Arizona Governor Jan Brewer vetoed House Bill 2153/Senate Bill 1062. The controversial bill would have protected all individuals, businesses, and religious institutions from discrimination lawsuits if they could show that their discriminatory actions were motivated by religious convictions. Written by the conservative advocacy group, Center for Arizona Policy and the Christian legal organization Alliance Defending Freedom, the bill would have enabled businesses potentially to discriminate against virtually anyone under the guise of religious freedom. The bill, vetoed by Governor Jan Brewer, has been described by opponents as discriminatory against gays and lesbians. It would have led to marginalization and oppression of many groups and had the smell of the Nazi’s Nuremburg Laws about it.
This law would have brought Arizona back into the lead in the race with Kentucky and Kansas to return to the Dark Ages. Arizona first gained the lead in 1997, when Arizona enacted a tuition tax credit law. The available evidence shows that the law is a model for seriously undermining public education, particularly the public schools that serve poor children. Arizona scheme has cost state education hundreds of millions of dollars, money that has gone largely to subsidize education for middle- and upper-income families, both in private and public schools.
The losers are low-income families who pay fewer taxes but do not benefit from the tax credit. Money needed for public schools is diverted to private schools, depleting state funds from needed improvements to public schools that serve low-income and disadvantaged students. The law has loopholes allowing one family to pay over one thousand dollars for another family child’s tuition in return for that family paying the tuition for the first family’s child. There is no accountability in the system, designed chiefly to benefit religious schools. Public schools, you see, teach evil things like science and evolution and do not allow sufficient time for prayer.
The following essay from 2011 contained my idea for benefiting from Arizona’s religiosity.
“Our Lady of Perpetual Vengeance Emmanuel Faith Holiness Full Gospel Freewill Baptist Zen Pentecostal Church of the Nazarene Yeshiva, Ashram, and Madrasah"
Americans are concerned that efforts in their homes and churches to brainwash their children into some brand of religious mumbo jumbo are failing. They fear their children will, upon reaching the age of reason, cease to have imaginary friends in the sky, or that these friends will be of a different religion. This fear impels them to attempt to impose their beliefs upon schools and government. They demand that the Ten Commandments be displayed in government buildings. They demand that “under God” or “In God We Trust” be placed in pledges and on money. Although no aspect of their children’s lives is currently free from the heavy hand of religion, they still fear that their children’s belief in God is slipping between His almighty fingers and that the children will grow up without any invisible means of support.
There have been recent examples of this. Newt Gingrich said: "I have two grandchildren …I am convinced that if we do not decisively win the struggle…, by the time they're my age they will be in a secular atheist country, potentially one dominated by radical Islamists and with no understanding of what it once meant to be an American." Disregarding the fact that only God in His wisdom knows what a “radical Islamist secular atheist” is, the statement illustrates the angst of believers. If they cannot protect their children from science, reason, and godlessness in the world; they have no choice but to resort to private schools and home schooling.
To facilitate this, Arizona passed a law allowing taxpayers to designate up to $500 of their income tax to private religious schools. Over $350 million in income tax payments so far has gone to such schools. Taxpayers who believe in separation of church and state sued.
The U.S. Supreme Court decided 5-4 that ordinary taxpayers cannot challenge these tax breaks. The court ruled that the Arizona taxpayers who challenged the program have no stake in the dispute that would allow them to take their case to federal court. The decision cheered the religious and dismayed reasonable taxpayers. Citizens will now find it difficult to use federal courts to claim violations of the Constitution's prohibition on direct government aid to religion.
Let's start private schools, beginning in Arizona! We can now take advantage of their laws by opening "ecumenical" schools. We can obtain an endorsement from Sarah Palin, who believes that Israelis and Palestinians should be able to get along since “they both worship Jesus, but just in different ways.”
To attract donations our schools would embrace a "Select-A-Faith"® system. Parents seeking to protect their children from science, logic, reason, knowledge, and secular philosophy can indicate which brand of medieval doctrine they wish imposed upon their child. This approach will have the broadest possible reach. No science courses will be taught – especially biology, which is, of course, tainted by evil Darwinism. Children will be protected from current events and modern culture.
Fri Feb 28, 2014 at 1:45 PM PT: Praise the Lord! Gov. Jan Brewer saw God's handwriting on the wall and vetoed the horible bill.