Imagine my surprise this year when I perused the plows and saw NO crosses painted on them?! I hope our public works department can manage plowing our streets without the Savior to guide them?
But of course, there were a couple of absconders that still had to push the envelope in their quest to convert us all to good Bible loving boys and girls while we navigate the winter streets. I think O’Gorman had the most clever by recreating a scene from the Sistine Chapel by adding elements of a Metallic Album cover;
Lars would be proud!
And apparently God is like a big supreme pizza with a zipper in it (the rumor is Heaven smells like a NYC Pizzeria with just a pinch of English Lavender!)
Even the Mayor’s family got out the paintbrushes;
I guess the boss vetoed the original design of a naked native gentleman taking a nap in a snowbank (and those stick arms on the snowman could be misconstrued as crucifixes!)
But you gotta hand it to the only private Christian school that decided to go with a Jaws theme this year and give up on the conversion therapy via snowplow (they must be reading Leviticus right now).
The most amazing part to me is that all these news organizations cover this event, and they should, but none of them ask the lingering 1st Amendment question about separation of church and state. I’m wondering if they would have staged a food truck by the event yesterday we could get the news crews to show up and do an actual story about this. And BTW, what happened to the disclaimer signs!?
Personally if I ever had to paint one of these plows I would go with the classic Man Ray image;
This is all an exercise in futility. Haven’t they heard of climate change? Last year’s snow was merely an anomaly. If only we had some street cleaners to paint, however, because those could definitely be put to good use around here. But I guess the winds of a constant blowing drought will have to do for now when it comes to dusting our streets in more ways than one…. AND, when we all die “someday” from climate change it will definitely be “dust to dust”, but for now it’s dawn to dust and what some call a day, while others make it a reality where they push God without any snow, and in so doing brush the separation of church and state aside without the fanfare of snow gates to regulate what is church and what is state, because for them it is merely a snow job that they must perform to keep the coffers full even as the snow is really not piling up.
There are no words that say Separation of Church and State in the United States Constitution. It only restricts the Federal Govt from creating a National Religion, let alone passing laws that disrespect the establishment of Religion. The Founders were pretty clear, that the FREEDOM of Religion is always protected, and you can have at minimum, 50 different Religions in the United States…
Because of this, “WE” as South Dakotans have placed Almighty God in our on Constitution, and we promote, and market our Christian, everyday Morals, Values, and Beliefs in all of our Administration and Religous Codes…
“WE” Ordain in the name of our Creator, our statutes, our ordinances, and our codes.
No more ‘Jesus Plows’ and it happened before it got national attention. There’s a PR type somebody’s listened to. Maybe they asked ‘What would Jesus do?’ Jesus must not be an advertising gimmick. Tell this to Celebrate Church saith the ACLU.
But Mike, where are the Hindu plows? When a governmental entity sanctions the promotion of religion, or a given religion, it has then “established” a religion or given premier status to it, which is akin to creating a “National Religion”, or a state or regional one.
The First Amendment gives you the right to practice your religion and not the right to force it upon someone else. AND, it especially does not give you the right to use government resources, at any level, to promote or force your religion upon others as well, which is what these plows do.
( and Woodstock adds: “I was glad to see that someone recognized the Pizza Religion”…. “It makes the sacrament a lot more tasty”…. 🙂 )
I once attended a Pizza Religion service. I wasn’t sure what to think of it though, or would that be dough?. So, I’ve decided to take it one slice at a time. At this service, there were some Canadians in attendance with their bacon. I saw Joey there with his mozzarella (former Catholic most likely), and the Papa John’s guy showed up with some green peppers. It was quite the congregation, should I say. In fact, I haven’t seen such an eclectic collection of humanity since the Weiland/Nelson joint press conference back in 2014. It’s amazing how pizza brings us all together, however, isn’t it? Charlie had his ranch, and a course there’s the Pizza Ranch which some definitely enjoy, right Mike? But when it’s all said and done, it’s all just a cult, which too many just eat up.
I don’t think Mike got the memo that the founding fathers weren’t referring to the Lord Jesus Christ–aka Yaweh. Creator is a generic form for a higher power. Most of those who signed the document were deists. Not Christians.
Deists, indeed. Deists don’t believe in the Holy Trinity. Thus, they are not Christians. Jefferson, in fact, compiled his own version of the Bible, where he cut and paste it to his delight. I believe he called it ‘The Moral Teachings of Jesus Christ’, or something like that.
( and Woodstock adds: “Now, wait a minute, Jefferson knew how to ‘cut and paste’?”…. ( ….. “Let me guess”….. “He invented the computer, too, then later Al Gore came along and invented the internet for it, huh?”…… #GiveMeABreak ))
Let me simplify it for you Mike, “Freedom OF religion also means freedom FROM religion.” So yes, you can do what ever professing you want in your personal life, you just can’t do it on taxpayer owned property.
No where in the U.S Constitution does it ever restrict the People of the State to define, let alone promote their dominantly led Religion within the State. IT only restricts, and limits the Federal Government from allowing one of them from becoming a National Religion, let alone passing laws to disrespect any of the Religious Institutions across America. IF the U.S Constitution imposed the same criteria upon the States, then our “State Constitution” would be in violation of. But it does not.
1) Our Preamble in our State Constitution takes an oath, to our Lord, God Almighty, based in fact, that the MAJORITY of our Forefathers were of the Prostitant Based German Faith, of whom have taken the Lutheran Caticism.
This has become the leading basis of all S.D laws today.
The same is true with the Mormans in Utah, or the Quakers in Penn-State.
Because of this fact, we will always have Public Prayers in our State and City Public Meetings, let alone the legal right to place the Joseph, Mary, and Jesus Statues on our public places, and the Ten Commandments in our Public Schools.
Mike, there you go re-writing history again. Ben Franklin, a Deist, is credited with creating the invocation before meetings. It wasn’t about prayer for Franklin, it was about calming lawmakers before a session during the constitutional congress.
OH the humanity. So sad the new Carbon Neutral religion had 0 entries.
Mike, you keep forgetting about that stubborn little thing called the 14th Amendment. The 14th Amendment, passed in 1868, applies the Federal Bill of Rights to all state statutes and state constitutions. Because that’s when we went from being the united STATES of America to the UNITED States of America….. But your “Back to the Future” understanding of constitutional history and law is quite entertaining, however, I must admit.
( and Woodstock adds: “So, then what you are saying is that the 2nd Amendment didn’t apply to folks if they were not in federal court at the time (prior to 1868) on a federal issue, huh?”…. (…. “Wow!”… “I wonder how many people actually know that?”…. “Especially amongst those people who like to wear those ‘Right to bear Arms’ t-shirts or paint that logo on their motorcycle gas tanks”…. ))
Nixon was a Quaker, while Romney a Mormon…. I thought I would just add that….
Tell me more about the Carbon Neutral religion. Do their funeral services allow for cremated remains? Or, does the fact that the recently departed no longer drives a car allows for the cremation to be performed? But what if they haven’t driven a car for years and had been dependent before their death upon a e-wheelchair, would that make cremation a “No” option? Or, can a deceased in this religion be cremated as long as a friend or relative signs a waiver claiming they won’t drive for X amount of days? AND, what if most are convinced that the recently departed will for sure go to Hell, would that further “fuel” in an interest in carbon sequestration (especially for cremations) with the eventual pipeline leading to Hell, which is apparently beneath North Dakota?
I thought “Penn-State” was a college and not a political entity? And wasn’t the University of PA where Trump went to college and Penn State was where that one coach ended up in jail? Oh well, maybe Jim Jordan could fill us all in on more of the details about those two incidents… 🙂
Directly from the Constitution of the State of South Dakota, the following section header:
Freedom of religion — Support of religion prohibited.
More specific to the language contained within the Constitution:
“… nor shall any preference be given by law to any religious establishment or mode of worship. No money or property of the state shall be given or appropriated for the benefit of any sectarian or religious society or institution.”
Is Guy an attorney?…. Because he’s good!
the mayor who couldn’t find an authentic bible verse to read in public came up with this corrupt bargain between the city and the religious schools so they wouldnt bitch too loud for vouchers(?) in return for painting a city owned plow blade. it was a genius move if he would’ve ran for governor but like i said he couldn’t even cut & paste from the bible. next thing you know is these nutjobs won’t be satisfied with plow blades & demand more like oh turning over public health policy to a astroturfed flashmob of psychos at a council meeting good job everyone