Emboldened

marriage, traditional, gay, kern, christian,

I knew two things about Prop 8* passing in California: (1) antigay bigotry was going to get a huge boost, and (2) the Religious Right would be emboldened by their victory, and that would mean nothing good for the rest of us, gay or straight or whatever.

And lo, behold I am become a prophet . . . which is really going to crimp the whole atheism thing.

An Oklahoma state legislator plans to introduce an act that would make some divorces illegal.

Scheduled for introduction in the 2010 legislative session by state Rep. Sally Kern, R-Oklahoma City, House Bill 2279 would restrict the "use of incompatibility as a ground for divorce" in Oklahoma.

The bill would not allow for divorce on the basis of incompatibility if:

There are living minor children of the marriage
The parties have been married 10 years or longer
Either party files a written objection to the granting of a divorce

They are feeling their oats, now aren't they? I'm not really sure why this bastion of marriage protection would limit herself this way. The 10 years or longer rule is particularly weird. And that last bit will result in bitter spouses maintaining a marriage they have no particular interest in purely to prevent other spouse from remarrying, which I'm pretty sure is not protecting marriage in any substantive way.

Hey, we allowed them to tell us who could marry, and now they've moved on to who can divorce. You do indeed reap what you sow.


*Prop 8 banned gay marriage in California. It was passed in 2008.

Morality Recession

sally, kern, united states, theocracy, democracy, recession, stupid, bible, homophobia, homosexual, same sex, debauchery
State Representative Sally Kern (R) of Oklahoma is apparently all ten shades of crazy, as evidenced by her explanation of the recession. (Hint: it does not involve securitizing mortgages or lack of oversight of financial markets.)

The “Oklahoma Citizen’s Proclamation for Morality” includes this language about the Democrats and the president:

WHEREAS, we believe our economic woes are consequences of our greater national moral crisis; and

WHEREAS, this nation has become a world leader in promoting abortion, pornography, same sex marriage, sex trafficking, divorce, illegitimate births, child abuse, and many other forms of debauchery; and

WHEREAS, alarmed that the Government of the United States of America is forsaking the rich Christian heritage upon which this nation was built; and

WHEREAS, grieved that the Office of the president of these United States has refused to uphold the long held tradition of past presidents in giving recognition to our National Day of Prayer; and

WHEREAS, deeply disturbed that the Office of the president of these United States disregards the biblical admonitions to live clean and pure lives by proclaiming an entire month to an immoral behavior;

This isn't just crazy because she's blaming a recession on debauchery, it's crazy because most of the things on that list aren't even vaguely true.

The United States is not the world leader in abortions, Russia is. Russians have twice as many abortions as Usians. In the US, conservative states consume the most pornography, but Germany hosts the most online porn. As for same sex marriage, the US lags behind Belgium, Canada, South Africa, Netherlands, Norway, Spain and Sweden. I have no idea why she thinks the US leads in sex trafficking, but that's not even close to true. Approximately 600,000 to 800,000 people are trafficked across international borders each year, with 14,500 to 17,500 trafficked into the U.S.

Child abuse certainly occurs in the US, but we by no means rule the world in child abuse. The US does not engage in child labor, female genital mutilation, child marriage, nor do children serve as soldiers in the US.

Next on Kern's list o' teh crazee is the old saw about the US as a Christian nation, which I'm sick of dealing with, followed by the biblical admonitions to live clean and pure lives. I highly doubt Kern follows any of those admonitions aside from the one about homosexuality, and that's only because she happens to be hetero. Does Kern really not eat shrimp or pork? Kern never wears clothing made out of mixed threads? The list goes on and on, and I doubt Kern is familiar with any of it.

Two theocracy posts in one day. I live in the US, people.