contract, which means he will be out of a job, the AP reports.

[LFC]

From one of the nation's primary shitholes, Alabama, I bring you The Religious Stupidity Show!

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Ever since the U.S. Supreme Court recognized that same-sex couples have the same constitutional rights and responsibilities of marriage as different-sex couples do, Alabama Republican state Senator Greg Albritton has worked to eliminate marriage licenses altogether.

On Thursday, the Alabama Senate took a big step toward recognizing Senator Albritton’s dream.

In a unanimous 26-0 vote, as Rocket City Now reports, lawmakers passed a bill that would eliminate marriage licenses altogether – and, to the Republican Senator’s point – eliminate the need for probate judges to issue the licenses to same-sex couples.

Even four years after same-sex couples have been legally marrying across the country, some probate judges in Alabama are still refusing to issue licenses. Albritton’s bill, should it become law, would take away any possible discomfort for these anti-gay judges.

As of last June at least eight Alabama counties were not issuing marriage licenses at all, according to AL.com.

Couples instead would merely fill out a form at their local courthouse, but it would not be a “license.”

OK, maybe you think that merely facepalm worthy and you could be right but then we have this from the same scumbag.

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“As a believing Christian, Greg Albritton is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints,” Senator Albritton’s campaign website states. “Being a life-long conservative, Greg strongly supports the clear Constitutional rights as originally written. These include the right of every citizen to keep and bear arms, to worship God without government interference, and the right to private property ownership.”

But his campaign website also points to a bill he refused to support that would require “mandatory reporting of known or suspected child abuse or neglect.” Albritton says “I voted against this bill because it threatened the freedom of the clergy.”

You sick, sick, mother f***er! You're the Catholic Church all over again.

[Traveler]

LFC, on 22 March 2019 - 04:42 PM, said:

This is the kind of disgusting behavior the Christianists want legalized. No matter what your view on the bathroom non-issue is there is no way to justify a school official doing this to a child. Thank heavens the county school board did the right thing after the county superintendent dropped the ball.

At least the district canned him. So there is that...