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posted by martyb on Thursday April 13 2017, @01:03AM   Printer-friendly
from the it-is-not-the-law...-yet dept.

Alabama lawmakers have voted 24-4 to allow Briarwood Presbyterian Church in Birmingham to establish a police department. The church has over 4,000 members and is also home to a K-12 school and a theological seminary with 2,000 students and teachers:

"After the shooting at Sandy Hook and in the wake of similar assaults at churches and schools, Briarwood recognized the need to provide qualified first responders to coordinate with local law enforcement," church administrator Matt Moore said in a statement, referring to the mass murder of 20 first graders and six teachers at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut by a deranged man with an AR-15 style rifle just before Christmas 2012. "The sole purpose of this proposed legislation is to provide a safe environment for the church, its members, students and guests." The church would pay the bill for its officers.

[...] "It's our view this would plainly be unconstitutional," Randall Marshall, the ACLU's Acting Executive Director, told NBC News. In a memo to the legislature, Marshall said they believe the bills "violate the First Amendment or the U.S. Constitution and, if enacted, would not survive a legal challenge." "Vesting state police powers in a church police force violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment," his memo states. "These bills unnecessarily carve out special programs for religious organizations and inextricably intertwine state authority and power with church operations."


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  • (Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Thursday April 13 2017, @04:29PM (6 children)

    by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Thursday April 13 2017, @04:29PM (#493478) Journal

    Congratulations, you're an atheist! Stop pretending to be a Christian. I am most definitely not one, and will never be a member of ANY of the Abrahamic death cults.

    --
    I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday April 14 2017, @01:45AM (5 children)

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Friday April 14 2017, @01:45AM (#493761) Journal

    Agnostic, maybe - atheist no. While you're trying to figure things out, you might read up on any number of more famous popes, bishops, or whoever else. They've all questioned their faith. They've questioned whether God is real. Whatever you think you are, you've also had those times. "WTF is life all about? Do I have any idea? Is what I believe for real? What if it's all bullshit?"

    And, stop trying to put round people into square holes, fat people into skinny holes, and screwy people into straight holes. That's a big part of what's wrong with all religions, and all governments. I am exactly what I am, and not the way you like to see me be (Linda Ronstadt song there) and I'm perfectly happy with that. YOU don't get to define what a Christian is, you don't even get to define what a good Christian is. You're just like every other asshole in the world, with your own opinion. And, you know what they say about opinions.

    And, oh yeah. 42. Don't forget, 42.

    • (Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday April 14 2017, @02:21AM (4 children)

      by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Friday April 14 2017, @02:21AM (#493783) Journal

      Yeah, what they ought to say about opinions is "they're all opinions, but the more they draw from and comport with observable reality the better they are." What they DO say, unfortunately, is a dangerous fallacy. "One opinion is as good as any other" is *false,* plain and simple, end of story, the exception being purely aesthetic judgments.

      And you are not going to get away with that fallacy here, Runaway. I would say a Christian who doesn't do what Jesus says is a pretty fucking poor Christian, and supposedly, so does Jesus. And, if one is a Christian, it's his opinion (heh) that matters, isn't it?

      --
      I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
      • (Score: 1, Offtopic) by Runaway1956 on Friday April 14 2017, @01:57PM (3 children)

        by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Friday April 14 2017, @01:57PM (#493962) Journal

        Fallacy? What fallacy? You don't believe that 42 is the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything? You can't be serious. Even the pope believes in 42!

        http://www.americamagazine.org/content/dispatches/jesuit-priest-offers-hints-media-working-papal-visit [americamagazine.org]

        • (Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday April 14 2017, @05:36PM (2 children)

          by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Friday April 14 2017, @05:36PM (#494097) Journal

          No no, the fallacy of one opinion being as good as any other. This is not the case, and anyone with even the smallest capacity for critical thought will realize this.

          --
          I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
          • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday April 14 2017, @05:53PM

            by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Friday April 14 2017, @05:53PM (#494111) Journal

            But, I didn't say that one opinion is as good as any other. What I referred to was, "Opinions are like assholes - everybody has one, and they all stink." Of course one opinion isn't as good as another, because mine are superior to yours. Even you recognize that, because you keep reading my opinions. Do you waste time reading your own opinions?

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 14 2017, @08:01PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 14 2017, @08:01PM (#494173)

            Never argue with runaway. He drags you down to his level, and it will never end.