Missouri ‘Right To Pray’ Amendment Will Allow Creationists To Refuse To Study Evolution
Earlier this week, Missouri’s Amendment 2 ballot measure — dubbed the “right to pray” amendment — passed the state legislature with 83 percent of the vote. The amendment’s backers claim it puts important protections in place for Missouri’s Christians, who they say are often “public targets” despite the fact that Christians currently represent 80 percent of the state’s population.
The ballot language said the amendment will ensure religious liberty by allowing Missouri school children to express their beliefs openly in school and permitting state-funded schools to publicly display the Bill of Rights, both expressions that are already protected. In advance of the vote, the American Civil Liberties Union called the summary on the ballot “misleading because all people in Missouri currently enjoy very robust protections of their religious liberties” under both the state constitution and the U.S. Constitution.
Amendment 2 isn’t simply a superfluous reinforcement of existing protections, however. Although the ballot summary did not explicitly mention the section of the amendment that far oversteps the precedent of the separation between church and state, the “right to pray” amendment will also allow students to refuse to participate in any school assignments they believe violate their religious beliefs.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that advocacy and legal groups are already gearing up to fight against the new amendment:
“This was misleading in its presentation and possibly unconstitutional in its application, so now we’re headed for the courts,” said Karen Aroesty of the Anti-Defamation League of Missouri and Southern Illinois. “We’ll let the next branch of the democratic process do its part, and I suspect a case will be on file pretty soon.”Critics have warned the amendment will indeed open the door to taxpayer-funded lawsuits.“This is going to be a nightmare for school districts, which will end up getting sued by individuals on both sides of church-state debate,” said Alex Luchenitser, associate legal director for Americans United for the Separation of Church and State. “This is the most far-out constitutional amendment we’ve seen in the church-state area.”
The ACLU warns that giving students the power to reject any part of their academic assignments represents a “truly profound change in educational law” that will “adversely affect the quality of education in Missouri.” However, it is filing suit over yet another problematic aspect of the far-reaching law: while the amendment strengthens religious protections for students in state-funded schools and legislators on government property, it actually lessens the religious freedom of the state’s inmates, stripping prisoners of their state constitutional protections for religious expression.
States like Tennessee, Indiana, Oklahoma, New Hampshire, and Missouri have also moved toward allowing students to pursue religiously-based education in public schools, such as creationism or intelligent design in science classes. Louisiana’s Department of Education is currently under fire for funneling state funds into religious schools with Bible-based curricula.
So what does this have to do with hypocrites? Great question. Most of the fuckers pushing for the removal of science from SCIENCE classes in PUBLIC schools are the same fuckers who want to throw the constitution in every body's faces when they imagine up a new gun control law that hasn't even be actually...ya know...mentioned by lawmakers. Ok...correct me if I am wrong but our constitution was set up to protect American citizens from their nation being ruled by ANY religion, correct? That whole separation of church and state thing? Also, if I am not mistaken, if you want your children to be taught religion instead of science are there not options like home schooling and private Christian schools? I thought so. Now, I do not own a gun. I do not like guns. I will never ever own one because for me, personally, they are a risk I do not want to take. However, I completely support the right of others in this nation to keep their guns. (With the exception of semi-automatic weapons. There is no reason to have those for personal use ever.) There are many reasons why I support this including the fact that the reason why this was so important to our forefathers was because they had lived under English rule and they knew that when only the government and people associated with the government had guns, the balance of power was tipped in the favor of government and they never wanted that. And...oh yes...I am NOT a hypocrite who only takes out what I like from the constitution while denying or stripping away rights disregarding the parts that do not interest me.
Now, let's look at this bullshit in Missouri from a practical stand point. If the children in the state hope to go to college, do you know how hard that will be when they are attempting to do college biology ( a required course) without any knowledge of evolution and high school biology? And if they decide to be psych majors like yours truly, after they finish their standard biology class they can then look forward to two bio-psychology classes and a class in evolutionary psychology. And that is just to get your bachelor's. If they want to be medical doctors? Good luck with that. The concept of taking out real scientific knowledge for religion, anybody's religion, turns my stomach. If I walked into my child's science class and I heard the teacher telling my kid how the Goddess danced around and created the cosmos, I would have my kid out of there before you can say 'Blessed be'. Because even if that is part of the general creation myth for Wiccans, it has no business in a classroom. Neither do Bible teachings. Hell, science can back up magic. Yes, yes it can. Physics tells us that there are billions of particles of energy floating around in the universe that has no purpose and if you find a way to direct it, you can use it. So, find a way to direct it and...Viola! You have a spell. No shit. But that doesn't mean that I want my high-school kid taught physics in that way. Because that is a personal choice I expect any kid I raise to make on their own when they become old enough. Not only that, in an academic setting such knowledge cannot be applied in the future. Therefore, it has no purpose in a PUBLIC school. In addition to all of this, even if they have no plans to allow an option where the creation myth is taught in place of evolution in a public school, even if it is just that the kids can opt out of the class....do you think colleges are going to allow them such an option when they try to work on degrees? Hell no. So by allowing, encouraging, or demanding that your child not learn about evolution, a very important part of biology which is a science they will need in higher education settings, you are doing harm to your kid's future. And by a state allowing this they have crossed the line between church and state...a line that is very clearly drawn in a document that apparently those who shout about it the loudest don't actually give a fuck about, and to the detriment of the kids attempting to get an education.
I am not "moral" in the traditional sense. I do not give a damn what a person does with his or her sex life so long as no one is getting hurt and it doesn't directly affect me. I am not bothered by who a person loves. I think cussing is the second language I was born to be fluent in, I don't stay in my place, and you will never see me at church every Sunday. I have but one thing that guides me morally. That whatever you do in this life is your business as long as you don't intentionally hurt someone. And I stand by that with everything I am. I do not break it. And I will not stand by and watch as it is broken by someone else, even if the bending or breaking of that rule would somehow be to my advantage. (Say, for instance, that it was suddenly decided that writers would control everything in the nation the way fat cat bankers currently do...that some people would starve, others would die from lack of insurance, because they were not writers. I would not participate in nor would I stand back and watch that even though this new rule would put me on top) I don't expect that the entire world think like me. That would be fucking scary. Nor do I expect everyone to stick to their guns one hundred percent of the time. My sense of justice (right and wrong) is very strong. I can't help it. However, when you are constantly being a fucking hypocrite, when you don't even believe the bullshit you are saying or supporting, but you are doing it because it goes along with someone else's agenda? I have no more patience left for that shit. That thinking is literally destroying fifty years worth of progress that was gained through blood, sweat, and tears because somehow somewhere along the way people got it in their heads that hate should become the force that drives them. Why?
People like me? We don't want to take away your rights. We just want our own rights upheld as they are supposed to be. The major backtracking slowly into the beginning of the 20th century now that we've done in two short years is disgusting. We are back to women having to fight to be equal, we are still watching homosexuals fight like hell to be treated like every other homosapien, and now we are back to 1930 trying to justify why science should be taught in a science class? Of course...why not destroy science altogether? That would be even better for the narrow minded, wouldn't it? It is the link that proves we are, as humans, the same more or less (at least in DNA...though there are slight variances of course), it taught us the scientific answers for the superstitions that controlled people once, and it single-handedly provided proof for things like evolution while the theory of religion alone has presented the same lack of proof throughout the centuries. But for me, that's ok. I have my scientific knowledge and my religious soul. I can have both. Millions of others in America pull it off too. If you cannot, perhaps you should start questioning your faith in God instead of trying to destroy what a child needs to know to succeed in life. Because the reason I can have both is that I am very firm in my religious beliefs. To me, anyone secure with their path would not feel this damned threatened by facts. So work your own shit out. And lay off education. Because it is through education as a whole that lives are changed for the better.
Have a beautiful week, blogger people. And again, I hope to have something lighter for next week's chat. :)
I think this song is highly appropriate for this topic. Not the imagery. That was Manson getting attention from the people who, at that time, were standing outside his shows telling everyone coming in that they were going to hell. No...for the chorus that seems to so perfectly sum up the current mood. :) 'Do you love your guns, god, and government...fuck yeah!'
No comments:
Post a Comment