Bounty Hunters for Abortions

[Yukaphile]

I thought most evangelicals loved Pence, but hated Trump? Too liberal. God, I hope he does the decent thing and doesn't run again.

[McAvoy]

I thought most evangelicals loved Pence, but hated Trump? Too liberal. God, I hope he does the decent thing and doesn't run again.

They love Trump. Well at least when he was President. Not sure how they are now.

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

Why Satanists may be the last hope to take down Texas’s abortion bill

The state of Texas, with approval from the U.S. Supreme Court, instituted the most draconian set of anti-abortion laws in the last 50 years this Tuesday. While pro-choice advocates scramble to save what’s left of Roe v. Wade, their salvation may come from an unexpected place: The Satanic Temple.

The nontheistic religious group, based out of Salem, Massachusetts, has filed a letter with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration arguing that their members should be allowed to access abortion pills without regulatory action. The temple is attempting to use its status as a religious organization to claim its right to abortion as a faith-based right.

The group argues that they should have access to the abortion pills Misoprostol and Mifepristone for religious use through the The Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) which was created to allow Native Americans access to peyote for religious rituals. Under these rules, the Temple is arguing that they should be granted those same rights to use abortifacients for their own religious purposes.

“I am sure Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton—who famously spends a good deal of his time composing press releases about Religious Liberty issues in other states—will be proud to see that Texas’s robust Religious Liberty laws, which he so vociferously champions, will prevent future Abortion Rituals from being interrupted by superfluous government restrictions meant only to shame and harass those seeking an abortion," wrote Satanic Temple spokesperson, Lucien Greaves in a statement.

Satanists hold bodily autonomy and science sacrosanct, he said, and abortion “rituals” are an important part of those beliefs. “The battle for abortion rights is largely a battle of competing religious viewpoints, and our viewpoint that the nonviable fetus is part of the impregnated host is fortunately protected under Religous Liberty laws,” he added.

Last year the Supreme Court refused to hear a case from Satanists to overturn Missouri’s abortion laws, but the group is hoping that an appeal to the federal government could make a difference.

In the past few years, the Temple of Satan, which has about 300,000 followers, protested a Ten Commandments monument erected outside of the Arkansas Capitol by erecting their own statue, a bronze satanic goat monster Baphomet next to it. In the Illinois Capitol rotunda, they were able to install a statue of an arm holding an apple with a snake coiled around it next to a Christmas nativity scene and a Hanukkah menorah.

"The State of Illinois is required by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution to allow temporary, public displays in the state capitol so long as these displays are not paid for by taxpayer dollars,” said a sign next to the statue. “Because the first floor of the Capitol Rotunda is a public place, state officials cannot legally censor the content of speech or displays. The United States Supreme Court has held that public officials may legally impose reasonable time, place and manner restrictions regarding displays and speeches, but no regulation can be based on the content of the speech."

In spite of its name, the Temple of Satan largely stands as an activist institution, with the intent to fight the proliferation of religion in U.S. policy and law.

Truly, the world's least useless religion.

Would you like to know more?

Satanists are now more moral than Christians. I feel as if we really are living in the weirdest times.

The Satanic Temple at least has been fighting for our rights for decades.

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

Or, you all are only seeing the loudest, small minority of Christians who scream and rant and rave and push misguided activism. I've met many Christians recently that are actually very decent people. Those who do not bomb clinics or kill doctors. They don't have to scream about it. Just food for thought there.

The easiest way to tell decent Christians is they don't whine too loudly when people point out that the boot on the neck of our country has a Christian foot inside of it.

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

I thought most evangelicals loved Pence, but hated Trump? Too liberal. God, I hope he does the decent thing and doesn't run again.

They bent over backwards to make every excuse for Trump in the same way that they bent over backwards to paint Obama as the Antichrist. I'll leave you to conclude what differences between the two may have lead them to such a decision.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

There is also the "anti-camping" law that will fine homeless people $500 for sleeping out of doors, which is also designed to be compulsory and override any related city laws. Homeless people will then be unable to pay the fine, and end up in prison, where they will then provide free labor. Actually there's a lot of 'THIS IS MANDATORY FOR CITIES TO ENFORCE" laws. Like the anti-protest law.

...pray for the people of Texas.

Ahh yes. When evictions will happen at the end of the month.

What are Republicans exactly fighting for?

Ostensibly, your standard working-class Johns and Janes. But, really, it's Donald Trump, Tucker Carlson, and their twenty-five-million-strong hive mind of near-identical clones.

As a cost measure on society, I'm actually not too clear on where or if the deregulated side starts making up for things as a public issue. There's definitely a non-profit agenda that I agree with, but after I talked to Admiral X (like the one time he stumped me) I thought I remember reading that San Francisco's needle exchange program is a wash for the most part that doesn't battle the issue much. Thinking about it now, I'm sure I might be missing an underlining.

[Mickey_Rat15]

Or, you all are only seeing the loudest, small minority of Christians who scream and rant and rave and push misguided activism. I've met many Christians recently that are actually very decent people. Those who do not bomb clinics or kill doctors. They don't have to scream about it. Just food for thought there.

The easiest way to tell decent Christians is they don't whine too loudly when people point out that the boot on the neck of our country has a Christian foot inside of it.

As if one of the obsessions of the Obama administration, which Biden is apparently taking up, was to make The Little Sisters of the Poor to bend the knee to progressive dogma.

[Yukaphile]

Yeah, no. I think you're confusing loud Christians with the quiet, community-oriented ones. The loud ones, yeah, they're just what you expect. Because as ever, you're only seeing one side of a coin and so think that represents the whole coin.

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

Or, you all are only seeing the loudest, small minority of Christians who scream and rant and rave and push misguided activism. I've met many Christians recently that are actually very decent people. Those who do not bomb clinics or kill doctors. They don't have to scream about it. Just food for thought there.

The easiest way to tell decent Christians is they don't whine too loudly when people point out that the boot on the neck of our country has a Christian foot inside of it.

As if one of the obsessions of the Obama administration, which Biden is apparently taking up, was to make The Little Sisters of the Poor to bend the knee to progressive dogma.

That sure is a series of words intended to convey a meaning of some sort.

[ProfessorDetective]

Yeah, no. I think you're confusing loud Christians with the quiet, community-oriented ones. The loud ones, yeah, they're just what you expect. Because as ever, you're only seeing one side of a coin and so think that represents the whole coin.

No, we aren't talking about the relatively decent folks who actually absorbed and follow Christ's teachings. We're talking about the wealthy, arguably sociopathic, Christians-in-name-only and their legion of poor, gullible, Christians-in-name-only, who have the power to sway policies and make life a living hell/purgatory for everyone else.

It's like we tell DBF about law enforcement: yes, there ARE good people out there... They aren't the ones running the show, right now.