Written By: Anton Sawyer
Often those who claim to be the most moral in a society tend to be the most ruthless and possess the least amount of actual character. Typically, I would write something about the moral hypocrisies of the Cancel Culture unit in the Social Justice Warrior League on the liberal end of the spectrum, but not today. The Christian Coalition (and its plethora of offshoots) have become just as heinous with the way it manipulates both the legal and social realms of America. Though I’ve shown many examples previously (which you can read here The Separation Of Church And State Does Not Exist In America), when it comes to the contrite arrogance of God’s Warriors, there will always be a wellspring of power and corruption to drink from.
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Let's go back to the early days of America and look at one of the earliest laws predicated on a sense of moral correctness; felons and jury duty. One of the primary reasons why those with a felony aren't allowed to serve on a jury goes back a few hundred years when an archaic law was passed which said felons were “bad or immoral” and therefore shouldn't make judgments for “good” people. That these people don’t have the moral compass to satisfactorily discern between right and wrong. Though there have been many legal challenges to this law over the years, it is still the case in many states to this day. These kinds of laws are nothing new to the US. Yet it seems that between the Trump presidency and the Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission case of 2017-2018, those who are a part of a larger class that believes in a God and claims to have given their eternal soul to Jesus Christ, are being incredibly brazen as of late.
Since Roe v. Wade was decided in the 1970s, those with a religious bent have done everything they can to stop it in whatever ways they could conjure. They did take the appropriate steps when it came to legal challenges making their way up to the Supreme Court, but after a few decades of defeats, they realized that chipping away at the existing interpretations of the laws would be their best bet. As of late, these legal challenges have been coming fast and furious. There are two specific rulings that I wanted to look at. The first happened in 2019 when Alabama made it possible for a doctor performing an abortion to face up to 99 years in prison. The second happened in 2021 with the Supreme Court ruling on Catholic Social Services and gay couples becoming foster parents. Before all of that, I wanted to get to the core—where this mixing of faith and public policy are not only allowed, but encouraged in our youth.
Having written before about what exactly is being taught in our schools (you can read that here How So Many People Live In A Fact-Free World (Or: What Exactly Is Being Taught In Our Schools)), there has to be someone in charge to allow the fact that in some southern states, it is taught in public schools that Moses was a phantom who assisted in penning the US Constitution with the founding fathers. With the rise of creationism being taught as fact in many public educational institutions over the last dozen years or so, it’s no surprise to see such a co-mingling of Church and State.
There are currently 12 states, along with Washington DC, that teach some form of creationism in public schools. Though there are plenty of examples to give, I think the most egregious is in Louisiana. The Louisiana Science Education Act of 2008 allows teachers to use “supplemental textbooks and other instructional materials to help students understand, analyze, critique, and review scientific theories in an objective manner,” specifically theories regarding “evolution, the origins of life, global warming, and human cloning”—in effect, allowing creationist material inside the classroom.
It’s no coincidence that the Discovery Institute, a creationist think tank that provides such “supplemental textbooks,” helped write the bill, which the American Association for the Advancement of Science described as an “assault against scientific integrity.” This completely flies in the face of any kind of reality or fact. It is teaching these children that science isn’t about what can be tested and disproven, but that feelings are just as valid of an interpretation. This is the basis of their reality and faith. In many Christ-based religions, one of the most important steps is to “feel the Holy Spirit.” Though the methodology may change from one religion to the next—some may require intense prayer, while others may have a specific dogmatic practice—all roads are meant to lead to the same outcome: feeling something inside that can be interpreted as the Holy Spirit. This is where basic science—which they fear most—comes into play. If you think that it is some sort of diving specter welcoming your soul to eternal righteousness if you feel this sensation, it isn’t. It is your brain producing a physical manifestation of your hopes. A 2016 research report done by the University of Utah School of Medicine found that religious and spiritual experiences activate the brain reward circuits in much the same way as love, sex, gambling, drugs, and music. This report was later published in the November 29th edition of the journal “Social Neuroscience.” When combining these factors, you have children that grow up to become adults with a political agenda.
As I mentioned earlier, in Alabama it is now possible for a doctor to be sentenced to up to 99 years in prison for performing an abortion. HB 314, called the “Human Life Protection Act” makes it possible for a doctor who performs an abortion to receive a Class-A felony, unless under incredibly restrictive reasons; most of which centers around a “serious health risk” to the mother or if the “unborn child has a lethal anomaly.” What was interesting about this vote was the fact that 28 legislators refused to vote after the Republicans blocked the rape and incest amendment. So if you are a doctor whose patient is a 14-year-old girl that was sexually assaulted by an immediate family member, you can do nothing. Even if the relationship between the two results in the child having mental abnormalities, it does not matter. If you perform an abortion, then you are in the same legal category as a first-degree murderer, a first-degree kidnapper, and on the same legal footing as someone convicted of first-degree rape.
What adds another layer to this absurdity is that in Alabama you can legally marry your first cousin. Per both The Spruce and Legal Match—both are sites that explain different state laws for legal marriage purposes—first cousins are allowed to marry each other in Alabama. This is because Alabama recognizes common law marriages. A common law marriage is one where two persons have the mental capacity to enter into a marriage, have an agreement to be married, and carry themselves out in public as a married couple; including first cousins. Though I find first cousins marrying morally repugnant, I honestly don’t care. It doesn’t impact me, and both of them pay taxes. They are both being an economic addition to the society they live in, and if the Church paid their taxes as well, then there might be wiggle room for their takeover of the political process. I digress.
The other recent case involved the SCOTUS ruling in Fulton vs. City of Philadelphia where it was upheld with a vote of 9-0 that the Catholic Church can deny same-sex couples from participating in their foster care program. The justices decided that Philadelphia's refusal to use Catholic Social Services for foster care services unless it agreed to certify same-sex couples as foster parents violated the Constitution's First Amendment guarantee of the free exercise of religion. The ruling, written by conservative Chief Justice John Roberts, was a victory for Catholic Social Services (CSS), part of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, and represented the latest instance of the Supreme Court taking an expansive view of religious rights under the U.S. Constitution. John Roberts is in a special place of hypocrisy on this vote, given what he wrote in the 2018 decision in Masterpiece Cake vs. Colorado. “We do not doubt that this interest is a weighty one, for our society has come to the recognition that gay persons and gay couples cannot be treated as social outcasts or as inferior in dignity and worth.” This ruling hits home a little bit because it was what Roberts wrote in 2018 that was an inspiration for me and my ex-fiance at the time to adapt to a gay couple. We both believed in what Frank Zappa once said; “The mind is like a parachute, it can’t work if it isn’t open.”
Having been both raised in very closed-minded states like Utah and Wyoming, when it was found she was pregnant and we chose adoption, we specifically knew it would be to a gay couple. There were a few different legal, and personal factors involved, but we eventually sorted it out and flew to Los Angeles for a month to meet the two guys and complete her pregnancy there. When those in our school found out who we adopted to, we were utterly tormented. The acceptance of Jesus being the only rationale for the hate we got. It really only solidified our beliefs that what we did was right.
This SCOTUS ruling flies directly into the face of the rulings they had made just a few years before when it opened up so many of the LGBTQ+ rights. But that’s the plan, isn’t it? As we’ve seen with the Trump presidency, the Christian Coalition is really into the concept of proclaiming they’ve given their eternal souls over to Christ, with little regard for their actions as a whole. It reminds me of an episode of the TV show The Office. It’s where the manager Michael Scott thinks that all he has to do to declare bankruptcy, is to declare bankruptcy. He yelled “I DECLARE BANKRUPTCY!” and felt that he had completed all the needed tasks to make it a reality. To some, this is reality.
In case you missed part 1, check it out here The Separation Of Church And State Does Not Exist In America
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