Watch this video… of Shad McGill. A block of cheese like Lowell Barron is definitely more qualified to be a State Senator than this chap.
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And your comment about Lowell Barron is spot on. For years I've undervoted when it came to Barron because he quite simply had no interest in the things I care about, and seemed to be proud of that fact. I used to think he was about as bad a senator as we could have.
Thanks to the Alabama GOP, I know better. The Republicans found someone worse and the voters Lowell spent years disappointing sat on their hands and let him get into office. I'm sure if the election were held today, Barron would win in a landslide.
Follow the link in the diary above, even if you don't watch the video. Shadrack explicitly says he doesn't believe in separation of church and state:
"I don't believe you keep God out of state. Church represents the body of Christ, Christ being the head of that body. No, I don't believe in that separation,"
and,
"Separation of Church and state is not in the constitution." McGill said. "I don't believe we need to separate God from government. The Bible even says that one day the government will be on his shoulders, meaning Jesus Christ's shoulders, so I don't know exactly what that means, but I know that we don't need to separate the two, that we are a godly nation and a biblically based nation, so I do not support that separation."
This guy is so not ready for prime time as a legislator. He obviously has never given serious thought to what happens when the government gets behind religion -- Taliban, anyone? -- or to the first amendment of the US Constitution. This is from the ADL's First Amendment Primer:
The right to freedom of religion is so central to American democracy that it was enshrined in the First Amendment to the Constitution along with other fundamental rights such as freedom of speech and freedom of the press. "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..." -- The First Amendment In order to guarantee an atmosphere of absolute religious liberty, this country's founders also mandated the strict separation of church and state. Largely because of this prohibition against government regulation or endorsement of religion, diverse faiths have flourished and thrived in America since the founding of the republic. Indeed, James Madison, the father of the United States Constitution, once observed that "the [religious] devotion of the people has been manifestly increased by the total separation of the church from the state."
The right to freedom of religion is so central to American democracy that it was enshrined in the First Amendment to the Constitution along with other fundamental rights such as freedom of speech and freedom of the press.
Shadrack should spend some time studying the Constitution and perhaps refer to Alabama native, Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black who ...
...best expressed the purpose and function of the Establishment Clause when he said that it rests "on the belief that a union of government and religion tends to destroy government and degrade religion."[source: ADL]
...best expressed the purpose and function of the Establishment Clause when he said that it rests "on the belief that a union of government and religion tends to destroy government and degrade religion."
[source: ADL]
If you want to protect religion and the free exercise thereof, you darned well better keep the government well out of it. Shadrack is ignorant at best and a fool at worst.
Book, chapter and verse, please.
And how much academic training in Biblical scholarship do you have, Mr. McGill? From what theological school or seminary?
Maybe Shad could give us his take on genuine theocracies in this world like Iran and Saudi Arabia. Or, perhaps his take on the religious zealots currently running most sub-Saharan African nations (granted, most of those Christian nuts limit their zealotry to "death to gays" legislation but truly how different are they from the good folks in Iran and Saudi Arabia who spout much of the same "homosexuality is against _____" meme).
And I defy Shad to show me a case of a Christian theocracy that was ever a bastion of TRUE liberty and freedom. Certainly the theocrats who ran the Plymouth Colony in the 17th century weren't. They arrested, tried, expelled/exiled and even killed folks who held differing opinions. And, one shouldn't forget the way the Catholic Church fought to held onto its secular power by installing the Inquisition as a form of "thought police." (Even today, there's little that's either democratic or republican in the modern Roman Catholic Church. The Pope dictates and his horde of unelected officials enforce the Pope's words, and expect--quite often under coercive practices, like barring RC politicians who don't toe the line from taking part in Communion--the "flock" to obey without question.)
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