Kentucky Judge says Homeland Security isn't Dependent on God
Filed by: Waymon Hudson
August 27, 2009 2:00 PM
In a story that is sure to get Dick Cheney out of his undisclosed location, a Judge in Kentucky struck down a 2006 state law that required the Kentucky Office of Homeland Security to stress:
dependence on Almighty God as being vital to the security of the commonwealth.
That's right. State Law required the state's Homeland Security office to give God the credit for keeping Kentucky safe from terrorist attacks. For three years, the office has been required to credit "Almighty God" in their official reports and post a plaque with similar language at the state's Emergency Operations Center in Frankfort.
Because Al Qaeda is falling all over themselves to attack the Kentucky Derby unless the Almighty Christian God steps in?
Wow.
Judge Thomas Wingate ruled that the confounding law violated the First Amendment's protection against the establishment of a state religion:
This is the very reason the Establishment Clause was created: to protect the minority from the oppression of the majority. The commonwealth's history does not exclude God from the statutes, but it had never permitted the General Assembly to demand that its citizens depend on Almighty God.
And who was the person who put the law in place to begin with? That honor goes to Southern Baptist Minister and State Rep. Tom Riner (D-Louisville), who slipped the language in during a vote on a homeland security bill.
Riner is none too happy about the ruling. He claims the law
did not mandate that Kentuckians depend on God for their safety, it simply acknowledged that government without God cannot protect its citizens.
Except for the nagging detail that it did require the HSO to include the "praise be to God" language in every report and signage in the office. Not to mention that his statement contradicts itself (all in one neat sentence!).
But the crazy lack of logic doesn't end there. Attorney General Jack Conway had to defend the law in court. His argument for keeping the law? That "striking down such laws risked creating a secular society that is wholly separated from religion."
Umm, isn't that the idea not establishing a state religion, as described in the Establishment Clause? I think the AG might not have understood the question...
So be afraid, Kentuckians. It looks like God won't be swatting away missiles aimed for the Blue Grass State anymore because you aren't paying homage to him in your state security documents.
Oh the humanity...
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9 Comments
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Why am I not surprised?
Monica Roberts | August 27, 2009 3:47 PM
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I'm so glad I moved from that state! LOL
I miss Louisville from time to time (even though their gay scene is nowhere near as fun as it was a decade ago - and they now have less gay bars, so I'm not missing out on anything).
But overall, the state is nothing more than a snake-handling, speaking in tongues tent revival full of hypocrites. Oh yeah, and they're homosex obsessed too - even when they've never met a single openly gay person, much less a single heterosexual Hispanic person.
Scott | August 27, 2009 4:07 PM
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Target Dems who voted for this particular piece of Theonomic nonsense aimed at undermining the secular republic, or demand equal time for the Goddess Aphrodite, protector of U of K cheerleaders.
MauraHennessey | August 27, 2009 7:09 PM
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I mention this only as pure, vicious, hometown River City gossip, but I wonder if God Almighty has been the one lately protecting U of L basketball coaches from sex scandals ...
A. J. Lopp | August 27, 2009 9:31 PM
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So we're not saying that you have to care about God. We're just saying that if the government isn't Christian then we all die.
It's so much less of a violation of the Constitution that way.
Alex Blaze | August 28, 2009 6:42 AM
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The United States of America was founded on the
principles of freedom of religion and the separation
of church and state. According to my map of the
United States, Kentucky is still one of our fifty
states.
Rick Sours | August 28, 2009 7:19 AM
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I've almost left Kentucky jokes on this post three times. I'm trying really hard to resist the temptation.
Bil Browning | August 28, 2009 8:53 AM
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By all means, Bil, let us hear them!
Do you actually think that the readers of this blog who are located in Kentucky will be offended? Do you think there is any chance they might be intelligent enough to know, generally, what Neanderthals they are surrounded by?
I live in southern Indiana ... and I know what Neanderthals I'm surrounded by ...
A. J. Lopp | August 28, 2009 12:33 PM
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Folks we need to make a fuss over Religion dictating how we go about our daily lives. To keep it out of our government must remain vigilant to dire consequences. May I make a comment for all of us. One of the most basic of reasons that we must have and keep safe our need for a separation of Church and State goes way back and it happened in my family. Dateline 1658 Salem, Essex County, Massachusetts. The Puritan run government brought one William Kinge Jr. to the center of town locked him in the public stocks had it citizens throw all sorts of rotted veggies and slopes at him, they confiscated his estate in Beverly on the Bass River Inlet. Much more was done to humiliate him but I think you get the point. All by the Puritans who ran the colony for their brand of religious freedom. They had no birthdates recorded you were apparently born on the day that you were christened into the Puritan Church. What was William's Transgression you might ask? His sister Katherine had married a member of the "Friends Congregation" later known as Quakers. William publicly spoke in favor or their meetings in the open. William Kinge Jr. bye the bye is my 7th great grand uncle ancestor in my paternal grandmother's family. Apparently he did repent of his "sin" but his 5 sisters and mother left Salem and all moved to Long Island at Southhold in Suffolk County which was a Connecticut governed colony until 1 November 1683 when the assembly of New York named it as one of 12 original Counties of their colony. This is just one example of how religion can and usually does run amok with reality.
Daniel Lewis Frommherz | August 29, 2009 2:14 AM
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