Oh Dear, this is being reported from the Bureau of Unintended Consequences with a letter being sent to the Supreme Court thanking them for their short-sighted, politically biased, stupidity.
But before going to the Satanic Temple’s excellent position, I thought I would toss out an idea I have been thinking about lately. When I was a child I loved to get up early on Sunday morning when the house was still cold from the winter night and crawl under a blanket on the couch to watch the one (and only one) NFL game of the week on the television. Yes, in California the football game came on at 10 AM and was over in time for lunch (and then all healthy kids would run out into the street and pretend they were Otto Graham or Norm Van Brocklin). Now I can get football on the television almost any time I want and as a result, I rarely watch football anymore.
One major football event we didn’t have back then is the much hyped Super Bowl. I don’t watch that either but it did give me the idea for what I call, The Supreme Bowl. Very simply, we fill the largest stadiums we can find and have all the networks televise the event around the world. Each year the opponents will be the same: Team God in white or pearly, with angels, seraphim, and cherubim, and team Satan in black or red, with demons, fallen angels, skilled Baal players, and Republicans. Behind God and Satan would be extensive rosters filling all the key positions and also keeping the bench warm (this is easier for Satan’s team).
Now I’m not certain that either God or Satan will go along with this idea and it might be hard to pull off. Sure, I can offer Satan big juicy Sheldon Adelson size bribes, but what do I do about God? One of my friends suggested lots of roast lamb and offal but have you seen the price of lamb lately? The way I see it, no one will compete unless the prize is great enough; so I recommend that we let the winner of the Supreme Bowl rule over the world for each day of the coming year, right up to the next Supreme Bowl. Of course, if anyone doesn’t show up for the contest, they automatically lose. And if both sides are no shows, then we let Oprah run the show.
But back to the Satanic Temple.
In a statement, the Satanic Temple said that it will use the Supreme Court’s recent Hobby Lobby decision to exempt its believers from state-mandated informed consent laws that require women considering abortions to read pro-life material.
Informed consent or “right to know” laws state that women seeking elective abortions be provided with information about alternatives to the procedure, often couched in language that attempts to personify the fetus. According to the Guttmacher Institute, 35 states currently have informed consent laws, and of those, 33 require that the woman be told the gestational age of the fetus.
In some states, that information consists of pro-life propaganda that links abortion to a higher incidence of breast and ovarian cancers, or discusses “post-abortion syndrome,” a mental condition not recognized by any major medical or psychiatric organization.
Because the Satanic Temple bases its belief “regarding personal health…on the best scientific understanding of the world, regardless of the religious or political beliefs of others,” it claims that state-mandated information with no basis in scientific fact violates its “religious” beliefs.
For the record, The Daily Kos provides a little information on the Satanic Temple:
The Satanic Temple set up a website where women seeking an abortion can print out a letter for her healthcare provider explaining why she is exempt from informed consent mandates.
The letter reads that “[a]ll women who share our deeply held belief that their personal choices should be made with access to the best available information, undiluted by biased or false information, are free to seek protection with this exemption whether they are members of the Satanic Temple or not.”
Will we be hearing heads explode (especially on the Right) or is this just another valid position that will be crushed and eliminated by conservative muscle (mainly money, of course) or will it soon be forgotten by an apathetic citizenry that bends over to accept the opinions of others and doesn’t have the courage to think for themselves?
A Celebration of Reading 