It has always amazed me how so-called "conservatives" strive mightily to enforce their religious and political views on the body politic.
Conservatives had traditionally held that "big government" is bad and that the government should stay out of people's personal lives. But they don't mean that. That's a smoke screen. The think big government is just fine so long as it is controlled by conservatives and the churches and corporations they represent. And they don't see anything wrong with the government telling people what to do relative to marriage, abortion, sexual activity, education, and religion.
There is an outfit in Florida that we've mentioned before called the Florida Family Policy Council. Aligned with both James Dobson's wingnut group, Focus on the Family as well as the Roman Catholic Church and the goofy Christian Coalition, it is headed up by a rightwingnut lawyer named John Stemberger.
Last year Stemberger and the Florida Family Policy Council were major players in the effort to get an anti-gay marriage amendment added to Florida's constitution. This year Stemberger and company want the government to hike the marriage license fee in order to force couples to get pre-marital counseling.
It now costs $93.50 for a Florida marriage license. Stemberger wants the Florida legislature to bump that to $193.50. The kicker is that if a couple agrees to go through eight hours of pre-marital counseling, the fee would drop back to a mere $61.00.
So, religious rightwingnut Stemberger, a conservative very "concerned" with the state of traditional marriage wants "big government" to enact a policy which would essentially force couples intending to marry into an eight-hour pre-marital counseling class. Or if they chose not to go to counseling, they would pay an extra $132.00!
Fascinating.
This moron doesn't understand several things. One is that the government should have no say in the marriage business whatsoever. Period. And that means the government should never charge a fee for a couple to get married. Nothing! Nil! Nada! It two people want to get married, let them seek a clergy or a friend and recite their vows. They can then register their marriage with the state if they so desire.
Secondly, as someone who was involved in pre-marital counseling for years, I can say unequivocally, by the time a couple decides to get married, "counseling" is irrelevant. Counseling rarely makes a difference at that point. When "love" is in the air, all other considerations are ignored or pushed into the subconscious.
Third, who the hell does Stemberger think he is to push his particular religious and political viewpoints on the people of Florida?
Stemberger also is fighting the teaching of evolution in Florida schools. He wants Florida's high school students to be taught that the mythological stories in Genesis are historically true accounts as to how the world was created.
Watch the video below and see how slimy, smarmy religious crap slithers through Stemberg's rightwingnut political "concerns." It's scary. And even more frightening is the fact that there are thousands of Stembergs all over the country working to force the rest of us to adhere to their religious/political views. All in the name of God and goodness, of course.
1 comment:
It is evident that these people will never accept the Constitution re the separation of Church and State. They insist that the founding fathers were all practicing Christians, with ideas such as put forth by all these people that have never read anything the fathers wrote. Their desire to avoid the problems of Europe due to differences in religion and the enormous differences that could lead to death for those differing from those in power led them to very carefully insist that separation of church and state was fundamental to a democratic state..
They do not appreciate the contribution of the variety of people that came to America with their cultures, religions, philosophies, etc. They all became American.
How these nuts would howl if someday the majority were Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, Atheists etc and they made the rules. Could they live with a different Sabbath from Sunday? Different dietary laws? No Sabbath? No tax exemptions for religious buildings, functions, etc?
Marriage has functioned with religious ceremonies, secular ceremonies, Captains of ships, etc. The fact is that marriage is declining and we are still a functioning society. Divorce, adultery, perversions, pornography etc are all part of our overall society in spite of the religious and secular objections or attempts to “cure such problems. Even our clergy seems to be ignoring the established moral codes.
The religious people and the secular people have the right to practice their religion or to ignore religion. No one has stopped prayer between the individual and their God. The injunction is that public taxes not pay for it. One can pray in church, the home, in the car, outdoors, in the shower, etc. God hears the prayers and allows those that do not believe in God to live in peace and contribute to society alongside the religious people.
I think many of the nuts are seeking wealth, power, control thru religion. The truly religious do not need their “help” any more than God does. We all have free will and should be allowed to continue to choose what we wish to believe.
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