Religious Discrimination in America

Christianity seeking the freedom to discriminate ??? Oh, yes. https://flip.it/VBQNlB… Exactly that and more.

What more ??? It’s really Right-Wing Christianity (in violation of Separation of Church and State) seeking to be (1) the controlling and dominant religion of America and (2) seeking to control the rest of us (left-wing Christians and other religions) with their, rigid, judgmental, non-Golden Rule, right-wing Christianity. But, that’s just the sign of the times. Thank you Federalist Society.

As I said in my recent posting quoting Love One Another …

Our own, right wing, Christian, U.S. Supreme Court’s “judgmental” pronouncements seek to un-separate Church and State, so that… those rightwing, Christian Justices can impose their, so-called, “Christian” virtue on the rest of America…

by discriminating against other religions… wrongfully allowing Christian prayers at City Council meetings over the objections of Jews (Town of Greece case),
by discriminating against non-believers… wrongfully taking away women employees’ Federal, statutory right to “birth control” insurance coverage (under Obama Care)… because of the Little Sister’s “unprovable belief” that birth control is a “Sin” (Little Sisters of the Poor case) and
by discriminating against LGBTQ… by wrongfully refusing to provide their “open to the public” wedding services to Gays… even though gay marriage has been previously declared a Constitutional right (303 Creative case)

I have also recently shown the parallel between today’s (above) discrimination by right-wing Christians… and the old, Jim Crow discrimination of yesterday by the Ku Klux Klan Christians (of yesterday)… Separation of Church and State Relentless Assaults by… Mind Readers and True Believers. An excerpt…

RECENT U.S. SUPREME COURT RULINGS… EXTENSION OF KKK DISCRIMINATION

Apparently lost on the Federalist Society, Right-Wing, Christian, Supreme Court Justices is that their rulings (allowing the Town of Greece, the Little Sisters of the Poor and the wannabe website designer, 303 Creative)… to “discriminate” against others on the basis of “unprovable” religious beliefs is just a return to the good old days of Ku Klux Klan Christianity— that was used to justify discrimination, shunning and a White Supremacy that boldly claimed their Christian God gave their Christian, White selves… the role of Lord and Master over God’s inferior, Black children.

To enslave Blacks for 250 years in America (1619-1865),
To discriminate against and shun Blacks for another 100 years (1865-mid 1960s) under Jim Crow laws of “separate but equal” (“no White skin, no service”)… until (somewhat) remedied by the Civil Rights Acts of the mid 1960s (Black skin now gets service and sits up-front in the bus),
Followed by another 50 plus years of racial discrimination, shunning and second-class citizenship via red lining of home ownership, redlining of “all White” neighborhoods, restrictive covenants in deeds and redlining of home equity (“no White skin, no mortgages”),
Followed by the never ending, still ongoing murder and torture of Blacks by Whites as “symbolized” by the murders of Emmett Till (1955), Medgar Evers (1963), Martin Luther King (1968), Ahmaud Arbery (2020) and George Floyd (2020).
And, over my lifetime, how many times have I heard White Supremacist Christians give an awkward, half ass, “reading God’s mind” explanation that the Bible shows that “discrimination” and shunning of Blacks is approved by God because… when Cain killed his brother Able, God put a Black mark on Cain making it “open season” for Christian, White Supremacist to do as they wish to Blacks.

Reminiscent of anything ??? For me, reminiscent of graduating from Law School in 1969 and being admitted to the Michigan Bar on December 2, 1969 in the Livingston County, Circuit Court (Judge Paul Mahinski presiding in Howell, Michigan). Fresh out of the University of Detroit Law School in 1969, I was well versed in the U.S. Supreme Court’s growing body of Constitutional rights (under the legendary legacy of U.S. Supreme Court, Chief Justice, Earl Warren)…

Right to vote for Blacks … striking down literacy tests and poll taxes
Right to legal representation for indigent Defendants by Court Appointed Counsel
Right to Miranda warnings from cops to suspects,
Right to suppress evidence obtained by the government in violation of the 4th and 5th Amendments
Right to interracial marriage for mixed race couples
Right to (and decriminalization of) contraceptives for married couples, etc.

But, what I was not versed in (as I left Law School in 1969)… was the “influence” of the Ku Klux Klan in Livingston County, Michigan, an influence that spilled over to some Jurors chosen to sit in judgment in criminal and civil cases in the Livingston County Circuit Court. Therefore, in 1970, when I was “court appointed” counsel to represent a Black man (from Detroit) in a CCW criminal case (Carrying a Concealed Weapon) in Livingston County, it surprise me when local attorney, Irish Brian Lavan Esq. (may he rest)… told me to be prepared during Jury selection to ferret out prospective jurors who were sympathizers (or card-toten members) of the Klan. What ??? I thought that was long ago and far away in the deep South. “Oh, contrar“… says Lavan. Unbeknownst to my inexperienced, 26 year-old self, the Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan, Christian Pastor, Robert Miles, lived in Livingston County (a 45 minute drive up I-96 from my hometown City of Detroit). Who you ask ??? The Right Reverend Robert Miles, cloaked in Christian superiority and religious bigotry and head of the Church of Jesus Christ the Savior. Grand Dragon, Robert Miles, was hidden in plain sight and living in Livingston County… at least, when he wasn’t doing time for Conspiracy to bomb school buses that were used to desegregate Michigan schools.

Robert Miles, Ku Klux Klan, Grand Dragon and White Supremacist Pastor used his Christian pulpit and Christian Bible to preach Christian superiority of God’s White children, telling his followers that God created Black-skinned children inferior to the White children, and, therefore… White Christians had an absolute right to discriminate against Blacks and shun them socially. Or, if they looked twice at a White woman… lynch ‘em too. Reminiscent of today’s U.S. Supreme Court ??? Sadly, yes, as the 21st Century, Federalist Society, Super Majority Right-Wing Christian Justices tell us… that 21st Century Christians are still authorized to use their “unprovable” religious beliefs of intolerance and hate to discriminate against and shun the next group down the American totem pole, LGBTQ Sinners. See 303 Creative vs Elenis (2023) mentioned above.

Postscript. The verdict in the CCW Trial of my Black client in Livingston County ??? Not Guilty. To be informed is to be forewarned. Thank you… Brian Lavan, Esquire. The Jury (with forewoman, Mary Christmas… her real name) came back with the not guilty verdict a couple days before Christmas 1970. Great Christmas present for my client and me too… no ??? You can’t make this up. And the Prosecutor from all those years ago ??? Tom Kizer Esq. who went on to become an outstanding lawyer. I still count him as a good friend today in 2023… 54 years later. But, as I’ve often been admonished in the Courtroom, “Mr. Lauck, let’s stick to the point.” So, back to the point we go. Thank you for the reminder, your Honor. The point ??? The penchant of today’s Evangelicals and Right-Wing Catholics to throw away the 1st Amendment’s Separation of Church and State and adopt Christianity’s unprovable belief system as (1) the religion that governs America and (2) allows for discrimination against non-believing infidels.

Because of the predilection of the present, Federalist Society, Super Majority, Right-Wing, Christian Justices on the U. S. Supreme Court (Alito, Thomas, Roberts, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Coney-Barrett) … the human right of us Americans to chart our own course and our own “Life, Liberty and Pursuit of Happiness” free from the imposing over-reach of the “unprovable” beliefs of Religious Mind Leaders and True Believers is being denied to left wing, liberal Christians and non-Christians, alike. Today, in 2023 (and for many generations to come), the rulings of the Right-Wing Christian, Supreme Court Justices will legally shackle the rest of us Americans with an “unprovable,” right-wing belief system (birth control is a sin, and so is LGBTQ). With the present Right-Wing, Christian Supreme Court (in lockstep with the Evangelical Christians and Right-Wing Catholics), the rest of us are “second class” citizens in the American Christian theocracy. The religious battles of the theocratic Middle East over the purity of doctrine and dogma and the religious battles of yesterday’s Spanish Inquisition… have come to the shores of America. And, with those religious battles… so goes the loss of our God given free will to live out our “Life, Liberty and Pursuit of Happiness” as we see fit… all in violation of the “don’t establish” a religion clause of the 1st Amendment (a violation of Separation of Church and State doctrine). And what are we left with after all these losses ??? An America sliding down the slippery slope to “Theocracy.”

The left-wing, liberal “live and let live” Christians and the non-Christian segment of America can ill afford to let the Right-Wing, Christian theocrats of the U.S. Supreme Court and the U.S. Congress take over and violate Separation of Church and State, and create an American theocracy of Christianity. Separation of Church and State ensures that no one is punished, discriminated against, or shunned for what they “believe or don’t believe.” Punishment for criminal acts is the way of life in a Democracy. But punishment, discrimination, or societal shunning for what we choose to believe or not believe is unconstitutional in America. Religion and Government wearing the same hat and enforcing a religious belief system by force of law is the accepted staple and Hallmark of Theocracies… like al-Qaida, ISIS, the Taliban, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Saudi Arabia, etc. whose governments tell everyone what “unprovable” religious beliefs they must believe or suffer the consequence for being an infidel. And, as the present Super Majority, Right-Wing Christians of the U. S. Supreme Court now allow… let’s read God’s infinite mind and let the dogma wars, discrimination and societal shunning begin anew. All of us should (no, make that must) have a natural distrust of all those “finite,” human minds who read the “infinite” mind of God, and tell the rest of us what God demands of us… a harbinger of loss of freedom and human rights and a recipe for disaster.

Many (not all) but too many of those Mind Readers and True Believers of today (2023) were unwittingly set up for religious indoctrination when they were just kids. Now, that they have seamlessly slid from the “unprovable,” indoctrinated religious beliefs of childhood to the “unprovable,” political beliefs, of adulthood… they present a clear and present danger to our American Democracy. I speak of the January 6th invaders, Q’Anon followers, Neo Nazis, Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, Ku Klux Klan, Pat Robertson, Right-Wing Evangelicals, Right-Wing Catholics, those 900 (plus) indoctrinated adults (and their children) who drank the cool aid and died in Jonestown Guyana in 1978, those 303 indoctrinated souls (and their children) who starved themselves to death in Kenya in 2023, and all the others who claim to have a pipeline to the infinite mind of God, and claim to have all the answers to the impenetrable and unsolvable mysteries of life and death.

Dear God. Deliver us from evil (and ignorance) and give the rest of your children in America and across the Universe deliverance from those True Believers who claim to read your “infinite” mind. Instead, let them read the “finite” mind of man, and see the overwhelming need to follow in the footsteps of the man in sandals who journeyed from Galilee to Jerusalem criticizing the patriarchal system of his time and spreading the “good news” of… inclusion, acceptance, moral non-judgment, forgiveness, compassion and loving one another. Let us first be a citizen of the world and then a patriot of some postage-stamp parcel of land, second. First let us be a child of God and then a member of some organized religion, second.