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image courtesy of Imagine magazine
NOT an actual photo of
TN State Rep. Jeremy Durham |
It has long been my contention that conservatives give lip service to the Constitution, but do not in practice support the content in that Constitution.
The continuing hypocritical efforts of conservatives, particularly those who are southern evangelicals, demonstrate equally a desperate desire to regulate the lives of others, demanding conformity to their own beliefs, while not themselves behaving consistently with those beliefs. We have the interference in the lives of other people, while not managing one's own very well, in the example of Tennessee's own state representative
Jeremy Durham, pervert for Jesus.
Evangelical Tennessee
State Rep Jeremy Durham Is 'Banished' From Capitol Complex After THIRTY
FOUR Women Accuse Him Of Inappropriate Sexual Behavior
Lawmakers in Tennessee have 'banished' a state representative by moving
his office at the state Capitol complex after more than three dozen
women have accused him of inappropriate behavior.
Rep. Jeremy Durham's office is being moved to the ground floor of a
building across the street from the Capitol, House Speaker Beth Harwell
announced Thursday.
According to Attorney General Herbert Slatery's memorandum to Harwell,
he is investigating Durham's 'pattern of conduct' toward women after 34
current and former lawmakers, lobbyists, staffers and interns allege
that he made sexual comments, used his position to obtain personal
contact information from women, try to meet women alone, involve alcohol
in his interactions with women and inappropriate physical contact with
them while working at Legislative Plaza, CBS News reported.
I have to wonder if Jeremy Durham will have any office when the next election cycle comes around in Tennessee, not even one across the street. But then again, by promoting the anti-LGBT bathroom harassment bill, he might get in good with those other pervy and ignorant conservative Evangelicals again. They go in for a lot of forgiveness so long as one conforms and grovels sufficiently, as we have seen in the past.
The establishment clause of the Constitution requires no preferential treatment of religion. That is simple enough, yet conservatives tend as a group, over and over, to attempt to replace democracy with theocracy.
We see it in the mediocre legislators of Tennessee who are persisting in trying to give preferential treatment to the Bible. Thurs. (April 14th)
Gov. Haslam vetoed an attempt to make the Bible the official book of the frankly mediocre at best state of Tennessee.
But the conservative religious extremists in government are hell-bent on pushing this through anyway, and don't give a tinker's damn about the provisions of religious freedom in the Constitution.
From
the Raw Story:
The lawmakers who sponsored the measure vowed to hold a vote that
would overrule Haslam’s veto. A simple majority in each legislative
chamber would overrule his decision.
“According to polling, 62 percent of all Tennesseans favor making the
Holy Bible the state book in order to recognize its significance from a
historical, economic and cultural standpoint,” the House sponsor,
Representative Jerry Sexton, said.
“Senator (Steve) Southerland and I are prepared to move forward with a veto override and we plan to do exactly that.”
Because Tennessee is, apparently, not dumb enough or second rate enough without that next step? Seriously, this is a state legislature which has far more important and far more legitimate issues with which to properly concern itself than forcing their religion on people.
It made an interesting cab ride recently where my driver, whom we'll call Tom, knowing I do research especially fact checking, asked me if it were true, as he had heard on right wing talk radio (an occupational hazard of cab driving apparently) that four out of the five first presidents had been either ordained as clergy or held a degree in religion of some kind, and therefore that was the reason we have "In God We Trust" on our money and "under God" in the pledge of allegiance. And no, none of those first five presidents were particularly religious; in fact George Washington is on record as never having taken communion and rarely attended church, and the other four were Deists.
We have been stuck (for the moment) with "In God We Trust" and "under God" because President Eisenhower (I DO like Ike, as Republican presidents go) made a deal with a group in politics known as 'the family', the same bunch of people who started the National Prayer Breakfast. They are the same group who tried to get the death penalty for being LGBT in Uganda with pseudo-science. So, we have the family influence continuing in politics, pushing an extreme form of religion, after their early success; but we also got the Interstate Highway Program which dramatically contributed to our success post WW II.
I'd call that a barely fair tradeoff of good (the highway system) for evil (crackpot religious conservatism).
