We examine the religious privilege inherent in two recent US Supreme Court religious freedom cases and debunk a historical fable that has been used by courts to allow legislative prayer for decades.
Tag: religious privilege
We knew it would be bad for religious freedom when Trump was allowed to appoint three justices to the Supreme Court, once again a majority on the court pull a decision out of their ass to give the religious special privledge during a pandemic. We also update a previous segment on our broken election system and why Georgia’s law is obviously a return to the days of Jim Crow.
In this episode Doug talks to Nick Little, Legal Director of the Center for Inquiry, about several recent federal court decisions that ignore science and logic to allow churches to ignore public health orders during this pandemic. Where is the irreparable harm from a limit to the number of people allowed to particpate in an in-person church service. Nick explains how this all started with the Hobby Lobby contraceptive case and we will be living with it for some time to come.
In this episode Doug explains why the just passed COVID relief bill is doing Democrats no favors. Next three local private schools try to do an end around COVID restrictions for sports. Doug also talks about some team mascot changes and why people still complain about them and finally we look at the just passed House Resolution 512 that calls on countries that have them to repeal their blasphemy laws.
00:36 Only Six-hundred Dollars?
08:03 School COVID Cheats
16:20 Offensive Unoffensive School Mascots
20:52 Blasphemy Be Gone
Former Ohio Governor George Voinovich poses in 1998 with the state seal and motto he had installed at the Statehouse
While cleaning out some old files, I came across a 1998 newspaper clipping that opposed the use of the Ohio state motto, ‘With God All Things Are Possible‘, as a lawn decoration at the statehouse. ACLU of Ohio v. Capitol Square Review and Advisory Board was the first separation of church and state case I followed closely. I published handcrafted web pages that included some thoughts about the case and the text of newspaper clippings from the time. Even 20 years later, the Ohio state motto is still religious.
Back in mid 90s, the Ohio Governor at the time, George Voinovich, had seen religious messages engraved onto government buildings while on a trade trip to India. He thought since the Ohio state house was getting a massive restoration at the time that it would be a good idea to engrave our religous state motto, ‘With God All Things Are Possible’, on the building.
Genoa (OH) High School Principal Cari Buehler
This week the Genoa Ohio Local Schools removed an obvious religious sign posted in the High School that demanded the viewer to ‘Follow Christ’. Thanks to the work of the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) the district was reminded of its obligation to church and state separation and acted accordingly. It seems that the High school principal missed the point.
In a public Facebook post on May 1st, Genoa High School Principal, Cari Buehler, complained about having to take down the sign.