The Kansas State Capitol Gets a Very Christian "Meditation Room"

What, no books by Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Benjamin Franklin, Richard Dawkins, or Edmond Halley? Pfft.

I'm so happy my former home state is so flush with taxpayer money and no pressing issues that the legislators can consider this. /sarcasm

Ugh. I'd be fine if it was actually a non-denominational meditation room, but this is a case of the smeerps.

I had to look up this particular gem : "What Makes God Cry the Most: Things You Really Should Know About Abortion.”

This is what bothers me about how our courts system works in relation to government. It's illegal, yet there would have to be lawsuits to get them to avoid/stop doing it.

That is bad enough with regular folks, but surely the government(s) could do more to self-monitor things that will be struck down by the courts. They could make it some sort of violation for their employees to do (or we could vote in people with some effing sense).

I don't think there is any doubt that the courts won't uphold it, though, is there?

Now, they just need some meditation mats, incense, Buddha statues and copies of all the other religious, spiritual, and scientific texts (or at least all the major ones).

What's wrong with law-makers that they think this shit is something they can get away with?

Snowstorm said:

What, no books by Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Benjamin Franklin, Richard Dawkins, or Edmond Halley? Pfft.

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I'd recommend that Kansans concerned about this, and able to visit the capital in Topeka, make the simple sacrifice of donating books by, say, Carl Sagan, Stephen Jay Gould, Dawkins, Elie Wiesel, Martin Buber, Orhan Pamuk, Alan Watts, Charles Darwin . . .

Take 'em in there, and shelve 'em.

caw

blacbird said:

I'd recommend that Kansans concerned about this, and able to visit the capital in Topeka, make the simple sacrifice of donating books by, say, Carl Sagan, Stephen Jay Gould, Dawkins, Elie Wiesel, Martin Buber, Orhan Pamuk, Alan Watts, Charles Darwin . . .

Take 'em in there, and shelve 'em.

caw

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And if you really want to shake them up, Anton LaVey.

Sometimes, I wish these people would just pick a plot of land, dig a moat, declare themselves a theocracy like they want to and leave the rest of us the Hell alone. (Emphasis on the last part... I really am sick of them trying to drag everyone else into their back-arsed little pseudo-Christian reboot of America.)

And, yeah, I know it's not realistic or practical or anything, but I can dream, can't I?

At a serious level, the sad part is that people who support this kind of thing, like Gov. Brownback, really do think, with all sincerity, they are justified in doing it "for our own good."

caw

blacbird said:

At a serious level, the sad part is that people who support this kind of thing, like Gov. Brownback, really do think, with all sincerity, they are justified in doing it "for our own good."

caw

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It's scary how much evil can be attributed to that phrase...

It's also scary how many voters were happier with that, or with not voting at all, than with speaking out against this kind of "good." (Don't tell me this is the first hint of their true colors...)

Marian Perera said:

I had to look up this particular gem : "What Makes God Cry the Most: Things You Really Should Know About Abortion.”

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The blurb says it's a non judgemental and facts-based book that allows readers to make their own decision!



Why are my lips pursing skeptically here?

Could it be THE TITLE?

Since when is an anti-abortion book (even one with Christian leanings) a religious text? Who thinks to themselves, "I would like to take a moment to sit and pray...and read about how horrible abortion is"?

It sounds more like a room for a certain subgroup of conservative Christians to go and have their beliefs validated.

May I mention here that I have a meditation room in my house? Three of them, as a matter of fact. One with books and magazines in it. I meditate there with some frequency.

caw

Diana Hignutt said:

What's wrong with law-makers that they think this shit is something they can get away with?

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I doubt that they do believe they'll get away in most cases. They know it'll be a lengthy court battle, and they know they'll probably lose. It's not about getting away with something, it's about fighting the good fight. They need to look busy to the voters, especially the ones that have more hardcore beliefs. So, they'll gladly put on a little play so they can say, "See, I was out there fighting for Christianity against the big bad (insert threat here). If you keep voting for me, I'll keep fighting; I won't let them take away your bibles."

I wonder, if someone were to donate a tasteful floor-covering, how many 'meditators' would recognize a prayer-rug? For that matter, no reason people of any denomination couldn't pray on that rug.

Yeah. The state has been bitten by the Jesus bug bad, as we say out here. Last Sunday I attended a local writer's group meeting. We meet in a library to share what we are working on. Mine was a memoir about a kite that won an honorable mention in a state contest. The other works were seriously Jesus centered. One dear lady has spent a decade writing a chapter biography of 18 people who spoke with Jesus in real life. The others were mainly kid lit and poetry with a big dollop of Jesus. These are some of the nicest people you will ever meet--a little out of touch but generous and fair minded.

The good news is that no one in this group can figure out how Governor Brownback was re-elected. What turned them against him? Financial cuts to libraries and programs that they use. It is the same with the teachers and social workers I know. Folks who were all for him election before last, are calling him a big business butt pirate now. A teacher friend who voted for him 5 years ago because of the abortion issue is now spouting individual rights like he thought the idea up himself.

The one thing to make a fire breathing, gun toting Kansan forget Jesus? Money. We all live on the edge out here and most of us are more into gov programs than we want to believe. We like cuts when they are aimed at stereotyped welfare moms, not our oil royalties or CRP payments or (gasp) high school sports. The cuts are coming now, fast, bloody and furious. Gov. Sam is pirating our state pension plan and cutting programs to our older parents. I am praying (yeah. I really do pray.) that this outrage will overpower the politics of divide.

On the other hand we have John Brown and Carrie Nation as shining examples of our notorious Kansas mule streak. --s6

RichardGarfinkle said:

I don't know if they expect to get away with this in the long term. I suspect that this, like a lot of bills being passed amount to trolling.

They pass a blatantly unconstitutional bill, people yell about it and they get to say to their voting base that the
<sneering term for people who don't agree with them/>
hordes are against them, so keep voting these people into office.

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This, I think. And also, if you scream that something's a problem, and you do so loudly and indignantly enough for long enough, some people who hadn't been that concerned about it before might start thinking they should be.

These folks have been really successful at convincing many Americans that "Christians think this," or "Good Christians are concerned about that," by casting all these kinds of issues in that light.

I get students sometimes in my classes, for instance, who tell me that because they're [insert denomination] they must feel such and such a way about [insert issue], when in fact their particular denomination does not require any such thing from them.

They've been led to believe this by the politicians and public figures who scream that "Christians think such and such about such and such."

I can't prove it, but I strongly suspect that many of these "Christian" politicians don't even believe what they're saying. They're just using (and twisting) the faith of others to get votes.

Or, as in Brownback's case, trying to divert public attention from a massive tax boo-boo. --s6