We need an atheist on Supreme Court

By Ken Tingley

If you haven’t been to church lately, you are not alone.

Gallup’s last poll in 2020 found that just 47 percent of Americans said they belonged to a church, synagogue or mosque. That number was 73 percent at its peak in 1908, and held steady at close to 70 percent into the late 1990s.

But over the last 20 years, church membership has spiraled downward.

If you are a “none” - the answer you give when Gallup queries you on your religious affiliation - you are now part of a growing majority. But what is so perplexing is that religious organizations and their beliefs seem to have even greater sway politically over the past 20 years.

Perhaps what we need on the Supreme Court is an atheist, or at least a good old-fashioned agnostic or two to balance the religious beliefs of the others.

Amy Coney Barrett is a devout Catholic who went to an all girls Catholic High School and was part of a a tight-knit religious community called the “People of Praise.” Yet, she did not recuse herself from a couple of recent Supreme Court cases regarding religion. None of the justices did.

In one case, the court held that a football coach could make a grand display of his post game prayer on the 50-yard-line even if it made some of his players uncomfortable.

The second case held that the state of Maine had to fund more faith-based private schools. I just hope they are not teaching creationism with taxpayer money.

You have to wonder if the Scopes Monkey Trial would have a similar result today and one of the next books to be banned will be “On the Origin of Species” by that Darwin quack.

What ever happened to separation of church and state anyway?

While we all should be aware that our country was founded by groups of people seeking the right to practice the religion of their choice, we should also be allowed to not practice the religion of our choice. After all, the “nones” are now in the majority.

Perhaps at its heart, the recent Supreme Court decision on abortion is really about religion and when “God” decides life begins.

Unless of course you don’t really believe in God, or perhaps you believe God has more important things to do - When is she going to take care of the Mideast situation or allow the Mets another World Championship for instance? - to be worrying about the miracle of fertilization.

We hear a lot from religious groups about life being precious and sacred, yet it doesn’t apply to any of those nasty caterpillars we just had to deal with this year. If a snake crosses their path, or they have a shot at a big buck, well, the miracle of life is not as important in the wild kingdom.

And don’t get me started on capital punishment.

An article in The Atlantic magazine from last year offers the theory that our new religion is politics. After all, we certainly have heard a lot about “witch hunts” over the past few years. I was certain it would be NFL football.

But then again, the Supreme Court just ruled in Kennedy vs Bremerton School District that a coach could pray as long and as spectacularly as any of his players’ touchdown dances. One player worried that if he didn’t pray alongside the coach, his playing time might be cut.

And there lies the problem.

When you drag religion into the middle of things, there is pressure to conform.

At a recent memorial service, there was a moment for prayer. I bowed like everyone else, but I confess I wasn’t in the mood for prayer, although I might have prayed for the speaker to hurry up and get to the point so we all could get to lunch.

It seems like they are reciting the Pledge of Allegiance at more and more public meetings and do the Yankees really have to play “God Bless America” during the seventh- inning stretch instead of “Take me Out to the Ballgame?” The best part about my recent trip to Fenway Park was when they played “Sweet Caroline” during the seventh-inning stretch. I was disappointed when the game started again. I wanted to hear the rest of the Neil Diamond song.

Once, when I was in Tennessee, a college-aged part-timer who worked with me in sports exclaimed to me that he didn’t drink because he was a christian.

I responded that I was a christian, too, but I drank like a fish. It seems to me there was a ton of wine being drunk in the Bible.

I may have been playing into my reputation as the bad boy from up north, but the point was that whether I was christian or not was not going to have much of an impact on whether I made deadline that night, and it definitely should not be part of my job description.

It makes me wonder if President Biden should indeed pack the court with a couple more judges. Not with liberal justices ,but with atheists and agnostics who will base their decisions on law and science.

Women’s rights march

There is going to be a women’s rights march in Crandall Park on Saturday, July 23.

The press release says in part,  “We are in extreme outrage over the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. So for the sake of the past, present and future women of this country we will make our voices heard. This is a call to all men, women and children to join us in showing the GOP that we will not go down without a fight.”

I suspect there are a lot of Republicans out there who disagree with the decision as well. It would be nice to see some of those people show up, too.

Inflation

After being on the road for a couple weeks, I was encouraged to return home and find that gas prices were a little lower and the price of meat, fish and chicken seemed to have dropped at the supermarket.

Perhaps, I was being hopeful since the inflation report this week said prices were 9 percent higher than last year at this time. I think it would be more helpful to tell us if prices were continuing to go up compared to last month.

Attack on guns

A reader sent me an email and lamented that politicians are continuously trying to take away guns.

I countered that I believed guns are readily available to just about all citizens. I argued that what I wanted was a mandatory gun safety course before anyone takes possession of a firearm.

Tweet of the Day

Rex Chapman🏇🏼 @RexChapman

Meanwhile, in Finland…🤣🤣 https://t.co/x14sQ67dg3

Daniel Holland🎗🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 ॐ @DannyDutch

There’s a Baseball field in Finland that has a river camera. The results are what I’d expect. https://t.co/XP5H4Fyzja