Blog Against Theocracy 2008: More assaults on church-state separation in Florida

Since Blog Against Theocracy has been extended through this week, the latest news from Florida on the subject of the separation of church and state is eminently apropos ... and really frightening, too.

Truly, America's Wang™ is a thoroughly fucked up state. Our schools are falling apart, both literally and figuratively; our community colleges and universities are facing unprecedented budget cuts; teachers, professors, and administrators alike all are concerned about layoffs; and our legislature, in its inimitable wisdom, is occupying itself with yet another batshit-crazy-fundie-led attempt to turn Florida, already a de facto theocracy in many ways, into an officially sanctioned one.

At a time when president-elect of the Florida School Boards Association Beverly Slough hasn't even had time in the last month to read the book I sent her due to what she has told me is the financial crisis facing Florida and its schools, you would think that the state legislature would be falling all over itself trying to find ways to make sure money got to where it really needed to go — to the [state's] failing universities and public school system.

You would be terribly wrong.

In fact, [a committee] of the state legislature's Taxation and Budget Reform Commission [(TBRC)] have a very different idea about where money should go. They're trying to get Committee Proposal 20 (CP0020) [(.pdf)] on the ballot in November at which time it could be placed by popular vote into the state constitution. What, you might ask, does this proposal do? According to the Committee's website, it's:

A resolution proposing an amendment to Section 3 of Article I of the State Constitution to repeal a limit on the use of public revenues in aid of religious organizations and entities, and to prohibit individuals and entities from being barred from participating in public programs because of their religion.

Who needs schools when you can have churches instead? Why not just hand over tax revenues to religious organizations with no limits at all?

The committee would have you believe that there are heathen atheists blocking the doors of public facilities and keeping people out of programs and activities purely on the basis of their faith (pretty much only Christian faith, I might add). Needless to say, this isn't the case. And yet, the fundies who have slithered their way into leadership positions throughout Florida's government, thanks to the insane machinations of their Chief Standard Bearer and Ass Kisser, Jeb! Bush, continue chipping away at the sacrosanct walls that separate religion from government.

Folks, this proposal is openly and unabashedly designed to funnel state monies to religious organizations, in violation of Florida's Constitution, the United States Constitution, and every responsible and sensible theory of American government ever advanced. But because the state is run by batshit crazy fundies, you just never know ... if the full Commission ends up putting the proposal on November's ballot -- something they are empowered to do and will decide tomorrow -- we could be voting on this at the same time we're voting on the reprehensible anti-gay marriage amendment. It's not going to be an election -- it's turning into a fucking revival.

One of the members of the TBRC committee pushing this proposal is one Patricia Levesque. Now, why does that name sound familiar to me? Hmmm ...

Oh, yes, now I remember. Levesque is the director of Jeb! Bush's Foundation for Florida's Future, the hyper-right-wing group that, among other things, advocates extreme politicization of the higher education system in Florida and, unsurprisingly, wants to Christianize our schools. Yeah, I really trust that committee to do what's best for the state. Right. [/snark]

This shit has to stop, now, before it's too late. If it passes, as the Palm Beach Post pointed out today,

Separation of church and state in the U.S. Constitution still would apply. But if the state charter is weakened, the Florida Legislature - which approved vouchers for religious schools with no meaningful oversight and intervened on religious grounds in the Terri Schiavo case - likely would fall all over itself to "outsource" services to religious groups. Only years of lawsuits would get things back on the right side of the church-state line.

The committee also has a proposal to give people "freedom to choose among public and private providers of public services." Obviously another thinly veiled attempt to legalize government support of religious institutions. They aren't even hiding this shit anymore.

Let's see what the TBRC does tomorrow. But I've had it up to here with the Christianist hate-mongers trying to shove their faith down everyone's throats. This fall, the election is about much more than who will be president. It's about marginalizing the rabid Religious Right once and for all -- for nothing less than the survival of America.

(h/t Interrobang)