Take a look at some of the bills being submitted in Missouri. In addition to the "Christian Nation" amendment I mentioned recently, they also have bills that would:
1. Allow prayer in public schools - where it's already allowed individually, but if its mandated or sponsored by the school, the courts will continue to strike it down.
2. Allow schools to teach "Bible as literature" and comparative religion classes - which is also already legal if done objectively and would get struck down by the courts if it's not.
3. Eliminate the requirement that schools teach about contraception in sex ed classes (if you're following the lead of Texas on sex ed, you're heading in the wrong direction, folks).
4. Require that all government entities "use the traditional name" of all recognized holidays (I can't wait to see Christmas changed back to "Saturnalia").
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I don't quite understand #4. Is this in response to the "War on Christmas" bull we've been hearing for 2 years now? If that's the case, I pity the taxpayers having to pay the salaries of representatives like this. What a waste!
Ye gods. I'm sure that a printer repeatedly submitting the same bills could perform the duties of about half of all legislators.
"4. Require that all government entities "use the traditional name" of all recognized holidays (I can't wait to see Christmas changed back to "Saturnalia")."
This made me laugh in agreement.
Rome remembered.
Require that all government entities "use the traditional name" of all recognized holidays (I can't wait to see Christmas changed back to "Saturnalia").
Would that actually be something that a sufficiently dedicated pagan could sue over?
These are all part of the battery of "litmus bills" the wingnuts in the MOGA are floating. They've no real interest in getting this astonishing raft of crap legislation passed. They want two things (in my view), both of which work to their advantage: first, they want officeholders who think theocracy is a bad idea to vote against these bills, so the godbotherer caucus can point and rant about Christianity being under attack. The second thing they want is for Missouri Dems in particular, and centrists/progressives generally, to follow the lead of the national Democratic party, and hide under their beds sucking their thumbs rather than standing up and telling these troglodytes to go back to their caves.Either way, I expect I'm going to have a hard time finding anyone worth voting for in the November primaries.
The "War on Christmas," while I can see what they're trying to say, is ridiculous. Just say "Merry Christmas" to your friends/your family/strangers to your heart's delight. I celebrate Christmas (for Santa rather than Jesus, though), but I wouldn't be offended in the least if someone came up and said "Happy Kwanzaa" (I think it's "Happy...") to me. I'd just think, 'Oh, so that's what they celebrate during this time of year. *later forgets the insignificant incident*'
Now that I think about it, do these same Christians who whine about what Christmas time is called also celebrate that time with gift-giving and decorated trees? They're hypocrites if they do. What's gift-giving have to do with Jesus's birth in the first place? They're celebrating a separate PAGAN holiday by buying gifts (the name may be the same, but the underlying beliefs are quite different).
Plus, until I first heard about the "War on Christmas", I've always thought that the "Happy Holidays" phrase was meant for expressing the holidays of Thanksgiving (okay maybe not), Christmas, and New Years all in one, since they're so close to each other.