Since you all enjoyed the recent story about the Satanic Temple I decided to bring you another one.

Courtesy of News OK:  

The Satanic Temple, a group of nonbelievers who push for the further separation of church and state, wants evangelical Christianity out of public schools. But since the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Christian student groups in 2001, the Satanists want their place in schools, too. 

The group launched "After School Satan," a program that's also a protest against popular, evangelical Christian Good News Clubs. The Satanic Temple plans to contact every school district where the Good News Clubs are active or have been present before, The Washington Post reported. 

"The group's plan for public schoolchildren isn't actually about promoting worship of the devil. The Satanic Temple doesn't espouse a belief in the existence of a supernatural being that other religions identify solemnly as Satan, or Lucifer, or Beelzebub," the article said. 

Instead, the group will focus on science, literature and art projects and assure participants that religious practice isn't essential to being a good person. 

"We think it's important for kids to be able to see multiple points of view, to reason things through, to have empathy and feelings of benevolence for their fellow human beings," said the head of Satanic Temple's Utah chapter to The Washington Post.

Okay now does everybody get it?

The Satanic Temple really has NOTHING to do with Satanism and instead is simply an organization who uses Satanism to troll Christians.

Specifically those Christian who try to shove their religion down the throats of our children by proselytizing in public schools, or demanding that we allow them to place their superstitious icons and statues in the public square.

While I was fun watching the knew jerk reactions the other day, I was a little disheartened to realize that we really have some of the dumbest trolls on the internet.

All anybody had to do was Google the Satanic Temple to realize that they were wasting perfectly good freakouts and pants wetting.

By the way check out the video they are using to promote their after school programs.

Now see I kind of want to go now.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation has a message for any schools thinking of taking their children to see Ken Ham's "Ark Encounter" in Kentucky. Don't!

Courtesy of FFRF: 

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is advising public schools in more than 1,000 school districts against visiting a new religious theme park. 

The Ark Encounter, which is opening this week in Kentucky, is a Christian ministry run by the creationist Ken Ham, who also built the notorious Creation Museum. Ham has been clear about the proselytizing nature of this park from the beginning. In a recent letter entitled, “Our Real Motive for Building Ark Encounter,” he states it plainly: “Our motive is to do the King’s business until He comes. And that means preaching the gospel and defending the faith, so that we can reach as many souls as we can.” 

FFRF is already receiving inquiries from concerned parents that overzealous teachers or principals may mistakenly believe it appropriate to schedule school-related trips to the Ark Encounter, as has happened with the Creation Museum. In order to allay such concerns and to remind public schools of their constitutional obligations, it is sending a memo to every school district in Kentucky, Tennessee, Indiana, West Virginia and Ohio. 

Ham is free to erect monuments to the bible, but public schools are not permitted to expose the children in their charge to religious myths and proselytizing. So, public schools cannot organize trips for students to either the Creation Museum or the Ark Park. Doing so would violate the students’ rights of conscience and the U.S. Constitution.

Good for them.

Children have enough difficulty separating the facts from the bullshit, without having their school introducing primitive superstitions into their lives.  

Organization trains Christian teachers to sneak their religion into public schools.

Courtesy of the Washington Post:  

Finn Laursen believes millions of American children are no longer learning right from wrong, in part because public schools have been stripped of religion. To repair that frayed moral fabric, Laursen and his colleagues want to bring the light of Jesus Christ into public school classrooms across the country — and they are training teachers to do just that. 

The Christian Educators Association International, an organization that sees the nation’s public schools as “the largest single mission field in America,” aims to show Christian teachers how to live their faith — and evangelize in public schools — without running afoul of the Constitution’s prohibition on the government establishing or promoting any particular religion. 

“We’re not talking about proselytizing. That would be illegal,” said Laursen, the group’s executive director. “But we’re saying you can do a lot of things. . . . It’s a mission field that you fish in differently.” 

“They appear to be encouraging teachers to cross the line,” said Daniel Mach of the American Civil Liberties Union, which fought the Christian Educators Association in a 2009 court case over Florida teachers’ religious expression at school. “Decisions about the religious upbringing of children should be left in the hands of parents and families, not public school officials.” 

Others say that there would be outrage if teachers of any other faith were being encouraged to express their beliefs in the classroom, legally or otherwise — particularly at a time when anti- Muslim sentiment is on the rise and some parents have complained that academic lessons about Islam can amount to religious indoctrination.

And that's really the crux of the issue.

These Christian educators believe that THEY are being discriminated against for their religious beliefs, when if there were another religious group using the same devious tactics they would be justifiably horrified.

THAT is why we have the separation of church and state, to protect children from proselytizing from ANY religious group or denomination.

You would think that educators might actually know that.

If Mormon missionaries were honest.

(H/T to Reddit user ZuphCud.)

North Carolina Congressman claims that his "primary mission as a member of Congress" is to spread "the Gospel of Christ." Uh, no it's not.

Courtesy of Right Wing Watch:  

Last week, Rep. Robert Pittenger joined several of his fellow members of Congress, such as Trent Franks and Louie Gohmert, as well as Religious Right activists "Coach" Dave Daubenmire, E.W. Jackson, and others in speaking at a week-long revival meeting in Washington, D.C., called "Celebrate America," organized by televangelist and "Holy Laughter" preacher Rodney Howard-Browne. 

Pittenger told the audience that his "primary mission" as a member of Congress is to spread the Gospel of Christ and that every issue of public policy is founded on the "reality of Christ." 

"The most important message that needs to be heard in this city is the Gospel and love of Christ," Pittenger said, adding that people who hold different political views "just don't know my Savior." 

"That's my primary mission as a member of Congress," the North Carolina Republican said. "Yes, to serve my constituents, to serve my region, and my state, and my country. But we're here as emissaries for Christ." 

You know perhaps I missed a day or two during my high school government class, but I always thought that the primary purpose of a United States Congressman was to make laws, NOT to proselytize.

I totally must have slept through the lesson on members of Congress needing to preach the Gospel.

To be serious religious zealots like this guy have no place in our Congress or our Senate, and should actually be barred from ever running for office in this country in order to protect us from their irrational thought processes.

Time and time again, whether it be addressing climate change, educating our children, providing civil rights to the LGBT community, or promoting science, we see these religious nuts voting in ways that significantly effect our country in a negative manner and hold up our progress as a nation.

And that shit needs to stop!

California Atheist wins 2 million dollar lawsuit after being sent to jail for objecting to faith based drug rehab program.

Barry A. Hazle Jr.

Courtesy of HuffPo:  

A California atheist has won a settlement of nearly $2 million after being sent to jail on a parole violation for objections he made about participating in a faith-based rehab program. 

Barry A. Hazle Jr., 46, served time for a conviction of methamphetamine possession in 2007. As a condition of his parole, he was enrolled in a drug treatment program where participants were required to acknowledge a "higher power," according to the Sacramento Bee. 

Hazle complained and asked for a different treatment program, but was told the only option in his area was the faith-based, Westcare 12-step program, according to the Record Searchlight. 

Hazle was sent back to jail for more than three months for allegedly being “disruptive, though in a congenial way, to the staff as well as other students" and being "sort of passive-aggressive,” the paper reported. 

"I’m thrilled to finally have this case settled," Hazle told the Searchlight. "It sends a clear message to people in a position of authority, like my parole agent, for example, that they not mandate religious programming for their parolees, and for anyone else, for that matter."

This may seem like a small thing, but it is actually a rather significant victory for Atheists. 

Religious organizations discovered long ago that proselytizing to people when they were at their most vulnerable had a much higher success rate for conversion then simply going door to door, having potlucks, or hosting bingo.

That is why there are so many religious based therapy groups, substance abuse clinics, and prison programs. They know that people struggling to stay afloat in a sea of adversity will cling to any lifeline thrown their way.

So yeah winning the right to be excluded, without fear of incarceration, from organizations which really only substitute one crutch for another, is kind of a big deal.

Indiana State Trooper quizzes woman over her church attendance during traffic stop.

Courtesy of Indy Star:  

Ellen Bogan expects police to protect and serve — not proselytize. 

But she says Indiana State Police Trooper Brian Hamilton pitched Christianity to her when he pulled her over for an alleged traffic violation in August on U.S. 27 in Union County. 

With the lights on his marked police car still flashing, the trooper handed Bogan a warning ticket. Then, Bogan said, Hamilton posed some personal questions. 

Did she have a home church? 

Did she accept Jesus Christ as her savior? 

"It's completely out of line and it just — it took me aback," Bogan, 60, told The Indianapolis Star. Bogan and the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana have filed a lawsuit in federal court against Hamilton. 

The lawsuit alleges he violated Bogan's First and Fourth Amendment rights when he probed into her religious background and handed her a church pamphlet that asks the reader "to acknowledge that she is a sinner."

Wow that is incredibly inappropriate. 

On the other hand the officer did not shoot her, taze her, or sexually assault her, so considering recent stories about law enforcement scandals this woman got off kind of lucky.

Still I think this woman has a strong case and I would certainly like to see this trooper at the very least get an official reprimand, and perhaps a reminder that the side of the road is really no place for proselytizing.

Gotta love the bible belt.

Now this is somebody who is desperate to get her message across.

So desperate that more than a dozen bumper stickers were simply not sufficient in explaining that we are all going to Hell.

It's a word salad overload as once Sarah Palin's string gets pulled she can't stop babbling.

"Look at me! Look at me! Now pay me!"

Apparently part of Palin's penance for being so damn difficult the first time she was under contract is that now she has to actually show up in the Fox studios and answer questions for every Tom, Dick, and bigger Dick that asks her to.

Here is an interview from Wednesday for a radio program I've never heard of in which she says false and ridiculous things to an audience of ignorant and racist listeners.

Lying about the Founders:

"...it's a battle for the soul of the country. I remember it was our founders who dedicated this land to God and asked God to protect and bless this land. As we’ve strayed from that – it’s no wonder we have the challenges we do."

Everything about that is wrong.  The only people who believe that the challenges facing the country are due to a lack of faith in God, are televangelists and people smearing their feces on the wall of a padded cell.

On why Bristol's appearance on DWTS is in response to the liberal take over of the media. (No I'm NOT joking!):

"We should not shy away from trying to have a positive impact on the rest of the country. Why let the liberals take over the media? That’s bogus. That’s why I don’t have a problem with Bristol being on ‘Dancing With the Stars’ and being on other shows. Why not let the good guys get out there and express some of their views and perhaps to have an opportunity to be a good testimony."

So for those keeping score, the children of lying hypocrites who quit their jobs halfway through, are the "good guys" and everybody else must be the "bad guys." Uh huh.

By the way, what exactly does "have an opportunity to be a good testimony" mean?

On the newest upcoming Right Wing bulk buying bestseller that she will have relatively little input with:

"The book is about protecting the heart of Christmas – it’s good tidings and great joy. It’s a fun, festive book – but it also offers some legalese on how to fight back and not allow the heart of Christmas to be taken out of America. It’s going to be a fun book because it’s about tradition –what we do in Alaska to celebrate – good recipes all mixed together in a very uplifting and optimistic inspiring book. You are empowered – you don’t have to let the politically correct push you back."

The "heart of Christmas?"  Is that like Frosty the Snowman's magical hat?

Apparently for Christmas Palin is giving away bowls of methamphetamine flavored word salad.

(P.S. By the way what we in Alaska do to celebrate Christmas is essentially what all the rest of you do to celebrate Christmas. It's just a little darker outside, that's all.)

On the possibility of stopping Fundamentalists from forcefully proselytizing to young soldiers in the military:

"Our young men and women are putting their lives on the line to protect our freedoms – including the right to express our faith. I think it’s quite shameful that our government would thwart that freedom. We’re telling them to get out there and fight for the rest of us to be free but we’re going to take away your rights? That’s ridiculous."

Once again NOBODY is suggesting that somebody cannot "express" their faith. The problem is that these young men and women, who are supposedly "fighting for our freedoms," are forced to participate in prayer groups and religious activities, regardless of their own faith or lack of faith, and punished for not doing so.

I guess this freedom that Palin speaks of does not pertain to freedom for the people putting their lives in danger to protect it.

So what we learn from Palin's return to the Fox News stable is that she has only grown wilder and more unpredictable, and that if she were an actual horse, in an actual stable, she would be put out to pasture, or perhaps dispatched to make way for a newer less botoxed horse.

Sarah Palin fires off a tweet to take a stand against the separation of church and state. No, really!

President Barack Obama had better clear this up today, right now. Surely he is just allowing his handlers to... fb.me/27q1yo6UE
— Sarah Palin (@SarahPalinUSA) May 1, 2013

Here is an update courtesy of Palin's Facebook page:

President Barack Obama had better clear this up today, right now. Surely he is just allowing his handlers to throw up this kind of ridiculous, amoral, un-American trial balloon. I call on Obama to address this immediately with the American public, clear it up, and renounce these reports as the nonsense they surely in God's name must be. 

- Sarah Palin 

It looks like Palin is embracing her new career as a non-broadcast televangelist by jumping on this newest Evangelical band wagon to nowhere.

I have been looking and cannot yet find the actual Pentagon statement that has these paint chip eaters so worked up. (All of the Right Wing and Evangelical websites seem to be getting their panties in a twist over the same Breitbart article that Palin is referring to.), but what the article claims is that soldiers in the military could be prosecuted for proselytizing.

Taking evangelism out of the military?

Keeping church and state separate?

Following the Constitution?

Why how could patriotic Americans stand for it?

Like I said I have not seen the actual report, however I will say that I do know quite a lot about the attempts of Mikey Weinstein to rid the military of the incredibly aggressive Evangelism which now permeates it, and which often results in bullying behaviors and a feeling of isolation for those not interested in participating in religious activities.

This is what the Washington Post reported about a meeting between Chuck Hagel and a group of sergeants and petty officers: 

“The armed forces are on the verge of falling apart,” Larry Wilkerson, former chief of staff to Colin Powell, told me in an interview. Aside from proselytizing, he said, other problems include “sexual assault, suicides, lowering entrance standards and war weariness. They are in trouble, and the leadership is oblivious.” Sexual assault and proselytizing, according to Wilkerson, “are absolutely destructive of the bonds that keep soldiers together.” 

Wilkerson was speaking to me in an interview with former ambassador Joe Wilson and the head of the private Military Religious Freedom Foundation, Mikey Weinstein. They were on their way to a meeting at the Pentagon on April 23 where they would discuss religious issues in a group that included several generals and a military chaplain. 

The chaplain’s role, according to Wilson, “is to minister to spiritual needs. You don’t proselytize. It’s a workplace violation.” 

Weinstein told me after the Pentagon meeting that military leaders need to understand that “there is systematic misogyny, anti-Semitism and Islamophobia in the military.” He said it is all part of the same culture. 

“This is a national security threat. What is happening [aside from sexual assault] is spiritual rape. And what the Pentagon needs to understand is that it is sedition and treason. It should be punished.” 

“The chain of command is compliant,” said Wilkerson. “Abuse of power is inimical to all military. Condoning of sexual assault or proselytizing is an abuse of command.” The idea of “zero tolerance,” he said, is “the most mocked phrase in the military. It camouflages a lot.”

"Spiritual rape?" Oh you know THAT is not going to go over very well!

But if the Pentagon DID respond to the concerns of these soldiers and ARE going after commanders and soldiers attempting to bully their fellow military members into joining their faith, they would be well within their rights to do so according to “Air Force Culture, Air Force Standards,” published on Aug. 7, 2012: 

Section 2.11 requires “government neutrality regarding religion.” 

“Leaders at all levels must balance constitutional protections for an individual’s free exercise of religion or other personal beliefs and the constitutional prohibition against governmental establishment of religion,” the regulation states.

So if the Pentagon decides to enforce this regulation, that might piss off the religious nuts who treat the military as a recruitment center for Jesus, but they have every right to do exactly that. 

However I can see why the Fundamentalists, and their attack dog Sarah Palin, are all in a panic. After all if you miss the chance to indoctrinate someone as a totally trusting child, the next best time to get them is as a soldier trained to respond to every directive given by a superior without question.

Can I get an OO-RAH?

Investigating "The Good News Club." A fundamentalist Christian club that inserts itself into public schools to proselytize to young children.

Here is a portion of the post I wrote about the book which inspired this investigation:  

In 2009, the Good News Club came to the public elementary school where journalist Katherine Stewart sent her children. The Club, which is sponsored by the Child Evangelism Fellowship, bills itself as an after-school program of “Bible study.” But Stewart soon discovered that the Club’s real mission is to convert children to fundamentalist Christianity and encourage them to proselytize to their “unchurched” peers, all the while promoting the natural but false impression among the children that its activities are endorsed by the school. 

Astonished to discover that the U.S. Supreme Court has deemed this—and other forms of religious activity in public schools—legal, Stewart set off on an investigative journey to dozens of cities and towns across the nation to document the impact. In this book she demonstrates that there is more religion in America’s public schools today than there has been for the past 100 years. The movement driving this agenda is stealthy. It is aggressive. It has our children in its sights. And its ultimate aim is to destroy the system of public education as we know it.

Our public education system is constantly under attack by  conservative and religious forces, and this is just one method at their disposal to be used to usher in the end of public education.

P.S. I know the video is a little longish, but I urge you to take the time to watch it as the information is quite astonishing and should be seen by as many people as possible.