H.R. 2679, The "Christian Supremacy Act", To Hit House Floor

[Freedom_from_Chains]

H.R. 2679, The "Christian Supremacy Act", To Hit House Floor
By Bruce Wilson Wed Sep 13, 2006 at 11:51:55 PM EST
topic: 'Faith Based Initiative'


< UPDATE : is this bill just about religious displays in literal "public squares" ? NO it is vastly farther reaching. H.R. 2679 is designed to gut the Establishment Clause, to render it largely meaningless. See text of bill, below.>
H.R. 2679 has emerged from the House Judiciary Committee and is ready to hit the floor. What is H.R. 2679 designed to do ? Well, it's designed to defund plaintiffs in Establishment Clause cases by eliminating awards for attorney's fees. What will that mean ? Well, let's take a case that's not hypothetical at all, a real incident.

So - for example - if you're a Jewish family living in Southern Delaware and you complain about the rather blatant and exclusionary promotion of Christianity in the local public school and you and your family are subsequently harassed and your children called "Christ killers", subject to death threats, and eventually hounded out of town ( and along the way you have to sell your house of 18 years under duress ), the point of the law is to make it harder for you to seek some sort of legal redress.

So, if H.R. 2679 ( ironically titled "the Public Expression of Religion Act" ) passes the US House and Senate, that family hounded out of its home in Southern Delaware would be hard pressed to scratch up the money to take the school board that was defending the "Christianizing" of local schools to court. It would be financially prohibitive. Now, somebody might start a petition "Regarding Religious Intolerance In Public Schools" ( in fact, someone did and you can even sign it - please do ) but that would be unlikely to help your family out directly.

(con't) http://www.talk2action.org/story/2006/9/13/235155/338

[volstork]

1. K&R

[MadMaddie]

2. Who sponsered this shit?

These type of bills are so closely mirroring the Nazi way it's frightening....

[Erika]

3. This is what the GOP Christian Theocrats have been doing

since W got in. Pure and simple. They get wars going to kill innocent kids and slide in their interpretaion of their religious agenda on the side.

[tinfoil tiaras]

4. The house passes all sorts of crazy shit

But by far, this is the craziest I've heard of. "Christian Supremacy"? They just need to add "White" in the front and the KKK can rest easy, knowing that part of the US government is taking their shit seriously... :eyes:

[NMMNG]

5. "Oh, you atheists are a bunch of reactionaries. They'll never do anything like that."

Uh huh.

[beam me up scottie]

7. Yeah, those damn whackjob atheists are to blame, right?

Nope, sorry folks, not this time.

This time, we owe it all to the people who always tried to silence the ACLU and the whackjob atheists who wouldn't shut the hell up about that stupid separation of church and state thingy, you know, because they made the Democratic party hostile to religion.


Thank you for bringing us one step closer to becoming the world's newest theocracy. :applause: :patriot:

[NMMNG]

8. And now that they're our new overlords

We're supposed to make kissyface with the RR people who might consider thinking about voting Democratic.

How about we just slit our wrists and get it over quickly. :sarcasm:

[beam me up scottie]

9. Yep, they use their potential vote as a weapon to silence gays too.

Every fucking election year we get thrown off the bus because we might scare off the fragile christians.

Harris and Dawkins are right, the moderates who won't allow religion to be criticized are just as responsible for this as the moral majority.

[NMMNG]

10. Gays, atheists,

Pro-choicers, stem-cell research advocates...basically anybody who disagrees with the control freaks.

Maybe the Dems should just scrunch up their faces, say some prayers and tell the RR they're going to get a f'ing faith based thing. It worked for the Rethugs.

[beam me up scottie]

11. That's what a lot of them want us to do.

I guess it's easier to stomach if you're one of the privileged majority.

I appreciate the believers who fight just as hard as we do for secular government.

[NMMNG]

22. As do I

I've even met some on other boards. It's nice to know not all of them are ready to throw us under the bus for political expediency or to please their deity.

[Freedom_from_Chains]

13. Yes, Harris and Dawkins are right. Pass it along. n/t

[jonnyblitz]

26. !!!

:thumbsup:

[appleannie1]

18. I am appalled

by this and I am a Christian. True Christians believe that all people, no matter their religion, color or what, are children of God and all should be treated equally. What some churches preach today could not be further from the teachings of Christ if they tried. Do not put down all people of faith just because of the rantings of the hypocrits calling themselves Christian today.

[beam me up scottie]

24. Appalled? At what? Did you even read my post?

I said :

"the moderates who won't allow religion to be criticized are just as responsible for this as the moral majority."

Did you miss the obvious qualifier or just ignore it?

If you think religion should be immune from criticism, you're part of the problem.

If you don't, the statement isn't about you.

[Freedom_from_Chains]

25. The problem is it is the moderates such as yourself,

which give these people legitimacy.

[beam me up scottie]

27. No, you're wrong. I couldn't disagree more.

The liberal christians who fight for secularism are our allies, not our enemies.

Christians who condemn dominionism and its proponents are taken much more seriously than atheists who do the same.

The "moral" majority have vilified the ACLU and atheists for so long, anything we say is misunderstood and misrepresented.

Having liberal christians standing beside us is an asset, and we cannot possibly win this war without them.


And just so we're clear, I despise organized religion, not believers.

[Sam1]

31. Unless the liberal believers

are organized they will have little impact. The fundies are dangerous because they are organized.

[beam me up scottie]

33. But many liberal believers ARE organizing.

Unfortunately, the "moral" majority is decades ahead of them and have successfully installed their people in all branches of government.

[mongo]

6. Theocracy in motion

coming to courthouse to you soon...

Why are so many of our elected reps traitors to the constitution?

[Freedom_from_Chains]

12. Only six (6) replies, that's sad.

Guess trashing the Constitution is alright with people these days.

[robinlynne]

14. This article is from early september. when is this bill to be voted upon?

[struggle4progress]

16. It passed the House in late September

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h109-2679

[Realityhack]

19. It is appauling to me that...

enough people are willing to vote for a blatantly anti-constitutional law that it able to pass. And this is far from the only example.

Frankly I think every rep who voted for this deserves to live in Iran.

[immoderate]

15. Mmph!

:scared:

--IMM

[Laelth]

17. K & R

Very important!

-Laelth

[JudyM]

20. K&R

[sinkingfeeling]

21. This bill was passed by the House 9/26/06 with 97% GOP voting for and

87% of Democrats voting against it.

[Realityhack]

23. So what I am hearing is...

13% of democrats are idiots ;-)

[Danger Mouse]

28. That is...

Just fucking ridiculous.

[skyblue]

29. SOB we need to organize.....Fundys are screwing us over and we don't know it 'til

it's too late.

[Meshuga]

30. Hall of shame: list of Democrats who support this garbage

Nick Rahall, Democrat from West Virginia co-sponsored this bill.

Here is a list of Democrats who voted for this:

- Cramer, Robert (Alabama)
- Berry, Robert (AR)
- Cardoza, Dennis (CA)
- Costa, Jim (CA)
- Salazar, John (CO)
- Boyd, F. (FL)
- Marshall, James (GA)
- Barrow, John (GA)
- Scott, David (GA)
- Lipinski, Daniel (IL)
- Melancon, Charles (LA)
- Peterson, Collin (MN)
- Skelton, Ike (MO)
- McIntyre, Mike (NC)
- Boren, Dan (OK)
- Spratt, John (SC)
- Herseth, Stephanie (SD)
- Davis, Lincoln (TN)
- Gordon, Barton (TN)
- Hinojosa, Ruben (TX)
- Ortiz, Solomon (TX)
- Cuellar, Henry (TX)
- Matheson, Jim (UT)
- Rahall, Nick (WV)


Democrats listed as "no vote":

- Davis, James (FL)
- Lewis, John (GA)
- Evans, Lane (IL)
- Jefferson, William (LA)
- Meehan, Martin (MA)
- Strickland, Ted (OH)
- Brown, Sherrod (OH)
- Ford, Harold (TN)

[Vidar]

32. Utterly contemptible & entirely unconstitutional.