What do electricity rates and marriage equality have to do with one another? Apparently, everything, if you live in Alabama. Last week, the state’s Public Utility Commission began a public meeting about rates with a prayer against marriage equality. The invocation came from John Delwin Jordan, a Baptist preacher who was at the meeting to testify as a representative of the Prattville Tea Party. Jordan had been given a warm introduction by Twinkle Cavanaugh, the head of the Commission.
Jordan asked attendees if they believed in the power of prayer and then went on with one of his own. “We’ve taken you out of our schools; we’ve taken you out of our prayers; we’ve murdered your children; we’ve said it’s OK to have same-sex marriage, God. We have sinned.”
What should have been a conversation about whether Alabama Power should get to keep some impressive profits or return them to rate payers became a conversation about pressing social issues. Guess who won that debate? In case you need a hint, now might be a good time to invest in Alabama Power. Marriage equality in the state? Not so much.
Dakotahgeo
Ya know… it’s getting harder and harder to be angry and disgusted when you read these absolutely off-the-wall yahoos’ comments and their government prayer meetings! Do you realize how hard it is to comment when you’re rolling on the floor laughing while try to type on a keyboard?! I give up, I give in. I will never take these backward conservatives seriously again! God must be so embarrassed when they take God’s name and message in vain! Unnnnnngh!!!
mad1026
I am offended that the PUC would use time set aside for state business to politick against Marriage Equality. Religion does not belong in state government, just as it does not belong in federal government. To which God were they praying ; the Christian God, Allah, Jahweh, Mohammed, one of the many Wiccan gods? Do they know? Talking about sinning, for example, Kim Kardashian divorced her husband of 7 weeks, took up with a rap star and had a bastard chil. Is that a sin? What about Anthony Weiner; has he sinned by sexting? And you folks on the Alabama Public Utilities Commission; remember the story in your Bible about the one without sin casting the first stone of punishment? Are you all so pure and innocent that you honestly think you can decide who has sinned and who hasn’t? Wouldn’t it be funny if the Rapture happened tomorrow and YOU ALL WERE “LEFT BEHIND?”
Horse Lips
Twinkle Cavanaugh? Seriously?
Ogre Magi
I utterly despise christians
Dakotahgeo
@Ogre Magi: christians, YES, I am also disgusted with them! Christians, however, have much higher standards and values… please don’t get these two groups mixed up!
Joetx
@Dakotahgeo: Re: “Christians, however, have much higher standards and values”
The way they’ve treated LGBT people & other disadvantaged groups throughout history says otherwise.
Although, they aren’t alone. Monotheists are quite good at being hypocritical a-holes.
[email protected]
Dirty Hillbillies lol
Dakotahgeo
@Joetx: (christians) vs. (Christians). Please notice the difference! I am a gay Christian, I attend a GLBT supportive church (both talking and walking their support), I am a retired ordained Christian minister. I do not support milquetoast self-righteous christians in any way, shape, or form. You will find assholes in every group of people gathered. The trick is to stay clear of them!
MK Ultra
Dear Jeebus,
Thank you for making our opponents so incredibly dumb!
PS, double thanks for making them obese and ugly.
CalgaryBill
Don’t differentiate between ‘christians’ and ‘Christians’. That’s the faulty debate technique of ‘No True Scotchman’.
There are good people who are Christian, but those who follow the dictates of Christianity are likely more likely to be bad people.
Jackhoffsky
There may be “good people” who are Christians, but it doesn’t make them right. It makes them dependent. And that’s okay, some people need that.
Some of us are good without need of scripture. On some levels trying to separate yourselves out is a bit like going through adolescence in high school trying to be “different” by being part of a stereotypical group.
In general, one will have to ask themselves why they would believe in something that comes with such a vast array of gradient motivation from “god loves everyone” to the above example of eliminating the lines between church and state… from gay priests to NOM. The variations in Christianity are so vast it makes the core concept diluted. Differences in capitalization or on presumed ‘goodness’ is noted, but on a global scale it seems like grades of the same color.
erikwm
But the joke is on them because all the prayers against marriage equality go directly to God’s spam folder.
Dakotahgeo
@erikwm: Heh, heh, heh… thanks! I needed that! Kudos!
niles
all those who call themselves Christians are equally guilty because they have sat silently in their pious pews while these nutjobs run rampant.
JeffNYC
Yet another reason — if one were needed — not to live in Alabama!
Captain proton
@Horse Lips: Yes, seriously.
http://www.psc.alabama.gov/Cavanaugh/commissionercavanaugh.htm
Captain proton
Also the commission’s decor during the meeting looks like early 70s
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=536918229689907&set=a.536918093023254.1073741845.175658379149229&type=1&theater
BlogZilla
These people make me sick to my stomach (Christians, Catholics, etc.) They go around claiming righteous and good, and all they preach is hate and intolerance and conservatism as an absolute.
And judging from all the skeletons we’ve seen in their closets, they have audacity to CHARADE the way they do
Daniel-Reader
But working on the Sabbath is punishable by death – no exceptions according to the bible. So shouldn’t he have been condemning all the churches that pay the utility companies to work on the Sabbath to keep the lights, heat, and air conditioning on? And what about pastors that line their pockets with church cash for working on the Sabbath? He should have not been a hypocrite and condemned them since that’s the Word of God too. But obviously he is just backing his own prejudice against others.
Cam
Alabama is a state that in the year 2000 still had an anti-interracial marriage law on the books. It was superseded by Federal law so was unenforceable.
In the year 2000 this law was put up for a vote because many were embarrassed it was still on the books in Alabama.
Nearly 40% of the state voted to KEEP the law on the books.
Nearly 40% of the state proved they were ignorant bigots so nothing from that state surprises me.
1EqualityUSA
Americans United for Separation of Church and State is easy to join and not too expensive. It keeps people informed of upcoming cases where the line is crossed. They’re successful.
krystalkleer
YA RIGHT!…sounds like a real winner…bet he takes the dishes outta the sink before he pee’s in it too!
http://getoffmydress.blogspot.com/2013/07/doma-r-e-got-ta-go.html