When I was browsing the hate mail section of NormalBobSmith.com, I found a letter that was sent to Bob from a girl who lives in a Kentucky. Unfortunate, I know, but that is not the bad part about this issue. The issue is that she was convicted of a charge that had to do with drugs and it turns out that she was given a sentence which would require her to be subjected to religious nonsense or have a warrant issued for her arrest. This was clearly made compulsory and this attitude of disrespect towards another persons’ choice not to become one of the sheep and fall in line at the church. This sentence was ironically issued by the Attorney General of the county, someone that should know all too well that actions like this are not only morally reprehensible but also a violation of this person’s civil rights and liberties.
And the odd thing about this is that normally, drug and alcohol awareness groups such as Narcotics Anonymous or Alcoholics Anonymous know that the fight against addiction comes with a healthy dose of information and I respect judges that give sentences that require reparation treatment, as long as the person can choose the place where they receive said treatment (i.e. not requiring it to be in a church, as there are other places like the Gender Identity Centre of Colorado that have AA meetings). But according to what I have found, the programme that this person was forced to undergo was not secular, there were no secular options or alternatives provided and something like this provided absolutely no empirical information for their bullshit claims. I quote the message from her below:
In my mind I can picture a middle-aged bleach frizzy blonde over weight redneck screaming her fucking head off for the lord. Her fake nails waving in the air as if she was begging for help from some far off place. I was only able to make out a few words, “JESUS, THANK YOU JESUS!!!” My eyes enlarging in fear, I wondered ‘Who is this woman?’. A biker looking man, the speaker up on the podium was saying “This court house is now a house of god!” My mind went into panic; I was literally scared my friend and I would be used in an exorcism. What was happening, was this government building being taken over in a matter of minutes by this church going folk? The answer, fuck yes it was and there was nothing I could do about it! I literally felt as if I was on another planet, I was a prisoner to be kept and converted. Sarah York, my friend had her head lowered onto the bench in front of us, she was trying to shield herself from all the bible preaching which was going on. Why were we being forced by law to watch this woman screaming for god??? Why was I sitting in fear trying to figure out why I was attending court appointed church?? What happened to the constitution and my rights?
Then my head went back to when I was standing in front of a judge who was to tell me what money I owed them for being drunk in public with my friend Sarah, beside me stood the County’s Prosecuting Attorney. July 7th at 7p.m. my friend and I truly found out what illegal things were going to happen, and in all places a government courthouse. We had no clue how severe of an issue ‘god’ would be, it turned out to be the only issue. Remember as you read this I was ordered by the court to take these Alcohol/Drug Abuse classes hosted by the program S.A.V.E.D. I was informed the day of my court appearance that if I failed to appear for these classes a warrant would be issued for my arrest. I would go to jail if I hadn’t gone to this class; this is what I cannot get of my mind. As Sarah and I walked up to sign our names, she asked him “What are we going to be doing-watching movies?” Kennis Maynard (Kentucky County Attorney) replied back “We’re gonna help ye, believe it or not were going to teach you about god.” Believe it or not huh? I was forced soon to believe his words regardless if I wanted to or not. Our jaws dropped…. simply our breath stopped. My head lowered again, you know I’m aware I don’t get surprised often…but the extent of the stupidity and selfishness of ignorance seems to never stop surprising me. My friend rightfully so added, “I’m an atheist, this isn’t going to help me.” As he rolled his eyes around in his fat head he said, “Your too young to know what you believe in, how can you not believe in god just look around ye.” I did, and what I saw was a bunch of drug addict alcoholic’s mumbling around…wow god’s beauty was sooooo apparent in this room if this was the extent of god’s beauty I couldn’t understand why more people aren’t atheists. How dare he talk to her this way, for one any discussion on religion is illegal in this class…and here this man sat proud and stern with ‘god’ to tell her she didn’t know how she felt, he did. I waited for her to explode, or for him to say something so awful I would explode. Sarah’s voice became more angry “I’ve always been an atheist this isn’t going to help me, I’ve died three times and there wasn’t anything there!” Ignoring her statement he rudely said, “Well where do you think you came from?” as if this question was the question to prove god was real. His rudeness inspired my friend to be a smart ass right back, “My mom and dad.” Wow, this man was such a pompous judging asshole.
This situation is one reason in my mind why the “separation of Religion and Government”, in our constitution. I knew in my brain what this man was doing was sooooo illegal, and he didn’t care for anyone’s opinion but his own. Did Kennis sit and wonder if what he was doing was illegal, I mean he is an Attorney for the entire county he should know shouldn’t he? Did Kennis sit and wonder if anyone else had a different religion, or a lack of one? Now this class was supposed to be about drug and alcohol abuse, ways to overcome it…alcohol was really never mentioned…especially what it does to ones life. You’d think Alcohol/Drug Abuse programs would talk about the substance that’s being abused, not in this class! The only topic on discussion *cough, well preaching time* was god…that’s it and what happens to you in the afterlife if you drink and do drugs. No mention of health effects, what it does to the individual’s family or anything at all involving what alcohol/drug abuse does to the life of anyone. All which was spoken of again, was god…just god. Some of the ‘preacher’s’ couldn’t even pronounce the names or places in the bible, and the other I literally quote said “I really don’t know what I’m talking about, I’m just learning the bible I used to be a drug addict.” Wow, cause a man who doesn’t know what he’s saying should be telling addicts how to run their lives…sounds like an awful ass backwards plan to me. He doesn’t know what he’s saying but he’s instructing drug addicts…yea.
This one lady, I still don’t know why she was there, she only introduced maybe two of the speakers. She chanted, threw her arms up, screamed to Jesus throughout the entire class, if you can call it that. Then out of the blue during a speaker’s depressing story she begins insanely laughing as loud as possible while she turned her head like she was the fucking girl in the Exorcist. Her eyes looked as if they were going to pop out of her head, I was scared. I grabbed my shirt, turned to Sarah with my eyes huge, and asked “Sarah what the fuck, DID YOU SEE THAT??!!!??” Shouldn’t Kennis a government worker be stopping this illegal activity? My head turned and there he was, sitting in the same row as Sarah and I as if nothing odd was going on at all. I was scared, I seriously admit it…I can’t see how anyone sat through that like it was normal, like she was mentally ok. How is it people think were the freaks, I mean come on!! She was fucking crazy! One man, an ex-biker, who was more open minded but still I have to bash him for his selfishness said something which almost made me shit myself. I’m quoting him exactly “This court house is now a house of god!” I wished I had had a tape recorder, so I was able to record it and send it in to someone who runs the state! THIS SHIT IS 100% ILLEGAL!!!! I have no idea how many church songs were sung, and the singing was a heavenly blue grassy moment of bliss for them…seriously. They seemed so happy they looked crazy to me, seemed like they were faking it. I had previously only seen this kind of behavior in bad horror flicks. Of course every speaker had to tell us how much they all loved us, sooo much…of course just like god loves us. The speakers loved us so much that they participated in forced church because love forces you to listen I mean…right?
At the end of the session it was said they closed with a final group prayer at every class. Our asses stayed in the seat, I was not going to participate in prayer, and I hadn’t participated to the many many times prayer was given. I could see everyone walking slow, checking us out from his or her side vision… I watched them. The room cleared, they were all in their spots waiting to join hands, and then the awkward staring came. One asked us to come up, and then Kennis ordered us to join. I put my hand up as if I was offered extra food at dinner and quietly said, “Nah, I’m good.” Sarah added in much louder, “I’m an atheist, if I was to pray it would be false prayer and that would be a slap in gods face!” She was being really respectful in saying this, but we sure got the dirty looks. Then it began, a few of them chanting as loud as possible to save the non-believers…which were us if I need to point that out. When the thing was over we rushed out, and I felt as if I had been a freed slave from the clutches of white religious oppression. Really I felt liberated. But I was angry as fucking hell, and I mean angry. I’m so sick of the illegal church based way of things down here; hardly anything is legal at all! No one does a thing about it!!! I was beyond disgusted by the entire situation, beyond, the class I was forced to attend was Church and the law is allowing this! Only god was spoke of, that’s it…these people have no regard for anyone else and their beliefs. It isn’t right to force any religion on anyone in any way, especially when the government is the ball and chain in the situation. I was betrayed and so was everyone else in that room, no one got real help with their addiction, if anything the whole ordeal made me want to drink. Though when I went home, I didn’t because I chose not to, not because I have god in my life.
We need help do what you can! My friend and I may be thrown back in jail for not participating in their prayer! Write the Kentucky Legislature.
Unfortunately, I was not able to find a public website for these people, so I could not examine the programme further. However, this kind of sentence is not uncommon in backwater counties where there are less people to question the constitutionality of the actions of these attorneys and they can pass some really shitty sentences which violate our fundamental constitutional laws. This person should be held 100% accountable for his willful violation of the US Constitution and Bill of Rights. This shit should not be allowed to skate. I encourage and plead you to not only write the Kentucky Legislature, but also the Governor and the state attorney general because this is a clear violation of Church and State and it should not be allowed to go unpunished. Please, help us fight against clear violations of the bill of rights and the separation of church and state that is so important in our society!
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