Photo credit: John Alves Storm activity, Lincoln County, Kansas May 6, 2015
“God is systematically destroying America,” chaplain John McTernan, the founder of Defend and Proclaim the Faith ministries wrote in a blog post on his website in October of 2012 (apparently now deleted). “Just look at what has happened this year,” referring to Hurricane Sandy.
Pat Robertson said the 1994 Northridge earthquake in Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley could be attributed to God’s displeasure with gays and lesbians, pro-choice activists, and “perversity,”
Cindy Jacobs, of Generals International, blamed the 9.0 earthquake and resulting tsunami that killed more than 15,000 people in Japan on homosexuality.
God is really pissed at us for “the gay”.
But he seems to really like me. I’m both gay, and an atheist, so I’m a bit confused by the whole thing.
Why do I say he likes me? Well, according to so many vociferously anti-gay preachers, God is sending natural disasters to punish us for tolerating and accepting “the gay”. But when I went to Kansas this month to visit relatives, he missed an easy opportunity to make a point.
The week before I visited, the region around my sister’s home was hit with severe storms, and even had storm chasers out posting live video on the internet, just down the road from her house! I was watching live, here in California, as a severe storm produced tornadoes in the immediate area. The four days I was there, however, the weather was sunny, clear, and pleasant! The day I left, the bad weather started back up, and the area was again hit with tornadoes, like the one seen forming in the picture above, taken from cell phone video shot by my brother-in-law. Indeed, on my entire trip, I only got rained on a little bit, snowed on for literally seconds, and hardly needed my coat.
The only bad weather that I can see which might be directed at me is the drought here in California. The trouble is, it’s effect is the most severe in the very region that is so very anti-gay! This area is bright, bright red, super-conservative, and deeply religious. Heck, the local Sheriff (my boss!) introduced the keynote speaker at the recent Tulare County Prayer Breakfast, the nationally known anti-gay crusader and hate group leader, Tony Perkins. This region is not known for supporting the gays. (Visalia is progressing nicely, but it’s a bright spot on an otherwise dismal map)
Bad weather scares the beejeebies out of new residents in central Kansas. The Gaytheist comes to visit, and it’s gorgeous. He leaves, and the storm chasers are back out with huge tornadic activity in the area.
For a deity so allegedly worked up about “the gay”, he’s confusing the hell out of me.
JimmieJoe / KC6YRU 
Missouri Sheriff puts “IN GOD WE TRUST” on every patrol car
June 4, 2015
Jim Reeves 9-1-1, commentary, News green county missouri, in god we trust, jim arnott, patrol car, separation of church and state, sheriff places in god we trust on patrol cars Leave a comment
Photo: Valerie Mosley/News-Leader
Jim Arnott is the Sheriff of Greene County, Missouri. He recently had “IN GOD WE TRUST” lettering added to about 100 patrol cars because, as he said, “I like it“.
I became aware of this through the Facebook page “Sheriff Deputies“, when they posted the picture to the news feed. Disappointingly, it’s getting a lot of approval from others. Few seem to understand, or even care, why it is highly inappropriate for this kind of religious proselytizing to exist in a government agency.
Our own community has recently had issues with law enforcement lending it’s imprimatur to a purely religious ceremony, and many are defending the decision of government officials to attend. Here, they’ve dismissed the connection with the keynote speaker, Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, a designated hate group, as inconsequential. The Sheriff told the Visalia Times Delta that he didn’t “get any detailed information about Perkins and his reported agenda until after he and his command staff left”. At least the Sheriff here is claiming ignorance of Perkins and his agenda, but the Missouri Sheriff is more direct in his statements.
Sheriff Arnott has unilaterally decided that his religious beliefs can be displayed on government property as he sees fit. Since most people in his area are Christians, few see any problem with the idea. They seem to view the idea of the long-established legal concept of separation of church and state to mean government cannot intrude on religion, but religion is free to intrude and impose on government.
A person who had questioned the wording on patrol cars garnered this reaction from Sheriff Arnott:
“I’m guessing she is offended by it. If that’s the case. I’m hoping that she does not use any of our currency either.”
U.S. currency carries the legend “In God We Trust.”
Many city councils, county supervisors chambers, and other government structures have “IN GOD WE TRUST” prominently displayed, and it’s pretty much impossible to find elected officials, or even bureaucrats, who are willing to challenge the placement of clearly religious wording in government facilities. The Supreme Court didn’t help matters by ruling in favor of those who want religion wrapped around their government.
I find it disappointing that so many are content to allow government to grant a seal of approval to religious dogma, in clear violation of the idea that it should be completely neutral when it comes to such matters. They’re quite happy with the mixing of church and state, as long as it’s their church. I wonder how complacent they would be if it said “ALLAHU AKBAR”? Or “IN VISHNU WE TRUST”? Changing the name of the god should make it clear why any of them are inappropriate. If the Sheriff and his deputies want such sentiments on the cars they drive, let them put them on their own vehicles. Patrol cars are not the place to, as we LGBT advocates have been accused of doing every time we talk about rights, “shove it down our throats” in public.
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