Southern Ignorance

Southern Ignorance
by Shale
September 12, 2015

This journal entry is a result of processing the recent debacle in Kentucky, where a clerk of court in Rowan county, Kim Davis violated the law for a couple of months by not issuing marriage licenses to same-gender couples as required by the U.S. Constitution (14th Amendment) and validated by the U.S. Supreme Court on June 26, 2015.

I have already written of all the ignorant flaws in Kim's irrational stance such as her inconsistency of following her own religious texts (married 4 times, illegitimate children, not honoring a sacred oath) but above all she was illegally denying same-gender couples marriage licenses because of her religious (erroneous) beliefs. Eventually, she was put in jail for contempt of court and the marriage licenses were issued by her deputies in her absence, with them taking oaths to do so or they too would be in contempt of court.

But instead of being just one ignorant Christian fundamentalist, Kim Davis represents a whole mindset in this benighted part of the nation known as the Bible Belt. Which, I will henceforth call the Buybull Belt because that is honestly what I consider it.



"Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups"
Unknown Source (Attributed to George Carlin)

This fact was brought to lite when she was released from jail and hailed as some sort of hero for upholding religious rights against the secular interlopers from the federal government.

Unbelievably, in cruel, deceitful irony ppl were equating Kim Davis' jailing with those of civil rights champions, Dr. Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks.

MLK


Rosa Parks


Not only the backwater rubes from her own community were rallying for her, but former Arkansas Governor and Baptist preacher Mike Huckabee came to town to grandstand and curry favor in his futile bid for president of the United States.

Huckabee said on ABC’s “This Week,” (Sunday Sep 6), “What we’ve seen here is the overreach of the judiciary. This, if allowed to stand without any congressional approval, without any kind of enabling legislation, is what Jefferson warned us about. That’s judicial tyranny.”

Forget the FACT that Tom Jefferson said no such thing and that the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution covers all of this religious freedom and there is no "judicial tyranny" except in the warped, ignorant Christian mind. And, the Supreme Court interpretation of the constitutionality of granting same-gender marriage is the same as they did for interracial marriage nearly half a century earlier.



Other Repugnicant Prez hopefuls, Texas Senator Ted Cruz and Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal also gave support for her illegal defiance of the law.

Cruz told Fox News’ Megyn Kelly, “For the first time, we’re seeing a Christian thrown in jail for standing up for her faith. I’ll tell you, I stand with Kim Davis unequivocally. I stand with her or anyone else the government is trying to persecute for standing up for their faith.”

Jindal is being sued by the ACLU of Louisiana for signing an executive “Marriage and Conscience Order" that he says protects local clerks who want to opt out of officiating gay marriages. However, this likely goes beyond his constitutional authority as governor and the courts should confirm that.

All of these Buybull Belt elected politicians exhibit no knowledge of the U.S. Constitution, laws or history and yet the electorate of their states put them in office.

Hence my title of Southern Ignorance, which I know will piss off a lot of ppl in or from The South but so far that assertion has been quantified by the masses in Rowan county Kentucky and the three ignorant Christian rubes running for POTUS.

Also, I am personally familiar with the ignorance that runs rampant in Dixie - half my family is from Mississippi where I spent many summers as a child and lived for a few months after leaving the Air Force in 1967 and visiting my family in the 1980s.

First, a bit of family history before my time. My mom, who dropped out of school in the 8th grade in St. Louis and ran off with my dad and got married in Mississippi, related how my uncle Tucker was in high school and she had to help him with his homework. Mississippi, like the rest of Dixie is an agrarian culture and at this time small family farms were still around and lots of kids meant more farm hands to do the work. Book learnin' was not a priority beyond reading, writing and 'rithmetic.

I grew up with cousins who believed that certain lizards (skinks) were poisonous, toad piss would cause warts or a horsehair left in water would turn into a snake. When I said it wasn't so, they thought I was the ignorant one. They also had the proscribed Southern cultural bias against niggers (a common word in my family). IDK how many of them outgrew this "Cultural Heritage." My high school in St. Louis County was integrated but segregation in the Buybull Belt South went on well after my graduation in 1963.

I feel I was lucky to have been raised and schooled in St. Louis and County. Not only did I learn the basic education but in high school we were encouraged to express our new knowledge in social studies classes. I was a bit of an academic rebel, dumping my Christian Baptist upbringing and becoming an Atheist in my beliefs. I also opposed saying the divisive Pledge of Allegiance for a couple of years - balking at the "under god" crap our paranoid Christian, anti-communist politicians inserted in 1954. And, all this was tolerated (except for one young Army Reserve teach who was in my face yelling once - I still can see the veins bulging in his red face).

But, for being a person of average intelligence, I did alright in school and some classes like biology were so interesting that I got excellent grades and turned in excellent unnecessary extra credit work just because it interested me. Meanwhile in Mississippi where I left some of my schoolwork at my grandmother's house - I later found it was missing. One of my first cousins had taken it to school and turned it in as his own, illustrated with my original art - and it was lost. Who knows, it may have been the best extra-credit work in Brookhaven H.S. (It did not contain any mention of evolution).

I would like to think that this uncritical thinking was a thing of the past, a vestige of our parents' unsophisticated beliefs that my generation had to get beyond. But, I see all these ppl in the Buybull Belt today rallying around a stupid clerk of court and they cannot see that she in her government job was breaking the law and that is why she was in contempt of court and put in jail. There is no "War on Christianity" just the legal restraint of pushing religious beliefs onto others against their will.

It is scary to think that ppl in the 21st Century can be so ignorant and ineducable in their stupidity. When I see what is going on in those Muslim hellholes in the Middle East, where fundamentalists like ISIS are doing Medieval atrocities in the name of their religion, then see the same mindset in Rowan Kentucky (and all over the Buybull Belt) it gives me pause as to what guarantee is there that it cannot happen here.

 

Christian-Muslim


Davis - Bin Ladin

 

Stupid religious "beliefs" DO NOT overrule the constitutional right of equality.

 

Ya know just this morning I was discussing this with my daughter and your posts.
Then I realized that you are probably more in a position to speak about this type of discrimination more than most other members here.
I mean you were a long haired hippy freak and I'm sure you caught shit here and there for it.
then you had the gall to actually marry a black women and I'm sure shit was flung in your direction for that choice as well.
and now as you have identified yourself as gay and rather outspoken about it, again, target on your back for prejudice.

So I understand your passion and vehemence regarding this particular instance and others need to understand, if they don't already, that at least for you it goes much, much deeper than simply being a gay rights issue.

Hats off to you and keep up the fight.
Know that I am in your corner and empathize with your personal battle that it seems you have been fighting for many decades now.




kinda funny how in the other thread I was chastised by someone for bringing Rosa Parks into the equation, but I guess I'm not that far off and at least I presented Rosa in a rational manner as it relates to the current situation unlike those supporting Kim Davis.


comparing her to MLK and Rosa...........I don't know whether to laugh or cry over that one. ........... :bigcry:

 

It's some kind of frailty/weakness of the human mind to assume/believe that the commonly accepted ancient literature and its very odd rules and edicts, bears any semblance of modern scientific actuality or modes of ethical human conduct and that there are those that want to force those unprovable beliefs on others. Sometimes under threat of death.

Any of you that have seen the pathetic plight of those poor people from Syria fleeing the RELIGIOUS WARS, might well wonder---where in the fuck is this god they're always talking about??

True believers are not only irritating in their self righteous ranting, but also absolutely boring as hell! And dangerous to free and critical thinking.

 

I find atheists and religious deniers to be absolutely no better whatsoever.

 

I thought when I moved to the Missouri Ozarks that I'd moved far enough north to avoid some of the hatred prevalent in the rural areas of the South. And, at first, it was fine.

Well.. of course it was fine when it was just me. Everyone looks like my long lost cousin. Irish, fair skin.. etc. And then, the rest of my family arrived and all the pleasantness disappeared. I've heard the 'N' word more times since coming here than I ever did in South Texas. I grit my teeth and try to smile unless it's directed at my beautiful granddaughter... and then somebody is getting bruised.

Hatred is taught from the pulpits here. And these people think they live in the South and fly their damn flags. Look at a frippin' map, people. You live in the dead center of the states.

Ahh well.. not sure what can be done to counter the hatred that religious dogma and horrid tradition teaches. I keep to myself and hang out with people who have moved here from other areas of the country.

The hope of humanity lies in children like my grandkids. When races have blended and we're all just human... maybe the species will grow on up.

 

I find that all this 'bashing' of certain groups i.e the Southern Bible belt (only because it was stated in the post) and anyone opposed to our own beliefs, to be highly unproductive. Do we not see that all we are doing with this is creating separation and chaos with no real solution.

Does this makes us any different then the 'Religious' folks who disapprove of others ideas that do not conclude to their own? To look at the History of any and all groups, how can we be arrogant enough to request immediate convergence to our beliefs or thoughts and expect religious groups to disregard their own historical upbringing? In some instances,these beliefs go back many, many generations.

Isn't the first amendment meant for support of all religions and their beliefs? So how can we justify the continual 'bashing' of these groups because of their beliefs? Is it because they do not agree with ours? Are we not doing the same to them?

It is an endless merry go round. Whats good for one isn't for the next and vice versa.

Name calling, bashing, criticizing, judging are all we do. There will never be any emergence and acceptance of all ideas if this continues on like a school yard skirmish.

 

the combination of excessively warm climate and humidity have an adverse effect on human intelligence. one of the segnificant reasons i am not attracted to 'tropical' climates.
(the other being that my body seems somewhat allergic to the them as well. heat rash, sunburn and the sun even makes me sneeze)

 

If you look at that map of the Bible Belt you will notice that most of Missouri is in it. Missouri is actually a Southern State by culture and the Ozarks is close to Arkansas even more into the Bible Belt.

I was raised in St. Louis, as was my mother but she turned out to be a bit of a racist when she found out I was going with a black woman. We did not communicate for a couple of years but she finally came around and apologized to my wife and we visited her in Missouri.

My father tho from Mississippi was more accepting of my black wife, but he had exposure to other places than the South. He lived most of my life in St. Louis and his third wife was from Illinois, where he also had a lake home. Still, he used the word ******, knowing my wife was black.

I have found cities to be more conducive to my lifestyle than rural areas, which is why I didn't stay long in Mississippi but moved to New Orleans. I don't consider myself from Missiouri - I am from St. Louis and even tho Florida is a 'red' state and very much a part of the benighted South, I am from Miami Beach - literally an island in a sea of backwardness.

 

I wasn't actually going for "productive." This is my processing of what is going on in the Deep South, like a report of the world as I see it from my personal experience. It is actually a journal entry that I have shared.

And it is true that this is engrained behavior that comes from many generations of tradition in the South. But, at some point some of us have broken from those traditions (I had the advantage of seeing more of the world than Mississippi.) But, I do have that heritage to which I have become a misfit. Does it matter that I had a great-great grandfather in the Confederate Army? Or an uncle in the KKK?

You seem to have read too much into the First Amendment tho. It does not support ANY religion or beliefs but it does support our right to bad mouth any of these religions or beliefs. That is the freedom of speech part.

The thing it forbids is the government respecting an establishment of religion. And that is the part that so many Southerners in this Kim Davis debacle seem to be totally unaware. You cannot deny government services to someone due to your religious beliefs - and yet whole crowds of ppl in Rowan Kentucky are yelling religious persecution when in fact the only persecution was Kim Davis denying gay couples their rights because of her religion.

What she did was ILLEGAL and a Court Clerk should know that, unless they are an ignorant Southerner.

 

Actually, they probably are if you are a cat.

 

Fucking lame, man.
We call out these fanatical religious fucks for good reason.
I will judge, and judge harshly anyone who believes some crap in the Buybul ( thank you Shane) gives them a right to interfere with others lives.

There's nothing in the constitution about supporting a religion.

The first line of the first amendment is actually;
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion...

 

southern ignorance is mostly regional and generational nowadays. Most southern cities, at least the ones I've visited in SC, NC, and GA (never been to AL, MS, LA so can't speak for those states) are pretty open minded and relatively liberal, especially with the under 35 age group. Rural sections in the south are still pretty backwards in their attitude and culture.


people like Kim Davis bother me because she perpetuates the southern stereotype of ignorance and bigotry, but it isn't necessarily like that across the board.

also i would like to point out as far as racism, and a lot of people wont see or believe this, but i truly feel the south is far ahead of the rest of the country in many regards. There is a higher concentration of black people in the south than anywhere else in the country and thanks to aggressive desegregation in the early 70s much of the south is more integrated than the rest of the country. Half my neighborhood is black, roughly 30% of the kids i went to school with were black. You're pretty much shit out of luck as a racist in many parts of the south because white and black people are part of the same community - there simply aren't a lot of all white enclaves like you'll find in other parts of the country.

but yes i agree as far as the rural south, it has a lot of work to do. But look at the southern states record for education funding and it isn't really hard to figure out why. Southern politicians are failing their people, specifically in rural regions with greater concentration of poverty.

 

That is no excuse for being simple-minded , because ...the father was not simple-minded . The reasoning embodied in tradition
does not go unexamined by the child . Dispensing with tradition is careless .

 

The Ku Klux Klan claims to be christian.....so did Hitler....so did the Catholic church when they were burning "unbelievers" at the stake.

"Killing in the name of God is blasphemy."

 

This reminds me of an observation by cognitive psychologist Justin Barrett. He thinks that while humans are not directly hardwired to believe in God, their psychological makeup makes it easy for them to do so because of an evolution-based tendency to perceive agency in natural occurrences. In rural environments closer to nature, this tendency is hard to avoid. Thus, he advises atheists to "submerge oneself in a context in which the agency around us is obviously human...Living in a fully urban setting is a good step in the right direction. Life surrounded by wilderness or natural systems would be a mistake."

 

Oh you mean Dr. Justin Barrett, a cognitive psychologist at Fuller Theological Seminary - http://www.researchonreligion.org/uncategorized/barrett-on-the-naturalness-of-religious-belief#sthash.lREDHRnS.dpuf

No bias in his science...*rolleyes*

He advises Atheists "...Life surrounded by wilderness or natural systems would be a mistake."

Justin Barret can go fuck himself and his pseudo-science.

 

I mean Justin L. Barrett, Professor of Psychology at Fuller Graduate School of Psychology, who earned his Ph.D. from Cornell University and held a position at the Center for Anthropology and Mind and The Institute for Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology at Oxford University. Actually, the idea that humans have a tendency to perceive agency in nature, as a result of an evolution-based survival mechanism is endorsed by such secular scholars as French cognitive anthropologist Pascal Boyer, who characterizes Barrett's work as "brilliant", and Daniel Dennett, one of the atheist "Four Horsemen". Do you have reason to dismiss his research as "pseudo-science" or your own bias against Christians showing through? Are cognitive psychologists who happen to be atheists somehow free of similar charges of possible bias? Actually, if you think about it, the research raises the question whether the perception of divine agency is real or just a cognitive by-product of a useful evolved habit of treating sticks and logs as snakes and alligators, respectively, rather than assuming that they're harmless inanimate objects. Better safe than sorry!