Religious Exemptions: News Miner 63
Abortion insurance, Moloch, Republican failures, Boebert's cover, socialist teachers, and more.
I hope you also caught my brief essay “Sustainable Progress” over at Self in Society, about climate change and the robots (not) taking our jobs. Sign up now to get my next Roundup.
The Problem with Religious Exemptions
Complete Colorado published my article, “Governor Polis attacks freedoms with Senate Bill 189.” The article focuses on the problem with religious exemptions:
[T]he law requires state bureaucrats and perhaps judges to pretend to read minds in order to determine which “religious beliefs” are “sincerely held” and which are not. . . .
Even worse, the law straightforwardly violates the rights of non-religious people and of religious people who have non-religious reasons to reject the mandates [for many employers to provide health coverage for abortion]. By giving preference specifically to religious beliefs—which I take to be beliefs rooted in supernaturalism—the law denigrates non-religious beliefs. Thus, the law violates both the right to freedom of conscience and the right to equal protection under the law of people with such relevant non-religious beliefs. . . .
I also discuss why government ought not meddle in the terms of health insurance and why the government-created system of employer-provided health insurance is stupid.
Read the entire piece.
More on Religious Exemptions
Here’s what the Colorado Constitution says about religious freedom generally (Article II, Section 4):
The free exercise and enjoyment of religious profession and worship, without discrimination, shall forever hereafter be guaranteed; and no person shall be denied any civil or political right, privilege or capacity, on account of his opinions concerning religion; but the liberty of conscience hereby secured shall not be construed to dispense with oaths or affirmations, excuse acts of licentiousness or justify practices inconsistent with the good order, peace or safety of the state. No person shall be required to attend or support any ministry or place of worship, religious sect or denomination against his consent. Nor shall any preference be given by law to any religious denomination or mode of worship.
Bill 189 straightforwardly violates this provision.
What about the law pertaining to immunizations? It does not just allow an exemption based on religious beliefs:
An infant shall be exempted from receiving the required immunizations . . . upon submitting a statement signed by one parent or guardian that such parent or guardian adheres to a religious belief whose teachings are opposed to immunizations, or that such parent or guardian has a personal belief that is opposed to immunization.
This law would have the same effect with the bit about “religious belief” deleted.
Of course religious conservatives oppose Bill 189 on completely different grounds; they think abortion per se is immoral. Krista Kafer writes:
Senate Bill 189 will force employers to purchase health insurance policies that cover abortion up to birth without copays in violation of the Colorado Constitution which states no public funds may be used directly or indirectly for abortion unless to save the life of the mother with every reasonable effort made to preserve her life and the life of her child. Under SB 189, public funds will be used directly to enforce the abortion mandate and indirectly to force taxpayers to subsidize abortion through their insurance premiums.
The bill does not protect employees who consider themselves pro-choice but do not want to pay for abortion or employees who are pro-life. The bill has a narrow exception for employers with sincerely held religious beliefs opposed to abortion but leaves these employers open to lawsuits if they do not provide abortion coverage. . . .
My individual plan does not cover elective abortions. If this should change, I would have no choice but to violate my conscience or go without health insurance. That’s not a choice anyone should have to make.
The bill does not protect employees who consider themselves pro-choice but do not want to pay for abortion or employees who are pro-life. The bill has a narrow exception for employers with sincerely held religious beliefs opposed to abortion but leaves these employers open to lawsuits if they do not provide abortion coverage.
Republican Crazy
Colorado Republicans are super serious about helping to govern the state, as you can tell from recent public comments by Rep. Richard Holtorf:
May God bless all of us here for those that are carrying the cross for Christ, those that are here trying to promote our biblical teachings, trying to fight the good fight on this earth against evil, and I will tell you that there is evil in this building. There are bad things that are happening in this building, and for that, I’m glad you’re here to pray and call us all to prayer to help and have God, and the Son of God, Jesus, help and come into our lives and help us do what is righteous and right for our communities and for our state.
And here’s what former candidate for governor (who lost the primary) Greg Lopez prayed:
Father God, there is a spiritual darkness that is roaming free within the Capitol walls that is deceiving our brothers and sisters in believing that abortion, child mutilation surgery, and the sexualization of our children is acceptable in your eyes. I pray that you give our brothers and sisters the spiritual strength and wisdom to fight against the dark Trinity—Baal, Ishtar and Moloch. I pray that you remove the darkness from this building so that through your grace and mercy, hearts of stone will be turned into hearts of flesh. I pray that under your guidance, they will bring your presence back into the public square, back into the aspect of society, and back in the hearts and minds of our children.
You can tell someone is a Very Serious Person when they bring Moloch into the conversation.
Read Heidi Beedle’s entire write-up of the event in question.
In related news . . .
Surprisingly, Yemi Mobolade beat solid Republican candidate (and former Secretary of State) Wayne Williams. The Republican brand in Colorado is garbage. Heidi Beedle reports on the Republican take. See also Dick Wadhams’s criticisms of the El Paso Republicans.
Meanwhile . . . “Colorado GOP paid no staff in April while fundraising lags under chairman Dave Williams.”
Boebert (Sigh)
One of Lauren Boebert’s sons called the emergency line claiming his father was “throwing” him “around the house,” but then backed off of that claim. I’m sure police handled this call from the home of a sitting member of Congress just the same way they’d handle the call from anyone else.
In other news, the Boeberts are getting divorced.
So, when I saw a purported cover of Boebert’s new book featuring her apparently happy family, I thought it must have been a joke. But, nope, I checked on Amazon, and that was the image presented there.
More on Socialist Teachers
In an article and follow-up post, I explained how the Colorado Education Association passed an anti-capitalist resolution.
Colorado Politics finally got a statement from the CEA about the resolution:
In a statement, Amie Baca-Oehlert, president of the Colorado Education Association, described the resolution as “related to economic disparities that some of our students, public schools, and communities face and that many educators deal with every day.”
“Anti-public school forces have intentionally seized on this one resolution to distract us from the real issues facing our students,” she said, adding that “political opponents who want to defund public schools are now attacking CEA.”
“This is a space where elected member educators adopt resolutions—belief statements for the organization—similar to election year Republican or Democratic party platforms,” Baca-Oehlert said of the union’s 97th Annual Delegate Assembly. “Recognizing that our members reflect our state’s diverse views and perspectives, these resolutions reflect our members’ aspirations in our collective endeavor to create a safer and more equitable world for Colorado’s students, educators, and communities, and do not require any action from the organization.”
Baca-Oehlert added that the resolutions adopted at the union’s meeting focused on school safety, mental health support, collective bargaining, and academic standards. She said the Colorado Education Association and its members are “committed to delivering an exceptional public education to every child regardless of where they live, what they look like, or how much their families earn.”
Baca-Oehlert’s gobbledygook completely fails to further explain the meaning of the resolution or to try to justify it. Baca-Oehlert tries to pretend that, in passing this obviously ideological resolution, the CEA actually is concerned with educational outcomes. And Baca-Oehlert tries to demonize critics of the resolution rather than address the resolution itself. Anyway, critics of the resolution include strong supporters of public schools, including our Democratic governor.
See also the Gazette’s editorial about the resolution. And see Mike Gonzalez’s article about the resolution, in which he also quotes the anti-capitalist sentiments of Robin DiAngelo and Ibram X. Kendi. Andy Puzder also addressed the issue.
Meanwhile, Fox News found that one of the teachers who promoted the anti-capitalist resolution, Tim Hernández, has explicitly and publicly invoked Marxist and Leninist ideology and called for a “forceful cultural revolution.”
And the teacher who sponsored the resolution, Bryan Lindstrom, now is running for state legislature.
As a reminder, as the CEA busies itself promoting Communist ideology, here is an indicator of the “achievements” of Colorado public schools, with a special emphasis on how schools fail many minority students:
Quick Takes
WWII: “On April 13th, 1945, the U.S. Army liberated my mom and grandmother from the Buchenwald concentration camp,” Colorado AG Phil Weiser reminds us.
Legislature: Colorado Politics discusses a bunch of bills that didn’t make it. See also Marianne Goodland’s take on the legislature. Alex Burness quotes Rep. Representative Serena Gonzales-Gutierrez as saying “everything was just a no” for progressives in the legislature this year, which obviously is dramatic exaggeration.
Guns: Dave Kopel discusses this year’s gun bills and their implications. Meanwhile, activist Saira Rao wants to repeal the Second Amendment (and presumably also the section of Colorado’s Bill of Rights pertaining to arms).
Police: Jared Polis apologized to the family of Christian Glass over police officers killing (I think murdering) Glass. It’s a nice gesture, but he’s not the one who should be apologizing. More on the settlement.
Police II: Police officers need to have the self-control not to punch people for being jerks. A Loveland officer failed and was fired.
Crime: A so-called “pop-up” cafe in Denver “told the Denver Business Journal that the volume and frequency of disturbances from the transient population at their shop were too high to sustain a viable business,” that publication reports.
Herod: Both Mario Nicolais and Mike Littwin defend Leslie Herod against accusations by Denver mayoral candidate Kelly Brough. Mike Johnston (the other candidate) also defended Herod, and she defended herself.
Cheney: Many Colorado College students turned their backs on speaker Liz Cheney, Sandra Fish reports. My take: Whatever one’s disagreements with Cheney, a sensible person has to recognize the tremendous service she did to the country by publicizing the crimes of the January 6 Capitol invasion.
Sovereign Citizens: Rep Ken DeGaaf referred to citizens being sovereign in the sense that government works for the people. This is . . . straight American political theory. But to the Colorado Times Recorder this seemingly straightforward language really is code for anti-government extremism. Very uncharitable.
Paranormal: Why the Times Recorder covered a paranormal conference is beyond me. I guess it’s worth knowing about the flavors of crazy out there.
Gambling: Logan Davis has the details about a vetoed bill to let casinos extend lines of credit.
Housing: Sara Wilson has the details on land-use reform (good in my book), rent control (bad), and eviction interference (bad).
House: There’s a multi-million dollar “eco-friendly” house in Boulder. I bet my old relatively cheap small house is on net a lot more eco-friendly, especially when you factor in transport costs. Jim Charlier has similar thoughts.
Graduation: For God’s sake just let the girl wear a Mexican sash to her graduation. She did it despite official policy, and good for her.
Swimming: “Senior citizens are stepping up to help fill Colorado’s lifeguard shortage.”
Arena: Broomfield spent $45 million on a failed event center. Oops.
Schools: Many LGBTQ teachers feel unsafe even in Colorado.
Schools II: If you want to learn about the fights within the Douglas County School Board see CPR and Jimmy Sengenberger.
Schools III: Burke Scot Beu replies to Paula Noonan’s latest tirade against charter schools, with a focus on Adams County.
Schools IV: CBS reports, “There were hundreds of threatening students in classrooms across six different public school districts in the metro area this year.”
Amazon: The company requires an “inhumane” pace for delivery drivers, some allege. We shouldn’t judge the company based solely on the word of the least-happy employees; still, this seems bad.
Workplace: Jon Caldara argues, “Sexual harassment in the workplace is, as it should be, illegal in Colorado. But Senate Bill 172 opens the door to endless investigations of sexual harassment.”
Preservation: Why is this hard? If you want to preserve a property for historical purposes, then buy the property.
Immigrants: The Sun tells the stories of Venezuelan migrants.
Dunes: Here’s a recent picture of Colorado’s sand dunes.