"Belief in a cruel God makes a cruel man." Thomas Paine

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There is no war against Christians or Christianity. 

Morning "news" show hosts and the so-called Christian leaders in this country need to give it a rest. Or at least, they should STOP presuming to speak for any other person who calls themselves a Christian.

In addition, if they really want to be perceived by the world as Christians, they need to stick with the New Testament--preferably the Gospels and maybe the Acts of the Apostles. You know, the parts that actually involved what Christ said and did? 

OK, my gentle snowflakes, I will climb down off my soap box now.

Remember when we all studied our history? We learned that this nation's first European settlers came here to escape religious persecution. I say it again, escape persecution.

Because of that, the Founders of this nation made sure that our Constitution prohibited the formation of a NATIONAL religion. In the First Amendment. The FIRST AMENDMENT. First.

So, by our founding document, this cannot be declared a "Christian" nation. " Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..." In the First Amendment. The FIRST AMENDMENT. First.

You can practice all the Christianity you want, in any way you want--from going to church only on Easter Sunday or Christmas Day, up to and including handling snakes every week and speaking in tongues.

But your Buddhist neighbor has exactly the same right to practice Buddhism. According to the founding document of this nation, you may not force upon her, your Christianity. The same goes for the sikh or the atheist next door.

However, for some people, "religious freedom" is really indistinguishable from the "freedom to impose MY religion on others." Nope. Wrong. Remember that whole "make no law respecting an establishment of religion" thing-y?

And, think about it, Jesus loved sinners. It was hypocrites he couldn't stand. Remember, the only time he descended into violence was at the hypocrisy being practiced at the temple.

I mean it. Really.

You Don't Own Me!

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With many thanks to Mark Sumner who has managed to say most of the things I have been struggling for some time now to get into some sort of reasonable order. So, here it is.

There's a basic, historical misunderstanding at the root of modern Republican philosophy. A little fact that seems to get overlooked. It's not their insistence that the road to fascism begins with good health care. It's not even the pretense that President Obama somehow masterminded an economic collapse, bank bailout, and massive deficit weeks, months or years before he came into office. No, the incident that the GOP has let slip is a little more basic:  The South lost.

See, Republicans seem to have mistaken "wage slavery" for ... that other kind of slavery. They must have, because anyone who understood that workers are employees, and not property, would recognize that workers have rights.  Not just some rights, not a neatly restricted little subset of rights, but the same rights as the people who employ them. They would recognize that the rights of an employer do not include the ability to abridge the rights of an employee.

Only they don't. When you see Mitt Romney or Rick Santorum or John Boehner railing against government overstep on religion, conscience, what-have-you, you can be 100 percent certain that their concern is that somewhere, somehow an employer might have to allow his employees to do something that, you know, miffs them. That millions of employees might be forced to do without needed health care ... doesn't enter into the equation. 

It's easy to see how employers might be confused, considering all the love being lavished on them by both parties, and with the paeans being sung to them as magical "job creators." And hey, we already pretty much handed over that fourth amendment to them, what with peeing in a cup or being able to fire people because of an old photo on Facebook. Republicans have been busy reinforcing that lesson by insisting that anyone who collects so much as an unemployment check should be subject to any rules they want to set. It's no wonder that the line between handing someone a paycheck, and holding someone's title, should have gotten blurred.

So consider this a primer to the confused American business owners and executives who might have listened just a little to long to all that sweet praise. 

As an employer, you have the absolute right to religious freedom. Attend any church, temple, synagogue or reading room you like. Give as you feel obligated. Worship as you please. Place on yourself any restriction in diet, activity or anything else that you feel is in keeping with your beliefs ... but only on yourself. You don't get to impose these restrictions on your employees.

Your employees are separate from you. Not only that, they are equal to you in rights, no matter how unequal you may be in income. You do not get to tell them who to vote for. You do not get to tell them who they can love. You do not get to use your religious beliefs as an excuse to limit their health care.

No matter how strong your personal faith, your employees are not obligated to live according to those beliefs, expressly because they are personal. You may find it frustrating, but your employees have just as much right to their own beliefs as you do to yours, and whether you pay them pittance on an assembly line or six figures as a manager, you have zero right to carve off a slice of their freedom. The direction of the pay arrow has no effect on who gets to dictate to who.

If the government was telling you, as an individual, that you had to use birth control, that would be a violation of your rights. That's not happening. They're just saying that you don't get to make that decision for the people who work for your company. Because, really, you don't own them.

If you're still mad; if you're upset that healthcare has to be funneled through employers at all ... there's a cure for that. It's called "single payer."

Medicare for All!

It's Me Again, Margaret

--Helen Philpot scores again!

Here is my pledge to you Margaret. I hope you like it.

I pledge that I will actually read the Constitution before pledging to uphold it. And I pledge that if I am too stupid to understand its intent, I won’t become a politician.

I pledge not to start two wars, give tax breaks to millionaires, ruin the economy and then get mad when someone shows me the bill.

I pledge not to be a hypocrite or a Tea Party Republican – whichever comes first.

I pledge to remember that religious freedoms apply to all religions including the lack of a religion. And I pledge to remember that no matter how much I believe in my religion, I will remember that my neighbor believes in his religion just as much. And finally, I pledge that if I believe in my religion too much I will keep it to myself.

I pledge to stop calling Sarah Palin a stupid bitch when she finally admits that she is too stupid to run this country. At that point I will simply call her a bitch and let the stupid speak for itself.

I pledge that I won’t hate gay people in public and then sleep with them in private.

I pledge to accept the fact that John McCain really can’t pull his head out of his ass at this point. It’s in too deep.

I pledge not to be shocked when Rick Sanchez announces his new show on Fox News.

I pledge to remember that there are 6 billion people in the world and only 300 million of them live in the United States . And with 300 million Americans to choose from, we can’t do better than John Boehner? Really?

And Margaret, my dear, I pledge that I will vote on November 2. I meant it. Really.

VOTE!

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