Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/01/31/hate-crime-charge-for-man-who-vandalized-satanic-temple-display.html
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My conscience is held captive to the word of God
I guess he got this phrase from some scripture or other, but damn, what a weird way to express a feeling of moral imperative.
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Half expecting a testimony of “yes, I hate satan and his temple.”
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The Devil made him do it?
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Commits serious crime
“Ok buddy, you get ONE phone call”
dials
“Susan… Susan… not now… look… go on my computer and start up a GoFundMe page.”
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Local lawyers are salivating at the thought of burning through that $84K.
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Make it $666k and you’ve got a deal
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You’d think, but the Bible repeatedly admonishes Christians to be obedient to Earthly government. But the actual words of the Bible have little to nothing to do with Christianity.
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“Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s?! What is this bullshit??”
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I hope it sticks as this could be a model for religious bigotry being crowd-funded.
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Bible is for photo op.
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Okay Satanic Temple, I’ve got a fundraising idea, hear me out… Get your own people to vandalize your displays, rake in the cash from religious bigots for their “defenses,” then drop the charges. Free money!
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Not really, it’s more of a “I warned you that kings were a bad idea, but you insisted on having them. It’s not my problem anymore.” message.
The authoritarians do like to push the “obey the government (but only if it is our government)” message though. It is to their advantage, after all.
Further reading:
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The reality is that it’s all over the map and contradictory in numerous places. It’s also completely open to interpretation and those interpretations are in service to one’s ideological proclivities most of the time.
Romans 13 is pretty unequivocal on the subject (God appointed earthly rulers, so you’re disobeying God by proxy). The New Testament (as authoritative a source as there is because you can’t really argue “new covenant” with Jesus’ apostles) goes one further and directs that even “unjust” rulers are to be followed with a cheery smile.
From Ephesians to Colossians and Old Testament to New Testament the most common theme is obedience regardless of legitimacy, even for those that are enslaved. You can easily surmise how this was used to legitimize chattel slavery in America and abroad.
But the issue with the Bible and it’s “adherents” (most of whom the Bible repeatedly denounces) is that it is a book assembled by a capricious entity to control colonial masses and erode their own cultural identities, written from both oral tradition as well as by the embittered survivors of Christ’s inner circle along with some truly insane mystics, historians, exiles and poets. It’s virtually impossible to land on any one admonition that is clearly and consistently indicated, so everyone just gets to make up whatever shit they want. It’s a tent big enough to contain Franciscan monks, 60’s hippy pedophile cults and numerous waves of “crusaders”.
Faith is pure and unassailable and religion is the cancerous growth created when people try to fit the ineffability of faith into a programmatic structure for all of humankind.
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I know you’re joking but it’s not actually up to the victims to decide whether or not a suspect faces criminal charges, it’s up to the prosecutor.
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All I see is someone who has admitted his religion does not win followers on its own merits.*
*(I grew up Christian and did not leave my faith behind out of bitterness or anger but because it was in conflict with my values. I know lots of very good people whose faith guides and sustains them in ways it never would for me. If you are not a bigot, I don’t personally care what your faith is. Except as a person who is deeply curious about the lived experiences of others.)
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Not to mention that kind of fraud can land you in a lot of trouble on its own.
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Like, I don’t know, 23 stabs with a knife?
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Anyone would think that it was written by people in authority to make the masses obey them.
Maybe in future I will read to the end of the comment before replying. I want to give the world a Coke.
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