People who're willing to publicly oppose the Christofascist agenda will necessarily become more prominent as the agenda is advanced. Noting the incoming government's further empowerment of power-hungry Christian loony-tunes, also noting harbingers of public endorsement of religiously motivated repression (https://archive.is/hsDcl)--things are heating up.
I hope this thread will chronicle an active opposition but that remains to be seen.
"Satanic Temple begins religious release program at Ohio elementary school" |
Cleveland.com (https://archive.is/CSvsg)
QuoteA public elementary school will begin offering a religious release program for students sponsored by the Satanic Temple, reportedly in response to a Christian program already established in the school system.
Hellion Academy of Independent Learning (HAIL) begins this month at Edgewood Elementary School in Marysville, according to a Facebook post from the Satanic Temple. Students can attend the program once a month during school hours but off the school campus.
An ordained minister with the Satanic Temple, the only Satanic religious organization recognized as a church by the IRS and federal courts, tells WCMH Channel 4 that a parent approached the group and asked for HAIL to be offered at the school.
The minister, June Everett, tells WCMH that HAIL is only offered when requested and only at schools where other religious programs already are established.
LifeWise Academy, an Ohio-based program operating in 200 schools in Ohio, is offered at Edgewood Elementary School, WCMH reports. LifeWise removes participating students from schools for 55 minutes once per week to study the Bible.
The parent requested HAIL as an alternative to LifeWise, Everett tells WCMH. "We aren't trying to shut the LifeWise Academy down, but I do think a lot of school districts don't realize when they open the door for one religion, they open it for all of them," Everett said.
[Continues . . . (https://archive.is/CSvsg)]
I've donated to the Satanic Temple for years. Located in my state as well!
James Talarico, the Democratic candidate for US Senate in Texas, has been ruffling the feathers of Christofascists. They don't like him spouting the words of Jesus, which directly contradict their version of Christianity.
"Christian right calls James Talarico 'demonic' — for quoting Jesus" |
Salon (https://www.salon.com/2026/06/14/christian-right-calls-james-talarico-demonic-for-quoting-jesus/)
QuoteJames Talarico has been found guilty of quoting Jesus. The sentence he uttered, according to right-wing media, was "demonic" and "blasphemous," (https://www.mediamatters.org/benny-johnson/right-wing-media-attack-james-talarico-his-christian-faith-and-beliefs-hes-not) exposing him as a "fake Christian." Talarico is running for the U.S. Senate in Texas on a platform The New Yorker recently described as basically the New Testament. One Newsmax host accused him of using fake Bible passages.
The passages in question are familiar ones, found in Matthew 22 and Matthew 25. Love God and love your neighbor. Feed the hungry, heal the sick, welcome the stranger. They are, in fact, in the Bible.
The right's attacks on Talarico aren't about him, or at least not entirely. They're about a much older argument — one progressive Christianity has been losing in public for 50 years — about whose version of the faith gets to count as real. The answer to that question has consequences far beyond any Senate race. When Christianity becomes a tool of power rather than a challenge to it, it doesn't just damage the church. It destabilizes democracy. We are watching that happen in real time.
[. . .]
The Christian right spent decades narrowing the Gospel down to two issues, abortion and gay marriage. Talarico told Stephen Colbert something that's obvious to anyone who has read past the cover of the Bible, rather than carrying it around for show: Jesus never mentions either of those things. But in Matthew 25, words in plain language, attributed explicitly to Jesus, tell us we will be judged by how we have treated the hungry, the sick, the stranger and the imprisoned.
[Continues . . . (https://www.salon.com/2026/06/14/christian-right-calls-james-talarico-demonic-for-quoting-jesus/)]
If I was a Texan, I might vote for Talarico. I do not believe in his religion but he has been pretty good about restraining himself from demanding that we commit ourselves to the Jesus thing.
Given that he's running against one of the most corrupt politicians in the US (that we know of) it wouldn't be a difficult choice for me.