Ala. town's criminals get choice: Jail or church

Quote :

"(CBS/AP) BAY MINETTE, Ala. - Authorities say non-violent offenders in southern Alabama will have a new choice: Go to jail, or go to church every Sunday for a year. CBS News affiliate WKRG-TV in Mobile reports that Operation Restore Our Community begins next week. (Scroll down to watch a report from WKRG-TV) The city judge in Bay Minette will let misdemeanor offenders choose to work off their sentences in jail and pay a fine; or go to church every Sunday for a year. If offenders select church, they'll be allowed to pick the place of worship but must check in weekly with the pastor and police. If the one-year church attendance program is completed, the offender's case will be dismissed. Bay Minette Police Chief Mike Rowland says the program could change the lives of people heading down the wrong path. So far, 56 churches are participating."

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/09/23/national/main20110680.shtml

How is this abiding by the constitution? The government is essentially stating, you must either "join" a religion and you can otherwise be "free" or you can sit in jail and pay us some money. While there is a choice... it doesn't seem to be fairly weighted.

9/23/2011 1:20:10 PM

My parents have worked extensively in "Prison Ministry" - basically a program with Wake County correctional that allows them to sponsor an inmate and bring them out for a few hours once a week. However, they're very strict on where the inmates can be taken. The library, restaurants that don't serve beer, and - you guessed it - church.

9/23/2011 1:21:59 PM

I don't have a problem with people being able to choose church (in either situation) but in all fairness, if such programs are offered, there must be non-religious equivalents, especially if the government is having to pay for any of it.

9/23/2011 1:23:46 PM

awesome. just another thing they'll use to justify putting non-atheists in prison one day. idiots are asking for it.

9/23/2011 1:26:32 PM

I wish I could say I was surprised.

Quote :

"awesome. just another thing they'll use to justify putting non-atheists in prison one day. idiots are asking for it."

what?

[Edited on September 23, 2011 at 1:27 PM. Reason : .]

9/23/2011 1:27:16 PM

Yeah...what?

9/23/2011 2:00:13 PM

in and of itself, I don't think it's a bad thing, but it opens the door to a slippery slope, and this is the deep south.

9/23/2011 2:09:57 PM

Add me to the list of people befuddled by your comment.

9/23/2011 2:10:43 PM

i'd choose the Church of Body Modification

http://uscobm.com/

9/23/2011 2:22:18 PM

You can only choose from the churches that volunteer for the program.

9/23/2011 2:24:25 PM

this is about as unconstitutional as you can get

9/23/2011 2:33:35 PM

This is very unconstitutional. Unfortunately, so is the only plan I can come up with for fixing Alabama, which involves burning their constitution, declaring martial law, hanging most of their government, and sending the people to education camps. (Can't send them to re-education if they never got educated in the first place)

9/23/2011 2:38:10 PM

Quote :

"just another thing they'll use to justify putting non-atheists in prison one day. idiots are asking for it."

He's saying that eventually behavior like this will be used to justify religion as something which should be stopped completely, as I'm sure many on this site already feel should be happening.

9/23/2011 2:55:41 PM

That also makes zero sense.

9/23/2011 3:00:25 PM

How so? Any basis for this claim, or just trying to get a rise out of me?

9/23/2011 3:05:51 PM

these religious paranoid fantasies are extravagant. even people like myself who think religion is a viewpoint deserving of zero respect think that you people should be able to entertain yourselves with whatever childish notions please you. you have the liberty to do at least that.

9/23/2011 3:10:14 PM

My grandmother worked with a girl's prison at one point. One of the inmates she worked with apparently remembered me from high school and said I was a close friend back then and asked a lot of questions about me, and I definitely know who it was now and last I heard she was stripping, so that was awkward. Receiving messages from a meth addict that used to be friends with me from my grandmother.

9/23/2011 4:08:15 PM

Cool story bro.

9/23/2011 4:23:59 PM

I knew you'd all enjoy it. I'm available for wedding receptions and pizza parties.

9/23/2011 4:25:12 PM

McDanger

actually it's only to people like you i give zero respect who ONLY entertain the notion that only possibility of the existence of the universe can be based on your current viewpoints and that it must be according to your current theories with our ants view of the universe. even with future scientific evidence or other plausible causality that proves otherwise, you would be mentally unable to accept an alternate view on reality. you are too deeply entrenched in your own ways and reject any other options.

9/23/2011 5:07:13 PM

and this is why you consider it "a viewpoint deserving of zero respect"

9/23/2011 5:08:13 PM

other than the fact that most atheists don't actually believe that...

Quote :

"ants view of the universe"

is ironic as hell

which is more egotistical for the ant?

1. Assuming that he was created by an all powerful Ant Creator who made ants in His image, given dominion over all other non-ants by the Ant Creator, imbued with an Ant soul, part of a divine Ant plan, destined to spend eternity in Ant Heaven or Ant Hell.
Or...
2. Assuming that he is probably an ant.

9/23/2011 6:23:47 PM

If they allow mosques, temples, Unitarian churches, and Covens to participate, this wouldn’t really bother me all that much.

9/23/2011 6:25:11 PM

Quote :

"This is very unconstitutional. Unfortunately, so is the only plan I can come up with for fixing Alabama, which involves burning their constitution, declaring martial law, hanging most of their government, and sending the people to education camps. (Can't send them to re-education if they never got educated in the first place)"

Huntsville has a research park second only to RTP, as well as the Redstone Arsenal base/compound. Some of the beaches are pretty nice, too.

Other than that, yeah, it pretty much sucks.

9/23/2011 6:31:24 PM

Also:

9/23/2011 6:34:20 PM

how long are the jail sentences and how big are the fines we're talking about? pretty sure i'd take a week in jail.

[Edited on September 23, 2011 at 7:05 PM. Reason : church as a substitute for jail says a whole lot]

9/23/2011 7:05:03 PM

^^^^It sounds like they would, but what if you're just atheist or agnostic?

[Edited on September 23, 2011 at 7:06 PM. Reason : ]

9/23/2011 7:06:12 PM

http://www.venganza.org/

9/23/2011 7:09:32 PM

Quote :

"actually it's only to people like you i give zero respect who ONLY entertain the notion that only possibility of the existence of the universe can be based on your current viewpoints and that it must be according to your current theories with our ants view of the universe. even with future scientific evidence or other plausible causality that proves otherwise, you would be mentally unable to accept an alternate view on reality. you are too deeply entrenched in your own ways and reject any other options."

Hahaha what the fuck is this? Are you seriously suggesting that because I don't believe your redneck horseshit that I'm the arrogant one? You're the one claiming revelation of how the entire universe works, buddy, not me.

9/24/2011 1:51:07 AM

yeah... not seeing how this one would even begin to pass Constitutional muster. the fact that, at least according to the article, it doesn't include other faiths would be the smoking gun on it, even if the offer of going to a religious service, itself, weren't one

[Edited on September 24, 2011 at 1:57 AM. Reason : ]

9/24/2011 1:57:24 AM

Well, technically we can't claim how the world works. The ideas behind the translation of the will of God into time are mentioned very briefly in Ezekiel, and they are not meant to be very descriptive. But I don't think it's arrogant to doubt.

9/24/2011 11:45:15 AM

Every day, I am blown away by what religious people have to say.

9/24/2011 12:26:16 PM

sounds like a good idea to me, and i'm not super religious. It's a good alternate to incarceration which costs a ton of money. As far as the religious aspect, i've always viewed church as much a social gathering as a religious thing... this is a good way to introduce these pseudo-criminals to a positive social environment.

9/24/2011 1:02:01 PM

If Church actually was a "positive social environment" I'd agree with you. But repeating unscientific nonsense as absolute truth is destructive, not positive.

9/24/2011 1:52:17 PM

Quote :

"your redneck horseshit"

Ha so a few 1000 years ago you were one of those Geocentric model guys telling everybody off about their "redneck horseshit"

bwhaha what an idiot. ITS IMPOSSIBLE THAT THERE ARE ANY OTHER ALTERNATE THEORIES THAN
MINE

pfffttt

9/24/2011 2:17:38 PM

Not every explanation has equal validity. Sorry.

9/24/2011 2:37:28 PM

LOL. Do you even know why people supported the geocentric consensus?

9/24/2011 2:39:25 PM

^sheep

there are sheep everywhere. and a lot of people blindly follow whatever defends their lifestyle. sorry.

9/24/2011 3:01:31 PM

You have no clue what you're talking about. At all.

9/24/2011 3:12:08 PM

and you do. lol

9/24/2011 3:17:00 PM

Regarding what nonbelievers actually think, yea I'd say so.

9/24/2011 3:19:35 PM

^^^^
which one of these is you?

9/24/2011 3:31:52 PM

Quote :

"there are sheep everywhere. and a lot of people blindly follow whatever defends their lifestyle. sorry."

What is the suggestion here? That skeptics that demand evidence before belief are somehow blindly following skepticism?

9/24/2011 3:32:53 PM

it's just funny seeing so many atheists these days disqualify others completely as 'less of a human being than them' for other beliefs when they themselves are following something that will be considered less than witch doctor science in 1000 years.

9/24/2011 3:45:09 PM

Quote :

"it's just funny seeing so many atheists these days disqualify others completely as 'less of a human being than them' for other beliefs"

Again, you have no idea what you're talking about. I don't know a single atheist who thinks that way.

Quote :

"when they themselves are following something that will be considered less than witch doctor science in 1000 years."

We look back at certain ancient Greeks and consider them geniuses. They got a lot of stuff wrong. Human knowledge has progressed since then... point?

9/24/2011 3:49:55 PM

Jail for me please. At least there I can read something constructive.

9/24/2011 3:57:30 PM

^^ so you're saying you've made zero observations about reality over the last 20 years. cool.

'not a single one'

[Edited on September 24, 2011 at 4:00 PM. Reason : ha]

9/24/2011 3:59:56 PM

Where the fuck did you pull that one out? I can make observations about reality all day long while knowing full well that I could be wrong and I almost certainly am wrong about something.

Seriously, point?

9/24/2011 4:02:44 PM

I honestly feel like pack_bryan isn't responding to us, but the other personality in his head. His responses are sometimes not even tangentially related to what he is responding to.

9/24/2011 5:32:21 PM

I think he's operating under the assumption that a belief system that has no official way of ingesting new information and revising bad ideas is superior to one that improves itself as new/better information becomes available.

Sticking your head in the sand is better, in his eyes, that having to squint at the sun sometimes?

9/24/2011 5:55:14 PM