Thursday, February 22, 2024

Bill Sorta Bans Satan

 A bill will ban Satan, er, make that Satanic displays from the Mississippi Capitol. 

Representative Jill Ford (R-Hatra) authored HB #1282.  The bill states: 

SECTION 1. This act shall be known and may be cited as the "Reject Escalating Satanism by Preserving Essential Core Traditions (RESPECT) Act."

SECTION 2. (1) The Legislature finds that the Constitution of the State of Mississippi acknowledges the supreme being to whom we owe gratitude for blessings received and upon whom we depend for future blessings.

(2) The Legislature finds that there is a wide range of differing views among its citizens regarding which establishment of religion or religions represent the one supreme being upon which we depend. Though a long line of historical evidence exists showing that the values found in the Judeo-Christian faith are fundamental to the foundations and freedoms of the United States of America, the State of Mississippi, in accordance with the long-established history, heritage, and tradition of the United States, does not grant favored status to any establishment of religion as the official religion of the State of Mississippi.

(3) The Legislature finds that good and evil exist. The supreme being, upon whom we depend for continued blessings, personifies that which is good. Evil is personified in the creature known as Satan. It is the duty of the government to play an appropriate role in protecting the inhabitant residents of Mississippi from evil while encouraging and facilitating good. It is legally and constitutionally inconsistent to afford Satan, who is universally understood to be an enemy of God, religious expression on public property by a state government that depends upon God for continued blessings. Such a legal view violates our state constitution and offends the God upon whom we depend and undermines our well-being.

(4) The Legislature finds that all people have freedom of conscience. The State of Mississippi does not recommend Satanic practice in any form; however, the State of Mississippi acknowledges that individuals are free under the Constitution of the State of Mississippi to practice Satanic worship in their private thoughts and on their private property in ways that do not violate any Mississippi law or harm or infringe on others.

SECTION 3. (1) Satanic memorials, statues, altars, displays, symbols, any other method of representing or honoring Satan or the practice of Satanic worship shall not be allowed on public property, in public schools, on property owned by public schools, or on any property owned by the state or its political subdivisions.

(2) For the purpose of this section, "political subdivision" means any body politic or body corporate other than the state responsible for governmental activities only in geographic areas smaller than that of the state, including, but not limited to, any county, municipality, school district, charter school, volunteer fire department that is a chartered nonprofit corporation providing emergency services under contract with a county or municipality, community hospital as defined in Section 41-13-10, airport authority, or other instrumentality of the state, whether or not the body or instrumentality has the authority to levy taxes or to sue or be sued in its own name.

(3) A violation of this section is a misdemeanor criminal offense subject to prosecution under the laws of the state in accordance with Section 21-13-19.

SECTION 4. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after July 1, 2024.

The bill is assigned to the House Committee on Public Property.  

Kingfish note: For some strange reason, this bill reminded me this essay published in The Onion in 2000.


45 comments:

Anonymous said...

Has Jill Ford ever done anything substantive? She's always hyperventilating and stirring up trouble about the most inane issues.

Saltwaterpappy said...

The way that the bill is worded, it clearly violates the Establishment Clause of the U.S. and Mississippi constitutions. It would be so much simpler to bar all religious displays. Why can't members of the Christian Collectivist Community be satisfied with limiting displays to places of worship and other private property?

Anonymous said...

Does this mean we can't play LSU anymore?

Anonymous said...

The devil made Jill do it.

Anonymous said...

With all the problems of being the poorest, dumbest, and fattest state in the country, this is what we are paying legislators to do? They are as useless as Congress.

Steve said...

3:53 for post of the week.

Vote 'em out said...

Pandering and wasting our time and money, or tackling the hard issues? Typical B.S.

Anonymous said...

Would this not be in direct violation of the 1st Amendment? She also wants to make sure we don't get our initiative ballot back, afraid we will make the devils lettuce legal. Pretty sad!!

Anonymous said...

Will she decide what she considers what is satanic? She is walking a slippery slope!

Anonymous said...

As long as they don’t ban Satania, the future Queen of Hell

Anonymous said...

The devil’s in the details

Anonymous said...

What did satan do to piss her off.

Anonymous said...

Can we just ban Jill Ford from elected office? This is pathetic. Maybe our elected officials should be required to have a basic understanding of the constitution before they are allowed to take an oath to it.

Anonymous said...

Funny comments abound on this thread, but I’ll nominate 5:04 for the win. Just reduced the size of all state and local governing officials, saved us funds and put safeguards on democracy.

And ditto, 5:01, 4:20, and oh hell everyone. Good thread.

Anonymous said...

5:04
Are you saying our Founders intended to protect Satan as a Religious worship-entity? For God's sake, the leftists revere Climate as a religion! For over 50 years, American commies have kneeled to any deity or -ology that hates Judeo-Christian principles.

Anonymous said...

Regardless of the arguments surrounding "good" vs. "evil," this is a waste of time because it is blatantly unconstitutional.

Anonymous said...

Has Jill Ford ever done anything substantive? She's always hyperventilating and stirring up trouble about the most inane issues.

Sounds exactly like the Twitter Yappy Dog.

Anonymous said...

yet again , miss jill and the ms legislature come up with a solution for a problem that doesn't exist.

Anonymous said...

As big as Texas is, their legislature meets every other year!

Anonymous said...

This might get squashed faster in federal court than anything in history.

Anonymous said...

Is the new Amazon site in her district?

Anonymous said...

We are the poorest state in the union. Our legistators are wasting our money on continuing the legislative sessions because most of them have virtually no other source of viable income. Why not do like Texas, and only pay them per diem money. I am not sure our state “senators and legislators” are willing to do this, because many of those lobby sucking alcoholic representative are living of off this system.

Anonymous said...

I can't believe Jill Frod is trying to ban Santa. This is unbeleivable. Waht about the kids, Jili? You know they will be heardbroken. How could you do this, Jlli?

Anonymous said...

Does this mean I can’t listen to Oye Como Va with my windows down? Abraxas was such a good album. I’m not letting Jill take Santana from me!

Saltwaterpappy said...

5:46--It wasn't too long before 1776 that some very dedicated Christians were water boarding and burning "witches" at the stake. The Founding Fathers were well aware of this travesty. The Establishment Clause was adopted so that all Americans would be treated equally by the government--not to promote any religion.

Anonymous said...

Every year every legislator HAS to submit a bill. Gotta have a bill so s/he can tell the yams back home how s/he is fighting -- politicians are always "fighting" for us, don't you know -- for us and, well, of course, the CHILDREN. It's to the extent now that there isn't much left to regulate but the air we breathe and the sun on our backs.

The next five sessions need to be spent reviewing and repealing the statutes that are outdated, useless, overreaching, and silly.

Anonymous said...

All you mutants who were vaccinated are now defending Satan. As prophesized.

Anonymous said...

Ford ran unopposed. None of you fools had the stones to take her on.

Anonymous said...

A very effective measure in futility, even irrelevance. She obviously knows her constituency well. Dixie politics at it's best. Take note.

Anonymous said...

Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore gives Jill a shout out.

Anonymous said...

Great….now she’s going to have all the Bible thumpers and Atheists wanting and raving.

Flip Wilson (He Made Me Do It) said...

Silliness at the supreme level.

So, now we have a bill to ban satan to accompany a bill to name blue as the state color and Shanks bill to criminalize vehicles with raised front ends. Oh, and don't forget Shanks bill to make it a felony to assault an umpire.

Anonymous said...

Look, I am a Christian and proud of it.

That said, this is 100% illegal. It violates the 1st amendment and Mississippi’s own constitution. More importantly, Why are legislators fixing non-existent problems instead of fixing MS’s actual problems?

Four seats over and two behind said...

We were notified earlier that she was blessed as chairman of a new committee that had no goals or objectives or, in fact, purpose.

Is this an example of how she will carry out that Chair-Duty?

This gal act like Miss Claudie,
Awful pious and haughty.

Anonymous said...

The absurdity of Satan as a god escapes those in the anything goes crowd. MJ, psilocybin, astrology and ufology are religious experiences claimed by some, as was murderous butchery for Manson's followers. But none of these deserve institutionalizing as religion is intended in our Founding documents. IMO, Hinduism is a religion but Islam is a slavery-murder-rape cult.

Anonymous said...

I feel sorry for the poor staff attorney that had to draft this attempt at pandering to the base. Now Jill Ford can spend the rest of the year bragging to the Rotary Club, local Chamber of Commerces, and the Woman's Missionary Union about fighting to protect their faith.

Now, will Jill's faith allow her to vote to extend medical care to the working poor or will she be opposed to helping those in need?

Anonymous said...

The joke's on you Jill. Satanists don't believe in a literal Satan. The only people who believe in Satan are Christians.

Also, the comments on this post are GOLD!

Anonymous said...

I am a christian, somewhat of a conservative, and consider myself a pretty tolerant guy. With that being said this right wing extremist garbage has to stop. Its political pandering and its divisive as all hell.

Let PEOPLE BELIEVE WHAT THEY WANT TO BELIEVE and LET PEOPLE DO WHAT THEY WANT TO DO. This kinda mess adds fuel to the fire and drives people further one way or the other. I was absolutely appalled this week when I read they are now banning IVF in Alabama because they consider an embryo a child???

the values depicted in both of these examples aren't conservative and you nut jobs need to sit your asses down.

Anonymous said...

freedom of religion doesn't exclude a religion just because you don't like it.

I doubt seriously there are that many Satanists in Mississippi. I would hope they are not so arrogant as to be " puffed up" like so many " look at me! see I'm better than others " Christians. And, I hope they aren't " preaching" to make a lot of money and have their own mansion and plane ( ie worshipers that worship them instead following the example of Jesus!).

Anonymous said...

The evangelicals love a good pander.

Meanwhile............

Anonymous said...

Rudolph Steiner's prediction about vaccines CAME TRUE!

Anonymous said...

Meanwhile: Over in the Senate, a bill has been dropped to make Devil's Food Cake the State Desert.

That oughta blow her britches sideways.

Anonymous said...

You can put me down as being in favor of devil's food cake.

Anonymous said...

Hail Satin!

Anonymous said...

6:58, I'm a fan of Knights in White Satin...which brings us full circle to image worship and demons.


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