Rep. John Becker (R-65) claims to be Ohio’s most conservative legislator. He also claims to be ‘Pro-Life,’ Pro-Gun, and ‘Limited Government’, yet a recent anti-abortion bill he introduced shows Becker to not only not be pro-life or for limited government but also shows he isn’t very bright about basic biology. He’s made Ohio government even more of a laughing stock in the country and it passed a so-called ‘heartbeat’ bill.
Comedian Adam Ferrara has a very direct one-liner that he uses to define Catholicism: “Basically, if it feels good, stop.”
Depending on who you ask, Catholics may or may not qualify as Christians. The idea of preserving oneself, however, as a matter of faith, is present in both. The Bible says that “your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit.” A vessel that should remain pure to carry out the Lord’s work.
But as we know, many people of Christian faith practice some form of indulgence and don’t believe it to compromise their faith. So the fact that the Christian right takes such an issue with marijuana is a bit confounding.
Sin and Perception
The world is an opportunistic place. As Steve Jobs famously implied, in order to sell something, in order to manipulate a desired response from someone else, you need to be speaking the language of emotions. Whether fear, desire or shame, empires have been built on exploiting the base emotional reactions of other humans, and in some cases, monetizing them.
You could argue that religion, the oldest form of politics, is one place where appealing to people’s insecurities is customary — whether promising satisfaction of carnal desires or immortality through reincarnation of your true essence. In a time where secularism is on the rise, it is natural that more and more individuals who subscribe to a religion will want to prove its relevance and importance, and objectify just about anything to do so. It’s only natural to see and hear the scaremongers.
The long drawn out saga of John Freshwater, the Mount Vernon Ohio middle school teacher who was fired for injecting his religious beliefs into his science classes, is officially over after the US Supreme Court refused to hear his appeal from a 2013 Ohio Supreme Court ruling that upheld his termination. Now he can move to the Bible and Chicken Dinner circuit playing the ‘martyr’ he believes he had become.
The National Center for Science Education (NCSE) reported on August 19th that Ohio Representatives Andy Thompson (R-95) and Matt Huffman (R-4) introduced House Bill 597 to repeal Ohio’s participation in the Common Core curriculum. Even with recent changes, it includes language that would allow creationism and climate change denial to be taught in the public schools.
In probably the last gasp for Mount Vernon, Ohio’s proselytizing teacher, John Freshwater, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled 4-3 today that his termination for insubordination was correct. In addition the court ruled that Freshwater had his rights violated when the school district demanded he remove his personal Bible from his classroom desk but that his additional actions in defying that order was enough to justify removing him.