Kruse control? It's still theocratic bondage, so oppose Indiana SB 131.

The column's title is "Proposed Indiana Senate bill would force religion on schools."

It's from January of 2019, not 2020, but when it comes to chuckleheaded theocrat Dennis Kruse, every legislative session is the right time to meld church with state.

Another legislative cycle in Indiana, another brazen attempt at forcing Christianity into the public education system. No surprise there.

Indiana Senate Bill 373 was authored by state Sens. Dennis Kruse, R-Auburn, and Jeff Raatz, R-Richmond. Its provisions aim to bring a little more Christianity into Indiana’s public and charter schools.

The bill would allow school corporations to “require the teaching of various theories concerning the origin of life, including creation science.”

The use of the term “creation science” signifies something important. The bill does not simply aim to make students aware that different religions tell various stories about the creation of life. It aims to teach about creationism as if it is science.

The Freedom from Religion Foundation has issued an alert, because now it's a different year, with another legislative cycle ... and the very same repetitive shenanigans from Kruse, who I would refer to as a Tinpot Ayatollah if I thought he was capable of understanding either word.

Where does Hoosierland get these these bad actors, anyway?

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URGENT: Please resist “In God We Trust” in schools bill!

The Indiana Legislature is fast-tracking a bill that would require public schools in the state to display “In God We Trust” in every classroom and library. We need your help to ensure that young, impressionable students aren’t subject to religious proselytization.

SB 131 is part of the nationwide legislative push, Project Blitz. Project Blitz seeks to inject state legislatures with a whole host of religious bills, imposing the theocratic version of a powerful few on We The People. It is an unvarnished attack on American secularism and civil liberties — those things we cherish most about our democracy, and now must tirelessly defend.

While politicians claim that these laws are intended to showcase the national motto or inspire patriotism, it is clear that their true purpose is to peddle religiosity to a captive audience. These laws are about advancing the Big Lie that the United States was “founded on God” or Christianity, dismantling the wall of separation between religion and government. The motto “In God We Trust” is inaccurate, exclusionary and aimed at brainwashing American schoolchildren into believing that our nation is a theocracy.

Please use our automated system to contact members of the Senate Committee on Education and Career Development and ask that they stop this bill in its tracks.

TAKE ACTION

Not complaining, but here's another one: Whatever happened to the New Albany Mayor's Community Prayer Breakfast?

In candor, I hadn't noticed the absence. The last reference anywhere that I can find about the New Albany Mayor's Community Prayer Breakfast is in 2017 (above).

It's as though this egregious violation of church-state separation just up and disappeared. Did Jeff Gahan move it to his living room?

Who has the story?

This post will be updated when the details are uncovered. Meanwhile, here's one of my favorite posts from 2017 (October 29).

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FFRF: "Now it's time for atheists and agnostics to come out of our closet."

I chose "secularist" because the mood struck; "infidel" was close, but as you can see, there's a non-delusional shading for every occasion.

It's one of my go-to orgs, based in one of our favorite towns.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation, based in Madison, Wis., a 501(c)(3) nonprofit educational charity, is the nation's largest association of freethinkers (atheists, agnostics), and has been working since 1978 to keep religion and government separate.

Remember the time when FFRF called Deaf Gahan on the carpet?

Pesky church-state issues: The Freedom from Religion Foundation investigates the Mayor's Community Prayer Breakfast.

Maybe this year's event can be a weenie roast atop the smoldering remnant of a demolished public housing unit.

GREEN MOUSE SAYS: Deaf Gahan annexes the New Albany Mayor's Community Prayer Breakfast, eyes massive redevelopment deal.

Meanwhile ... a chance to express yourself.

Join FFRF's Out of the Closet Virtual Billboard Campaign

Declare and share your nonbelief! Although the nonreligious — including one in four U.S. citizens — is a significant segment of the world population, many Americans have never knowingly met a nonbeliever. You can help dispel myths, educate and promote reason by adding your voice, face and message to FFRF's friendly neighborhood freethinker campaign. This is your chance to proclaim you're a freethinker and why. It's working for the gay rights movement. Now it's time for atheists and agnostics to come out of our closet. Many faces make Enlightenment work.

It's fun, it's easy and takes less than a minute to complete! Once your cyerboard is approved by FFRF, you may post and tweet it or use it as your Facebook or Twitter image. We even size it for use as your Facebook or Twitter image or banner.

Following up OTA: "These parents oppose their children's exposure to the PURE Initiative as part of the NA-FC Schools curriculum. Here's why."

Here's an update about last week's column, which examined the presence of the PURE Initiative as part of the NA-FC Schools' sex education curriculum. My friend Missy Smith did most of the writing.

ON THE AVENUES: These parents oppose their children's exposure to the PURE Initiative as part of the NA-FC Schools curriculum. Here's why.

 ... “Did you all know that there is an abstinence program taught in health classes at New Albany High School?? I repeat...THERE IS A PURITY CULTURE, SEX SHAMING ABSTINENCE PROGRAM TAUGHT IN HEALTH CLASSES AT NAHS! I received no notice that this would happen. I would have opted ALL the way out of this BS. I am enraged! I have worked very hard to keep this far away from my child so she does not carry any of the trauma that so many of us carried out of our teen years.”

Later she offered a link to the PURE Initiative.

“Update: the group that comes to every school district in Southern Indiana is called the PURE Initiative. Their website is https://connect2pure.com/. One of their “instructors “ is the executive director of Youth for Christ of Southern Indiana, another is affiliated with the local faith based crisis pregnancy centers.”

Missy's letter to the school board was featured in the column. She later wrote this at Facebook:

As the new semester starts I will be moving forward in effort to protect NAFCS students from exposure to this shame inducing rhetoric. Contact me if you would like to help.

It's also worth passing along a comment made by NAC's co-editor, Jeff Gillenwater.

Missy is absolutely correct. PURE in no way represents objective, science based health education. They are a conservative christian group being granted captive student audiences to spread religious dogma, apparently with the approval of NA/FC administrators. As PURE explain themselves, they are an off-shoot of the deceptively named Choices for Women, a local sex and pregnancy “counseling” center that in reality functions as a staunchly anti-choice organization. PURE connects to CFW which in turn connects to other religious right groups like Focus on the Family whose anti-choice, anti-LGBT, and pro-theocracy political activities are well known. Hopefully, a lot more parents join Missy in objecting and bringing a quick end to this public health danger and Constitutional violation.

If you're interested in assisting Missy and don't know here, tell me and I'll pass it along.

ON THE AVENUES: These parents oppose their children's exposure to the PURE Initiative as part of the NA-FC Schools curriculum. Here's why.

Let’s have a look at faith-based abstinence as a component of health education in New Albany-Floyd County Schools. But first, just a bit of background to explain how the topic came to my attention.

Regular readers will recall that I am a proud member of the 2016-2017 Discover class at Leadership Southern Indiana. For those who are just tuning in, my column of August 25, 2016 told the story of how it came about.

ON THE AVENUES: You won’t believe what happens next.

Discover was a first-rate experience, and I’ll be forever grateful that Dr. Daniel Eichenberger not only talked me into it, but also provided sponsorship. I learned quite a lot and made more than a few lasting friends -- like Missy Smith.

My sense is that these two friends of mine, Dan and Missy, are on polar opposite sides of a curriculum controversy, because while we recently were visiting Trieste, Missy posted this on social media.

“Did you all know that there is an abstinence program taught in health classes at New Albany High School?? I repeat...THERE IS A PURITY CULTURE, SEX SHAMING ABSTINENCE PROGRAM TAUGHT IN HEALTH CLASSES AT NAHS! I received no notice that this would happen. I would have opted ALL the way out of this BS. I am enraged! I have worked very hard to keep this far away from my child so she does not carry any of the trauma that so many of us carried out of our teen years.”

Later she offered a link to the PURE Initiative.

“Update: the group that comes to every school district in Southern Indiana is called the PURE Initiative. Their website is https://connect2pure.com/. One of their “instructors “ is the executive director of Youth for Christ of Southern Indiana, another is affiliated with the local faith based crisis pregnancy centers.”

The NA Confidential household understands Missy’s concern. We're in complete harmony with her decision to challenge the school corporation’s decision to incorporate a faith-based approach. We support Missy 100%. Upon returning from vacation and getting my feet back on the ground, I asked her how it was going.

“While the board and administration responded with plans to have opt-out letters mailed to homes, this isn’t good enough. I will be going as far as we need to get this curriculum removed from the school system.”

Missy included the letter she sent to the school board, and it strikes me as fully appropriate that I turn over the remainder of today’s column inches to her for a detailed explanation of her position.

Here it is, lightly edited. When there are updates to provide, I’ll pass them along.

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Esteemed Members of the School Board,

My name is Missy Smith. My daughter is a freshman at New Albany High School. She came home today and told me some very concerning things about what she experienced in her health class. 

She truly thought it was funny, but as an adult with extensive experience with the type of program she described, I am appalled and outraged. My daughter explained that the PURE Initiative volunteers shared disjointed, unclear, and sometimes totally false information with her class, all based around abstinence.

First, let me acknowledge that I know a letter was sent home last week that included information on the program that would be visiting her class. My daughter says that when given the sheet, she was told this was an opportunity for parents to opt-out if they were uncomfortable with their children learning about sexuality. As we are a family that communicates freely and openly, and a family that supports evidenced-based learning, she knew we would not oppose her learning about sex and related health topics. In this, she is correct.

However, we do STRONGLY oppose any exposure to dangerous purity culture laden rhetoric, a biased curriculum that can attribute to children making unhealthy and potentially life-altering choices. A topic this important and potentially damaging should never be an "opt-out" situation. Parents should have to opt-in to their children attending at least the PURE Initiative section of the module.

My husband and I did some very cursory research on the PURE Initiative. As far as we can tell, every "instructor" is closely tied to a conservative Christian organization. For example, one is the executive director of Youth for Christ. This criticism is not coming from a faith-shaming family. I am a deacon in our Baptist church, where we attend multiple times per week. We are, however, against anything that seeks to weaponize faith in an attempt to control children's behaviors.

While the PURE website states that data and evidenced based information is used, there is no supporting documentation that this is the case. From the examples my daughter provided today (apparently a video was shown that suggested that having premarital sex indirectly led to a person's child being killed years later in a car accident?), I have serious doubts that this curriculum is reliable, accurate, and unbiased.

I have included below links from journals and reputable sources that scratch the surface of the dangers of abstinence-focused curriculum. As you will see in the excerpt below, this focus leads to the very outcomes (unplanned pregnancy and STI) these visitors say they seek to reduce:

Abstinence-Only Education and Teen Pregnancy Rates: Why We Need Comprehensive Sex Education in the U.S

The level of abstinence education (no provision, covered, promoted, stressed) was positively correlated with both teen pregnancy rates, indicating that abstinence education in the U.S. does not cause abstinence behavior. To the contrary, teens in states that prescribe more abstinence education are actually more likely to become pregnant.

And:

Teens Deserve More than Abstinence-Only Education

Advocates reviewed all available evaluations of state-based abstinence-only programs and found that, of the 10 states with evaluations, few demonstrated any short-term benefits and none demonstrated any lasting, positive impact on young people's attitudes, intentions, or behaviors. A few programs showed mild success at improving attitudes and intentions to abstain. No program was able to demonstrate a positive impact on sexual behavior over time.

And:

Abstinence-Only Sex Ed Is a Failure

Two scientific review papers find abstinence-only-until-marriage programs and policies in the United States are ineffective because they do not delay sexual initiation or reduce sexual risk behaviors. According to the researchers, these programs also violate adolescent human rights, withhold medically accurate information, stigmatize or exclude many youth, reinforce harmful gender stereotypes, and undermine public health programs. Both papers are published online in the Journal of Adolescent Health.

At this point, my child has been exposed to this irresponsible curriculum, and feels equipped enough to remain in class, inoculated from the fear tactics that were employed today. I have faith that my daughter has learned enough from our discussions that she knows how to take charge of her emotional safety in this setting. 

However, I do not know the other girls in the class (and let's be honest, we know that in these programs the impetus and focus is on the girls as gatekeepers), and have grave concerns about the possible damage that may be inflicted upon them.

Sexual behavior, made of one's own free will and not under coercion or as a response to trauma, does not cause a person to become broken. However, creating an environment that fails to provide comprehensive information (accurate and unbiased information on contraception and infection prevention) will lead to negative health outcomes. 

Suggesting that children will be like "crumpled dollar bills" (illustration used in class today) if they have sex will lead to shame, disconnecting children from the community around them based on valid and normal choices. Creating shamed, disconnected human beings causes brokenness, not having sex.

Please know that I am aware that our very irresponsible and regressive legislature has created and passed legislation that allows this garbage to be taught in our public schools. I also know that the welcome extended to this group sends a message that the administration supports this teaching. 

Any student who has this impression will have no choice but to believe, going forward, that their school officials will see them as broken or irresponsible for decisions that they make regarding their sexual health if they do not choose abstinence. These observations will not foster the safe and open environment, especially for girls who may need a non-judgmental place to land and process. 

As a social worker, I know firsthand that all of our students do not have this safe environment at home, and really need to feel that school officials can offer this to them. 

Again, I am aware that you may not have the autonomy to refuse the presence of these types of groups in the school, but based on what I heard today and my small bit of research on this specific group, I have grave concerns on the decision to welcome this biased and irresponsible group into the school setting at all. I do plan on sharing my concerns with our legislators. 

Please do not hesitate to reach out to me with any comments or questions.

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If readers have questions for Missy, send them to me via the usual channels and I'll make sure she sees them.

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Recent columns:

December 12: ON THE AVENUES: He who fights and runs away will live to fight another day.

December 5: ON THE AVENUES: Ladislav's language, 1989 - 1990 (Part 2).

November 28: ON THE AVENUES: Ladislav's language, 1989 - 1990 (Part 1).

November 21: ON THE AVENUES: Rest in peace, Kevin Hammersmith. Eight years later, you're very much missed.

ON THE AVENUES: May, Kennedy, wigs and prayers, but where's the delightful infidel gardening column?

ON THE AVENUES: May, Kennedy, wigs and prayers, but where's the delightful infidel gardening column?

A weekly column by Roger A. Baylor.

Lacking time on Thursday to complete the weekly column, I took to Facebook to apologize, vowing not to resort to encore performances.

But then it was Sunday morning, and the dander rose as I viewed my Twitter feed and saw the local chain newspaper's weekly touts for Christianity.

Today’s headlines cry out the burden, don’t they? If God is good, why is there evil in the world? And if there has to be evil, then why does it have to prosper? What is God thinking in allowing all of this to happen? Why doesn’t He do something? Why doesn’t He stop it?

-- News and Tribune religion columnist Tom May

And the bookend.

The Bible says that while we were still sinners, while we were still God’s enemies, actively opposing him, willingly disobeying his laws, even while we were refusing his grace, he sent his son to die for us. That man, Jesus, God in the flesh, loves us. It’s good to be reminded that he continues to go out of his way, as far as it takes, to demonstrate his love, all in an effort to bring those he loves safely home.

-- News and Tribune religion columnist Nancy Kennedy

I had no idea local churches contributed such a high volume of advertising revenue to the state of Alabama's fashionable Bobby Jones golf courses, thinking to myself, haven't I already written the rebuttal?

And if so, don't the readers of this blog have a right to my opinion?

Consider the answers a commandment: Thou shalt uncomplainingly endure a repeat of this column from last year. 

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ON THE AVENUES: On a wig and a prayer, or where's the infidel gardening column?

A weekly column by Roger A. Baylor (August 31, 2017)

Lately I’ve been giving the News and Tribune a hard time about the newspaper's recent doubling of column slots for religious advocacy, from one to two – or, approximately two times as many as needed.

What about an “equal time for pagans” weekly bell ringer, or even better, the long overdue humanist food column, as suggested by the estimable Goliath?

Guys, I’m tanned, rested and ready -- and unlike Nancy Kennedy, I actually reside here.

Each week, I’d begin by refuting a theist’s fallacy, end by laughing at an effigy of Ken Ham, and fill space with tips on how to make the perfect Reuben sandwich out of leftover Tex-Mex.

But no. Instead, we get the same dreary inspirational tracts. In the customary absence of newspaper management participation on Twitter in any substantive give and take, one of the reporters offered this:

A large portion of our readers are Christian. If you have specific questions or complaints, I would advise you contact our editors via email.

(Arms folded ... me, complain?)

In terms of catering content to pre-existing conditions, probably a large portion of newspaper readers use their kitchen microwaves far more often than a Lynx Sedona 42-Inch Built-In Natural Gas Grill With One Infrared ProSear Burner And Rotisserie L700PSR, now only $3,399 at BBQGuys.com … and yet, there’s an informative regular barbecuing column, isn't there?

Besides, why can’t we have the column conversation in public? You know, the new give-and-take, not the old five-and-dime. Amid the secrecy, it's just frustrating imagining what might be possible with just a dollop of creativity.

Bill Hanson seems intent on transforming his fading newspaper into a vehicle for Christian proselytizing, while I enjoy rebutting proselytizers even as I remind them to #getoffmyporch, using a lighted cigar for pointed emphasis.

You’d think Bill and I could develop a nice Saintly Christian versus Ghastly Atheist shtick, but alas, the publisher’s sense of humor simply doesn’t approach that of Rollen Stewart’s – at least before the voices in Stewart’s head began outnumbering the ones cascading from the heavenly firmament.

"God wants me to block your view of this play."

Older readers may recall Stewart’s brief, shining career of athletic venue-style religious advocacy. For a decade or more, you couldn’t watch a major sporting event on your rabbit-eared, non-digital television set without seeing the man with the crazy rainbow Afro, always seated somewhere near the middle of the most prominent camera angle (behind home plate, under the basket, in the end zone), and always holding a sign touting John 3:16.

For the blessedly uninitiated, this name and number refer to a Bible verse that provides a handily terse defense of Christian doctrine, one designed to encourage all of us to sign on the dotted line and begin Osteen Vision Level tithing.

But the Afro was a mere wig, and Stewart himself proved to be even more of a nut job than most lucre-vangelists. In due time, his fanatical religious fervor regressed to the point of stink bomb attacks on the ungodly, and in 1992 – presumably in celebration of one or the other impending raptures – he was ingloriously arrested after an attempted kidnapping.

Because of this and other less-than-holy offenses, Stewart currently resides in prison, perhaps in California, but more likely on Fantasy Island. As one wag observed, “Jesus saves, but he can’t get Rollen Stewart out of jail.”

Just for old times’ sake, I’m considering an official Rollen Stewart model rainbow Afro for the next city council meeting, along with a placard espousing a random passage selected from the wit and wisdom of Robert’s Rules of Order. I’m serenely confident that the increasingly pious (or is it porous?) Dan Coffey won’t recognize what he’s never so much as once risked reading.

Except the third floor lacks television cameras.

If the meetings were filmed and Coffey’s antics disseminated to the world at large, at least Rollen Stewart’s religious dysfunction would be supplanted by the equally frustrating political variety celebrated within the friendly confines of the Open Air Museum of Ignorance, Superstition and Backwardness.

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Meanwhile, for atheists like me, the calendar pages may turn, but the conversation rarely changes.

It still surprises me when my theistic friends respond with annoyance whenever an atheist has the unmitigated gall to come out of the closet and seek equality in discourse.

That’s just a bit hypocritical, isn’t it?

Think of every religious adherent who has ever come knocking at your door while you’re busy eating, drinking, sleeping or fornicating in the privacy of our home.

Think of the transformational zeal of generations of ravenous Christians, traveling overseas for the sanctified purpose of subduing decadent native cultures, and conveniently spreading Western diseases even as they blamed the dying natives for falling sick, and urged them to immediately find God as the cure.

Think of how so much of the history of organized western religion is one of evangelical outreach, and by its very nature, how evangelism is invasive and intrusive with regard to the physical and intellectual space of non-believers.

Not only that, but in the ever widening search for market share, evangelists from one sect freely target those who ascribe to differing versions of ostensibly the same supernatural. You’d think that believing in any God would do, and yet it’s never enough for them.

Either way, if an atheist dares to attempt an explanation of why he or she doesn’t believe in any of it, out comes the fear-mongering rhetoric – and sometimes worse.

Granted, in some senses I spent many years evangelizing for good beer. If my pal Fred in Michigan hadn’t already taken the name, I’d probably call myself a beervangelist, though whether non-believer or beervangelist, it isn’t like I’ve ever gone door to door creating a public nuisance.

Not once have I posted myself at the entrance of a Christian church on Sunday morning in protest the worship therein, or flashed a team pennant at a devout John 3:16-er.

Never have I sneaked up into the cathedral balcony and menacingly waved my portrait of Bertrand Russell at the minister, demanding that he repent from sin -- or whatever Nancy Kennedy and Tom May insist on calling it.

That’s why, in the final reckoning, it would be somewhat hard to write an “atheism column,” because atheists are rationalists, offering no positive claims with respect to knowledge derived from outside the realm of human experience and perception.

We’ve got nothing to sell, and that’s the whole point.

In the absence of verifiable evidence, atheism is a negation. It is the theist who is obliged to prove that God exists – not the other way around.

Perhaps it’s true that some atheists go a step further and proselytize in the manner of the religionist, but the percentage surely is small.

During the past two thousand years, far more people have been asked to convert to religion at the point of a bayonet, routinely dying as a result of their refusal, than have been forcibly “converted” to atheism.

In my experience, atheists generally just want to be left alone, and prefer that religious belief remain a matter of private conscience and not a public policy lever.

They respect a separation of church and state precisely because history makes it abundantly clear against whom this public policy stick is wielded, generally resulting in a sad continuation of war, violence and strife accompanying organized religion throughout human history.

It’s too bad, albeit perfectly in keeping with past practices, that Hanson isn’t interested in his readers hearing another side of the story. It’s a shame he doesn’t grasp the interests of the smaller portion whose viewpoints differ. Have the portions even been counted?

These readers pay, right? If so, shouldn't their needs be considered?

In closing, here's the gospel truth: that $30 George Foreman Grill in our kitchen does a damned fine job, and the $3,369 we saved is more than enough to enjoy a nice, humanistic European holiday.

(Portions of this column were previously published in 2009 and 2012)

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Recent columns:

August 30: ON THE AVENUES: From Baltic to Mediterranean, the diary of an unrepentant New Albanian Europhile.

August 23: ON THE AVENUES: The "downfall" occurs when we all fall down.

August 20: Non-learning curve: This ON THE AVENUES column repeat reveals that since 2011, we've been discussing the safety hazards on Spring Street between 10th and 9th. Too bad City Hall is deaf.

August 9: ON THE AVENUES: There's only one way to cure City Hall's institutional bias against non-automotive street grid users, and that's to #FlushTheClique.

Church-state separation: Reverend's got a brand new church spire, but New Jersey's supreme court begs to differ.

We turn back the gnarled pages to 2013.

75k for church restoration to be weighed by New Albany council, by Daniel Suddeath (All Tom May All of the Time, Even Then)

The final vote on a $75,000 appropriation to help restore the historic Second Baptist Church building is slated to be taken by the New Albany City Council Thursday.

It passed.

Councilman John Gonder is the sponsor of the $75,000 appropriation, and said due to the church’s role in the Underground Railroad during the Civil War, the building should be maintained and treasured as a part of New Albany’s legacy.

He added more money will have to roll-in to support the rehabilitation of the structure, as the first phase of the project including replication of the original steeple and repair of architectural woodwork is estimated to cost $217,500.

“What we’re putting in is a significant amount, but it’s not enough to get the job done,” he said. “It’s a matter of getting out and talking to the citizens and getting them involved in seeing the value of this.”

The Horseshoe Foundation awarded a $25,000 grant to the project.

Councilman Scott Blair opposed the measure on initial ballots because he said he wanted more guarantees that the city’s money would be matched by other entities.

The $75,000 public grant should serve as a foundation for the project with an assurance that enough funds can be raised to see the rehabilitation finished as planned, Blair said.

Councilman Greg Phipps was the other member of the body to vote against the appropriation on initial ballots. Phipps said he has “strong feelings of separation of church and state” and that the project mixed a religious institution with public funding.

While annoying owing to the casual manner in which local elected officials stared at the ceiling and skirted the issue of church-state separation, the spire supporters' argument from history and historic preservation had at least some merit.

It's just that as a one-off exception, this decision to spend taxpayer funds on church building repairs did not establish a useful precedent for other non-religious instances. No pattern emerged, and it was back to the same old political back-scratching.

It's also worth noting that while opposed to the measure on principled, impeccable grounds, with which I concurred, Phipps expended not a dollop of political capital in opposition, and soon returned to doing as he was told, when he was told, by mayor and party.

And still they mock him behind his back. To the Gahans and Dickeys of the planet, Phipps is just a useful idiot. It's sad, but there we are.

Meanwhile, in New Jersey, we've been given a glance at what church-state separation should look like.

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NJ Supreme Court Says Taxpayer Money Cannot Be Used to Fund Church Renovations, by Hemant Mehta (Patheos)

In a unanimous decision just announced by the New Jersey Supreme Court, taxpayer dollars cannot be used to help repair or maintain churches. It’s a major victory for church/state separation advocates and one that will save taxpayers in the state millions of dollars that would otherwise have gone to promoting religious dogma.

The case involved more than $5.5 million in “historic preservation grants” that were given to a dozen churches in Morris County between 2012 and 2015. They were presumed legal because they didn’t directly promote faith.

But giving churches money for general maintenance is promoting faith since it frees up funding that goes right back into worship.

That’s why plaintiff David Steketee and the Freedom From Religion Foundation filed a lawsuit in 2015 saying the grants were illegal.

Unfortunately, a judge ruled against them in January of 2017. If the decision wasn’t appealed, there was a good chance other churches would’ve taken advantage of the loophole, taking whatever money was in their budgets for maintenance, repair, and other structural issues and putting them into programming, knowing that they could just replete their accounts courtesy of state taxpayers.

FFRF appealed the decision and it eventually landed in front of the state’s supreme court. Today, thankfully, all seven of the justices overturned the earlier decision.

Here, the County awarded $4.6 million to twelve churches to repair active houses of worship — from roofs to bell towers, from stained glass windows to ventilation systems. The use of public funds to pay for those repairs violated the plain language of the Religious Aid Clause.

The judges noted that the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Trinity Lutheran — which allowed taxpayer funding for ostensibly secular projects like a playground even if it was on church property — didn’t apply here because this was clearly not a secular project.

… the public funds awarded in this case actually went toward “religious uses.” It is clear from the stipulated facts in the record that the Churches all “have active congregations that regularly worship, or participate in other religious activities,” and all hold “regular worship services in one or more of the structures that they have used, or will use,” taxpayer-funded grants to repair.
… a number of the applications expressly stated that churches sought funding for repairs to continue to conduct worship services.

…

This case does not involve the expenditure of taxpayer money for non-religious uses, such as the playground resurfacing in Trinity Lutheran.

The judges said it would be virtually impossible to figure out how much of the grant money was used for religious or non-religious purposes at this point, so they are allowing the old grants to remain in place. The ruling isn’t retroactive. The churches can have the money already given to them, but the good news is that they won’t be able to receive the grants in the future.

FFRF is obviously thrilled with the victory but also relieved that these justices understood their argument.

“It’s shocking that it took a trip to the New Jersey Supreme Court to enforce such a plain constitutional command,” says FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. “New Jersey taxpayers can breathe a sigh of relief that their constitutional religious liberty rights have been protected.”

“This is not just a win for secular citizens, but for every New Jersey taxpayer,” explains FFRF constitutional attorney Andrew L. Seidel. “Governments in New Jersey cannot force Muslims to bankroll temples and yeshivas, compel Jews to subsidize Christian churches and Catholic schools, force Christians to fund mosques and madrassas or nonbelievers to support any religion. It’s a win for all.”

The Religious Right won’t see it that way. They’ll inevitably twist this ruling into some tale of Christian persecution. But when all the justices speak in unison like this, anyone looking for the facts will find them easily. They just have to read the ruling instead of the spin.

The late Billy Graham: "Lying to the young for a living."

At the 1:21 mark of this video clip from 2007, Christopher Hitchens observes that any American president, however deserving of condemnation or impeachment, always could rely on Billy Graham to run to his side as a defender, toady and crony.

Son Franklin has filled those shoes capably with regard to Donald Trump, hasn't he?

Long-time FFRF foe and state-church opponent Billy Graham dies (Freedom from Religion Foundation)

... Anti-Semitism was not Graham’s only vice. He also worked to destroy our secular government. Graham helped corrupt America’s secular foundations by riding the wave of religious fervor in the 1950s, which brought with it “under God” into the Pledge of Allegiance, the Capitol prayer room, and “In God We Trust” as a national motto.

The National Day of Prayer is set by federal statute, Public Law 82-324, which was passed in 1952 at the direct suggestion of Graham to help bring “the Lord Jesus Christ” to the nation. “What a thrilling, glorious thing it would be to see the leaders of our country kneeling before almighty God in prayer,” Graham proclaimed. FFRF’s major challenge to the National Day of Prayer uncovered the forgotten history of Graham’s role in this troubling, theocratic act by Congress.

Several years ago, Graham passed the reins of his religio-economic empire to his son, Franklin, who has turned out to be even worse than his father. Graham leaves behind a legacy that has severely damaged our Constitution and the wall of separation between state and church. FFRF will continue to work to undo this legacy.

You can count me out of any paeans of praise for Graham.

Billy Graham: An Old Soldier Fades Away, by Cecil Bothwell (Common Dreams)

An Obituary

... Based on that Biblical mandate for all governments, Graham stood in solid opposition to the work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. In his Letter from Birmingham Jail, all but addressed to Graham, King noted, "We should never forget that everything Adolf Hitler did in Germany was 'legal' and everything the Hungarian freedom fighters did in Hungary was 'illegal.' ... If today I lived in a Communist country where certain principles dear to the Christian faith are suppressed, I would openly advocate disobeying that country's antireligious laws. "

Fear is the stock in trade of most evangelists, of course, comprising the necessary setup before the pitch. As historian William Martin explained in his 1991 account of Graham’s early sermons, “... even those whose personal lives seemed rich and fulfilling must live in a world filled with terror and threat. As a direct result of sinful humanity’s rebellion against God, our streets have become jungles of terror, mugging, rape, and death. Confusion reigns on campuses as never before. Political leaders live in constant fear of the assassin’s bullet. Racial tension seems certain to unleash titanic forces of hatred and violence. Communism threatens to eradicate freedom from the face of the earth. Small nations are getting the bomb, so that global war seems inevitable. High-speed objects, apparently guided by an unknown intelligence, are coming into our atmosphere for reasons no one understands. Clearly, all signs point to the end of the present world order.

“... Graham’s basic mode of preaching in these early years was assault. ... Then, when he had his listeners mentally crouching in terror, aware that all the attractively labeled escape routes—alcohol, sexual indulgence, riches, psychiatry, education, social-welfare programs, increased military might, the United Nations—led ultimately to dead ends, he held out the only compass that pointed reliably to the straight and narrow path that leads to personal happiness and lasting peace.”

Peculiar institutions: Eisenhower channeled the evangelists' prayer breakfast, according to Cold War logic. New Albany just borrowed the idea, which should be modified.

"His legacy is already there."
-- Lee Corso

That's right. In the beginning, a New Albanian was inspired to hold a mayoral prayer breakfast by the example of Ike, who'd been encouraged by Billy Graham in a time of Cold War consciousness. Let's pursue this narrative to the usual conclusion: "We've always done it that way" -- even though we began this tradition only in 1968, before anchors were Trump.

New Albany’s prayer breakfast celebrates 40 years, by Melissa Moody (New Albany Tribune, Nov. 8, 2008)

Wilson Waters got the idea for the New Albany Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast from Dwight Eisenhower 40 years ago. And 40 years ago, Waters and his fellow prayer breakfast committee members started the event.

“I figured they have one in Washington, why can’t we have one here,” he said. “I’m surprised it kept going, but I’m glad it did for 40 years.”

In this decade-old treatment, one prayer breakfast attendee inadvertently gets to the heart of the matter, as New Albany's annual supplicatory extravaganza actually serves as a mirror, reflecting the city's relative absence of religious diversity.

“It’s a gathering of all churches,” said Patty Wolfe. “It means so much; it’s a fellowship of people of all ages, a combination of good Christians.”

In 2017, the institution created by Eisenhower and borrowed by New Albany (as well as numerous other communities) turned 65. Interestingly, while the national version of the prayer breakfast remains associated with the presidency, it has undergone an evolution of identity to remove the direct reference to the office.

Initially called the Presidential Prayer Breakfast, the name was changed in 1970 to the National Prayer Breakfast.

Predictably, it's a memo New Albany has failed to receive -- for 46 years. Jeff Gahan might take note of this, although he won't.

National Prayer Breakfast: What does its history reveal?, by Diane Winston (The Conversation)

On the morning of Feb. 2, 2017, more than 3,500 political leaders, military chiefs and corporate moguls met for eggs, sausage, muffins – and prayer. The Washington, D.C. gathering, the 65th National Prayer Breakfast, is an opportunity for new friends and old associates, from 50 states and 140 countries, to break bread and forge fellowship in Jesus’ name.

Convened on the first Thursday in February, the gathering, known as the Presidential Prayer Breakfast until 1970, has always included the American head of state. Donald Trump, in his maiden appearance, broke precedent with a powerful no holds barred speech that put other countries on notice, threatened church/state separation and mocked actor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

As a scholar of American religious history, I am intrigued by how presidents negotiate the intricacies of church/state relationships versus religion/politics entanglements. Most avoid the former while trying to benefit from the latter. That’s why the prayer breakfast is noteworthy – it is an opportunity for leaders to appear as Christ’s servants rather than formidable heads of state.

Faith first

President Dwight Eisenhower began the tradition with the first breakfast in 1953. While Eisenhower was initially wary of attending a prayer breakfast, evangelist Billy Graham convinced him it was the right move.

It is impossible to separate the National Prayer Breakfast from the Cold War imperatives reigning during the era of its establishment.

An American political cocktail: nationalism, religion, and nostalgia, by Heather Greene (Wild Hunt)

The morning after hangover

During this not-so-distant past, there were many politicians who, like (Senator Joseph) McCarthy, were advocating for a strong nationalism as a means of protection from foreign enemies during a time of growing global fear, and this surge of nationalism was neatly wrapped in religious rhetoric attributed to America’s great past. It is a cocktail from which America has still not fully recovered.

The tradition of the National Prayer Breakfast comes out of that time, as do the other religious components still resident in our contemporary American cultural experience, such as the pledge of allegiance and the motto.

However, it is important to note that there are other politically-based social traditions that are intertwined with similar religiosity, but were not born in that 1950s time frame. The White House Christmas tree lighting began in 1923. Irving Berlin wrote the famous song “God Bless America” in 1918. From the presidential inauguration ceremony to the patriotic songs commonly sung, religious language finds itself in many places. In fact, written into the end of every presidential proclamation at least over the past 150 years is the statement:

“IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this second day of February, in the year of our Lord two thousand seventeen, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and forty-first.”

Much of this religious language is so well embedded into America’s systems and cultures that it is largely accepted and ignored, being challenged only periodically by religious freedom organizations.

Readers already know that if given the option, I'd consign the Mayor's Prayer Breakfast to the dustbin of history. But at the very least, shouldn't references to the mayor -- this one or any other -- be removed?

So long as public money isn't being used to fund the event, erasing the connotation of political patronage would go a log way toward neutralizing the objectionable nature of the gathering as currently constituted.

I know; we've always done it this way -- except we haven't, and this doesn't mean cobwebbed rituals can't be modified to suit modernity.

GREEN MOUSE SAYS: Deaf Gahan annexes the New Albany Mayor's Community Prayer Breakfast, eyes massive redevelopment deal.

The Green Mouse has learned that with the 49th annual mayor's prayer breakfast just around the corner in early November, Jeff Gahan has informed local religious leaders of his intention to annex and improve the event. 

Gahan's prospective invocation absorption process was outlined in an e-mail from the mayor's official personal Hotmail account, which the Green Mouse obtained from a disgruntled HWC Engineering employee.

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Good morning, fellow New Albanian pastors, rabbis and religious authorities*,

As you are aware, the New Albany Mayor's Community Prayer Breakfast has a long and noble history of steadfastly ignoring the separation of church and state, and after much time spent praying with Mrs. Nixon in the chapel we built underneath the Down Low Mayoral Command Bunker, I've decided to make the Prayer Breakfast into an official arm of city government.

My handpicked minister of propaganda Mike Hall -- Duggins is way more spiritual, but I need him elsewhere -- will run our new Department of Homeland Supplication. 

We have a nifty new logo (don't worry; there'll be the usual selection of t-shirts, hoodies and Bible covers) reflecting the proper prioritization of worship.

I'll be rebranding the community prayer breakfast and making it into a big ticket, foodie-oriented day of fervent celebration, with chef-driven biscuits and gravy and a gospel concert series: 

Mayor Jeff M. Gahan Presents New Albany's Community Prayer Breakfast and Designer Cream of Wheat Walk

Develop New Albany can help with that last part. 

But there's a surprise, because we're going to construct a brand new venue for my prayer breakfast, honoring my main man, the former mayor and A Really Great Democrat who's never missed one: 

The Warren V. Nash Community Meditation Pavilion and Conference Center 

Michell Timperman Ritz has come up with a wonderful design, and I know you're just as excited as me to be able to finally get the prayer breakfast self-supporting. 

When I asked the interim Redevelopment Commission director to pick a spot for the Nash Center, it was like one of those miracles Coffey's always babbling about, because Shane said it will fit perfectly on the east side of our newly upgraded, refurbished and paved Bono Road, between the hospital and Graybrook Lane, right there where all those poor people used to live. 

I'm so happy they moved. It's almost like God is on our side, but just to be sure, we'll make the Nash Conference Center into its own TIF district. 

By the way, not even I can move enough mountains to pull this off in 2017, so we'll do one more prayer breakfast in the NAHS cafeteria until the construction is completed for the 50th anniversary in 2018. 

If you don't mind, keep all this to yourself. We wouldn't want those assholes at the Freedom from Religion Foundation to find out and spoil the oatmeal. 

Signed, 

* I've omitted imams for obvious security reasons. 

Freedom from religion: "Hurricanes Harvey and Irma expose the futility of prayer."

As the local chain newspaper steadily ups its quotient of religious advocacy, I'm left with little choice except to escalate my own infidel's counterweight.

Dan Barker is Co-President of the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF), which is a national nonprofit dedicated to keeping state and church separate and educating the public about non-theism.

Hurricanes Harvey and Irma expose the futility of prayer, by Dan Barker (Patheos)

“Pray for America’s protection from danger.”—Texas Governor Greg Abbott

“The hands that help are better far than lips that pray.”—Robert G. Ingersoll

This year’s hurricane season proves beyond all doubt that nothing fails like prayer.

On Sunday, when the full force of Hurricane Irma was battering its way across the peninsula, Florida Governor Rick Scott desperately cried out, “Pray, pray for everybody in Florida.”

Did he forget? We’ve been there, done that. History shows us that nothing fails like prayer ...

ON THE AVENUES: On a wig and a prayer, or where's the infidel gardening column?

ON THE AVENUES: On a wig and a prayer, or where's the infidel gardening column?

A weekly column by Roger A. Baylor.

Lately I’ve been giving the News and Tribune a hard time about the newspaper's recent doubling of column slots for religious advocacy, from one to two – or, approximately two times as many as needed.

What about an “equal time for pagans” weekly bell ringer, or even better, the long overdue humanist food column, as suggested by the estimable Goliath?

Guys, I’m tanned, rested and ready -- and unlike Nancy Kennedy, I actually reside here.

Each week, I’d begin by refuting a theist’s fallacy, end by laughing at an effigy of Ken Ham, and fill space with tips on how to make the perfect Reuben sandwich out of leftover Tex-Mex.

But no. Instead, we get the same dreary inspirational tracts. In the customary absence of newspaper management participation on Twitter in any substantive give and take, one of the reporters offered this:

A large portion of our readers are Christian. If you have specific questions or complaints, I would advise you contact our editors via email.

(Arms folded ... me, complain?)

In terms of catering content to pre-existing conditions, probably a large portion of newspaper readers use their kitchen microwaves far more often than a Lynx Sedona 42-Inch Built-In Natural Gas Grill With One Infrared ProSear Burner And Rotisserie L700PSR, now only $3,399 at BBQGuys.com … and yet, there’s a regular barbecuing column, isn't there?

Besides, why can’t we have the column conversation in public? You know, the new give-and-take, not the old five-and-dime. Amid the secrecy, it's just frustrating imagining what might be possible with just a dollop of creativity.

Bill Hanson seems intent on transforming his fading newspaper into a vehicle for Christian proselytizing, while I enjoy rebutting proselytizers even as I remind them to #getoffmyporch, using a lighted cigar for emphasis.

You’d think Bill and I could develop a nice Saintly Christian versus Ghastly Atheist shtick, but alas, the publisher’s sense of humor simply doesn’t approach that of Rollen Stewart’s – at least before the voices in Stewart’s head began outnumbering the ones cascading from the heavenly firmament.

"God wants me to block your view of this play."

Older readers may recall Stewart’s brief, shining career of athletic venue-style religious advocacy. For a decade or more, you couldn’t watch a major sporting event on your rabbit-eared, non-digital television set without seeing the man with the crazy rainbow Afro, always seated somewhere near the middle of the most prominent camera angle (behind home plate, under the basket, in the end zone), always holding a sign touting John 3:16.

For the blessedly uninitiated, this name and number refer to a Bible verse that provides a handily terse defense of Christian doctrine, one designed to encourage all of us to sign on the dotted line and begin Osteen Vision Level tithing.

But the Afro was a mere wig, and Stewart himself proved to be even more of a nut job than most lucre-vangelists. In due time, his fanatical religious fervor regressed to the point of stink bomb attacks on the ungodly, and in 1992 – presumably in celebration of one or the other impending raptures – he was ingloriously arrested after an attempted kidnapping.

Because of this and other less-than-holy offenses, Stewart currently resides in prison, perhaps in California, but more likely on Fantasy Island. As one wag observed, “Jesus saves, but he can’t get Rollen Stewart out of jail.”

Just for old times’ sake, I’m considering an official Rollen Stewart model rainbow Afro for the next city council meeting, along with a placard espousing a random passage selected from the wit and wisdom of Robert’s Rules of Order. I’m serenely confident that the increasingly pious (or is it porous?) Dan Coffey won’t recognize what he’s never so much as once risked reading.

Except the third floor lacks television cameras.

If the meetings were filmed and Coffey’s antics disseminated to the world at large, at least Rollen Stewart’s religious dysfunction would be supplanted by the equally frustrating political variety celebrated within the friendly confines of the Open Air Museum of Ignorance, Superstition and Backwardness.

---

Meanwhile, for atheists like me, the calendar pages may turn, but the conversation rarely changes.

It still surprises me when my theistic friends respond with annoyance whenever an atheist has the unmitigated gall to come out of the closet and seek equality in discourse. That’s just a bit hypocritical, isn’t it?

Think of every religious adherent who has ever come knocking at your door while you’re busy eating, drinking, sleeping or fornicating in the privacy of our home.

Think of the transformational zeal of generations of ravenous Christians, traveling overseas for the sanctified purpose of subduing decadent native cultures, and conveniently spreading Western diseases even as they blamed the dying natives for falling sick, and urged them to immediately find God as the cure.

Think of how so much of the history of organized western religion is one of evangelical outreach, and by its very nature, how evangelism is invasive and intrusive with regard to the physical and intellectual space of non-believers.

Not only that, but in the ever widening search for market share, evangelists from one sect freely target those who ascribe to differing versions of ostensibly the same supernatural. You’d think that believing in any God would do, and yet it’s never enough for them.

Either way, if an atheist dares to attempt an explanation of why he or she doesn’t believe in any of it, out comes the fear-mongering rhetoric – and sometimes worse.

Granted, in some senses I spent many years evangelizing for good beer. If my pal Fred in Michigan hadn’t already taken the name, I’d probably call myself a beervangelist, though whether non-believer or beervangelist, it isn’t like I’ve ever gone door to door creating a public nuisance.

Not once have I posted myself at the entrance of a Christian church on Sunday morning in protest the worship therein, or flashed a team pennant at a devout John 3:16-er.

Never have I sneaked up into the cathedral balcony and menacingly waved my portrait of Bertrand Russell at the minister, demanding that he repent from sin -- or whatever Nancy Kennedy and Tom May insist on calling it.

That’s why, in the final reckoning, it would be somewhat hard to write an “atheism column,” because atheists offer no positive claims with respect to knowledge derived from outside the realm of human experience and perception. We’ve got nothing to sell, and that’s the whole point.

In the absence of verifiable evidence, atheism is a negation. It is the theist who is obliged to prove that God exists – not the other way around.

Perhaps it’s true that some atheists go a step further and proselytize in the manner of the religionist, but the percentage surely is small.

During the past two thousand years, far more people have been asked to convert to religion at the point of a bayonet, routinely dying as a result of their refusal, than have been forcibly “converted” to atheism.

In my experience, atheists generally just want to be left alone, and prefer that religious belief remain a matter of private conscience and not a public policy lever.

They respect a separation of church and state precisely because history makes it abundantly clear against whom this public policy stick is wielded, generally resulting in a sad continuation of war, violence and strife accompanying organized religion throughout human history.

It’s too bad, albeit perfectly in keeping with past practices, that Hanson isn’t interested in his readers hearing another side of the story. It’s a shame he doesn’t grasp the interests of the smaller portion whose viewpoints differ. Have the portions even been counted?

These readers pay, right? If so, shouldn't their needs be considered?

In closing, here's the gospel truth: that $30 George Foreman Grill in our kitchen does a damned fine job, and the $3,369 we saved is more than enough to enjoy a nice, humanistic European holiday.

(Portions of this column were previously published in 2009 and 2012)

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Recent columns:

August 26: ON THE AVENUES SATURDAY SPECIAL: One-ways on the way out, because with downtown at a crossroads, they simply had to be exterminated.

August 24: ON THE AVENUES: PourGate (the Great Beer Pour War of 2013) and Dr. Tom's prescription: "Kneel and Kiss My Ring, You Degraded Alcoholic."

August 17: ON THE AVENUES: Love in the time of choleric Coffey, though it's nice of Deaf Gahan to support the K of C's political agenda.

August 10: ON THE AVENUES: Super Tuesday shrapnel – or, tiptoeing through the tulips with Dan Coffey, now THE face of historic preservation in New Albany.

August 3: ON THE AVENUES: On the importance of being ancient.

ON THE AVENUES: Love in the time of choleric Coffey, though it's nice of Deaf Gahan to support the K of C's political agenda.

ON THE AVENUES: Love in the time of choleric Coffey, though it's nice of Deaf Gahan to support the K of C's political agenda.

A weekly column by Roger A. Baylor.

Tonight there'll be a city council meeting, and I wouldn't miss it for the world.

Never mind the bobble-heads, it's Non-Binding Resolutional Culture Wars Night, and the potential for legislative grandstanding approaches solar eclipse levels of suggested pre-meeting martini consumption, toward which I pledge my last full measure of devotion.

New Albany city council, this Thursday: "Resolution Expressing Solidarity with the People of Charlottesville, Virginia, and a Public Condemnation of Racism, White Supremacy, and Neo-Nazi Ideology in Our Community, the Nation and the World."

As we've seen, autonomous councilman-for-hire Dan "Total Eclipse of the Heart" Coffey -- who on occasions as widely scattered as Monday's coming solar event actually stoops to represent the 1st District -- is organizing his own celebration of ragpicker's diversity.

Dan Coffey plans his own unity rally, because why should those smarty pants Democrats have all the fun?

Bring your own hoods, folks. There'll be barbecued bologna and toadstool crepes ... but alas, I digress. Let's begin with this excerpt from last week's column:

ON THE AVENUES: Super Tuesday shrapnel – or, tiptoeing through the tulips with Dan Coffey, now THE face of historic preservation in New Albany.

Glorious Stated Aim #2: Give the Knights of Columbus (Main Street) a new façade.

Translation: … since Coffey is a tremendous backer of the K of C, he’s neutralized and back on the mayor's payroll, at least for the moment.

Meanwhile: Deaf Gahan is Catholic … and the Democratic Party has been holding gatherings in Catholic-affiliated venues since the long ago days when bona fide Democrats like FDR walked the earth ... and that pesky priest at St. Mary’s keeps breathing down Team Gahan’s tight collars about the original sin of the two-way streets conversion … so POOF; all dissonance disappears, just like that, and to such a pervasive extent that we now see Coffey taking pride of place in the mayor’s MTV video touting Super Cash Stuffed Envelope Tuesday.

That’s right, folks. By means of just a teensy tiny bit of façade cash awarded to an organization that maintains an anti-abortion monument out front, welcome to a gay-baiting, venom-spewing, ward-heeling councilman forever in service to the highest bidder becoming the poster child of historic preservation in New Albany … but Gahan isn’t finished yet.

Absolutely no one doubts that as an entity, the Knights of Columbus does charitable works. Last week on Super Tuesday, when Coffey shuffled humbly to the anchor-bedecked podium to accept his cash-stuffed envelope (psst -- the one intended to pay for the K of C's facade work comes much later), he made it a point to emphasize this fact.

With the Knights of Columbus, it'll give a better appearance in the neighborhood, but the Knights of Columbus also does an enormous amount of charity work.

More accurately stated, it'll give a better appearance to Dan Coffey, because if there is any one cardinal rule to fathoming the Byzantine intrigues, gleeful backstabbings and gold bullion transfers inherent in the bottomless cesspool of New Albany politics as usual, it is this:

Never, ever accept a Coffeyism at face value. It will contort your face, and annoy the Wizard.

With still more money hoisted from the Redevelopment Commission, and alongside valued institutional cover from Indiana Landmarks, Jeff Gahan has struck another of his trademark political stink-bomb deals, enabling Coffey's ongoing jihad against modernity by blithely ignoring the separation of church and state -- a concept Coffey openly derides, of course, but the sort of appeasement legerdemain that democratic Democrats (where?) condone at their own peril.

However, Gahan's never met a ward-heeler he wouldn't fluff, and that old bromide about non-profits refraining from involvement in the political process? Think again.

online.org/news/politics/knights-columbus-leader-says-catholics-cannot-vote-abortion-advocates">Knights of Columbus head says Catholics cannot vote for abortion advocates (National Catholic Reporter, August 2, 2016)

Carl Anderson, leader of the Knights of Columbus fraternal order and one of the most influential lay Catholics in the church, has said that abortion outweighs all other issues in the presidential campaign and Catholics cannot vote for a candidate who supports abortion rights.

Much more detail is to be found here.

How One Religious Organization Bankrolls America’s Social Conservative Movement, by Josh Israel (Think Progress)

... But while much of the Knights’ charitable efforts in recent years have supported purely altruistic causes such as the Special Olympics and Habitat for Humanity, millions of their charitable dollars have funded a very socially conservative ideological agenda: opposing abortion, LGBT rights, euthanasia, embryonic stem cell research, and pornography, while supporting public funding for religious organizations.

(While legally independent from the Catholic Church, the Knights of Columbus entities call themselves the church’s “strong right arm.”)

The Knights also operate a legally-separate but affiliated charitable arm called the Knights of Columbus Charities Inc. That tax-exempt non-profit organization made about 57 percent of its annual grants in 2013 to efforts to “promote matters affective life family, marriage and similar priorities in building a culture of life.” More than $1 million of that went to support “Crisis Pregnancy Centers,” a network of facilities that dissuade women from choosing to terminate their pregnancies, often by sharing misinformation.

Tonight's council meeting should be a fascinating test of New Gahanian dysfunction.

Under normal circumstances, forced to endure another effete expression of council support for people and ideas he loathes, Coffey would be spewing, fulminating and dropping an occasional sotto voce hint of imminent violent revenge against the gays, libtards and drunkists.

But Coffey's also enjoying the sweet tea-laced post-coital glow of yet again maneuvering Gahan into merrily compromising everything the Democratic Party should stand for by indulging the councilman's Generalissimo Francisco Franco fetish.

Gahan should have had the good sense to accompany his ill-considered largess with a temporary gag order, but of course, it was chronologically impossible to anticipate Charlottesville, which led to the solidarity resolution, and which gives Coffey a convenient "get out of handshake free" card to play this evening.

Perhaps Coffey will choose to avoid the meeting entirely, as he did on March 6, the last time such a threatening resolution occurred, after white supremacist handbills were duct-taped to local alley walls.

Seize the gesture and read the city council's non-binding "Resolution Condemning the Promotion of Intolerance."

Will the serial bigot Coffey support a resolution in support of human rights? Contractually, he'll have to vote yes if Gahan demands it. But does the mayor even care? Will Scott Blair abstain, citing his oft-stated principle of eschewing non-binding resolutions?

To paraphrase Chico Marx: "Coffey -- he-a no show up."

THE COMMON COUNCIL OF THE CIVIL CITY OF NEW ALBANY, INDIANA, HELD A REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING IN THE THIRD FLOOR ASSEMBLY ROOM OF THE CITY/COUNTY BUILDING ON MONDAY, MARCH 6, 2017 AT 7:00 P.M.

MEMBERS PRESENT: Council Members Mr. Caesar, Mr. Phipps, Mr. Nash, Mr. Blair, Mr. Aebersold, Mr. Barksdale, Dr. Knable and President McLaughlin. Mr. Coffey was not present.

In spite of it all, there remains a valid reason to commend Coffey for a certain consistency of action. The second cardinal rule of New Albanian political geography is that Coffey's always in it for himself; consequently, he might be the only politician in town who is consistent with his gestures.

He may be repugnant, and quite possibly horrendous, but he's not hypocritical.

There's something to be learned from this, but is it too early to start drinking?

Events got all topical on us, but next week I hope to return to "Mr. Duggins Goes to Bob Lane's Old Office and Mistakes the Bidet for the Toilet." 

Yesterday:

SHANE'S EXCELLENT NEW WORDS: I'll match your customary gesture politics and raise you a spate of virtue signaling.

FLASHBACK: You say you want a resolution? Ya gotta take yer growth industries where ya find 'em.

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Recent columns:

August 10: ON THE AVENUES: Super Tuesday shrapnel – or, tiptoeing through the tulips with Dan Coffey, now THE face of historic preservation in New Albany.

August 3: ON THE AVENUES: On the importance of being ancient.

July 27: ON THE AVENUES: Irish history with a musical chaser.

July 20: ON THE AVENUES DOUBLEHEADER (2): A book about Bunny Berigan, his life and times.