Will God, karma, etc. make Donald Trump president again because President Joe Biden didn't stop giving Israel money and munitions to devastate Gaza?

 

Gaza

    I’m 1/8th Jewish through my Polish great grandfather, who came to America in the latter 1800s and ended up in Troy, Alabama, where he met, courted and married a Southern Baptist school teacher, whose father had been an officer in the Confederate Army. They raised their children in the Southern Baptist Church in Troy, whose Sunday services Leopold attended, but he did not convert. That’s how the Leopold Bashinsky bloodline became Christian.

    Leopold is memorialized in the “He Was a Nobel Creation" chapter ofA Few Remarkable Alabama People I Have Known, which I wrote with oceans of tears and rivers of snot in 2004, in Helen, Georgia. Now it is a free read at the internet library, archive.com. Here’s a link directly to that little book: https://archive.org/details/a-few-remarkable-alabama-people-i-have-known_202210

    Because I am an old fart with lots of spare time on my hands thanks to time, gravity and life killing off what I once did to pass the time and get in and out trouble, I will tell you that 3 nights before 9/11, in my tent on a friend’s land outside of Helen, Georgia, where earlier that summer the novel Heavy Wait: A Strange Tale gushed out of me on a public library computer, now a free read at archive.org, https://archive.org/details/heavy-wait-a-strange-tale_202212/page/n1/mode/2up, the angel known in the Jewish and Christian scriptures as Michael asked me in my sleep, “Will you make a prayer for a divine intervention of all of humanity?", and I woke up wondering what that was about and made the prayer and went back to sleep. 

    On 9/11, my concern was America would get itself into another foreign war it could not win, like what happened in Vietnam, which divided American society down the middle and shredded the nation’s soul. I could not imagine America would get into two such wars: Afghanistan and Iraq.

    A few days later, I was back in Key West, via Greyhound, and as I walked out of the U.S. Post Office in Old Town, Michael told me, “America should get out of the Middle East altogether and let Israel and Islam work it out or fight it out, and in that way learn which, if either, is God’s chosen people.” I sensed the end of Michael’s comment was irony, or sarcasm. 

    In the summer of 2003, during a Sunday school class in a church near Helen, where I was hanging out again to get away from the Key West summer heat, mosquitoes and hurricanes, not much fun for a homeless person, the Sunday School teacher said he hoped God kills all Muslims!

    I said quietly, “What about turn the other cheek, pray for your enemies?"

    The Sunday school teacher looked at me, said again what he hoped God would do.

    I said pretty loud this time, "What’s wrong with Christians? Don’t they read their own Bible? In Genesis, God told Abraham that Ishamel’s seed would become a great nation and would cause Isaac’s seed trouble."

    A great hush fell over the room. 

    Back then, I was put into situations where I said stuff that rattled Christian cages a bit.

    I was not yet active on the internet.

    Back to the present.

    Despite what I hear from Christians, read online

 and see on TV, I don’t think God by any name called likes war.

    I cannot wrap my mind around God sanctioning any war reported in the Christian Bible's Old Testament. I wonder if the Jewish prophets of old who waged war, starting with Abraham, were listening to voices in their own heads, or to the Devil?

    I don’t see how the war in Gaza pleases God, and to the contrary, it looks to me that the war in Gaza pleases the Devil, and both sides are in deep doo doo with God.

    In that regard, two Substack newsletters to which I subscribe.

Mark Flore

April4, 2024 

https://markfiore.substack.com/p/an-offensive-defense?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email#media-6cf65d10-3c86-469d-bf49-b25f8d8b5cad

An Offensive Defense

An Offensive Defense Mark Fiore 樂�It sure doesn't look very defensive...

Sloan Bashinsky

Sloan’s Newsletter

Gaza mayhem is horrible. I think if HAMAs cared about its subjects in Gaza, months ago it would have offered to release all of its Oct 7 hostages, if Israel agreed to leave Gaza alone for so long as HAMAs left Israel alone.

Ezekiel Detroit Substack

Sloan B., That is a sane solution. It does not meet Hamas definition. Their solution is to kill all Jews in Israel. Terrorists do not think like typical westerners. If they die, they just go to paradise where women will serve them. No big deal to die. Hostages are now their property to be their slaves. It is written. Catch my drift?

Sloan Bashinsky

I understand your drift completely. 

Hamas views all of its subjects killed by Israel as martyrs sent straight to Allah, so no big deal. Hamas’s original charter called for the destruction of Israel. Hamas' “amended” charter praises Islam as a peace-loving religion and does not recognize Israel’s right to exist. Sinwar spent a long time in prison in Israel, and he figured out there was no way Hamas could defeat Israel militarily, and after he got out of that prison he switched to defeating Israel, and its benefactor America, in the court of public opinion, and he designed an attack that he hoped would cause Israel to do precisely what it did in Gaza, to paint Israel as a modern Nazi Germany, and smear America, and Israel took the bait and America sided with Israel and here we are.

I know Israel did plenty to provoke Islam in the past, taking land, and taking land, and wars in Gaza and the West Bank, and Israel does not have clean hands, and it, too, is run by religious fanatics, who claim God is on their side. President Biden should have cut off money and munitions to Israel months ago. But I live in Alabama, which is very red, and I know the America religious right back Israel all the way, (a) because their Bible says God promised Israel that land, even though they ignore the Israelites turned their back on God many times, and (b) they hope Israel will kill every Muslim in the Middle East, and they wouldn’t mind Israel using its nukes to to it.

It’s a really screwed up mess, thanks to religion, and God has nothing to do with it. If Trump is elected this year, his base won’t let him abandon Israel. It’s a shame all the nice Christians in America did not allow the WWII Jewish refugees to resettle in America. If that had happened, maybe there would be no Israel today. 

As long as Israel exists, there will be strife in Palestine. All predicted in Genesis when God told Abraham that Ishmael’s seed would become a great nation and would cause Issac’s seed (Israelites) trouble. Islam views Ishmael as the promised child, and radical Islam views that part of Genesis, which is in the Koran, as a mandate from God to cause Isaac’s seed trouble. All of that is in the Bibles Donald Trump is selling :-)

Money Circus

Crisis Update: Troubling Lessons Of Israel’s AI Kill Targets

Efficiency or unearthing darker impulses?

APR 05, 2024

https://moneycircus.substack.com/p/crisis-update-troubling-lessons-of

Sloan BashinskySloan’s Newsletter, liked by Money Circus

Hard for me to imagine Sinwar and other Hamas officials did not know of Israel’s AI military capability when Hamas launched the October 7 attack, which looks to me was designed and hoped to provoke Israel to do precisely what is has been doing in Gaza, to turn the entire world against Israel and its benefactor, America, which leads me to think Hamas doesn’t care how many people Israel kills, maims, displaces, etc. in Gaza, they are martyrs, and the worse the mayhem in Gaza, the better for Hamas’s publicity. Looks to me that Hamas and Israel both are run by religious freak monsters, and God has nothing to do with any of it. If only Hal could return from Jupiter to jettison both sides’s leaders into space to see if that gets the left behinds' undivided attention :-)

    I wonder, younguns, if Donald Trump will be back in the White House this time next year, because Joe Biden kept living Israel money and munitions to hunt down and kill Hamas in Gaza? Yeah, I know that ain’t ever gonna be a popular perspective of how God and karma work in mysterious ways, and I hope it doesn’t play out that way, but maybe Trump being president again is how it needs to play out, because that’s what America deserves, thanks to President Biden and America supporting Israel in Gaza, and Trump said he is Israel’s best friend and that war would not have happened if he was president :-)

    Maybe if we are real lucky, Hamas, Israel and President Biden have not started World War III.

sloanbashinsky@yahoo.com

Easter Sunday in the nation that boasts it is under God and puts In God We Trust on its money

 

    Ok, younguns-

    This is Easter Sunday, the day the Gospels say Jesus rose from the dead, and Christians say saved them from their sins even though he died 2,000 years before they were born.

    In America, Donald Trump is promoting his own special red, white and blue version of the King James Bible to make himself more money, even though he behaves like a heathen, does not attend church, and seldom, if ever, reads the Bible, and Jesus was crucified in the Gospels for chasing Jewish money changers out of a temple.    

    In America, Donald Trump claims God sent him to save America from the liberals and the liberals are persecuting him the way Jesus was persecuted in the Gospels, yet every criminal and civil lawsuit against Trump was initiated because of something he did.

    In the King James Bible:

Matthew 5:25

Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison.

    In America, MAGAs worship Trump as their savior, even though in The King James Bible:

John 8:31-32
So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

Matthew 6:9-13
After this manner therefore pray ye: 
Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. 

 

    In America, most Republicans attend church and back the most prominent heathen in America.

    In America, the religious right, especially, flout their religion in public, even though in the King James Bible:

Matthew 6, KJV 1-8

Take heed that ye do not make your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven. Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth: That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly.  And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.

    Since before I was born in 1942, “In God we trust" was on all of America’s money, and since I was born, it has looked to me that most Americans trust money far more than they trust God.

    In the King James Bible:

Matthew 6:24
No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. 

    When I was a boy, the U.S. Congress put “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance to boast America was better than godless communist Soviet Union and Red China.

    America has taunted and tempted God to show America what it actually is, which is crystal clear to the rest of the world, but not to most Americans.

   This was posted in Reddit’s r/politics forum last night. I leave for you to open the link and read the article and comments that ignore what is hidden in plain view.

MAGA’s Ugly, Hateful Response to Bridge Horror Is About to Get Worse

https://newrepublic.com/article/180286/magas-ugly-hateful-response-bridge-horror-get-worse

    I’m not a MAGA, Republican or Democrat. I am an American.

    According to news reports I read online and saw on TV, the loaded to the gills 300 meters long Dali was escorted from the dock by 2 tugboats, which returned to the dock, as is the custom today. 

    As the Dali approached the bridge, it lost power. It’s massive weight and 8 knots (9 mph) speed insured the outcome.

    I think it’s darn weird that the Dali lost power when it did.

    That bridge is named after Francis Scott Key, the author of "The Star Spangled Banner", who wrote it about a battle between America and England in that harbor during the War of 1812.

    If I was a domestic or foreign terrorist trying to make a statement, the Francis Scott Key Bridge was an excellent target.

    Given how many false flag operations the American government has run to get into wars, and how many times I have seen American presidents lie, and how many times have doubted President Biden tells Americans the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help him God, I cannot ass-u-me the Dali was not sabotaged by President Biden's government for political reasons.

    Given how many times I have seen lies come out of Donald and MAGAs and prominent Republicans in Congress and in the private sector, and out of FOX news talking heads, I cannot ass-u-me the Dali was not sabotaged by the American right for political reasons.

    Nor can I ass-u-me the Dali was not sabotaged by an Islamic faction, Russia, Red China, North Korea.

   Nor can I ass-u-me and angel of the Lord did not turn off the power in the Dali, to try to wake up all Americans. 

    Would Americans and their political leaders, priests and state and national governments ever figure that one out?

   In the King James Bible

Matthew 7:15-20
Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.
Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?
Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. 

 

Mark 13:31-37

Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away.
But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.
Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is.
For the Son of Man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work, and commanded the porter to watch.
Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning:
Lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping.
And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch. 

 

Revelation 3:3  
Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee.

sloanbashinsky@yahoo.com

The Orange Turd's secret Truth Social agenda: put the US Government in a federal bankstuptcy court run by a Republican judge

    Ok, younguns, today I introduce the only person I grew up with in Mountain Brook, alias The Tiny Kingdom, who still puts up and cuts up with me. He knew your mommas when they were tots.

        He worked his entire grown up life in a New York Stock Exchange company, and he calls Donald Trump, The Orange Turd (OT).

    Once upon a time I dreamed of him being a general and I was a corporal, and I woke up figuring something I was involved in needed to be gone about the way he would do it, instead of the way I would do it.

    Yesterday, he texted me his very most recent OT sentiments, which perhaps were prompted by some really brave, or really stupid people, depending on how it turns out, agreeing to take OT’s money-loser Truth Social public, and OT will retain 60 percent of the stock and get a $3billion windfall.

    Excerpt from America’s premier business publication. 

Forbes Magazine

Trump’s Truth Social Parent Will Go Public—Here’s What Happened To His Last Publicly Traded Company

Antonio Pequeño IVForbes Staff

I cover breaking news.

Mar 22, 2024,04:42pm EDT

Former President Donald Trump’s social media company will go public after shareholders in Digital World Acquisition Corp approved a merger Friday, marking Trump’s return to the stock market nearly 30 years after Trump’s resort company went public—and experienced years of bankruptcies before it was eventually delisted from the Nasdaq.

KEY FACTS
Trump Media & Technology Group’s merger with Digital World, a special-purpose acquisition company that already trades on the Nasdaq, will allow the Truth Social parent company to go public with Trump as the majority owner, potentially netting the former president a $3 billion windfall based on current share prices.

    The General’s and my text banter, followed by the rest of the Forbes article, which I don’t imagine OT put in his treasure chest, followed by the punch line.

The General

Next time you are in research mode, please see if the OT was correct in flag protocol at that rally in Ohio last weekend. A group of Jan 6 rioters were in attendance and sang out National Anthem. Ot, dressed in his usual blue suit and MAGA ball cap, stood and saluted. From my days in the Boy Scouts and 6 years in the US Military it was my understanding you saluted if in uniform but otherwise removed any head gear and held it over your heart. Now, we know why the very vain OT didn’t want to take off MAGA ball cap and muss his frozen with paste hairdo, but was he in compliance? I wound’t expect him to know anything about the rules of flag protocol, naturally. Just a little something to do this weekend.

The Corporal

Roger, Gen, I’ll dig deeper, but it may be a simpleminded as he  believes, or pretends, he is American’s lawful president. 😎

The General

Only in the role of OT in Chief!! He ony qualifies for half that title, the first half.

The Corporal

He definitely is the Supreme OT. And, I wonder, the more the courts side against him, the more votes he will get.

The General

He and his fans don’t seem to understand that it was the everyday folks sitting on those grand juries that voted on those indictments: they weren’t dictated by some AG, DA or DOJ Speçial Prosecutor.

The Corporal

Nothing you or I think matters to Trump and his mobs.

I felt the best chance was the Gerorgia prosecutor, before she started fucking her lead assistant prosecutor and put them both on trial, when it was OT who was supposed to be on trial. 

I suppose it’s wait and see from here on out. The New York courts sure dont like him. Perhaps because he’s from New York and they know him well.

Looks like the election this year will be over before all but maybe the NY hush money (Stormy Daniels) criminal prosecution is tried, then the appeals if he’s convicted. The Republican-controlled Supreme Court will have final say in federal prosecutions.

Grand juries usually go along with prosecutors. Trial juries have to be unanimous for conviceing in criminal cases.

I’m wondering how the $450 million appeal bond in the New York state court civil fraud case will go tomorrow after Trump announced he has have $5 billion in cash he wants to spend campaigning after he never spent his own money before on campaigns.

The General

And it looks like the run up in the SAC company that is bringing in Truth Social is tanking. Sure hate to see that. 😓😓😓

The Corporal

No comprehende a company losing so much money going public.

The General

Google Truth Social public offering approved late last week. 

Truth Social merger. 6$B windfall for Trump.

The Corporal

I’ve been reading about that.

See no way the folks paying $6 billion get it back.

The Trump train jumped the tracks and maybe all left is to watch new episodes of The Devil’s Apprentice in my newsfeed supplemented by you😎

Forbes Magazine article continued 

Trump Entertainment Resorts owned several Trump properties including the Atlantic City-based Trump Plaza, Trump Marina and Trump Taj Mahal, as well as the Trump Casino in Gary, Indiana, all of which are closed or have been sold to other companies.

A week after going public, Trump Entertainment Resorts used some of the nearly $300 million it raised to resolve many of Trump’s personal debts, according to the Times—after Trump faced mounting debt issues and a turbulent Atlantic City casino market in the preceding five years.

The new company recorded losses ranging between $40 million and $66 million in each of the three years following its IPO, the Times reported, marking a trend that would continue and lead to the company’s 2009 delisting from the Nasdaq amid one of a series of bankruptcies in 2004, 2009 and 2014, according to the Washington Post.

Trump, who owned 40% of the company’s shares at the time of its debut, received more than $44 million in compensation during his time at the company, the Post reported.

Billionaire investor Carl Icahn agreed to buy most of Trump Entertainment Resorts’ bank debt in 2009, took control of the company in 2014 and later helped it become a wholly owned subsidiary of Icahn Enterprises.

FORBES VALUATION 

We estimate Trump’s net worth at $2.6 billion, a figure that resulted in the former president being removed in 2023 from the Forbes 400, which lists the U.S.’s 400 wealthiest billionaires. Only $413 million of Trump’s net worth is made up of cash and liquid assets. Trump’s stake in his social media company is worth an estimated $96 million.

TANGENT  

 

Trump’s current financial troubles now stem from his legal problems, as the businessman has been tasked with paying a $454 million bond by next week in the civil fraud case against him. He also owes writer E. Jean Carroll $88.3 million after he was found civilly liable for sexual abuse and defamation in two separate suits. Trump’s attorneys have told a state appeals court that securing a bond for the full amount is a “practical impossibility” and asked the court to pause the judgment while the case is appealed. However, in a Truth Social post conflicting with his attorneys’, the former president said Friday he personally has $500 million in cash, adding he plans to use “a substantial amount” of the funds for his presidential campaign.

WHAT TO WATCH FOR

Trump’s $3 billion windfall after his media company goes public—based on DWAC’s share price—is unlikely to help him with the deadline to pay the $454 million bond, according to experts, who have noted his inability to liquidate his stake immediately and the possibility that lenders could see it as overvalued. Trump will be prohibited from selling shares in the media company for at least six months, though it’s possible the company board could waive the restrictions if he requests it. If Trump doesn’t pay the bond for his civil fraud judgment or secure a stay on the payment, he may have assets including his Seven Springs estate and the Trump National Golf Club Westchester seized.

KEY BACKGROUND

Years prior to Trump Entertainment Resorts’ IPO, the debt on the former president’s holdings totaled $3.4 billion, according to the Times, which reported Trump’s lenders put him on a $450,000-a-month budget for personal and household expenses. As Trump Entertainment Resorts declined following its IPO, the company continued benefiting Trump’s personal finances. He got a $5 million bonus in 1996, the same year the company stock tanked 70%, the Wall Street Journal reported. Trump’s company faced about $1.8 billion in debt ahead of its 2004 bankruptcy, according to the Washington Post.

    All of his adult life, OT used lawyers and the federal bankruptcy court to welch his debts, and when he needed more help, the Saudis bailed him out three times, and he’s still taking their money. 

     In the face of that, It don’t even make zero sense to me that even one Republican wants OT telling the US Government how to manage its finances- unless it’s to put the US government in a federal bankruptcy court, being run by a Republican judge, which should have been done when the U.S. Government's expenses exceeded its revenues a long, long time ago.

sloanbashinsky@yahoo.com

religious worship in public schools

    Ok, younguns, something about religious freedom in public schools showed up in my email today from Al.com, which used to be The Birmingham News. I typed my thoughts in bold:

Freedom From Religion group complains about Oak Grove’s ‘God, Team, Me’ football motto

Updated: Mar. 20, 2024, 9:46 p.m.|Published: Mar. 20, 2024, 5:47 p.m.

By Greg Garrison | ggarrison@al.com

The Freedom From Religion Foundation has sent a letter of complaint to Oak Grove High School in west Jefferson County, alleging religious coercion on the football team. 

 

The religious motto, “God, Team, Me,” has been posted in the team’s locker room and official team shirts, according to the group’s complaint. 

 

The playoff hoodies in 2023 included a Bible verse, Proverbs 27:17, the group complained.

The article left out the text:

"As iron sharpens iron,
    so one person sharpens another." 

 

The Freedom From Religion group, based in Madison, Wisconsin, sent a letter urging the coach to immediately stop engaging in religious activity or otherwise promoting his personal religious beliefs in his role as a football coach, and for the district to remove the godly motto and make certain that official district apparel no longer includes religious messages or bible verses

“Jefferson County Schools must ensure that this school-sponsored religious coercion ends immediately,” Freedom From Religion Foundation staff attorney Chris Line wrote to Superintendent Walter B. Gonsoulin Jr.

“God team me” and "Iron sharpens iron, as one person sharpens another” look to me like religious boasting, similar to “One nation, under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance. Under God was added to the pledge when I was in elementary school, to promote America a godly country versus communist Soviet Union and Red China.

Coach Chris Musso referred requests for comment to Gonsoulin.

“We have received the letter from the Freedom from Religion Foundation, and we are reviewing it,” said a statement from Superintendent Gonsoulin. “However, the Jefferson County Board of Education is on record as fully supporting the right of its students and all members of the education community to pray and engage in voluntary religious expression in school settings.”

Students have the First Amendment right to be free from religious indoctrination in their public schools, the Freedom From Religion group argues. 

 

“The district must see to it that players are not being required to pray to play or otherwise expected to wear clothing with religious slogans or walk past religious signage,” Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of Freedom From Religion, said. “Religious coercion in sports programs unfortunately is all-too-frequent — and these violations against freedom of conscience need to be curbed.”

 

Amendment I, United States Constitution

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Amendment 14, Section 1 

No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.  

 

“The district must see to it that players are not being required to pray to play or otherwise expected to wear clothing with religious slogans or walk past religious signage,” Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of Freedom From Religion, said. “Religious coercion in sports programs unfortunately is all-too-frequent — and these violations against freedom of conscience need to be curbed. 

The group earlier this year credited itself for having a biblical verse painted on the side of a dugout removed by the Mobile County School System.

In 2023, the group criticized Auburn University for an event which featured head football coach Hugh Freeze and other prominent Auburn figures baptizing students.

This former Birmingham, Alabama practicing attorney, who grew up in a church-going family, then moved on to not knowing when he ever is not in church, doesn’t see how an outfit in Wisconsin has any standing to challenge anything that happens anywhere in Alabama, which does not directly affect Wisconsin, unless that outfit has been hired by the parents of a child in an Alabama school, who object to their child been subjected to religious proselytizing in the school. 

Even if The Freedom From Religion Group was headquartered in Alabama, I don’t see any way the State of Alabama, though its public schools, could forbid voluntary religious expression by students- if that’s as far as this goes.

However, if public school boards, superintendents, principals, teachers and/or coaches encourage or proselytize a religion on public school property, they become priests and create a church on school property, which is not part of their job description and crosses a line Amendment 1 does not allow.

While the Oak Grove school officials and its football coach and team bask in Amendment 1, they might wish to give serious consideration to what the most famous Jew in world history said about public worship:

Matthew 6:1–34

Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. 2 Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have  received their reward. 3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. 5 And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 6 But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. 7 And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. 9 Pray then like this: 

“Our Father in heaven, 

hallowed be your name.

10 Your kingdom come, 

your will be done,

on earth as it is in heaven.

11  Give us this day our daily bread,

12  and forgive us our debts, 

as we also have forgiven our debtors.

13  And lead us not into temptation, 

but deliver us from evil. 

13  And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. 

14 For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, 15 but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

    

    When I attended Crestline Heights Elementary School in Mountain Brook, Alabama, during weekly convocations led by school officials, the students, including the Jewish students, were required to recite the Lord’s Prayer out loud. Sometime we all sang it.

    I read once upon a time that the chief author of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson, and one of its signers, James Madison, the chief author of the Bill of Rights and thus of the First Amendment, led the charge to stop another signer of the Declaration, Patrick Henry, the Governor of Virginia, from getting the Virginia legislature to make Christianity the Virginia state religion. 

    I read another time that Thomas Jefferson so admired Jesus in the Gospels that he cut many pages out of the New Testament about what Jesus said and did and pasted them into a book that became known as The Jefferson Bible.

    The Declaration of Independence contains four references to Deity, from which it draws its authority, and none of those references resemble Christian lingo.

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions

And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence.

     Religions mean well, but they tend to get twisted and tangled and even lost, as history has proven time and time again.

        The Gospels say Jesus did not baptize in water, but in fire and spirit he lived and baptized others.

    I imagine if Jesus in the Gospels were to show up in Alabama today and talk and behave as he did in the Gospels, he would be crucified by Alabama Christians.

    I closing, younguns, I leave you with something that fell out of me in the spring of 1994 as fast as I could write it down:

“Sacred Prism” 

Earth, 

The sacred prism 

through which souls are refracted 

into their elemental parts, 

Purified in Holy Fire, 

Then one-forged 

and sent on their way 

to not even God knows where, 

Simply because they are all 

Unique Emanations of God, 

Evolving . . .

sloanbashinsky@yahoo.com