WTF is happening in the US? This idea of the US being founded as a Christian Nation is a complete fiction, yet there are so many republican governors and legislators pushing it. When did the bible become more important than the constitution? I remember that shit being push on James when he was a teen and he is now 3o years old. We have a serious problem that generations since the 1980s have grown up being taught this fiction as fact. This was done through homeschooling and church schools. This fiction was / is promoted by churches to increase their political power and the income from adding more asses in pews. I have to tell you this drive to turn the US into a theocracy is terrifying to me and should be to others. We have seen it happen in other countries where a fundamentalist religion get governmental power, and they use it to wipe out personal freedoms in order to establish a religious doctrine enforced by the power of the state. Look at Iran, Saudi Arabia, or Afghanistan. Those restrictive laws entrench the political power and funds of the religious leaders but restrict any kind of growth or advancement for the public. I can not imagine how devastating it would be for the US people to be forced to live according to the dictates of people who think morals and science was at its peak 2,500 years ago. Hugs
“Oklahomans, we have a clear choice in front of us. When it comes to our schools, do we want the radical ideology in our classroom that pushes gender theory? That pushes graphic pornography in order to push a social experiment on our kids?
“Or do want the US Constitution? Do we want documents like the Federalist Papers and the bible? So that our kids understand our history and how our government was put together?
“Those core fundamental principles have made us the greatest country in the history of the world. Real Americans know that we’ve got to support our kids by giving them a great understanding of our history.
“Radical leftists and Biden administration, they would prefer to sexualize our kids.” – Oklahoma superintendent of public schools Ryan Walters.
Walters, who was appointed state secretary of education by Christianist Gov. Kevin Stitt in 2020, faced calls to resign in 2022 after it was revealed that a Koch-funded group that advocates for privatizing public schools was paying him $120,000/year.
Stitt rejected calls for Walters’ resignation and attempted to reappoint him again earlier this year, but the state Senate refused to allow him to hold the elected superintendent and appointed secretary of education posts at the same time.
Walters last appeared on JMG in October 2022 when he called for reeducating all teachers with “Christian patriotic history” in a program operated by Michigan’s far-right Hillsdale College.
OK Superintendent of Schools says the Biden Admin is pushing graphic pornography and gender theory in schools to sexualize our kids, but he says students should be taught from important historical documents like the Bible. pic.twitter.com/fxum2wn3xx
Oklahomans, we have a clear choice in front of us. When it comes to our schools, do we want the radical ideology in our classroom that pushes gender theory? That pushes graphic pornography in order to push a social experiment on our kids?
Are people so stupid that they think teachers are hauling out their Honcho magazines into the classroom? That’s what Sunday school is for.
That’s what gets me. People eat this crap up with absolutely no proof of any of it. And hey, what happened to the kitty litter in the classrooms issue?
Think of the irrationality of this. This man started shouting obscenities and talking about oral sex in front of kids because he saw a rainbow pin. How exactly is this either protecting kids or rational? He took his self-righteous entitled anger out on store clerks, knowing they would lose their job to fight back against him. Hugs
He shouted about how letting children see rainbows is a form of pedophilia, recording his rant and posting it online.
The employee had enough of this unruly customer so he got securityPhoto: Screenshot
A man is getting roasted online after he had a temper tantrum at a Lego store because some of the employees were wearing rainbow flag pins and then posted it online.
John K. Amanchukwu Sr. – who calls himself a “faith contributor” to the far-right organization Turning Point USA (TP USA) – posted the video in which he asked an employee of a Lego store if “the Lego Group supports” LGBTQ+ people.
The employee called over another who said, “Yes.”
“But the question is,” Amanchukwu asked, “why are you all in here with those pins on? Do you think children care about what man sucks d**k at home? What girl eats vaginas at home?”
“It’s time to leave, man,” the employee responded, probably because there were children present at the store.
Amanchukwu insisted that he wanted an answer and the employee said, “I don’t think they think about that, personally.”
“They think about it when they see your pin!” Amanchukwu responded.
“No they don’t,” the employee said, who then told him to leave again while Amanchukwu said, “That’s called grooming!”
The employee said that he’ll call security and Amanchukwu threatened to tell security “that you’re in here wearing, uh, Pride flags.”
The video then cuts to when a security guard is present and Amanchukwu was still ranting about the pins.
“Most children don’t know!” Amanchukwu said, who then talked about his own kid. “He’s been educated by me. I think it’s grooming, it’s borderline pedophilia and child abuse for these weirdos to come in here and wear that and at the same time kids buy from this store!”
The security guard then told Amanchukwu to leave, and he said that he won’t spend any more money at the Lego store and started shouting to everyone at the store that “this store is intentionally promoting LGBTQ behavior on children!”
Charlie Kirk, the founder of TP USA, then posted the video to Twitter. It does not appear to be on Amanchukwu’s TikTok account anymore.
I can’t wait for the wave of videos of conservatives proudly screaming about sex acts in public any time they see rainbow anything. That’ll really keep the kids safe. https://t.co/WSMrd4Tiwf
People mocked the conservative activists for thinking that shouting about genitalia and sex acts in a Lego store would protect children.
The person yelling “sucking cocks” and “eating vaginas” in a toy store is the person being inappropriate in front of kids. This is simple. The dad is the danger to kids here. I would not want my child (who has two moms) to hear that trash.
It’s very simple. A man and a woman can say they are married and that is not inappropriate. If they talk explicitly about their sex acts in front of kids that is bad. It works exactly the same way when two ladies are married or two men. It is so incredibly easy to understand,
Such feeble-minded, tiresome nonsense. I wouldn’t worry about my kids being around LEGOs. I’d worry about them being around unhinged mooks like this one blathering on about “sucking cock” in toy stores for undeserved social media engagement.
So let me get this straight, a dude walks into a Lego store, starts shouting at workers because they're wearing pride pins, and then starts yelling about sex acts in detail inside a store *for children*, and you're annoyed he was kicked out?
He went into a Lego store and started loudly talking about oral sex clearly looking to just cause a problem and you think it's bad they kicked him out?
Is this the same son who got the minor girl pregnant, and she the great Christian who is against sexual education and calls teachers groomers because they provide safe spaces for gay / trans kids not to be bullied, was proud of her son for doing this. Like she personally had a hand in the selection of the girl and the act to ruin her life and her son’s life also? Stupid uneducated entitled white people …. Hugs
friend of Lauren Boebert‘s eldest son Tyler Boebert has accused the Colorado Republican of covering up details of a car crash caused by the 18-year-old boy, during which the friend, 19-year-old Noble D’Amato, was injured.
D’Amato told the Denver news site Westword that the incident occurred on September 17, 2022, at about 11:30 p.m. According to the 19-year-old, who said he was riding shotgun, the congresswoman’s son was driving his father’s SUV when he flipped into a Garfield County creek bed. At the time, Tyler Boebert was 17.
D’Amato told Westword that he wound up in the hospital with multiple concussions and a severely lacerated hand. “I still have problems with my hand,” he said. “My thumb almost got cut off. It prevented me from getting a welding job because I can’t hold a TIG torch anymore. I’m a personal-care provider now.”
U.S. Representative Lauren Boebert (R-CO) (C) listens alongside members of the House Freedom Caucus during a news conference on the debt limit at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on March 22, 2023. A friend of Boebert’s son Tyler has accused the family of trying to hide a car crash caused by the then-17-year-old boy.STEFANI REYNOLDS/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
After the incident, D’Amato was charged with drug offenses after Colorado State Police said they found he was carrying unprescribed Xanax pills and a marijuana grinder, together with a small amount of marijuana. Officers said D’Amato admitted to taking “a bar”—Xanax—earlier in the evening of the accident, while the 19-year-old insisted Tyler Boebert was sober.
Meanwhile, Tyler Boebert was reportedly issued a “careless driving causing bodily injury” ticket and was summoned to appear in court. But prosecutors in Glenwood Springs later dropped the boy’s case, downgrading it to “a defective vehicle for headlights” ticket following the acceptance of a plea deal, according to the Garfield County Court Clerk’s Office.
Newsweek has contacted Boebert’s team and Colorado State Police for comment by email.
The clerk’s office told Westword that Tyler Boebert was ordered by the court to attend driving school through Colorado’s “Alive at 25” driver’s awareness program and a mandatory review hearing that was scheduled for April 10 to ensure he took part in the course.
D’Amato told the Denver news site that the Boebert family was trying to “hide the fact that I was injured. They just don’t give a f***. It’s the entire family.” He also referred to a previous incident involving Lauren Boebert. In 2019, ahead of the 2020 primary for the Colorado Republican’s congressional district, Lauren Boebert was involved in an off-road incident with her son, dog, and now former sister-in-law Tori Hooper. According to the Daily Mail, which quoted an anonymous source, Lauren Boebert “begged” Hooper to keep quiet about the incident.
D’Amato said he and Tyler Boebert drifted away after the incident but are still friendly. He said he doesn’t plan to take legal action against the Boeberts but he wants Tyler Boebert to stop acting like “he’s a god” just because he’s Lauren Boebert’s kid.
The Garfield County Court Clerk’s Office said that law enforcement just got the ticket wrong the first time. Boebert’s team told Westword that the injury reported by D’Amato “was superficial at best and was addressed by medical professionals out of caution.”
I want to thank Ali for sending me this back in February. I have been meaning to post it. I followed several atheist blogs that already went over this in depth, but this is the best post on it that I can show to the followers of this blog. Hugs
Or ‘young boy molester’, in Greek. A mistranslation of the word in the 19th century, present in all modern Bibles, is the basis for today’s Xristian homophobia.
The words “homosexual” and “heterosexual” were first coined as German nouns by Austrian-born Hungarian psychologist, Karoly Maria Benkert, in the late 19th century, who wrote under pseudonym K.M. Kertbeny.
Ed Oxford is a scholar and researcher. A gay Christian, as well as a graduate of the Talbot School of Theology, his specialty is the history of the Bible, focusing on Bible translations, with a focus on the Greek and Hebrew translations, especially those that relate to human sexuality. Kathy Baldock is an LGBTQ+ advocate and executive director of Canyon Walker Connections, an organization dedicated to repairing “the division that exists between social and Christian conservatives and the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community through education, training, and dialogue in both secular and religious environments.”
Each had been dedicated to researching the roots of antigay theology, and together have written Forging a Sacred Weapon: How the Bible Became Anti-Gay, and they are also the researchers behind the documentary, 1946: The Mistranslation That Shifted Culture. In the process of this research, they discovered boxes and boxes of notes in the Yale University archives, among them a half-century old letter written by a young seminarian named David S., to the RSV — Revised Standard Version of the Bible — committee.
Now, the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, is, according to the National Council of Churches, the “authorized revision of the American Standard Version, published in 1901, which was a revision of the King James Version, published in 1611.”
This is important to know, because the actual word “homosexual” appears for the first time on February 11, 1946 in the Revised Standard Version. In it, their translation of 1 Corinthians 6:9, they substitute the word “homosexual” for the the Greek words “malakoi” and “arsenokoitai.”
Further, as Oxford shares with Forge, a nonprofit organization that “that creates space for post-evangelical conversations, which includes tools and resources for lgbtq+ inclusion in the church,” “…we went to Leviticus 18:22 and [the translator is] translating it for me word for word. In the English where it says, ‘Man shall not lie with man, for it is an abomination,’ the German version says, ‘Man shall not lie with young boys as he does with a woman, for it is an abomination.’ I said, ‘What?! Are you sure?’ He said, ‘Yes!” Then we went to Leviticus 20:13– same thing, ‘Young boys.’ So we went to 1 Corinthians to see how they translated arsenokoitai (original Greek word) and instead of homosexuals it said, ‘Boy molesters will not inherit the kingdom of God.'”
Further from there, Oxford shares, “I then grabbed my facsimile copy of Martin Luther’s original German translation from 1534. My friend is reading through it for me and he says, “Ed, this says the same thing!” They use the word knabenschander. Knaben is boy, schander is molester. This word ‘boy molesters’ for the most part carried through the next several centuries of German Bible translations. Knabenschander is also in 1 Timothy 1:10. So the interesting thing is, I asked if they ever changed the word arsenokoitai to homosexual in modern translations. So my friend found it and told me, ‘The first time homosexual appears in a German translation is 1983.'”
Although the mistake was corrected from “homosexual” to “sexual perverts” in the Revised Standard Version in 1971, the damage had been heavily done, with the word “homosexual” appearing in most translations of the Bible, mostly in 1 Corinthians 6:9 and 1 Timothy 1:10. This became the fuel for the antigay movement embraced by American conservative Christians, as well as others around the world.
The documentary, 1946, explores and enlightens about this issue, using research and physical evidence, as well as the testimony of scholars, academics, and experts in the field. The movie also features an original score from celebrated queer musician Mary Lambert.
As the director, Sharon “Rocky” Roggio, has said, “It is my goal to change the Christian narrative and liberate the many LGBTQIA+ people living in the dark; oppressed by bad theology. I want us all to live and be acknowledged as equals, under God’s love. There are truths that must be shared.”
This is the history of black people in the US that DeathSantis and the republican racists like Marge Greene want desperately to bury and hide. They are making laws to prevent this honest teaching of history illegal while claiming it is just to make white kids feel bad of their white skin. We need to get serious before we lose our entire true history. The Daughters of the Confederacy in both the 1920s and the 1960s raced to slap up monuments to the South, to Dixie, claiming the confederate battle flag represented heritage and the civil war was about states rights. But what right did the Southern states demand, by their own writings it was the right to own black people as property like cattle to do with them as they wished including raping them or other mistreatments. Both times it was about reminding black people that they were less than whites and that whites owned them once and would always be above them. We really have to prevent the white supremist washing of the US history. The US can be the shining city on the hill but only if the people move forward socially instead of retreating into a fake mythical past. Hugs
Again these bills are a way Christians can force their moral views on everyone, a way they get to rule on how every person gets to live their lives. It gives these rabid fundamentalists Christian republican groups the right to tell everyone else what they can do, regulating what everyone can watch / read in order to conform to a strict religious view of morality written 2,500 years ago. It ignores all medical, scientific, and social advances done in the years since their holy books were written and mistranslated. Society has advanced as human understandings have, yet these oppressive regressive people want to ignore all that. Would they also like to go back to the medical understandings in the 1600s, 1700s, or even what was known medically in 1900. That was 28 years before penicillin was discovered. 21 years before insulin was discovered. Tell me if their holy book written knew everything about morals why did it support slavery? Do we return to that also to please Christian fascists? This is an attempt to enshrine a religious morality over everyone regardless of if you belong to that or any religion. Again it is not about these people being able to live and act as they wish, it is about forcing everyone else to live by their church rules / doctrines. Hugs
Bills are part of religious right’s post-Roe strategy, with most prevalent ones relating to age verification of sex-related websites
A wave of proposed legislation pushed by Republicans across the US at the state level is aimed at outlawing aspects of sexuality that could have a huge impact on Americans’ private lives and businesses.
Opponents to the laws before legislatures in various states say the planned new legislation could spawn prosecution of breast-pump companies in Texas for nipples on advertising, or a bookstore might be banned from selling romance novels in West Virginia, or South Carolina could imprison standup comics if a risqué joke is heard by a young person.
The bills are part of a post-Roe nationwide strategy by the religious wing of the Republican party, now that federal abortion rights have fallen. They range from banning all businesses that sell sex-related goods to anti-drag queen bills. Tyler Dees, an Arkansas state senator who wrote an anti-porn bill said: “I would love to outlaw it all,” referring to porn.
The most prevalent bills relate to age verification of sex-related websites. Seventeen states drafted porn age-verification bills, many inspired by Louisiana’s law that went into effect in January. Louisiana’s law requires websites featuring 33.33% or more pornographic content to check government-issued ID to verify users are 18 and older. Websites that don’t comply face civil penalties. Parents can sue the site if kids access it.
In Texas, a new bill requiring age verification on websites with pornographic content defines images of the female breast “below the top of the areola” as porn, potentially hitting at business advertisements. In West Virginia, a bill outlawing all sexually oriented businesses is on the docket, with a definition that includes art studios with nude models and wrestling arenas. In South Carolina a bill would criminalize using “profane language” related to “sexual or excretory organs or activities” in front of minors during performances. The punishment? Up to a decade in prison.
Some bills define porn so broadly that anatomy textbooks or sex education websites would meet them.
“I don’t think such laws for the internet are constitutional,” said Eugene Volokh, a professor of Law at UCLA.
Laurie Schlegel, a Republican state senator who drafted the Louisiana law, is a sex-addiction therapist educated at Baptist seminary, who opposed transgender students from being on sports teams that align with their gender. Schlegel’s anti-LGBTQ+ views fit with the broader goal of the laws, according to Carolyn Bronstein, a professor of media studies at DePaul University.
“These laws are really not about controlling minors’ access to violent pornography … In the conservative world view, pornography is information about LGBTQ identity, abortion, gay marriage,” said Bronstein.
Eight states have justified their actions by saying that porn is “creating a public health crisis”. Louisiana’s bill claims that pornography “may lead to low self-esteem, body image disorders, an increase in problematic sexual activity at younger ages … impact brain development … shape deviant sexual arousal, and lead to difficulty in forming or maintaining positive, intimate relationships, as well as promoting problematic or harmful sexual behaviors and addiction.”
Historian Whitney Strub, an associate professor of history at Rutgers University, doesn’t think these ideas are well-founded. “Framing pornography as a public health crisis is not driven by serious engagement with the social scientific literature,” he said. “They’ve even got fake peer-reviewed journals that give the imprimatur of scholarship … It’s been a very smart rebranding of evangelical Christian conservatism.”
Why are all these bills being proposed now? Strub thinks it’s partly because of the overturning of Roe v Wade. “Abortion gave a certain coherence to conservative politics in the United States. And it certainly still does … but they’re in the position of Ahab if he slayed the white whale … I mean, there’s no more Moby-Dick.”
There is hypocrisy on display also.
In many of the states where the anti-porn bills are being put forth, minors can legally have sex and get married. “In Louisiana, you can have sex when you’re 17 with a person in their 30s, but you can’t watch porn,” said Jason Kelley, associate director of digital strategy for the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
In Mississippi, Arkansas and Louisiana, the age of consent is 16. With parental permission, Mississippi allows 15-year-olds to marry, Louisiana 16-year-olds, Arkansas 17-year-olds, and West Virginia kids of any age.
Dees, who wrote Arkansas’s age verification bill, a copycat of Louisiana’s, said porn causes depression and anxiety, divorce and “permissive sexual attitudes” and infidelity. “When I think about the children … I want to protect their innocence,” Dees said.
Strub said this is an old trope: “The political figure of the innocent and imperiled child just has a never-ending purchase on American politics … [it] essentially shuts down debate because it immediately creates a binary in which anybody who disagrees with you is [a] perverted groomer.”
Dees is also the co-author of anti-drag queen legislation in Arkansas, that classifies drag performances as the same category as pornography. “It’s not really a meaningful distinction to [conservatives]. They’re both sexual degeneracy in its different guises,” Strub said.
Dees claimed that his porn verification law “doesn’t have anything to do with any political messaging. It has to do with exposure to material that is harmful, period … There’s a clear enemy in the smut-peddling garbage that’s online.”
But measures already exist to prevent children accessing porn. “There’s a really easy way to keep kids from accessing adult content. And that’s a device-level filter” on mobile phones that block adult websites that are registered as Restricted to Adults, said Mike Stabile of the Free Speech Coalition, which advocates for the rights of sex workers.
These laws, according to Stabile, aren’t going to stop kids from looking at porn. “Even if they were to block all sites, you’re still going to have adult content on Twitter and Reddit … kids will get VPNs,” he said.
Stabile thinks we’ll see up to two dozen age-verification bills introduced by the end of the year.
Dees hopes he is right and has eyes beyond the state level eventually. “My prayer is that enough states continue to push for this measure, and that we send a loud enough message where federal law can be put into place,” he said.
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