Religious Freedom And Business As Usual

What's all this pomp and circumstance about Indiana's Religious Freedom Restoration Act? It's all nothing special, just a renewed opportunity for the good, christian people of America, the Midwest in particular, to act with hatred and disdain for their neighbors. After all, what better of a way can there be to make a person whose ethnic background, language, religion, sexual orientation, or perceived disability feel badly about himself than to wait until he orders a pizza, books a wedding, requests medical care, or enrolls in school, than to begin the transaction or service, only to suddenly cease, pulling the rug out from under him, with the announcement that fulfillment of the contract or delivery of the service would, in the case of said client or customer, be abhorrant to God, and therefore not feasible, in any way. If a child is disappointed to the extent of tears, or on the verge of a dangerously high fever, so much the better. Harm to an unbeliever is an enormously effective manner of making the point that "we do not serve your kind in our establishmment", isn't it, dear christians?

Well, you know something, Jesus Freaks? The Satanic Temple of Detroit has an answer for you; it's called Discrimination Transparency. In order for the non-christian world to determine, at a glance, which establishments are in business to make money, rather than to make others unhappy, a petition has been circulated and signed, and will be presented to the representatives of the involved locales, to request that a rider be written into the RFRA laws, requiring businesses which choose to discriminate to warn the population at large, so as to avoid humiliating the targets of christian hate and wasting their time in fruitless endeavors. Anyone who will not serve a member of an ethnic group Jesus does not like will be required to warn everyone by placing a sign on the door or somewhere visible from  outside the establishment, stating the discriminatory intentions. The same will go for any business  intending to marginalize customers and clients who attend the "wrong" church, speak a language  that is unfamiliar, or are sexually oriented in  ways that are useless in basic, old fashioned, christian adultery. People who do not wish to patronize bigots will be able to make educated choices about where to spend their money.

A prototype of the required sign has also been graciously provided, as well. It is pictured below.

Disclaimer: It is understood by the writer that not all christians interpret religious and spiritual teachings as inclusive of hatred and bigotry. This post is only meant to describe those who have wrongly concluded that the world revolves around only themselves and their ilk.

Terri Horman Hates Trespassers

Terri Horman, former step parent of missing Kyron Horman, the second grader who disappeared from his school in Portland, Oregon, in June of 2010, hates it when people trespass, make threats, and use Facebook and other internet sites for stalking and passing threats to other parties. (Okay; I did not really say that with a straight face. Please try not to fall backwards out of your chair, laughing) The eye-rolley won't do here, we would need an emoticon that expresses laughing so hard one's face freezes into a permanent grin coupled with coffee all over one's keyboard!

In addition to giving the police half a dozen different stories about what happened on the morning that Kyron disappeared, Terri Horman lied during two polygraphs, and has been conspicuously absent during every search and vigil for Kyron. Until several days ago, she and her parents, with whom she resides, have never even bothered to put up a poster with Kyron's picture and contact information of law enforcement on their property. They did, however; post a "no trespassing" sign on a tree near their home some time during late November, after a vigil was held in Roseburg, and Kyron's name was written in the street in sidewalk chalk in front of their home. Last week, a picture of Kyron was added, and pictures of three other individuals, completely unconnected to the case, have also been posted.

The local media followed the case, and did several stories on the pictures in front of the Moulton/Horman home. The upshot of the confusing pictures is this: those women whose pictures are posted outside of Terri's parents' house are Facebook users who have joined the Roseburg Supports Kyron Horman page. They wanted to see if Kyron had been found, and keep up with developments in the case. This has been interpreted by Terri Horman and her parents, Carol and Larry Moulton, as a "threat", and pictures of the women whose nefarious deed of clicking "like" on a Facebook page dedicated to finding a missing child is plastered outside, in front of their house.

Trespassing in the real world is handled by local courts. Had anyone actually trespassed on the Moultons' property, law enforcement could have served them with an order to stop trespassing. This would enable an arrest in the event that the individual named on the order actually trespassed on a future date. It's quite likely that Terri Horman and her parents actually complained to police because their neighbors joined a Facebook page they didn't like, and quite likely that they tried to convince the local court to serve formal "no trespass" orders for that reason. In such an instance, the court would naturally decline, because, as earlier stated, this is the real world, not the Moultons' fantasy-land. After finding out that Oregon does not have a Facebook Police Unit, the Moultons, rather than simply sending letters to the social media users they do not personally like, put pictures of them in front of their house. Now I need an eye-rolley.

In Case You Missed Church On Sunday

 

Who'd have thought?