The Meaning Of Conception

I really thought I was only jesting when I wrote this post, just over a month ago, concerning Kansas Governor, Sam Browncrack, and his proposed legislation stating that life begins at conception. Apparently, the United States actually has a few morons in the judicial branch of government who actually might consider pressing charges against women for spontaneous abortions. In Mississippi and Alabama, women who have miscarried or given birth to stillborn babies have been charged and prosecuted under laws that were written to protect children from exposure to the manufacture and trade of methamphetamine, and in Virginia, legislation requiring women to report miscarriages to law enforcement has been proposed! At this point in our history, we do not have the medical technology to even begin to diagnose the cause of each and every spontaneously aborted pregnancy. How can we charge the mothers with criminal acts? What about the fathers, and possible flawed sperm?
 

It really seems as if, back in the day, when I saw this movie the first time, I heard the chorus as:
"Every sperm is sacred,
 every sperm is blessed,
 if any sperm was wasted,
 God would sure be pissed!"

 

If You Missed Church On Sunday

If you were not in church on Sunday in Mississippi, you might have missed some outrage over a wedding being relocated from from First Baptist Church in Crystal Springs to another area church because.....Charles and Te'Andre Wilson are......who would have noticed......black! In the entire jesus-lovin' church's one hundred and twentynine year history, there has never been one black wedding, and the older good Christian traditionalists of First Baptist in Crystal Springs were certainly not going to start this year! Of all the outrage! Jesus would NEVER accept someone who looks different than an Anglo Saxon American, right? And after such a couple has booked their wedding, sent out invitations, and made all other arrangements for their nuptials at First Baptist, he would certainly be very pissed off if First Baptist honored it's contract and it's word, and held the wedding at the church! Such goins' on! What's the world coming to? By the way, this is one of the reasons many people find Christianity repugnant. If there was ever a real Jesus, none of the quotes attributed to him support racial prejudism.

The Wilsons

In Case You Skipped Church This Sunday

If you did not go to church this Sunday, especially in Mississippi, you might have missed the pardon of over two hundred criminals, quite a few of them convicted murderers. Just before leaving office, Governer Haley Barbour got a wild hair up his ass, and went ahead and pardoned some truly scary people, ignoring the law stating that the victims have a legal right to a notice of thirty days before such an action is taken. Needless to say, this has created quite a bit of outrage in Mississippi. It was also unexplained until this past Friday. Initially, the governer, who is, by the way, Republican, did not offer any explanations for his decisions, but he finally came out and stated that he pardoned those criminals because they had read the bible and repented!

There are a couple of very serious problems with this. First, violent criminals seldom change. Thugs almost always "find Jesus" while incarcerated, and are very good at putting on airs and lying. Former victims are very likely, in cases like this, to become victims all over again. Since a government pardon means that these convicted criminals are not even required to complete a probationary period, there is not even a legal vehicle to monitor them. At this writing, at least four of these convicts are off the grid. This puts victims and others in danger.

Another serious problem with this is the discrimination factor. No one has been pardoned for reading the Koran. No one has been pardoned for consulting with his Rabbi, or for studying Taoism. What about any of the Pagan religions? No one has been pardoned for learning about those! Yet reading the bible is, somehow, a reason to grant a pardon! Sorry, prison Christian converts, but that is offensive. If playing the Christian card can somehow elicit a "get out of jail free" card for a dangerous criminal, then the same considerations should exist for Jews, Budhists, Hindus, Muslims, Pagans, and any other religious faithful. The only problem  with that rationale is that adherants to virtually all religions besides Christianity do not tend to become criminals nearly as often as those with Christian leanings, (no hate mail, please; I do NOT refer to the majority of Christians) which may be the reason Christian propaganda is so easy to find in American prisons. Also, Christianity is unique in it's quest to initiate everyone and anyone, even people from whom most people should be protected. I hope the ACLU has the opportunity and grounds to challenge this decision.

Does anyone remember this post on this blog, from August of last year? A child molester was actually released from prison in New Mexico without serving his whole sentence, because the judge felt that he had "suffered enough" and that he had turned his life around, a la Christianity and the bible! Almost immediately, the creep contacted one of his young victims, something he was not allowed to do. Ultimately, intended or not, the decision by the New Mexico judge was that the VICTIM had NOT suffered enough, and the determination that the creep had "suffered enough" caused the victim to suffer more. Thanks, Jesus!

Luckily, not everyone in Mississippi thinks a prison conversion and a bible equal a complete change of character. The Attorney General Of Mississippi requested a block on the release of the remaining prisoners who have not been turned loose on their communities as of yet. Jesus and crime rampages may have to wait.