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R.Wreck
SFN Regular
USA
1191 Posts |
 Posted - 10/21/2006 : 13:34:49
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The Texas Theopublican Party is at it again. According to them, an athiest shouldn't be able to hold a public office:
quote:
Candidate for the Sixth Court of Appeals, Ben Franks, is reported to be a professed atheist and apparently believes the Bible is a “collection of myths.”
...
All elected or appointed officials in Texas must take the oath prescribed by Art. XVI, Section 1(a) of the Texas Constitution:
"I, _____ , do solemnly swear (or affirm), that I will faithfully execute the duties of the office of _____ of the State of Texas, and will to the best of my ability preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States and of this State, so help me God."
Should Franks be elected in November, one would have to conclude that he will hold true to his out of touch “atheist” belief system and ignore the laws and Constitution of Texas.
Of course these shitheads would rather ignore the Constitution of the United States which is pretty clear on the issue:
quote:
The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.
According to this article from law.com
quote:
Franks says he's not bothered by the allegation.
"I'm very much an advocate for separation of church and state," Franks says. "In that context, it offends me when people wear their religion on their sleeves."
But, Franks adds, "my religious preferences are my private business. That's not the business of anybody else."
Once again the Texas Theopublicans don't even pretend to represent anyone but those operating under the same superstitious delusions as themselves.
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The foundation of morality is to . . . give up pretending to believe that for which there is no evidence, and repeating unintelligible propositions about things beyond the possibliities of knowledge.
T. H. Huxley
The Cattle Prod of Enlightened Compassion
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
 Posted - 10/21/2006 : 15:59:44 [Permalink]
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Incredible, seeing such religious bigotry from the official Texas Republican Party. What a pack of theonazi scum!
And the numb-skull stupidity of the article! Aside from the adolescent, ungrammatical use of quotation marks around "atheist" as an ignorant person's form of emphasis, their reproduction of the oath itself totally destroys their implied argument that an atheist couldn't be sworn in like a "normal" (Christian) person: "I, _____ , do solemnly swear (or affirm)..."
That form of oath, with its "affirming" option, is still standard throughout the US. It is the embodiment and application of Article VI, Clause 3, of the US Constitution. It's there not only to protect people like Franks from the abuse of religious test, but also because some fundamentalist Christians believe that "swearing" by God is forbidden by the Bible, and is "using the name of God in vain."
These God's Own Petrobux boys in Texas (and from Texas) are growing more fascistic by the day. Thank Darwin they're so stupid that they are inadvertently alienating other fudamentalists.
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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beskeptigal
SFN Die Hard
USA
3834 Posts |
Posted - 10/21/2006 : 17:29:34 [Permalink]
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More history re-writing. If "so help me God" is there because at the time, that was a common wording of an oath, it doesn't mean it was a purposeful, conscious intent to have the God requirement for the office holder.
It's interesting though, I went to a Democratic Party meeting the other day. It was a collection of dinosaurs and a few local political activists (in other words the people who stay involved in local affairs). I picture the people who attend the Texas meetings that the platform writing occurs at to be a group of Evangelicals who don't represent the actual majority of Republicans even in Texas. But the majority are not the people who attend the Party meetings. We really need to change that in the Democratic Party as well. |
| Edited by - beskeptigal on 10/21/2006 17:30:08 |
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Orwellingly Yurz
SFN Regular
USA
529 Posts |
Posted - 10/21/2006 : 22:36:11 [Permalink]
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| YO: This bullshit doesn't ever seem to stop. Evangelical Christians and fundamentalists of other religions find it very difficult to believe that some human beings can live decent, caring lives without having faith or fear in/of God. Believing in living a good life and being good to others can be ways that are chosen, not out of fear of going to hell, but simply because they're just the thing to do. It's so simple, it can be confounding for some. If people who think all atheists are evil or bad would really put their mind to the essence of what Grace is, they could see this as real truth. Doing good without expectation of anything in return is the fundamental element of Christianity, according to Jesus of Nazareth. It surely is amazing when one receives it or gives it. It's enough to make a person believe that they're might be a God. OY! |
"The modern conservative...is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy. That is the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness."
--John Kenneth Galbraith
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Then what must be,
Must be...
And that is all
--Bob Dylan
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--me
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--Oscar Wilde |
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