A former Mississippi political candidate is facing criminal charges after a bedazzled statue of Baphomet, a figure associated with the Satanic Temple, was discovered decapitated at the Iowa State Capitol.
Michael Cassidy, 35, a former U.S. Navy pilot, told Fox News that he saw the controversy surrounding the display, which was heavily criticized by Republican politicians like Ron DeSantis, and drove to the Iowa Capitol to see it for himself. He said it hit a “nerve” and went on to destroy it.
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According to an archived version of his campaign website, Cassidy pushed for a 10-year prison sentence for anyone who destroys a statue in his own state.
Why is he not being charged under Iowa’s hate crime laws?
I would like to see this, although I wonder if the correct answer is that religion is not a protected group. If religion is a protected group, this is a hate crime.
Come now, we both know Christians would just then cry that non-belief isn’t a religion.
In fact, I’m pretty sure I remember hearing that come up in the past… They’re using motivated reasoning. They want a specific outcome, not a set of principles applied.
Sucks for them. They apparently haven’t heard of Title VII of the Civil rights act.
"Religious beliefs include theistic beliefs (i.e. those that include a belief in God) as well as non-theistic “moral or ethical beliefs as to what is right and wrong which are sincerely held with the strength of traditional religious views.”
“Religious observances or practices include, for example, attending worship services, praying, wearing religious garb or symbols, displaying religious objects, adhering to certain dietary rules, proselytizing or other forms of religious expression, or refraining from certain activities.”
Those quotes are from the US customs and border protection website here. Straight from the horses mouth.
I understand though what we need to realize is that this isn’t simply “non-belief”. Satanic temple members have strongly held beliefs as part of the core tenants of satanism. It’s a non-superstitious religion. It’s just as valid a religion as christianity or islam.
I agree with you, I’m just pointing out that the Christians are not using logic or reasoning despite using words that might convince you otherwise.
I can’t argue with that.
But it isn’t a non-belief. I wholeheartedly believe they’re wrong.
I don’t know the right answer. Religious persecution is a real thing and has caused the deaths of countless people across the years that humans have existed. BUT Christians aren’t being persecuted in America (at the moment at least) and have an undo influence on the levers of power. I feel like a good thing to do would be to give the IRS teeth and and have individual Churches or Church organizations that violate the terms of their non profit status actually lose it and have to pay taxes on the huge amount of wealth they own (mostly land but I am sure other shit).
Yes, all churches need to pay taxes.
See, the thing about charity work is, it’s tax deductible!
Because Iowa is still under a Christian stranglehold behind the scenes.
Iowa used to be purple, it’s since turned into a red shithole. You got a few bright spots in Des Moines and Iowa city, but the rest of the state is rednecks and meth heads.
feels true about every state these days…
That’s 'cause it is. There is no such thing as “red states” and “blue states;” there are only states that are a slightly higher percentage rural or slightly higher percentage urban.
Haven’t looked it up, but I’d be shocked if there is a single state where rural outnumbered urban.
I didn’t mean to suggest “outnumbered;” I meant to say that the urban/rural percentages are slightly different between states and that that’s what makes the difference in ideology.
More concretely, it isn’t that Southerners are worse than anybody else; it’s that rural folks everywhere are equally terrible. Urban southerners are just as cosmopolitan as northern ones and rural folks from (for example) Oregon are just as backwards and racist as rural folks from Georgia. The only thing that makes Oregon a “blue state” and Georgia a “red state” is that metropolitan Portland etc. make up a slightly higher percentage of Oregon’s total population than metropolitan Atlanta etc. make up of Georgia’s.
Off the top of my head, I bet Montana fits the bill. Maybe one or both of the Dakotas too
Yep. Otherwise who’s to say a random cross somewhere doesn’t ‘strike a nerve’ precedent of him getting away w it just leads to chaos.