Motley Moose – Archive

Remember Hobby Lobby?  That corporate use of personal religious freedom to make decisions about employees’ benefits?  

Guess what?  Did anyone really think that decision would stay put and never been seen again?  Because Wheaton College decision came out 3 days later?  But still, maybe, just maybe it could have been buried.  

But wait!  The Fundamentalist LDS, have decided not to pay kids to harvest pecans.  The Department of Labor is investigating labor violations.  FLDS leaders claim they do not have to testify because “religious freedom.”  

So I wonder what else the FLDS have religious freedom for?  Perhaps child sex assault?  Do we need to let Warren Jeffs out of prison because of “religious freedom”?

Do Lutherans have the same protection?  How about followers of the Flying Spaghetti Monster?

Judge David Sam is in a federal court, and overruled another judge who was a magistrate.  I am not a lawyer and welcome the help of lawyers to explain this better.  It just seems to be that “religious freedom” just became a huge legal reason to not do anything you didn’t feel like doing.  

Ironically, the judge deciding the case chose to not investigate the religious beliefs:  

“It is not for the Court to “inquir[e] into the theological merit of the belief in question,” Sam wrote, citing the Hobby Lobby decision.  “The determination of what is a ‘religious’ belief or practice is more often than not a difficult and delicate task …. However, the resolution of that question is not to turn upon a judicial perception of the particular belief or practice in question; religious beliefs need not be acceptable, logical, consistent, or comprehensible to others in order to merit First Amendment protection.”

Ben Winslow for Fox-13

I think that any religious group could have cited Hobby Lobby in any variety of cases, and it is just luck that it happened here first. This is not limited to the FLDS.  And please remember, this is not an opportunity for you to bash the LDS.  If you need to do that, please write your own diary.  

Please do not use this diary for LDS or Mormon bashing.  

Photo Credit: Victor Hugo Pinilla-Coxe (my friend)

I moved to Utah 27 years ago, end of May 1987.  I already knew a few LGBTQ people, mostly from college and campus ministry, and a couple in my small home town.  AIDS was still kind of new, and scary.  My church has long welcomed everyone, and I had friends: they were a lesbian couple with two adopted children.  

Equal marriage was a fantasy, barely on the radar.  Mostly, I wanted my friends to be safe, and able to have jobs & places to live.  I moved away, back, away again, and finally back 16.5 years ago.  

On Friday afternoon, District Court Judge Robert Shelby released his ruling stating that the Utah ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional.

The response was … people getting married!!

And for the State of Utah to ask for a stay, for the governor to tell the counties to wait before complying with federal law (!), and for the County of Salt Lake to promise to issue marriage licenses until the court tells them to stop.

Today at 8am MST, in Salt Lake City, the county clerks office will re-open and more marriages will take place.

At 9am MST, Judge Shelby will hear arguments on whether or not to grant a stay heard arguments and denied the stay.

UPDATE: Tuesday evening 10th Circuit Court of Appeals Denies Utah’s Stay Request

 The state can ask the Circuit Justice for the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals to review an application for a stay. The Circuit Justice there is Justice Sotomayor. She can decide to grant or deny a stay on her own, or ask the full Court to decide.

We continue to wait and watch … one step closer.

TV news links: KUTV 2, Fox13Now

Utah is one of the remaining states still “undecided” about Medicaid Expansion.  Utahns For Medicaid Expansion,  chaired by a doctor in private practice (Ray Ward) has taken on the task of organizing us to support Medicaid Expansion despite our do-as-little-as-possible governor and totally useless legislature.  

Jackie Robinson with his son David at the March on Washington for Jobs & Freedom, August 28, 1963. Photo credit from @BeschlossDC .

This is your Sunday night news.  Look for more news in MOTs and any open threads from JanF.  

FEATURED STUFF

Mandela Day

 Following the success of Nelson Mandela’s 90th birthday celebrations in London’s Hyde Park in June 2008, it was decided that there could be nothing more fitting than to celebrate Mr Mandela’s birthday each year with a day dedicated to his life’s work and that of his charitable organisations, and to ensure his legacy continues forever.

The Mandela Day campaign message is simple: Mr Mandela gave 67 years of his life fighting for the rights of humanity. All we are asking is that everyone gives 67 minutes of their time, whether it’s supporting your chosen charity or serving your local community.

Mandela Day is a call to action for individuals – for people everywhere – to take responsibility for changing the world into a better place, one small step at a time, just as Mr Mandela did.

Sometime this week, please spend 67 minutes doing something for a neighbor.  

Diary title refers to this parable from Jesus:

25 On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

26 “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”

27 He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'[a]; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.'[b]”

28 “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”

29 But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

30 In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. 31 A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32 So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two denarii[c] and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’

36 “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”

37 The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”

Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”

Notes:  v. 27 is found in the Hebrew scriptures of Leviticus and Deuteronomy.  

It’s easy to be a news junkie.  Refresh, look at other sites, look at twitter, Facebook, blogs, etc.  After this week, I wanted to share this passage.  And with Mandela Day coming this week, I wanted to ask all of you to be a neighbor.  Whatever that means to you.  

Hawaiian Sunset.  Very likely Kam3 beach, Maui.  

   I tend to look at newspapers’ web sites around the world and country.  I especially look for not the headline, but a separate aspect of the story.  And I love followups.  

Any thoughts on news?  

(last year)

Declaration of Independence

A few protestors in Egypt, photo credit here.  

Massive Protests Hit Egypt

MATT BRADLEY And REEM ABDELLATIF, Wall Street Journal

Egyptians took to the streets on Sunday for nationwide protests against President Mohammed Morsi, presenting a massive popular opposition that rivaled the size of demonstrations that toppled President Hosni Mubarak more than two years ago.

By early evening, legions of protesters had crowded into Cairo’s Tahrir Square and filled several city blocks in front of Ittihadiya Palace, the president’s main residence, demanding that Mr. Morsi step down and call early elections.

In most protest areas, the atmosphere was ebullient. Families walked with children in tow, some with their faces painted, munching on snacks and waving Egyptian flags. Passing motorists honked their horns, lending a festival aspect to the marches despite weeks of concern over the potential for violence.

H/T to @hrana – This is only the smallest slice of news about a very large event.  Some of the tweets look grim.  

I had some open tabs.  Now I am sharing.  

Please comment, share, and enjoy.  

This monument to Nelson Mandela is by Marco Cianfanelli.

Award for Courage in Editorial Cartooning for 2013

CCRI announcement

Mr. Joel Pett, President of the Board of Directors of the Cartoonists Rights Network International announces that the recipient of the Award for Courage in Editorial Cartooning for 2013 is Syrian cartoonist Akram Raslan.

Mr. Raslan was arrested by Syrian authorities at the offices of his newspaper, Al-Fida in the city of Hama, Syria approximately 6 months ago.  He has been held incommunicado since then.  A reliable source reports that he has been tortured and abused, deprived of any legal counsel, and is now to be put on trial in a special court that has been created for enemies of the state.

CRNI gives Akram Aslan our annual Award for Courage in Editorial Cartooning in recognition of his extraordinary courage in confronting the forces of violence with cartoons that told only the truth.

The cartoonists are coming!  The cartoonists are coming to my town!  

AAEC 2013 Convention  The Association of American Editorial Cartoonists

Pat Bagley: Editorial Cartoonists Convention On his process, the convention and cartooning in Utah

City Weekly; Rachel Piper

Brace for scrutiny, Salt Lakers: The Association of American Editorial Cartoonists is holding its 2013 convention here at the end of the month (June 27-29, EditorialCartoonists.com).

You’ve been on hiatus from your daily cartoon in preparation for the conference. Is it odd?

I was listening to the radio on the way over, and I heard something about Nelson Mandela. And I was thinking, “If he dies, and I’m not there to do a cartoon about it, that would be bad.” There are things that could bring me to do another cartoon.

What’s your process for generating a cartoon every day since 1979?

As you go through life, you stash away information-whatever you read, whatever you watch on television, what you see in the movies, it’s just more material that goes in your attic. The messier your attic is, the more material you’ve got to go through. You think about this and that, and you can maybe make some odd connections. But it’s hard to say what makes that connection. All I can say is, expose yourself to a lot of stuff, intellectually. I like history, and I read a lot, and I think that helps.

I do it all kinds of ways. Sometimes I just want to draw a dinosaur that day, and I’ll doodle until I come up with a caption.

Has there ever been a day when you’re just like, “I got nothin.”?

Oh God, yeah. It’s only happened four times in the 30, 40 years I’ve been there. You can always do a bad cartoon.