Paul Revere by Cyrus Dallin, North End, Boston

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Saturday, July 9, 2022

It's getting worse every day...

 



NASHVILLE, Tennessee (AP) — A panel of Tennessee judges has dismissed a lawsuit filed by a couple who alleged that a state-sponsored Christian adoption agency refused to help them because they are Jewish. 

 The lawsuit against the state challenged a 2020 law that installed legal protections for private adoption agencies to reject state-funded placement of children to parents based on religious beliefs. 

Much of the criticism of the law had focused on how it allowed adoption agencies to discriminate against LGBTQ people. But Elizabeth and Gabriel Rutan-Ram sued over claims that they were discriminated against because they were Jewish, in violation of their state constitutional rights.








"This attempt to redefine religious freedom is part of the growing Christian nationalist movement. Christian nationalism is, as Georgetown professor Paul D. Miller writes, a "political ideology" rather than a religious one, that seeks "to define America as a Christian nation" in which our government must "promote a specific cultural template as the official culture of the country." 

By redefining America in this way, Christian nationalism similarly defines who cannot be a part of America -- namely, non-Christians, as well as others who do not fit within the movement's cultural template -- such as people of color, immigrants and LGBTQ people. 

Make no mistake: Christian nationalism is the opposite of religious freedom. What these right-wing actors advocate for is not religious freedom, but rather the ability of some Christians to be exempted from laws that don't conform to their theology. Christian nationalism is closely linked to White supremacy. Both share at their core the notion that America is only for people who share their White Christian identity, an identity that necessarily excludes Jewish Americans. 

There's an alarming rise in anti-Semitism in the United States, visible in acts of violence and discrimination. We must do all we can to protect the rights and safety of religious minorities in our country. 

Another prominent legal challenge is taking place in South Carolina. There, a Protestant child welfare agency that receives taxpayer funding turned away a Catholic woman and a Jewish woman from serving as a foster child mentor."

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

The con/Evangelical/RCC initiative to implement a Christian Theocracy in America. An event that would put us on par with the Muslim Thecracies of the Middle East. And make no mistake, such an event essentially brings back the horrors of the age of burning innocent women at the stake for allegedly being witches. Same shit.. dfferent era.

A huge segment of Americans either know nothing about our true non religous heritage (think constitution) or they simply don't give a rats arse because CONTROL of EVERYTHING, based on RELIGIOUS beliefs that they and they alone approve of.

Ignorance is growing at lightening pace today in a land many can no longer look to as a land of opportunity or freedom.

Anonymous said...

Courts and the justice system allow for any action to be declared illegal, and punishment prescribed. It cannot stop abuses until those abuses are presented to the justice system and a court. Meanwhile, individuals suffer while it takes years for the issue to work its way through the system. That is our system.
Biased and corrupt officials play the system hoping they find a biased court that might find in their favor, and they often do.
Example: the anti-abortion crowd finally (after decades) found a court willing to find in their favor.

Les Carpenter said...

And so much for precedent. There's a legal term for it in latin... stare decisis. It' s the wild wild west all over again and this time it may lead to the dissolution of our republic. The goal of the cons.