10 Commandments Issue Creeps into Federal Legislation

[Khephra]

Language that would prohibit U.S. marshals from removing the Ten Commandments monument from the Alabama Judiciary Building was added to federal legislation that passed the US House and is pending in the Senate.

The House voted 260-161 late Wednesday for an amendment that Indiana Congressman John Hostettler tacked on to the Commerce, Justice, State and Judiciary spending bill. The amendment says that none of the funds appropriated in the act could be spent to enforce federal court decisions that Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore must remove a 5,300 pound Ten Commandments monument from the judicial building.

snip...........

The spending bill still must be considered in the Senate, where the amendment could be removed. The House also passed an amendment by Hostettler that would prohibit federal money from being spent to enforce a federal appeals court order that ruled "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance is unconstitutional.

more.............

http://www.wsfa.com/Global/story.asp?S=1375840&nav=0RdEH6m9

[lazarus]

1. give up, folks

It's a religious dictatorship, and it's coming.

What's the weather like in Canada?

[Spazito]

3. Hot as H*ll right now!

around 95 degrees right now! Wait until the fall! LOL

[Heddi]

5. no shite

I believe in God and I hate what is happening to this country---

I keep my religon where it belongs--in my heart and in my mind. I wear no crosses, no stars, no crescents. I do not preach and I do not appreciate others who try to preach to me.

Every day I see "the Handmaid's Tale" as less 'fiction' and more 'impending doom' :-/

[goobergunch]

2. That was by an IN Repuke...

Hostettler's from IN-8...we tried to beat him in 2002, but lost 51.3%-46.0%.

[Khephra]

4. Ooops....I don't know how I confused his parties

I guess I'm :crazy: today.

I LOVE the new Headline Edit function.

:-)

[UpInArms]

6. okay - let's say that this is "good"

and make them live up to them -

how about thou shall not kill

will they outlaw their freakin' wars????

I for one am extremely tired of the hypocrisy that the religious right has gotten away with -

put * and his murdering cronies - all of them - in the deepest darkest prison cell.

:grr:

edit - because I can't type when I'm furious

[alfredo]

10. they say that the commandment is

"thou Shalt not commit murder." They then say that war is not murder. They then say they are declaring war on secular humanist.

I watched those events unfold while watching Jerry Falwell one day.

[UpInArms]

11. twisted logic defies rational thoughts

:puke: :puke:

these people are criminally insane.

Our once great nation will resemble Afghanistan and the Taliban within the next few decades.

This is beyond sad.

[starroute]

They're destroying their own religion by redefining it

Killing is a natural concept. It means to cause the death of someone or something.

But murder is a social concept. It has no meaning except in terms of a specific set of legal definitions. What's more, those legal definitions generally amount to saying that the state has the right to kill whoever it sees fit (executions, police actions, wars) while individuals do not.

Because of this distinction, self-proclaimed Christians who say the commandment merely prohibits murder are undercutting the other commandment which says, "Thou shalt have no other god before me." They're claiming that the state has the right to redefine the word of god however it chooses -- and that claim is at variance with any genuine religious belief.

It's very obvious when you look at history that state-sponsored religions don't long outlive the states which control them. The religions which thrive are those which understand that there are moral imperatives that transcend the dictates of any government.

Redefining a prohibition on killing as a prohibition on murder undermines any idea of moral imperatives. It says that if you kill in ways that are okay with the state, you bear no personal responsibility for the killing. And that idea is clearly atrocious -- among other things, it's already placing an impossible burden on our soldiers, who are ordered to do the killing but are given no help in working out the moral consequences.

What the fundies never seem to remember is that separation of church and state began with Roger Williams in the 1600's -- and that his concern was to protect spiritual freedom of conscience from government meddling. If today's fundamentalists perservere in attempting to make their religion dependent on government, they will not only lose all moral authority but may destroy their particular brand of faith entirely.

[silverweb]

7. Contact your senators.

There is no way this belongs in a federal spending bill. This sneaky method of inserting legislation into unrelated bills should be banned, anyway.

In the meantime, make a stink with your senators!!

:bounce:

[PurityOfEssence]

8. You may not enforce laws we don't like

and you can't stop us from enforcing laws that don't exist.

Whatever happened to the "Rule of Law"? Obviously, these people answer to "a higher law", which is the principal reason why religion should be kept out of government.

We can redistrict past deadlines if we can get it our way.

We don't have to abide by any elections we don't like.

We don't respect any laws we don't like, and will block the required enforcement of them.

Shut up; you don't deserve to exist.

[Nambe]

9. Thou shalt not render unto Caesar...

So if we don't render Caesar's land unto him, we shouldn't pay taxes. I'l buy that for now.

[goobergunch]

12. VOTE NO. 419

           AYES NOES PRES NV 
REPUBLICAN  210   13       5 
DEMOCRATIC   50  147       8 
INDEPENDENT        1     
TOTALS      260  161      13 

http://clerkweb.house.gov/cgi-bin/vote.exe?year=2003&rollnumber=419

[Bandit]

13. 50 Democrats voting yea ~ unfucking believable

The more I see the more I think Nader was right.

[donco6]

14. So if no federal funds can be spent . . .

where can I send a donation to have private funds remove it?

[leesa]

15. Why don't the fake christians just have chips embedded in their

brains if they are incapable of remembering these ten simple rules? I suggest a jolt of electricity whenever they break one of them.