Christian Kindness
I remember a friend telling me that having a no-smoking section in a restaurant was like having a no-peeing section in a swimming pool. It doesn’t work.
But, along comes the Super DeLux Brand Christians to test it again, you know, just in case.
We have a snarling Republican activist in Houston named Steven Hotze. He found three ministers to sue Harris County’s stay-at-home policy, saying it is unconstitutional.
Throughout the petition, Hotze and the pastors argue that “the circumstances presented by coronavirus do not excuse unlawful government infringements” and “the free exercise of religion…should not be sacrificed at the altar of political expediency.”
Political expediency? How ’bout life or death? You know, if the snake-handlin’ foot washin’ speaking-in-tongues Christians want to all meet together for a fainting festival, that’s fine. As long as they don’t leave. The minute they leave carrying the virus with them, they are making me practice their religion.
Yes, they are claiming that not letting them meet is a violation of the First Amendment. That’s kinda amusing considering that praying in front of crowds is a violation of the teachings of Jesus.
And of course, along with Sweet Jesus, they are also whining about gun stores being closed. Hotze argues that buying a gun is a constitutional right and the government can’t infringe on the constitution. There are two problems with that, the first being that gun stores aren’t being forced to close. Secondly, this is Houston, Texas. Hell at least 70% of all gun purchases are made out of somebody’s trunk on a backroad.
Onward Christian Soldiers!
Stay away from them people, they’re the kind get people killed with their foolishness.
1I’m happy to stay away from them, if they would only stay the heck away from me.
2Gotta feed the outrage machine. Next thing you know, they’ll claim burning heretics at the stake is a form of speech.
Note that the rules against crowds doesn’t specify churches. It includes all public gatherings- even sports.
3Look, they all claim they want to see Jesus. So let them get together and fulfill their wishes. Personally, I think they’re lying. Everything is bigger in Texas, including stupid.
4Sounds all Jim Jonesy. Are they taking the kids along? – Gahhh!
5Gun stores are open here in CT! Go figure. We sure don’t understand how they qualify as “essential business.”
6Since when do people have to be ‘present’ for the megawatt grifters to beg for dollars? Ironic. The Franklin (let’s be clear here – not a preacher) Graham’s of the world could ground all their aircraft and the world would be a better place. Meanwhile. the smaller service type churches are being innovative to find new ways to safely provide food and shelter to the homeless. If only Steve Mnunchin was a spiritual man beyond mammon he’d direct the banks to open the foreclosed homes as shelters. Yeah and Messy would team with Ivodka to pass out food, clothing and hygiene packages. j/k
It’s no wonder Moscow Mitch was smiling. 0 $ of the 2 trillion have made it to small businesses and people. The corporate welfare chute was never closed and the flood gates are open to another windfall $$$ extravaganza.
7Florida officials have arrested the pastor of a megachurch after detectives say he held two Sunday services with hundreds of people and violated a safer-at-home order in place to limit the spread of the coronavirus.
According to jail records, Pastor Rodney Howard-Browne turned himself in to authorities Monday afternoon in Hernando County, where he lives. He was charged with unlawful assembly and violation of a public health emergency order. Bail was set at $500, according to the jail’s website, and he was released after posting bond.
Hillsborough Sheriff Chad Chronister said in a news conference Monday that he negotiated with the attorney of Pastor Rodney Howard-Browne to turn himself in to authorities in Hernando County. His church is located in Tampa.
In this Monday, March 30, 2020, booking photo provided by the Hernando County Jail, shows Rodney Howard-Browne, pastor of The River Church. Florida officials arrested the pastor of the megachurch after detectives say he held two Sunday services with hundreds of people and violated a safer-at-home order in place to limit the spread of the coronavirus. According to jail records, Pastor Rodney Howard-Browne turned himself in to authorities Monday afternoon in Hernando County, Fla.
“Not only did the church comply with the administrative order regarding six-foot distancing, it went above and beyond any other business to ensure the health and safety of the people,” said a statement from Liberty Counsel, Howard-Browne’s law firm. “Contrary to Sheriff Chronister’s allegation that Pastor Howard-Browne was ‘reckless,” the actions of Hillsborough Country and the Hernando County Sheriff are discriminatory against religion and church gatherings.”
Howard-Browne isn’t alone in refusing to curtail in-person worship services despite public health orders designed to stop the virus from spreading. Churches in Ohio, Kentucky and Louisiana have continued to invite worshippers in recent days as at least a half-dozen states offer some degree of exemption for faith in their orders to shutter nonessential activity during the pandemic.
SORRY, COULD YOU REPEAT THAT SIN, THE EXTRAMARITAL ONE?
In California:A Catholic church begins drive-up confessionals amid coronavirus outbreak
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/03/31/coronavirus-florida-megachurch-pastor-arrested-church-amid-orders/5093160002/
8So, Hotze is still around? I guess that is no surprise. though the Reconstructionists hit their high-water mark years ago. Apparently he’s still got a reliable con, so no point iin working for a living.
9So isn’t God omnipresent? He’s like Santa Claus (he knows when you’ve been bad or good) but his wrath is worse than some piece of coal. Stay at home and pray to God – and ya know what it’s FREEEEEE.
10Between Rodney (we answer to a higher judge than any court in the land), Falwell Jr. (Liberty U. is OPEN), Robert Tilton (hawking the cure for COVID), and Kenneth Copeland (put your hand on the teevee and be healed), you don’t need any more proof that you can’t fix stupid.
But I second Juanita Jean’s assertion that they are making me practice their religion without my consent.
Saw a shirt on Amazon the other day that I might be wearing in the near future outside of these houses of insanity:
11“I’m not anti-social,
“I’m anti-stupid.”
Lest we forget…
OT Federal judge critical of Trump and AG Barr has obtained an un-redacted copy of the Mueller report.
Edit: Walton explained the delay, noting that the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia’s “review of the unredacted version of the Mueller report is unable to occur until the Court resumes its normal operations on April 20, 2020, unless the Court’s normal operations are further suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic.”
emptywheel
@emptywheel
For those bitching about this delay, please note that Judge Walton is 71 years old and has been one of the DC District judges most willing to take on Executive overreach in recent decades. Let’s keep him safe.
https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/federal-judge-critical-of-trump-and-ag-barr-has-obtained-an-un-redacted-copy-of-the-mueller-report/
12Two GREAT videos!
Right-wing evangelist Jonathan Shuttlesworth, a close friend of Rodney Howard-Browne, says he intends to hold a large Woodstock-like Christian gathering in defiance of stay-at-home orders.
Video.
https://twitter.com/RightWingWatch/status/1245019150545760256
A conservative Christian pastor issued an angry rebuke of churches taking measures to prevent the spread of coronavirus, calling them “sissies” and “pansies” who have been “neutered.”
Video.
https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2020/03/pastor-says-sissies-pansies-wash-hands-prevent-coronavirus/
13There’s a Provision in the relief bill to give houses or worship and other non-profits an SBA loan to cover wages with a potential of having the loan forgiven. I’ll be interested in seeing if this is a law Hotze is interested in participating in.
14Gun shops in LA (that’s Los Angeles, not Louisiana) have re-opened, after a Federal memo listed them as “essential” businesses.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-52108162
15I saw on news a gun shop’s comments after Trump administration listed gun shops and ammo providers as essential businesses. He said not only are they open, but they are making 10x normal sells each day. Many of those buying our first time gun owners.
Some people are obviously preparing for apocalypse.
16Entitlements… because the rich asked her to.
Meanwhile: Rent and bills are due tomorrow for millions.
“Pelosi’s Terrible Idea”: Critics Denounce Proposal to Give Wealthy a Tax Cut in Next Stimulus Package
Edit: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is reportedly set to propose rolling back a cap on tax deductions, which would benefit high-earning Americans, as part of the next step of an economic stimulus package that has already poured trillions into the U.S. economy—much of it going to the richest individuals and corporations in the country.
“This is almost unbelievable,” HuffPost senior reporter Emily Peck tweeted in response to the news. “Of all the things to do to help people; she wants to… give upper middle class people a tax break.”
The California Democrat’s plan to retroactively undo the state and local tax (SALT) deduction limits would be a major tax break for households earning over $100,000, according to critics like University of Michigan professor Justin Wolfers.
“Retroactive tax deductions are always a bad idea—a giveaway that gets you nothing—and this one goes almost entirely to household on at least $100,000 a year,” said Wolfers of the plan.
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/03/31/pelosis-terrible-idea-critics-denounce-proposal-give-wealthy-tax-cut-next-stimulus
17I’m waiting for some enlightened evangelical to announce that covid-19 is because God’s punishing us for electing Trump, but I’m not holding my breath.
18It’s not just here. The Independent has an article about religious extremists making things worse all over the world. (You’ll need a subscription, sorry.)
https://www.independent.co.uk/independentpremium/voices/coronavirus-religious-extremism-iran-united-states-pakistan-israel-india-a9433181.html
19Some folks might think that Sandridge has sounded a little alarmist lately, jokingly or not. But what strikes me the most about what’s being done and said by the right lately feed directly into some of the most basic fears they’ve been pounding for generations. “The federal government wants to take away all our rights. Take our hard-earned money to support lazy moochers. Let foreign (non-white, non-christian) moochers and terrorists invade our country so they can vote for more evil Democrats who’ll take even more rights and more money. Take our guns so we can’t keep big-government Democrats from doing all the above or the moochers from doing it themselves. AND NOW KEEP US FROM ASSEMBLING TO TALK AMOUNG OURSELVES OR WORSHIP TOGETHER LIKE BABY JESUS WROTE IN THE TEN COMMANDMENTS!!!
20Or the Constitution of Independence.
Same difference.”
I have to constantly remind myself that to at least 40% of Americans, fox news is middle of the road, or even fairly liberal. And now we’ve got social media allowing who-the-hell-knows-who to shovel the most rabidly inflammatory bile down their throats as of it were legitimate journalism,
in obscurity, where it can’t be countered. Taken altogether, the way I see it, the present situation is by far the closest thing to the ammosexual apocalyptic survivalists’ fantasy they’ve ever seen.
Guns and toilet paper.
Doesn’t surprise me at all.
Jane&PKM@7: Why do they have to be physically present? It’s a well-know psychological feature that if people physically around you are donating money, then you are more likely to do so. And to contribute more. On-line, you don’t have your neigbors giving you the stink-eye when you pass the plate without dropping some currency into it. So these god-men are just looking after the most important thing in their religon: getting the rubes to cough up the dough.
I speak (OK, write) with authority as an ordained minister of the Universal Life Church, Inc (as of 1978). That concludes the Professor’s Sermon on the Web; be sure to toss some dough into our proprietess’s favorite ActBlue causes.
21Just heard Andrew Cuomo say again today about how states are pitted against each other AND THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT in bidding wars for desperately needed supplies and equipment. Even though through f*cking trump’s active campaign to downplay the need for them 2 months ago, massive shortages are now the norm. So who’s following the money? Who invested in the companies that are profiteering and who shorted the entire industries that are tanking? This inquiring mind wants to know.
22Reminds me of the “thinking” of those who hosted hurricane parties along the coast. Totally suicidal.
23On my bike ride yesterday I passed a vehicle parked by the curb. It had a bumper sticker that said ‘LGBT’, with smaller letters underneath each capital letter. Naturally, this made me curious, so I went back to take another look.
Underneath each capital letter was this:
L – Liberty;
G – Guns;
B – Beer;
T – Trump.
The B for Beer made me think of the spring breaker in Florida who said coronavirus or no coronavirus, it wasn’t going to stop him from partying, and I wondered if the owner of this vehicle was any relation. I also wondered if the owner thought the Liberty on the bumper sticker applied as much to real LGBT people as to him- or herself. I’d bet that s/he (almost certainly a he) doesn’t.
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