Very excited to see someone fighting back here in Florida, and on First Amendment, religious grounds:
“In a lawsuit against the Florida government, Congregation L’Dor Va-Dor of Boynton Beach says that the state's pending abortion law, which prohibits abortion after 15 weeks with few exceptions, violates the Jewish teaching that abortion "’is required if necessary to protect the health, mental or physical well-being of the woman.’ Citing the constitutional right to freedom of religion, the lawsuit states that the act ‘prohibits Jewish women from practicing their faith free of government intrusion and this violates their privacy rights and religious freedom.’
“ Advocating for abortion access is not the religious argument we usually hear, but it is on equal footing with religious arguments against it. (It's worth pointing out that Governor Ron DeSantis signed the Florida abortion act into law not at his office, but rather at a church.)
“ The synagogue's lawsuit raises the question of which religion takes precedence when it comes to legislation. It also highlights the difference between ‘This is against my religion, therefore no one can do it’ and ‘This is part of my religious tradition, therefore I legally have a right to access it.’ The former really has no place in U.S. law, as it violates the traditional separation of church and state, and the latter is a prime example of the purpose of the First Amendment right to freedom of religion.”
“The United States has now officially moved on from the ‘culture wars,’ as they were quaintly named. There is no other way to describe what is happening in Florida. A religious cohort that has captured the Republican Party has set the law of abortion, and another religious cohort has a legal argument to attack that law based on the state RFRA. It’s just plain religion vs. religion with none of the mediating governing institutions and principles needed to direct public policy away from religious wars toward the larger public good. Public policy is in the hands of theocrats and unaccountable judges.”
The Republican Party is already formally taking the position that the part of the First Amendment addressing religion only means that Christian rights MUST be explicitly recognized by law (including - or especially - the right to discriminate), that other religions may be left alone but fundamentally don't have any other rights, and that no one has the right to be an atheist. They believe that the Founders wanted the country to be officially Christian.
The only thing more disturbing than this is the Republican version of Christianity, which bears NO resemblance to the teachings of the actual Christ.
These people do not know the history of this country, either of its founding or its colonial period. From Mount Vernon Magazine, Fall 2021:
“The plight of Baptists, Quakers, Catholics, and other religious minorities clearly excited Washington’s sympathy, as he recognized the bigotry and persecution they had endured, and he used correspondence with these communities to calm deep-rooted fears that religious minorities would be excluded from civic life and the project of nation-building.
“In a missive to the United Baptist Churches of Virginia, he reaffirmed that ‘every man, conducting himself as a good citizen, and being accountable to God alone for his religious opinions, ought to be protected in worshipping the Deity according to the dictates of his own conscience.’ Writing a few months before Congress drafted the First Amendment, the new president reassured the Baptists that, if the Constitution ‘might possibly endanger the religious rights of any ecclesiastical Society’ or if the national ‘Government might ever be so administered as to render the liberty of conscience insecure,’ he would labor zealously “‘to establish effectual barriers against the horrors of spiritual tyranny, and every species of religious persecution.’ The imagery of ‘effectual barriers’ prefigured Thomas Jefferson’s more famous ‘wall of separation between church and state,’ erected in an 1802 letter to the Baptist Association of Danbury, Connecticut.”
“Roman Catholics, who had borne the brunt of bitter discrimination in the colonies, had reason to hope for a promising future when Washington reassured them that all citizens are ‘equally entitled to the protection of civil Government.’
“Washington’s commitment to religious liberty was not limited to Christians. In Washington, American Jews found a sincere friend. In a 1790 missive to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, Rhode Island, perhaps his most eloquent and certainly his most famous pronouncement on religious liberty, he assured his correspondents that Jews in America enjoyed all the rights and privileges of citizenship, including ‘liberty of conscience.’
“More important, his letter described a distinctively American principle of religious liberty. ‘The Citizens of the United States of America,’ he began, ‘have a right to applaud themselves for having given to mankind examples of an enlarged and liberal policy: a policy worthy of imitation. All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship. It is now no more that toleration is spoken of, as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people, that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights.’ He then continued with the letter’s most famous line, echoing words the Jews had conveyed to him: ‘For happily the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens, in giving it on all occasions their effectual support.’” http://magazine.mountvernon.org/2021/Fall/Believe-it-or-not.html
“Prior to the Revolution, many religious groups had been subject to persecution, both in Europe and the colonies. In colonial Virginia, only the Anglican Church received official sanction and was supported by taxes and the force of law. Dissenters had no political rights and could be fined, punished, and imprisoned for offenses against the church and for unsanctioned religious activities. As an officer of the Crown and a magistrate in colonial Virginia, Washington was required to take an anti-Catholic oath, renouncing the pope, and affirming the Anglican establishment. The new United States would not require such religious ‘tests’ for public servants.” http://magazine.mountvernon.org/2021/Fall/index.html
Suzanne Crockett, what you have published here must be produced in courts of law, must be taught in schools, must be broadcast from mountaintops and from rooftops.
Yet, it is unfortunately probable that neither Washington's words nor their implications will be understood by MAGA cultists who would more likely want to shoot Washington if he were to return wearing a grey suit and tie.
Mind you, the same goes for Jesus, for Abraham and Moses, for every great religious figure...
How did that passage go in Isaiah 6:10?
"Make their hearts calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears..."
Amen and amen. The Mount Vernon Ladies Association (MVLA) is doing their best. “For more than 150 years, the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association has protected and preserved the home of the Father of Our Country.
“We are proud that Mount Vernon does not accept government funding. We are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and rely solely upon patriotic individuals, foundations, and corporations to help preserve George Washington’s home and to educate visitors from all over the world.” https://www.mountvernon.org/donate/mount-vernon-preservation-needs/
And why does the Anglican Church exist? Henry the 8th wanted to marry his lover. He of course then murders her, and goes on to another woman, and another, etc, once he controlled the “religious narrative”. Ahhhh christianity! So “wholesome”. So worthy of autocracy. So perverse in the needs of civil society. It was always a rat’s nest. And always will be. It’s about power, pure and simple.
Well... How about all the weird and wonderful interpretations those very learned jurists have made of the US Constitution?
It's hard to say what's worse when it comes to misinterpreting a text like the Gospel or the Constitution, the confusion of the totally ignorant, the political slant put on spiritual teachings by Emperors and Popes, religious distortions in the reading of basic law at the behest of failed politicians who found material success and an obedient flock by dressing up as priests and pastors...
Any connection between Christ's teachings and what is taught in too many churches is purely fortuitous.
Yet... there's an incredible treasure chest buried under that dunghill... with all those wretched people standing on it moaning and complaining, when they're not spouting hate and toting semi-automatics...
As for the Constitution, one could add to the Litany something like:
From the learned opinions of clever fools and rogues, Good Lord deliver us.
THE STATE OF FLORIDA; RON DeSANTIS, in his official capacity as Governor of the State of Florida, JACK CAMPBELL, in his official capacity as State Attorney for the Second Judicial Circuit of Florida; DAVID A. ARONBERG, in his official capacity as State Attorney for the Fifteenth Judicial district of Fla, FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, JOSEPH LADAPO, M.D. in his official capacity as Secretary of Health for the State of Florida, FLORIDA BOARD OF MEDICINE; DAVID DIAMOND, M.D. in his official capacity as Chair of the Florida Board of Medicine; FLORIDA BOARD OF OSTEOPATHIC MEDICINE; SANDRA SCHWEMMER, D.O. in her official capacity as Chair of the Florida Board of Osteopathic medicine; FLORIDA BOARD OF NURSING, MAGGIE HANSSEN, M.H.S, R.N. in her official capacity as Chair of the Florida Board of Nursing; FLORIDA AGENCY FOR HEALTH CARE ADMINISTRATION, SIMONE MARSTILLER, J.D. in her official capacity as Secretary of the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration, and ASHLEY MOODY, in her official capacity as ATTORNEY GENERAL for the State of Florida.
The Congregation also directly raises Florida's express right of privacy in the Florida State Constitution. California has such express right of Privacy as well. Article1. Section 7.
This “loss of potential” concern seems to stop at birth. The forced-birthers have had fifty years to create a society that was just and supportive of children and women. The “lost potential” of the already born children living in economically-depressed zip codes bears this out. The “lost potential” of children living in environmentally dangerous places being exposed to carcinogenic air, soil, and food additives. The “lost potential” of kids living in cities with poisonous lead in their drinking water. The “lost potential” of kids whose parents must work two-three jobs to try to make ends meet because a living wage and healthcare are not a “privilege they deserve”. Address THAT and maybe they will hold some credibility in their self-righteous agrrogance. Jeri, Thank You for the “Zygote Warrior” statement!
My spouse and I concur with the Jewish view on when life begins and ends. We have already seen the damage that this ruling has done and it will only get worse.
There is a very old and a very tasteless joke:
For Fundamentalists, life begins when a woman ovulates.
For Catholics, life begins at the fertilization of the fetus.
For Jews, life begins when the fetus has graduated medical school, is well established in its dermatology practice, and the family dog dies.
Seriously...for we Jews, life begins at the baby's first breath, and ends at its last one.
This Court's decision in Dobbs is taken by a great many of us as thorough anti-Semitism. Look for a case in the future speaking to this.
Very excited to see someone fighting back here in Florida, and on First Amendment, religious grounds:
“In a lawsuit against the Florida government, Congregation L’Dor Va-Dor of Boynton Beach says that the state's pending abortion law, which prohibits abortion after 15 weeks with few exceptions, violates the Jewish teaching that abortion "’is required if necessary to protect the health, mental or physical well-being of the woman.’ Citing the constitutional right to freedom of religion, the lawsuit states that the act ‘prohibits Jewish women from practicing their faith free of government intrusion and this violates their privacy rights and religious freedom.’
“ Advocating for abortion access is not the religious argument we usually hear, but it is on equal footing with religious arguments against it. (It's worth pointing out that Governor Ron DeSantis signed the Florida abortion act into law not at his office, but rather at a church.)
“ The synagogue's lawsuit raises the question of which religion takes precedence when it comes to legislation. It also highlights the difference between ‘This is against my religion, therefore no one can do it’ and ‘This is part of my religious tradition, therefore I legally have a right to access it.’ The former really has no place in U.S. law, as it violates the traditional separation of church and state, and the latter is a prime example of the purpose of the First Amendment right to freedom of religion.”
https://www.upworthy.com/synagogue-sues-florida-over-abortion-act-violating-jewish-religious-liberty?rebelltitem=1#rebelltitem1
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/unitarian-buddhist-ministers-are-joining-rabbis-legal-fight-floridas-n-rcna37354
This is awesome!!
Thank you. Forwarding this to friends.
So glad you can use it. I’m a retired librarian, finding and sharing information is my life’s work.
“The United States has now officially moved on from the ‘culture wars,’ as they were quaintly named. There is no other way to describe what is happening in Florida. A religious cohort that has captured the Republican Party has set the law of abortion, and another religious cohort has a legal argument to attack that law based on the state RFRA. It’s just plain religion vs. religion with none of the mediating governing institutions and principles needed to direct public policy away from religious wars toward the larger public good. Public policy is in the hands of theocrats and unaccountable judges.”
https://verdict.justia.com/2022/06/20/the-religious-freedom-restoration-act-formula-comes-full-circle-in-florida
❤️
The Republican Party is already formally taking the position that the part of the First Amendment addressing religion only means that Christian rights MUST be explicitly recognized by law (including - or especially - the right to discriminate), that other religions may be left alone but fundamentally don't have any other rights, and that no one has the right to be an atheist. They believe that the Founders wanted the country to be officially Christian.
The only thing more disturbing than this is the Republican version of Christianity, which bears NO resemblance to the teachings of the actual Christ.
These people do not know the history of this country, either of its founding or its colonial period. From Mount Vernon Magazine, Fall 2021:
“The plight of Baptists, Quakers, Catholics, and other religious minorities clearly excited Washington’s sympathy, as he recognized the bigotry and persecution they had endured, and he used correspondence with these communities to calm deep-rooted fears that religious minorities would be excluded from civic life and the project of nation-building.
“In a missive to the United Baptist Churches of Virginia, he reaffirmed that ‘every man, conducting himself as a good citizen, and being accountable to God alone for his religious opinions, ought to be protected in worshipping the Deity according to the dictates of his own conscience.’ Writing a few months before Congress drafted the First Amendment, the new president reassured the Baptists that, if the Constitution ‘might possibly endanger the religious rights of any ecclesiastical Society’ or if the national ‘Government might ever be so administered as to render the liberty of conscience insecure,’ he would labor zealously “‘to establish effectual barriers against the horrors of spiritual tyranny, and every species of religious persecution.’ The imagery of ‘effectual barriers’ prefigured Thomas Jefferson’s more famous ‘wall of separation between church and state,’ erected in an 1802 letter to the Baptist Association of Danbury, Connecticut.”
“Roman Catholics, who had borne the brunt of bitter discrimination in the colonies, had reason to hope for a promising future when Washington reassured them that all citizens are ‘equally entitled to the protection of civil Government.’
“Washington’s commitment to religious liberty was not limited to Christians. In Washington, American Jews found a sincere friend. In a 1790 missive to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, Rhode Island, perhaps his most eloquent and certainly his most famous pronouncement on religious liberty, he assured his correspondents that Jews in America enjoyed all the rights and privileges of citizenship, including ‘liberty of conscience.’
“More important, his letter described a distinctively American principle of religious liberty. ‘The Citizens of the United States of America,’ he began, ‘have a right to applaud themselves for having given to mankind examples of an enlarged and liberal policy: a policy worthy of imitation. All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship. It is now no more that toleration is spoken of, as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people, that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights.’ He then continued with the letter’s most famous line, echoing words the Jews had conveyed to him: ‘For happily the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens, in giving it on all occasions their effectual support.’” http://magazine.mountvernon.org/2021/Fall/Believe-it-or-not.html
From Douglas Bradburn, President, MVLA,
“Prior to the Revolution, many religious groups had been subject to persecution, both in Europe and the colonies. In colonial Virginia, only the Anglican Church received official sanction and was supported by taxes and the force of law. Dissenters had no political rights and could be fined, punished, and imprisoned for offenses against the church and for unsanctioned religious activities. As an officer of the Crown and a magistrate in colonial Virginia, Washington was required to take an anti-Catholic oath, renouncing the pope, and affirming the Anglican establishment. The new United States would not require such religious ‘tests’ for public servants.” http://magazine.mountvernon.org/2021/Fall/index.html
Suzanne Crockett, what you have published here must be produced in courts of law, must be taught in schools, must be broadcast from mountaintops and from rooftops.
Yet, it is unfortunately probable that neither Washington's words nor their implications will be understood by MAGA cultists who would more likely want to shoot Washington if he were to return wearing a grey suit and tie.
Mind you, the same goes for Jesus, for Abraham and Moses, for every great religious figure...
How did that passage go in Isaiah 6:10?
"Make their hearts calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears..."
Amen and amen. The Mount Vernon Ladies Association (MVLA) is doing their best. “For more than 150 years, the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association has protected and preserved the home of the Father of Our Country.
“We are proud that Mount Vernon does not accept government funding. We are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and rely solely upon patriotic individuals, foundations, and corporations to help preserve George Washington’s home and to educate visitors from all over the world.” https://www.mountvernon.org/donate/mount-vernon-preservation-needs/
And why does the Anglican Church exist? Henry the 8th wanted to marry his lover. He of course then murders her, and goes on to another woman, and another, etc, once he controlled the “religious narrative”. Ahhhh christianity! So “wholesome”. So worthy of autocracy. So perverse in the needs of civil society. It was always a rat’s nest. And always will be. It’s about power, pure and simple.
Well... How about all the weird and wonderful interpretations those very learned jurists have made of the US Constitution?
It's hard to say what's worse when it comes to misinterpreting a text like the Gospel or the Constitution, the confusion of the totally ignorant, the political slant put on spiritual teachings by Emperors and Popes, religious distortions in the reading of basic law at the behest of failed politicians who found material success and an obedient flock by dressing up as priests and pastors...
Any connection between Christ's teachings and what is taught in too many churches is purely fortuitous.
Yet... there's an incredible treasure chest buried under that dunghill... with all those wretched people standing on it moaning and complaining, when they're not spouting hate and toting semi-automatics...
As for the Constitution, one could add to the Litany something like:
From the learned opinions of clever fools and rogues, Good Lord deliver us.
Spot on Gail.
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/22060281-complaint-ldor-va-dor-vs-state-of-florida-final
The list of defendants:
THE STATE OF FLORIDA; RON DeSANTIS, in his official capacity as Governor of the State of Florida, JACK CAMPBELL, in his official capacity as State Attorney for the Second Judicial Circuit of Florida; DAVID A. ARONBERG, in his official capacity as State Attorney for the Fifteenth Judicial district of Fla, FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, JOSEPH LADAPO, M.D. in his official capacity as Secretary of Health for the State of Florida, FLORIDA BOARD OF MEDICINE; DAVID DIAMOND, M.D. in his official capacity as Chair of the Florida Board of Medicine; FLORIDA BOARD OF OSTEOPATHIC MEDICINE; SANDRA SCHWEMMER, D.O. in her official capacity as Chair of the Florida Board of Osteopathic medicine; FLORIDA BOARD OF NURSING, MAGGIE HANSSEN, M.H.S, R.N. in her official capacity as Chair of the Florida Board of Nursing; FLORIDA AGENCY FOR HEALTH CARE ADMINISTRATION, SIMONE MARSTILLER, J.D. in her official capacity as Secretary of the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration, and ASHLEY MOODY, in her official capacity as ATTORNEY GENERAL for the State of Florida.
Thank you for this report and persuasive analysis and explanation.
The Congregation also directly raises Florida's express right of privacy in the Florida State Constitution. California has such express right of Privacy as well. Article1. Section 7.
fertilization makes a zygote, not a human being. Zygote warriors mistake them for the done deal. Loss of potential may be sad, but not a crime.
This “loss of potential” concern seems to stop at birth. The forced-birthers have had fifty years to create a society that was just and supportive of children and women. The “lost potential” of the already born children living in economically-depressed zip codes bears this out. The “lost potential” of children living in environmentally dangerous places being exposed to carcinogenic air, soil, and food additives. The “lost potential” of kids living in cities with poisonous lead in their drinking water. The “lost potential” of kids whose parents must work two-three jobs to try to make ends meet because a living wage and healthcare are not a “privilege they deserve”. Address THAT and maybe they will hold some credibility in their self-righteous agrrogance. Jeri, Thank You for the “Zygote Warrior” statement!
They don't seem to care much about the done deal, though.
My spouse and I concur with the Jewish view on when life begins and ends. We have already seen the damage that this ruling has done and it will only get worse.
There is already a case in Florida on these grounds.
Yes - see above, Congregation L’Dor Va-Dor.