HEATHEN OF THE CORN
Punching Down in the Iowa Statehouse
Here it is folks. A group of Republicans in the Iowa House just filed HF 2164, a bill to remove gender identity as a protected class under the Iowa Civil Rights Act of 1965. If this bill passes, it will once again be legal in Iowa to discriminate against LGBTQ people in matters of public accommodations, employment, apprenticeship and on-the-job training programs, vocational schools, career and technical education programs, and housing.
The sponsors of this bill are: Tedd Gassman, Dean Fisher, Anne Osmundson, Terry Baxter, Thomas Gerhold, Phil Thompson, Tom Jeneary, Skyler Wheeler, and Sandy Salmon. I want you to know who is to blame for this travesty of a bill. All of them are Conservative Christians. I guess nothing says “Jesus loves you” like stripping persecuted groups of their basic human rights and kicking them when they are down.
If I see any of these folks walking towards me on a sidewalk, I will happily fart in their general direction. I don’t understand how they can sleep at night.
By Robert Cook
Activism Chair
HF 2130: Grey Poupon
Evangelical Christians do like themselves their sweet, sweet privilege.
Anybody remember that old Grey Poupon commercial? I think it first aired in the early ‘80s. A billionaire in the back seat of a Rolls Royce is is out for a ride, enjoying a $1000 steak on a silver platter. Another wealthy fellow pulls up next to him in a6 Mercedes Benz. He rolls down the window and asks, “ Pardon me, do you have any Grey Poupon?” The first fellow responds with a smirk, “Of course,” waving at his chauffeur to drive on, leaving the other poor bloke sad and despondent, without any glorious Grey Poupon.
I only mention this because our old friend State Representative Sandy Salmon just filed another fun bill. HF 2130, if passed, would modify the Iowa Civil Rights Act of 1965. The bill defines “bona fide religious purpose” to mean
any lawful purpose that furthers a sincerely held religious belief, whether or not compelled by, or central to, a system of religious belief, and without regard to the correctness, validity, or plausibility of the religious belief.
The Civil Rights Act already allows religious institutions broad exceptions to The Act, allowing churches to discriminate freely against anyone they want. HF 2130 simply makes it explicit in the law that no standard of correctness, validity, or plausibility can ever be applied to any sincerely held religious belief in order to limit a “religious purpose.”
The bill continues,
The term shall be interpreted broadly, with any and all ambiguities resolved in favor of the bona fide religious institution professing the religious belief.
So if this bill passes, any time a religious institution violates the rights of blacks, gays, atheists, etc., the conflict will, by law be reconciled in favor of the religious institution.
Sandy Salmon is the pompous blue blood in the Rolls Royce, and her religious privilege is Grey Poupon.
I guess I’m losing my taste for overpriced condiments.
by Robert Cook
Activism Chair
Iowa Republicans Plan to Constitutionally Restrict Abortion
I’m a few days late on this one. Republicans in the Iowa Senate recently filed Senate Joint Resolution 2001, a bill that a would amend the Iowa State Constitution in a way that would ultimately lead to a complete abortion ban in Iowa. The goal is to make any future abortion restrictions immune from challenges in the State Courts .
The proposed amendment reads:
To defend the dignity of all human life, and to protect mothers and unborn children from efforts to expand abortion even to the day of birth, we the people of the State of Iowa declare that this Constitution shall not be construed to recognize, grant, or secure a right to abortion or to require the public funding of abortion.
SJR has already been voted out of the Senate State Government Committee and now awaits debate before the full Senate.
This is the first step in a lengthy, multi-year process. It requires approval by two separately elected General Assemblies and then win a majority of votes in a statewide ballot. So if it passes both houses this session, it must do so again in 2021 or 2022 before it can be voted on by the citizens of Iowa. The earliest it could reach a statewide ballot is 2022.
This is a grave threat to womens’ reproductive rights and there is little that the Democrats can do this session to stop its passage.
Elections have consequences. You know what to do folks.
By Robert Cook
Activism Chair
Seven Days Left Until the Caucuses...
That means Iowa has seven more days to basque in the white hot light of media attention at the center of the American political universe; seven more days to birddog presidential candidates as they crisscross the state in their final push to win the Iowa’s electoral votes; seven more days for atheists, freethinkers, and humanists to make our voices heard.
On Tuesday, February 4, the hordes of journalists, talking heads, and TV cameras will slip away, not to be seen again until 2023.
That’s still seven more days than most other states in the country get.
So let’s take advantage of every minute of every day that we have left before the caucuses to protect the separation of church and state, fight creeping theocracy in America, and preserve religious freedom for secular and minority Americans.
Here are five things IAF members can do in the next week to tap into the media attention for the secular issues that matter to us.
There are still dozens of campaign events all across Iowa. You can easily find them all at the Des Moines Register’s Caucuses Candidate Tracker. Go to the event nearest you and ask that candidate — whoever it is — a question. “I’m an atheist. What will you do to earn my vote?” “What will you do to preserve the separation of church and state in America?” Or come up with one of your own. I’ll give you extra points for recording your questions and posting them on social media. Use #AtheistVoter on every video you post. Also, send it to me. I’ll put it up here on Heathens of the Corn.
Check out the Atheist Voter page at American Atheists. It is a treasure trove of information about secular issues, presidential candidates, and other actions you can take to magnify the voices of atheists and freethinkers.
Write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper. Concentrate on one issue. Make it short, sweet, and to the point.
Talk to your friends. Find out who are planning to caucus and who are not. Every time you find someone in that latter group, persuade them to change their minds. Twist their arms. Shame into going to the caucuses. Whatever it takes. (Okay, there are legitimate reasons why some people can’t attend the caucuses. We should probably cut them some slack. Everybody else needs to go. The stakes are too high for anyone to pretend their voice doesn’t matter.)
GO TO YOUR CAUCUS.
Atheists and nonbelievers in America can no longer afford to be complacent. Evangelical Christians have organized effectively for the last forty years. They have honed their tactics to a razor sharp edge and use them to promote theocracy every chance they get despite their shrinking population.
We need to take advantage of our growing numbers and do the same.
Get active. Ask questions. Raise your voices. Caucus on February 3. Most importantly, VOTE. Protect your freedom of religion the way America's founding fathers intended when they wrote our godless Constitution.
[Edited to include more things you can do.]
By Robert Cook
Activism Chair
Why Does Sandy Salmon Hate Social Studies?
Sandy Salmon, Republican State Representative from Blackhawk County, just filed a peculiar bill at the Statehouse. HF 2072 would prohibit the adoption of statewide core Social Studies standards by the Board of Education.
This bill prohibits the state board of education from adopting, and the department of education from authorizing or requiring, statewide core social studies standards for kindergarten through grade 12.
Not science, math, literature, or anything else. Just Social Studies. I find that more than a little odd.
The core standards at every grade level have a few threads in common. They concentrate heavily on teaching how to use reason, standards of evidence, and accurate facts from primary sources to analyze social and historical claims.
Sandy Salmon is a hard right conservative, creationist, and Christian Nationalist. She believes that the Founding Fathers were all evangelical Christians, just like her. She believes that America was founded as a Christian nation based on Christian principles, requiring Christian solutions to governmental problems.
I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest that Salmon’s religious beliefs color her perspectives on American political institutions, society, economics, and history. Her Christian nationalism is impervious to reason, standards of evidence, and accurate facts. She doesn’t understand that America was never a Christian nation — except in the trivial sense that a majority of citizens are Christian. She doesn’t understand that our Constitution explicitly conflicts with Christian principles. She doesn’t understand that true freedom of religion means that no religious beliefs deserve special privileges or government support.
Sandy Salmon doesn’t understand any of it and doesn’t want anyone else to understand it either. HF 2072 if passed would effectively gut history and civics education classes in our public schools.
I give it 50/50 odds of passing this legislative session.
(Shameless plug: Go buy “The Founding Myth”, by Andrew Seidel. It explains the history of Christian Nationalism and its current threat to our government and Constitution in clear, compelling, thorough detail. Read it, then come hear Andrew speak about it this upcoming Monday, January 29, 6-8 PM at the Ohmstead Center Sussman Theater at Drake University.)
By Robert Cook
Activism Chair