In confirmation hearings this week for her elevation to a Supreme Court seat, the highly qualified and well-respected Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson endured vicious attacks from Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee, who vow to reject her confirmation despite the fact that her record is stronger than those of recent Republican nominees and that 58% of Americans want her to be confirmed. (In contrast, only 42% of Americans wanted Justice Amy Coney Barrett confirmed.)
I find it deeply disturbing that statements like those attributed to Madison, made by Republicans like Barr and those on the committee questioning Justice Jackson, are not corrected and clarified to the greater public. Where are the headlines and stories telling the truth? I fear that my
children and grandchildren will lose the rights we thought were guaranteed by the Constitution and the Supreme Court.
“This is a fight of good versus evil,” and "Meadows continued: “Evil always looks like the victor until the King of Kings triumphs. Do not grow weary in well doing. The fight continues….”
Aye. I used to hear this stuff on Sunday morning about the long list of "evil" that would send one to hell and I puzzled on this because:
Well, like Lincoln, I actually read the entire Bible by age 16 or so. And, in Mathew 7 I read:
"Judge not, that ye be not judged.
[2] For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again."
So, it seemed to me that, assuming that Christianity was actually formed around the teachings of Jesus that it was NOT clear what evil was BUT it WAS clear that I am not the judge.
So, by age 16 I had already started to evolve to a point where I thought it was not my place to decide what is right and wrong.
Hence, when driving one evening past a bunch of people crowded around a new building at A&M with my then girlfriend and she indicated that was the new and first "Gay" bar at Texas A&M, I was not intrigued, rather, I was nonplussed.
However, I knew, from what I had read, that it was not my place to judge.
Southern Baptists in particular DO believe that they have divine insight into what is right and wrong and they DO have a long list of stuff that will send one to hell. Mark Meadows statement is funny and chilling.
Now, do you guys know what is REALLY funny about all this??
Southern Baptists split with Northern Baptists a long while back and why?
Well, because GOD definitely was certain that SLAVERY was totally OK. You can't be gay, but? You CAN whip a man to death for not working 20 hours a day.
Ladies and gentlemen, if you meet anyone who believes that they have insight into who is and is not going to hell.
The war in Ukraine poses an existential threat to life on earth, with Putin becoming more isolated and hinting at using nuclear weapons. The implications of him using nuclear or chemical/biological weapons are too horrible for me to wrap my brain around. But the threat to democracy here at home, from home-grown authoritarians/terrorists, scares me more than Putin. Telling us that freedom to chose which religion to follow, or not, is only a step away from telling us that two plus two equals five. That should scare each one of us to our very bones.
For years I was grateful that I won the birth lottery and was born here in America. I believed that I lived in a country that was far from perfect, but at least was moving along a path that arched towards equal justice and opportunity for all. Now with the likes of McConnell, Graham, Cawthorn, Hawley, Barr, et al, corrupting the promise of the Declaration of Independence, I fear like I’ve never feared before.
I nearly chocked when I read "unable to tell right from wrong and, in turn, creating “immense suffering, wreckage, and misery.” Talk about the pot calling the kettle "black" (not meant as a racial slur here): when Opus Dei cleans up the pedophilia element of The church, I will pay attention to it's "moral" leadership and not before.
So Barr’s statement that the democracy rests on citizens’ self-governance doesn’t extend to the citizens choosing to marry a same-sex partner of a different race? Citizens only get to choose things that are on a pre-determined, limited list? How does this resemble democracy?
Republicans seem to be intent on banishing the separation between church and state, seeking to impose Christianity as the country’s sole religion. This, and In light of their growing censorship of books, ideas and historical records that don’t conform to their “high” moral standards, one can’t help but wonder if their goal is to usher us back into the Dark Ages…
To know more about how the Roberts Court has eviscerated the Voting Rights Act of 1965 as amended here is a teach in on voting rights . Join the fight to overcome the attack by our current Supreme Court on voting rights. We need to convince every US Senator that the Senate must exercise its powers under Article 1.4 and the 14th and 15th Amendments to protect the right to vote. Thus the Senate must end the filibuster.
I don't believe that most Americans understand the real impact of individual States controlling the rules for voting OR that their zip code directly controls whether they can cast their ballots and what barriers they may have to overcome in order to vote.
Below are links to the script and a brief powerpoint presentation I gave Thursday to the Mid-peninsula Chapter of the ACLU of Northern CA.
These slides explain VERY SIMPLY election law from the original text in the Constitution, and how voting rights improved after the passage of the Voting Rights Act 1965 and its amendments. Protecting voting rights led to the election of our first black president in 2008. Thereafter, Chief Justice Roberts has led the Supreme Court's evisceration of the protections of our Voting Rights, step by step. This is explained visually.
My goal is to explain what has happened so that people will get angry and they themselves will advocate the President and their Senators and their Congressional representatives for the passage of the Freedom to Vote John R Lewis Act (HR5746). The powerpoint shows visually what passage of HR5746 would mean to all Americans and includes tools in the slides for taking action.
I AM ASKING YOU TO review THE SLIDES. READ THE SCRIPT. THEN, tell me if you have SHARED THIS email WITH => 20 contacts with family/friends who LIVE IN : NH, ID, PA, IA, MT, WI, MI, IN, FL, GA, WV, TX, NC, SC, OK, OH, LA, AK, AL, ND, or SD. as these states are the most repressive. The slides visually detail the states' actions to repress the vote. We need to get Senators in these states to support the Right to Vote. Contact US Senators in ME, AK, ID, WV, AZ, VT, NH, OH, PA because their states supported the Voting Right Act in 1965 and ask them to stand up for voting rights now.
Frankly, when I watch the Ukrainians fighting for their democracy, I am very angry that Americans aren't fighting at home to stop the march backwards away from Civil Rights in America.
Time is critical. Please at least open the links and consider what you might do to ensure our zip code doesn't determine how, where, when and if you can vote.
Whenever I'm tempted to call up my childhood teaching about all the good and evil in the world, I remember the passage in the New Testament where Jesus was asked "what are the greatest commandments of them all?", to which he answered "that you love the Lord your God with all your mind, your heart, your soul and that you love your neighbor as yourself"... Nothing included there about all of issues addressed by these constitutional rights and amendments that are supposedly degrading morality in our society. There's plenty enough immorality to go around, including all of those lilly-white heterosexual protestant Christian households with two kids, a two car garage and Fido in the back yard... (sounds alot like my own household). The "moral majority" has no lock on piety, sanctity, morality. The human rights elaborated and clarified over 200+ years in our constitution, it's amendments and Supreme Court rulings describe a playing field on which we can act out our personal and collective beliefs as well as both moral and immoral behaviors as we understand them. The real problems arise when we begin to conflate constitutional rights and the law with definitions of morality. Philosophical and religious forums are far more appropriate arenas in which to debate morality than the courts. I think we have ample historical evidence that one can neither legislate nor adjudicate morality/immorality with any measure of precision. We have plenty enough work to do refining definitions of legality within our appellate courts without confusing their role to include acting as moral tribunals.
Jesus Christ!!! What an abortion of the truth by the (dis)honorable William Barr. Another glaring example of Republican Orwellian truth. Using the exact opposite of what Madison meant to support shaky philosophy like a male supported and invented religion. Thank God I am an atheist.
I'm sorry - but has anyone looked at the Hubble telescope pics, or the emerging Webb telescope pics - it's the absolute height of human arrogance to think that a "god" - who has X x 10^12 stars, galaxies, black holes, you name them - to administer, could give a flying f**k about whether Fred (married) screwed his neighbour (fill in the blanks...). Remember, we made "god" in our own image - and attributed to "god" our instincts and behaviour! How wise of us.
Thomas Jefferson saw the issue of religion differently when talking about the separation of church and state.
“Extract from Thomas Jefferson’s Notes on the State of Virginia
The error seems not sufficiently eradicated, that the operations of the mind, as well as the acts of the body, are subjects to the coercion of the laws. But our rulers can have authority over such natural rights only as we have submitted to them. The rights of conscience we never submitted, we could not submit. We are answerable for them to our God.
The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.“
Thank you Heather for remarkable insights. I am reading re Bill Barr, his comments at UND and I am appalled at the utter replay of 1920s GOP power & control. It truly connects to the theocratic authoritarianism of that decade, GOPs obsession with self, power & wealth that, 30 years later, became 'movement conservative' (incorporating fascism into conservative white evangelicalism, bonding covertly the non-pentecostal with the pentecostal. Note: these are not the same as Christianity. I have a hyper religious family history that dates back to late 1800s, incl authoritarianism and evangelicalism, and a global evangelical outreach that influenced many with the white evangelical 'toxic faith'. I see, in hindsight, how MC's influences in white evangelicalism from the late 60s onward drove white EV policies, embedding various types of racism into its fabric (Southern Baptists being the most influential in that regard). I have watched over the past 40+ years how blatant power grabs by white EVs enmeshed them with politics (spurred at one point by Falwell Sr, Moral Majority, then Christian Coalition) even as white EVs eagerly adopted teachings that contradicted clearly with Christ's teachings. Simply put, it is all about their white entitlement and self, power and wealth.
The authoritarian root became embedded with white EVs in the 1990s, via their required teaching called 'spiritual formation'. It is authoritarianism through and through. White EV leaders, e.g., NAE, require all member churches and orgs to teach it and have depts for it or they cannot, and will not, be accredited. It is power and control by the white male leadership, clearly.
Like ALL authoritarians, like Putin is clearly doing now, they gaslight the public and supporters with statements intending to sound moral and righteous, but actually turn reality and morality on its head and deliver evil. Isn't this what Satin is known for in the Bible? Disguising himself to appear good?
I find it deeply disturbing that statements like those attributed to Madison, made by Republicans like Barr and those on the committee questioning Justice Jackson, are not corrected and clarified to the greater public. Where are the headlines and stories telling the truth? I fear that my
children and grandchildren will lose the rights we thought were guaranteed by the Constitution and the Supreme Court.
“This is a fight of good versus evil,” and "Meadows continued: “Evil always looks like the victor until the King of Kings triumphs. Do not grow weary in well doing. The fight continues….”
Aye. I used to hear this stuff on Sunday morning about the long list of "evil" that would send one to hell and I puzzled on this because:
Well, like Lincoln, I actually read the entire Bible by age 16 or so. And, in Mathew 7 I read:
"Judge not, that ye be not judged.
[2] For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again."
So, it seemed to me that, assuming that Christianity was actually formed around the teachings of Jesus that it was NOT clear what evil was BUT it WAS clear that I am not the judge.
So, by age 16 I had already started to evolve to a point where I thought it was not my place to decide what is right and wrong.
Hence, when driving one evening past a bunch of people crowded around a new building at A&M with my then girlfriend and she indicated that was the new and first "Gay" bar at Texas A&M, I was not intrigued, rather, I was nonplussed.
However, I knew, from what I had read, that it was not my place to judge.
Southern Baptists in particular DO believe that they have divine insight into what is right and wrong and they DO have a long list of stuff that will send one to hell. Mark Meadows statement is funny and chilling.
Now, do you guys know what is REALLY funny about all this??
Southern Baptists split with Northern Baptists a long while back and why?
Well, because GOD definitely was certain that SLAVERY was totally OK. You can't be gay, but? You CAN whip a man to death for not working 20 hours a day.
Ladies and gentlemen, if you meet anyone who believes that they have insight into who is and is not going to hell.
RUN.
The war in Ukraine poses an existential threat to life on earth, with Putin becoming more isolated and hinting at using nuclear weapons. The implications of him using nuclear or chemical/biological weapons are too horrible for me to wrap my brain around. But the threat to democracy here at home, from home-grown authoritarians/terrorists, scares me more than Putin. Telling us that freedom to chose which religion to follow, or not, is only a step away from telling us that two plus two equals five. That should scare each one of us to our very bones.
For years I was grateful that I won the birth lottery and was born here in America. I believed that I lived in a country that was far from perfect, but at least was moving along a path that arched towards equal justice and opportunity for all. Now with the likes of McConnell, Graham, Cawthorn, Hawley, Barr, et al, corrupting the promise of the Declaration of Independence, I fear like I’ve never feared before.
Thank you for another illuminating Letter, Dr. Heather.
I hope you have turned off your computer by now, and are off to sleep. I know it is very late where you are, even if tomorrow is Saturday.
Rest well and know that many many of us are so grateful for these Letters from you. 💜
Harry Truman was right 74 years ago when he said "The only 'good Republicans' are pushing up daisies." He's only more right today.
I nearly chocked when I read "unable to tell right from wrong and, in turn, creating “immense suffering, wreckage, and misery.” Talk about the pot calling the kettle "black" (not meant as a racial slur here): when Opus Dei cleans up the pedophilia element of The church, I will pay attention to it's "moral" leadership and not before.
So Barr’s statement that the democracy rests on citizens’ self-governance doesn’t extend to the citizens choosing to marry a same-sex partner of a different race? Citizens only get to choose things that are on a pre-determined, limited list? How does this resemble democracy?
Republicans seem to be intent on banishing the separation between church and state, seeking to impose Christianity as the country’s sole religion. This, and In light of their growing censorship of books, ideas and historical records that don’t conform to their “high” moral standards, one can’t help but wonder if their goal is to usher us back into the Dark Ages…
To know more about how the Roberts Court has eviscerated the Voting Rights Act of 1965 as amended here is a teach in on voting rights . Join the fight to overcome the attack by our current Supreme Court on voting rights. We need to convince every US Senator that the Senate must exercise its powers under Article 1.4 and the 14th and 15th Amendments to protect the right to vote. Thus the Senate must end the filibuster.
I don't believe that most Americans understand the real impact of individual States controlling the rules for voting OR that their zip code directly controls whether they can cast their ballots and what barriers they may have to overcome in order to vote.
Below are links to the script and a brief powerpoint presentation I gave Thursday to the Mid-peninsula Chapter of the ACLU of Northern CA.
These slides explain VERY SIMPLY election law from the original text in the Constitution, and how voting rights improved after the passage of the Voting Rights Act 1965 and its amendments. Protecting voting rights led to the election of our first black president in 2008. Thereafter, Chief Justice Roberts has led the Supreme Court's evisceration of the protections of our Voting Rights, step by step. This is explained visually.
My goal is to explain what has happened so that people will get angry and they themselves will advocate the President and their Senators and their Congressional representatives for the passage of the Freedom to Vote John R Lewis Act (HR5746). The powerpoint shows visually what passage of HR5746 would mean to all Americans and includes tools in the slides for taking action.
I AM ASKING YOU TO review THE SLIDES. READ THE SCRIPT. THEN, tell me if you have SHARED THIS email WITH => 20 contacts with family/friends who LIVE IN : NH, ID, PA, IA, MT, WI, MI, IN, FL, GA, WV, TX, NC, SC, OK, OH, LA, AK, AL, ND, or SD. as these states are the most repressive. The slides visually detail the states' actions to repress the vote. We need to get Senators in these states to support the Right to Vote. Contact US Senators in ME, AK, ID, WV, AZ, VT, NH, OH, PA because their states supported the Voting Right Act in 1965 and ask them to stand up for voting rights now.
Frankly, when I watch the Ukrainians fighting for their democracy, I am very angry that Americans aren't fighting at home to stop the march backwards away from Civil Rights in America.
The Text:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1S-AI2GTMhL78yu0u0vGuZAQk7RYbCOAP/view?usp=sharing
The Slides:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ygEyuDaQY7HiqwK7OR0B9tAHmMdGT8rK/view?usp=sharing
Time is critical. Please at least open the links and consider what you might do to ensure our zip code doesn't determine how, where, when and if you can vote.
Thank you
Alice Schaffer Smith
Executive Director
National Voter Corps
www.nationalvotercorps.org
Whenever I'm tempted to call up my childhood teaching about all the good and evil in the world, I remember the passage in the New Testament where Jesus was asked "what are the greatest commandments of them all?", to which he answered "that you love the Lord your God with all your mind, your heart, your soul and that you love your neighbor as yourself"... Nothing included there about all of issues addressed by these constitutional rights and amendments that are supposedly degrading morality in our society. There's plenty enough immorality to go around, including all of those lilly-white heterosexual protestant Christian households with two kids, a two car garage and Fido in the back yard... (sounds alot like my own household). The "moral majority" has no lock on piety, sanctity, morality. The human rights elaborated and clarified over 200+ years in our constitution, it's amendments and Supreme Court rulings describe a playing field on which we can act out our personal and collective beliefs as well as both moral and immoral behaviors as we understand them. The real problems arise when we begin to conflate constitutional rights and the law with definitions of morality. Philosophical and religious forums are far more appropriate arenas in which to debate morality than the courts. I think we have ample historical evidence that one can neither legislate nor adjudicate morality/immorality with any measure of precision. We have plenty enough work to do refining definitions of legality within our appellate courts without confusing their role to include acting as moral tribunals.
Jesus Christ!!! What an abortion of the truth by the (dis)honorable William Barr. Another glaring example of Republican Orwellian truth. Using the exact opposite of what Madison meant to support shaky philosophy like a male supported and invented religion. Thank God I am an atheist.
I'm sorry - but has anyone looked at the Hubble telescope pics, or the emerging Webb telescope pics - it's the absolute height of human arrogance to think that a "god" - who has X x 10^12 stars, galaxies, black holes, you name them - to administer, could give a flying f**k about whether Fred (married) screwed his neighbour (fill in the blanks...). Remember, we made "god" in our own image - and attributed to "god" our instincts and behaviour! How wise of us.
Handmaid's Tale. Here it is, folks.
Thomas Jefferson saw the issue of religion differently when talking about the separation of church and state.
“Extract from Thomas Jefferson’s Notes on the State of Virginia
The error seems not sufficiently eradicated, that the operations of the mind, as well as the acts of the body, are subjects to the coercion of the laws. But our rulers can have authority over such natural rights only as we have submitted to them. The rights of conscience we never submitted, we could not submit. We are answerable for them to our God.
The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.“
Thank you Heather for remarkable insights. I am reading re Bill Barr, his comments at UND and I am appalled at the utter replay of 1920s GOP power & control. It truly connects to the theocratic authoritarianism of that decade, GOPs obsession with self, power & wealth that, 30 years later, became 'movement conservative' (incorporating fascism into conservative white evangelicalism, bonding covertly the non-pentecostal with the pentecostal. Note: these are not the same as Christianity. I have a hyper religious family history that dates back to late 1800s, incl authoritarianism and evangelicalism, and a global evangelical outreach that influenced many with the white evangelical 'toxic faith'. I see, in hindsight, how MC's influences in white evangelicalism from the late 60s onward drove white EV policies, embedding various types of racism into its fabric (Southern Baptists being the most influential in that regard). I have watched over the past 40+ years how blatant power grabs by white EVs enmeshed them with politics (spurred at one point by Falwell Sr, Moral Majority, then Christian Coalition) even as white EVs eagerly adopted teachings that contradicted clearly with Christ's teachings. Simply put, it is all about their white entitlement and self, power and wealth.
The authoritarian root became embedded with white EVs in the 1990s, via their required teaching called 'spiritual formation'. It is authoritarianism through and through. White EV leaders, e.g., NAE, require all member churches and orgs to teach it and have depts for it or they cannot, and will not, be accredited. It is power and control by the white male leadership, clearly.
Like ALL authoritarians, like Putin is clearly doing now, they gaslight the public and supporters with statements intending to sound moral and righteous, but actually turn reality and morality on its head and deliver evil. Isn't this what Satin is known for in the Bible? Disguising himself to appear good?