The ruling states that the law — which amended the state constitution — violated the Establishment clause of the First Amendment by singling out one religion, Islam. In addition, the court noted that the proponents of the law, which passed November 2010 in a state referendum, could not identify one occasion in which Sharia was used in Oklahoma.

Too bad courts can’t comment on the stupidity of laws, too.

Oklahoma’s Islamophobic factions took the lead nationally in pressing for such a law, creating a nontroversy about “creeping Sharia” and Muslim infiltration of the USA. After the Sooner State’s successful ballot initiative, other states jumped on the bandwagon, fabricating Muslim threats from whole cloth.

The 10th Circuit got to the heart of the matter in its ruling: “Sharia? What Sharia?”

Appellants do not identify any actual problem the challenged amendment seeks to solve. Indeed, they admitted at the preliminary injunction hearing that they did not know of even a single instance where an Oklahoma court had applied Sharia law or used the legal precepts of other nations or cultures, let alone that such applications or uses had resulted in concrete problems in Oklahoma. See Awad, 754 F. Supp. 2d at 1308; Aplt. App. Vol. 1 at 67-68.

Given the lack of evidence of any concrete problem, any harm Appellants seek to remedy with the proposed amendment is speculative at best and cannot support a compelling interest.15 “To sacrifice First Amendment protections for so speculative a gain is not warranted . . . .” Columbia Broad. Sys., Inc. v. Democratic Nat’l Co., 412 U.S. 94, 127 (1973).

In other words, it’s a bit like locking the barn door to keep the horses from escaping before they are actually inside. Except in this case, there aren’t any horses, either. So, it’s both stupid and crazy.

Isn’t all bigotry like that?

Without going into a lot of details, let’s just say that teacher, John Freshwater of Mount Vernon, was removed from classroom teaching pending an administrative hearing about insubordination. After a two-year-long administrative hearing process, Freshwater lost his job earlier this year. He and the Mount Vernon school system were also named in a federal discrimination complaint brought by a student’s family; the school district settled out of court and Freshwater, following an unsuccessful appeal, also had to pay damages to the family. Meanwhile, he filed, and later dropped, his own discrimination complaint in federal court against the school system.

So, after all these proceedings which suggest that Freshwater was to some degree culpable, I learn that he has the nerve to play the victim card on David Barton and Rick Green’s WallBuilders Live radio program.

Here’s a partial transcript, courtesy of Right Wing Watch.

Freshwater: When the 2007/2008 school year came along, there was a new principal, a new Superintendent, and three new school board members and what took place that year was they wanted me to removed my Bible from my desk. And I felt I have academic freedoms and I thought I had the right to have my Bible on my desk, so I left it on my desk in 2007/2008 school year and they told me to remove it and that was when they suspended me – April 16, 2008 – they suspended me without pay and I’ve been in litigation since then, the last four years.

Green: What’s their complaint about having a Bible on your desk? I thought teachers were allowed to do that?

Freshwater: You know what? I thought so too, but they said I needed to remove it from my desk. Here is what it comes down to Rick, and it’s this: there is a lot of fear in public school teachers, especially Christian public school teachers. They put fear into them and they keep them ignorant; they don’t teach them, they don’t train them on it, so what a teacher does is they take off their religious beliefs, they take their hat off before they walk into a public school building because they don’t want to lose their job. They really don’t have a good understanding of this whole thing called religious belief and separation of church and state, it has been convoluted, it has been putting fear in the people and it is sad, it’s very sad for a public school teacher in a public school in America today.

Freshwater conveniently omitted the religious posters on his classroom walls, the shelf full of Bibles for students to borrow, his teaching of creationism in class, and comments disparaging Catholics, among others, as not being Christian, which were significant charges that led to his removal from teaching and the federal suit against him and the school system. It is true his principal told him to remove his Bible from his desk, so it was not in plain sight. It is also true that Freshwater refused, and also refused to change any of his other actions that got him and the school in hot water.

As for the malarkey that public school teachers have to leave their religion in the school parking lot, there are no laws that forbid teachers from keeping a Bible in their desk, praying privately or stating their own beliefs in a non-judgmental, non-threatening way to their students. There are laws, however, that forbid them from teaching creationism or Intelligent Design as valid “scientific theories” or using their teacher’s desk as a church pulpit to preach to a captive audience.

i won’t even mention the unprofessional, nay, stupid, practice of using a Tesla coil (technically, a high-voltage, high-frequency vacuum leak tester) to give volunteer students skin burns in the shape of an “x” (or a cross, depending on your viewpoint). These charges were also part of Freshwater’s legal woes, if not the catalyst that brought his other dubious actions to light.

Cry me a river, John Freshwater. You’re not a victim here. You’re the instigator — you made your own bed, now lie in it.

————-
If any readers are sufficiently curious to read about the Strange and Curious Case of John Freshwater, this link will take you to the Panda’s Thumb, where Richard Hoppe has chronicled in excruciating detail the whole saga.

JISHOU, HUNAN — By way of Right Wing Watch, I came across this announcement, which encourages folks to host viewing “parties” for a televised “premiere event.”

Now on sale! Just $9.95 if you act before Sept. 30!

The lineup of speakers* includes two guys running for the Republican presidential nomination (only one of whom has a ghost of chance of winning the nomination), a former congressman, a man who lies about American history, and the former head of an influential conservative Christian media empire.

[*Speakers have been invited, but are not yet confirmed. -- Footnote at the bottom of the webpage.]]

Three hours of talking heads telling us that the USA is a Christian Nation™, that the USA is going down the tubes because of the liberals, the gays, the atheists, the Muslims and (by the way) President Barack Obama, and that viewers need to bring God back into America where He belongs, instead of taking care of the whole universe like He’s supposed to.

Gripping TV at its best.

For a special price of $9.95, you can buy a home party hosting kit. The church hosting kit is $49.95. (Both prices are only good until Sept. 30, so order now! Operators are standing by.)

If the viewing kits included coupons for a keg or two, and suggestions for drinking games (chug a mug when you hear the word “Jesus”), these “parties” might be mildly entertaining. As it is, three hours of listening to these guys rehash the same old arguments and diatribes against the Bill of Rights would seem, even for a believer in such nonsense, excruciatingly painful.

I’m betting this media event of the century will tank. Just a hunch.

Vote for me, the bigot!

Turner is running against Democrat David Weprin in a special election to fill the seat of Rep. Andrew Weiner (D-NY-9), who resigned his seat after a sexting scandal. It’s supposed to be a tight race.

I hope this flier backfires on Turner big time. Aside from the obvious bigotry, it lies like a dog. The Park 51 project is not at the site of World Trade Center (the so-called Ground Zero), is not a mosque, and doesn’t look anything like the gold-domed edifice in the flier. The project additionally does not violate any laws, local or national, and has even been approved by the local community zoning board.

Turner is a putz. Look it up at urbandictionary.com if you don’t know what it means.

I’ve blogged before about David Barton’s peculiar version of American history. He teaches that the USA was deliberately conceived as a Christian nation, despite considerable evidence to the contrary. Barton misquotes the Founding Fathers, twists and quotemines historical documents, and when all else fails outright lies about history to support his cockeyed ideas.

The Religious Right adores him. Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), who is vainly trying to be the presidential nominee of her party, invited Barton to teach the Constitution to newly minted Representatives. Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, who at one point was considering a presidential run, famously said:

`“I almost wish that there would be, like, a simultaneous telecast, and all Americans would be forced–forced at gunpoint no less–to listen to every David Barton message, and I think our country would be better for it. I wish it’d happen.”

The Atlantic Monthly had a lengthy analysis of Barton’s appeal and his peculiar methods of historical research. There is no doubt that Barton’s religious belief drives his interpretation of history, but what kind of beliefs does he have?

Here’s a clue. Right Wing Watch posted this excerpt of Barton’s appearance last year on televangelist Kenneth Copeland’s “In God We Trust” video series. Barton is talking about the need for Christians to get involved in public affairs.

I’ll tell you one of the things too we’ll never get right until we understand this, it is a spiritual battle. We’re told in Ephesians, it’s not flesh in blood, we’re dealing with spirits. And I’ll tell you out of Daniel, praying, why did that answer get delayed for twenty-one days? Because the Prince of Persia fought against it. There are principalities that sit over certain areas.

And I can tell this in the U.S. Capitol. When I walk from the House side to the Senate side, I cross the middle line of the Capitol, I can feel a different principality because they have jurisdictions over different things. And there are principalities that sit over different government entities that cause them to think really goofy and you can’t get prayers through, they get delayed twenty-one days because the principalities are up there fighting in the Heavenlies.

Because we’re not fighting flesh and blood. And if you don’t understand this is a spiritual battle, and if you don’t understand there are really big principalities and powers sitting over places of power, whether it be banking, or education. There’s principalities that sit over schools to keep those kids from getting knowledge, there’s principalities that sit over financial institutions. They sit over households. That’s why you have principalities in powers, that gradation, you have the corporals, and you have the sergeants, and you have the lieutenants, the captains and the generals, and the generals have a bigger principality and those little corporals may have control over the house but it’s a spiritual battle.

It’s a spiritual battle and we’ll never win until we understand that.

Demonology 102 there. I’ll summarize Demonology 101, in case you cut the entire semester.

Barton is referring to Ephesians 3:12, in which the author (presumed to be Paul) tells the church in Ephesia that they are battling not flesh-and-blood enemies, but evil, spiritual powers. The Daniel allusion refers to a 21-day period when Daniel prayed, and subsequently got a message from God.

The idea of “principalities” originally referred to an order of angels in a complex medieval hierarchy. Principalities were the angels who were messengers or guardians on Earth. Evangelicals later appropriated the term to refer to the angels’ adversaries on Earth. For every order of angels, there is a corresponding order of demons.

I had to do some googling, since I’m not up on demonology. I found this explanation:

Principalities are small insignificant irritating little demons. They are the kind of demons that put thoughts of temptation in the minds of man and cause irritations. They do not have much power and there are millions of them. They are the peasants of Satan’s kingdom if you please. They are the Privates in his army and the ones that do all his grunt work. In the Spirit I normally see them pictured as little monkeys.

Flying Monkeys? I wonder.

From the same website, we have a gloss on the allusion to Daniel:

In Daniel 10:12 we read that Daniel had been praying and fasting and waiting on God, and he had waited 21 days.

After that an angel appeared to him and said, Daniel 10:12 Fear not, Daniel: for from the first day that you set your heart to understand, and to chasten yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come because of your words. 13 But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty one days: but, look, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me; and I remained there with the kings of Persia. (GMR)

The prince of the kingdom of Persia was a demonic prince that was in charge of the whole kingdom that Daniel was in. Before that angel could come and get through to him, he was opposed by this high level demonic power in the heavenlies, a demonic prince of darkness.

Satan has set up his system over this world, and he has princes of darkness over every single area. There are princes of darkness in charge of your country. There are princes of darkness in charge of your city. There are princes of darkness in charge of your community. They have all been allocated responsibility to oversee the principalities, powers and rulers of darkness that are in that area.

So, basically speaking, David Barton believes that demons (agents of Satan) have control over Business, Government, Family, Church, Education, Media and Entertainment/Arts — the so-called Seven Mountains that some Christians want to take over to make the USA into the Christian Nation they believe it was destined to be.

People like Michele Bachmann, Mike Huckabee, Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R), probably Sarah Palin, and other declared or wannabe presidential contenders. They are not just running for political reasons; they’ve got religious reasons, also (to varying degrees, I’m sure.)

Perosonally, I find all this demonology stuff befuddling. Though I am now an atheist, I was taught to believe there is a God, who is omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent. Satan entered the picture only when talking about the serpent in the Garden of Eden and Jesus’ temptation in the desert. Ditto for angels and demons — not a lot of stress on these critters, since they generally just have walk-on parts in the Bible. God was basically The Guy in Charge, though at times it did seem like he was having one too many “power lunches,” sipping ouzo with Zeus, in between smiting entire cities and putting reluctant prophets inside big fish.

So, from a theological standpoint, I can’t fathom why some people like Barton and Les D. Crause, whom I have quoted twice here, give these demons, or principalities, so much power. What happened to God’s omni-whateverness?. For many of these Christians, there is a demon for every affliction, every kind of behavior they don’t like: cancer demons, drug demons, homosexuality demons, rock music demons — the list goes on.

And these demons are not imaginary or allegorical. When Barton says two principalities have separate control of the House and Senate, he means that literally — demons are in fact sitting on top of both legislative bodies, making the people’s brains all fuzzy and confused.

Sounds mighty like polytheism to me. Or a story arc from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

So, if you read or hear about anything David Barton says about American history and our Christian Nation™, keep in mind that this is the kind of crazy-ass Christianity he’s talking about, not your mainstream go-to-church-on-Sunday kind. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

One crazy lady, Linda Harvey, manages to connect New York’s Constitutional exercise of states’ rights (which conservatives normally champion) with an imaginary crusade by President Barack Obama to make every American fuck like bunnies. For example,

This “freedom” will include much more than a perpetual pansexual pagan party. It will, and already does, include libel, slander, intimidation, corruption of youth, revolt in congregations, suppression of parental rights, revision of language, disease, loss of employment and loss of life.

Oh, and did I mention public sex, the porn explosion and public nudity?

Welcome to entitlement sex.

Social Security is an entitlement — the government (so far, anyway) guarantees retirees a minimal income. Medicare is an entitlement — the government (so far, anyway) guarantees retirees minimal medical coverage. Medicaid is an entitlement — the government (so far, anyway) guarantees the poor minimal medical coverage.

If I understand Harvey correctly, she is suggesting the federal government is going to guarantee everyone a minimal amount of sex. Some congressmen are already getting more than their fair share (including those who work with both sides of the aisle, if you catch my drift), so it seems the federal government has already piloted this program among elected officials. Perhaps it started during the Clinton administration. Whatever the case, it seems only fair the rest of us benefit as well.

Finally, a right wing idea the rest of us can get behind, or on top of, or something! Thank you, Linda Harvey! You’re brilliant!

Amy Myers the Bachmann Slayer (and Scourge of the Right Wing) is not the only high school student making national news. Damon Fowler and Zack Kopplin, both of Louisiana, have made some national waves recently, too.

Fowler is a 2011 graduate of Bastrop High School in Bastrop, La. Earlier this term, he learned that there would be a school-sanctioned official prayer at his graduation ceremony. He objected, and asked that the prayer be scotched. (FYI, the Supreme Court has held that public school-sponsored prayers are verboten under the First Amendment, which Fowler knows but the school apparently didn’t.)

The ACLU followed up with a letter advising the school of the legal requirements and ramifications. School officials agreed to forgo the prayer. As if. In the meantime, the community got wind of Fowler’s objections and the shit hit the fan.

Fowler got threats of violence and death. His fellow students turned on him. One of his teachers publicly berated him. His parents kicked him out of the house, and put his possessions (except his PS3) out on the porch.

The graduation went on without him, since he reckoned attending put him at some risk. And a prayer was said by a student, supposedly against the wishes of the administration but basically within the letter of the law.

On the bright side, Fowler is living with his sister in Texas, and an atheist website has raised more than $30,000 for him to attend college, since his parents cut him off.

Kopplin is a Baton Rouge high school senior who objects to his state’s so-called science education law, which encourages, nay requires teaches in Louisiana to explain that evolution is only one possible explanation for the diversity of life on Earth, creationism/Intelligent Design being another.

He challenged Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R-Minn.) to a debate about creationism. Myers, of New Jersey, also challenged Bachmann to a debate on American history and the Constitution.

Bachmann has so far ignored both challenges.

Kopplin’s letter to Bachmann begins:

I’m a 17 year old from Louisiana, and I’m calling Congresswoman Michele Bachmann’s bluff when it comes to creationism and Nobel Laureate scientists.

In 2004, while she was in the Minnesota State Senate, Congresswoman Bachmann tried to pass SF 1714, a bill similar to my state’s creationism law, the Louisiana Science Education Act (LSEA), which I’m fighting to repeal. This misnamed and misguided law creates a way to sneak the teaching of creationism into Louisiana public school science classrooms.

The LSEA is hurting my state and the students in it. And now, as the congresswoman is laying the groundwork to run for President, she is upping the ante for the rest of the country by bringing an anti-science, creationist stance to the national stage. Why is this a junk hand for students? Just look at the lessons from Louisiana. Colleges both at home and across the country may question our science education and withhold admission because of our dubious science background. In addition, Louisiana students may lose out on cutting edge science jobs to kids from countries like China and Britain where they teach accurate science and the theory of evolution.

He demands that Bachmann “show him the money” and say who her anti-evolution experts are.

Kopplin later appeared on MSNBC’s Hardball, and made quite an impression. Interestingly enough, he’s the son of Andy Kopplin, Baton Rouge Mayor Mitch Landrieu’s chief of administration.

While there is an active group of teachers, students, parents and scientists lobbying for the repeal of the act, Kopplin has become the lightning rod for criticism and condemnation. Typical of the reactions is this opinion piece from the Shreveport (La.) Times, whose author demonstrates a poor understanding of both science and Constitutional law.

The Times recently carried a front-page article titled “Group seeks repeal of science education act.” (Baton Rouge) High School senior Zack Kopplin, who is on the front line in this imbecilic group, should wait until he has a little more experience in the real world of ACLU actions in this country.

The ACLU, an organization started in communism, convinced our exalted and supposedly intellectual Supreme Court to affirm that the U.S. Constitution means a separation of church and state. It says nothing of the kind. It does say for Congress to keep hands off.

It was not Congress but the Supreme Court, educated beyond its capacity to understand, that gave the ACLU a law to go after anything Christian in the schools and public places. This has led to untold havoc in this nation, helped and abetted by the elements that want to force-feed the theory of evolution to American students. Russia excelled in this.

Evolution is a theory, not factual or scientific. The article says teachers, scientists and college professors (doesn’t say which ones) are backing Sen. Karen Carter Peterson’s bill (Senate Bill 70) in the Senate. They are asking (telling) students that the “big bang” arranged everything in the universe and somehow started life on Earth with a one-celled animal and, surprise, this is where they came from.

They brook no opposition or discussions, which is all the present law advocates. How ignorant can you get?

I ask them to look around and see what has happened in this country since they took God out of schools and everything public. We have an ungodly crowd making laws in this nation.
- Kenny W. Hopkins

Hopkins repeats a lot of fallacies familiar to us who follow the creationism “movement.” Here are the answers.

The First Amendment established separation of church and state in 1787. Even before the ACLU was established, the Supreme Court maintained that government institutions (such as public schools) cannot foster one religion over any other. While it is true the ACLU has participated in many cases involving religion in schools (see above, Damon Fowler), the ACLU itself does not serve as the plaintiff. It advises or represents the plaintiffs.

The Supreme Court cannot give a law. Congress passes bills, and the president signs them into law. The Supreme Court can rule laws are unconstitutional, and then Congress can try again. This is all in the Constitution, by the way. Something about checks and balances.

There is no law banning prayer in schools. Students can lead prayers at public events. Teachers and administrators cannot. Teachers and administrators are free at any time to pray privately. They cannot induce or require students to follow suit. This is not rocket science.

Russia (I suppose he means the former Soviet Union) did not teach Darwinian evolution, but Lamarckianism, which had been discredited as a theory in the “capitalist West” early in the 20th century. Lamarck proposed that offspring inherited characteristics their parents acquired during their lifetimes. Thus giraffes had long necks because they repeatedly stretched to reach the tops of trees, for example.

Evolution is not “force fed” to students, any more than math or English is. It’s a scientific theory, supported by craploads of evidence (aka facts) , and accepted by most of the world’s scientists. In addition, geology and cosmology corroborate the basic assumptions of evolution.

Creationism/intelligent design is not science. It is religious belief, which a public school cannot teach. The ruling in the 2005 Kitzmiller v. Dover case clearly established that Intelligent Design is just another word for creationism, as in the story of Genesis.

Public school teachers are required to teach science. Public school teachers cannot teach religion. We call that separation of church and state. Those teachers and their students are free to believe whatever they like. No one is forcing anyone to “believe” in evolution. The students just have to know enough to pass their tests, for pete’s sake.

“We have an ungodly crowd making laws in this nation.” That would be the Constitutional Convention, I reckon, since those delegates are the ones who drafted the Constitution, which the states later ratified. Why does Hopkins hate the Founding Fathers?

It’s a little sad in some ways that some high school students know more about science and the law than the majority of adults (including lawmakers).

On the other hand, I’m glad someone has a brain.