The American Bible Belt Spanks Again

If there's a news article you'd like to discuss (witchcraft related or not), this is the place to do it.
Post Reply
User avatar
Kassandra
Posts: 3193
Joined: Tue Jan 06, 2009 11:42 pm
Gender: Female
Location: Terra, Sol III, Milky Way Galaxy
Contact:

The American Bible Belt Spanks Again

Post by Kassandra »

.

Religious persecution.jpg
Religious persecution.jpg (53.94 KiB) Viewed 2097 times
Looks like it has a typo, lol


County officials in Virginia have apparently violated the constitution by designating which religious leaders can deliver prayers before public meetings, according to the state’s American Civil Liberties Union. The ACLU sent a letter Thursday to the Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors, which had limited opening prayers to ordained leaders of monotheistic religions (i.e., or "Abrahamic," technically meaning the likes of Judaism, Christianity or Islam...but in reality they just mean Christianity).

“The First Amendment requires governing bodies to allow everyone the chance to deliver prayers before official meetings,” said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. “If they don’t, then what they’re doing is unconstitutional.” A state appeals court upheld the county’s policy in a 2005 ruling, and the board has invited local clergy whose names are drawn from an official county list.

Almost all of those religious leaders have represented Christian denominations, and the county has denied a Wiccan’s request to be added to the list. Officials defended that decision, saying the “neo-pagan” faith does not fall within the Judeo-Christian tradition and “invokes polytheistic, pre-Christian deities.” Huh? Christianity is just Paganism 2.0...Happy Oestre, Merry Saturnalia, etc. lol And since when is Christianity exempt from "separation of church and state" constitutional law? Did I miss something? --K] .

That claim led to a lawsuit by Americans United and the ACLU, but the groups say the board continues to exclude even some monotheistic faiths, such as the county’s Sikh congregation. A recent U.S. Supreme Court decision permits local municipalities to open meetings with Christian prayer, but the civil liberties groups want to clarify that the ruling does not permit exclusion of non-Christian faiths.

“Since most of the invited clergy (in that case) were Christian, most of the prayers were Christian, as well,” the letter states. “The Court found that this was not by design; rather, ‘[t]he town at no point excluded or denied an opportunity to a would-be prayer giver. Its leaders maintained that a minister or layperson of any persuasion, including an atheist, could give the invocation.’” The letter also said the requirement that religious leaders be ordained is problematic, because some religions do not require ordination – and some “do not have clergy at all.”

Source: rawstory.com/rs/2014/05/23/virginia-county-board-says-no-followers-of-pre-christian-deities-allowed-to-deliver-prayers/


The actual court documents involved in this case are on the ACLU website, here: http://www.acluva.org/docket/simpson.html

This comes on the heels of North Carolina trying to declare Christianity the "state religion" last year, an attempt that failed...this time. See: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/0 ... 16154.html --K





.
User avatar
Xiao Rong
Site Admin
Site Admin
Posts: 3109
Joined: Tue Oct 02, 2012 8:58 am
Gender: Female
Location: New England

Re: Bible Belt Spanks Again

Post by Xiao Rong »

I posted about the same thing in my ongoing post about the recent Supreme Court ruling here ... Although I was born and raised not too far from Chesterfield; I grew up in a very Christian area which certainly shared many commonalities with the Bible Belt, but I didn't realize until I looked it up just now that it technically IS part of the Bible Belt (for some reason I thought it was further south ... Although in my defense Richmond, VA is on the very northernmost edge of the Bible Belt). Whelp, that just goes to show you how much I know about my home state, I guess ...
~ Xiao Rong ~ 小蓉 ~ Little Lotus ~
User avatar
Kassandra
Posts: 3193
Joined: Tue Jan 06, 2009 11:42 pm
Gender: Female
Location: Terra, Sol III, Milky Way Galaxy
Contact:

Re: The Bible Belt Spanks Again

Post by Kassandra »

.


Yeah, it all depends on which map one is looking at. Some include Ol' Virginny, some don't (and you're right, the northern tip is usually not included in any Bible Belt map, lol...that's funny).
Bible Belt Map.jpg
Bible Belt Map.jpg (8.14 KiB) Viewed 2093 times
Source: examiner.com/article/christianity-and-the-south-how-the-bible-belt-stays-buckled

And it's not just the United States that has a Bible Belt. Countries all around the world do, there's even a Bible Belt of India, etc. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bible_Belt



.
User avatar
Firebird
Site Admin
Site Admin
Posts: 8213
Joined: Tue May 10, 2011 12:03 am
Gender: Female
Location: So. Cal.

Re: The Bible Belt Spanks Again

Post by Firebird »

ha! ...looks more like the "bible belly" :lol:
“There are things known and things unknown and in between are the Doors.”
― Jim Morrison
“All I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen.”
― RWEmerson
:mrgreen:
Post Reply

Return to “News/Articles”