Photo: Dick Luria / Photodisc / Getty
In Bay Minette, Alabama, Christians have created a program that will help other Christians not only avoid jail, but also avoid a criminal record entirely. Named "Operation: Restore Our Community," first-time offenders who have committed minor crimes are given the option to go to church every Sunday for a year. If their religious indoctrination is successful, their original criminal case is dismissed entirely and it won't appear on their record.
Muslims? Out of luck. Jews? Out of luck. Hindus? Out of luck? Atheists? Don't even think about visiting or moving there.
But the local police chief who is heading up the program starting Tuesday called "Restore Our Community" says no one is being forced to participate. ..."The biggest question or complaint we have had is about separation of church and state," Rowland said.
"Those issues won't come to the forefront because the offenders are not being forced to attend church, and what religion they choose is really up to them. We even have provisions for people who are from out of town to choose a place to worship in their own communities."
Source: AL.com
Right, because telling people "go to jail for a year or go to church for year" isn't "force" at all. Who's he kidding? He couldn't possibly be kidding himself because no one that dense could have obtained a badge and a gun, could they? Such a person would be a bigger danger to public safety than the criminals.
Whenever the government says "do this or go to jail," it's threatening the use of force in order to coerce people into doing something. That's one of the major reasons for putting people in jail for breaking the laws -- the government is saying "follow the law or go to jail." What kind of idiot would insist that that isn't threatening "force"? Sadly, this seems to describe many the people living in this town perfectly because so many of them are defending the program by arguing that it's merely an "option".
Yeah, it's just an "option" to get out of jail. No one is "forced" to pick the "option" that keeps them out of jail. No one is "forced" to pick the "option" that lets them keep working and earning money, lets them continue living with family, and lets them get away without a criminal record.
"Operation ROC resulted from meetings with church leaders," Bay Minette Police Chief Mike Rowland said. "It was agreed by all the pastors that at the core of the crime problem was the erosion of family values and morals. We have children raising children and parents not instilling values in young people."
Right, and the only place you can get "family values" or "morals" is from a church. This makes it clear what Bay Minette Police Chief Mike Rowland really thinks about non-Christians, never mind atheists who don't go to any house of worship. We'd better not tell him that atheists are incarcerated at much lower rates than Christians because that might be a bit too much for his intellect to handle.
Pastor Robert Gates of Christian Life Church leads one of 56 congregations participating in the effort. He predicted it would succeed.
"You show me somebody who falls in love with Jesus, and I'll show you a person who won't be a problem to society but that will be an influence and a help to those around them," he told the television station.
Source: Huffington Post
I'm not surprised that pastors like Robert Gates are excited -- they have convinced the local police to use their power to threaten people with jail it they don't attend church for an entire year. In fact, this was all their idea in the first place! They have convinced the government to use its power to coerce citizens to submit to Christian indoctrination in a local church. Can there be any more obvious violation of church/state separation and government neutrality towards religion? It's also pretty stupid given the fact that they are, in a sense, equating their own churches with a jail and church attendance witha time in jail.
The idea that someone who "falls in love with Jesus" isn't ever a "problem to society" and will instead "help" others simply isn't borne out by the facts. In fact, the data tends to show the opposite. Thus what pastor Robert Gates is preaching here is little more than self-serving bigotry. He's telling others that he personally is superior for loving Jesus and that if others just follow him they'll also be superior.
That's where Christian Dominionism often gets its start: the assertion of personal superiority due to one's religion, followed quickly by the desire to use the state to at least endorse that religion and possibly enforce that religion through coercive practices. And that's just what we see happening in Bay Minette, Alabama.
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