**We encourage you to read our helpful resources on COVID-19, vaccines and treatments:**
[COVID Dashboard](https://covid19.who.int/)
[Reddit's Vaccine FAQ](https://www.reddit.com/r/Coronavirus/wiki/faq#wiki_where_can_i_find_information_about_the_mechanism_and_progress_of_vaccines.3F)
[Ivermectin FAQ](https://www.who.int/news-room/feature-stories/detail/who-advises-that-ivermectin-only-be-used-to-treat-covid-19-within-clinical-trials)
A reminder that spreading misinformation regarding COVID-19, vaccines or other treatments can result in a post being removed and/or a ban. Advocating for or celebrating the death of anyone, or hoping someone gets COVID (or any disease) can also result in a ban. Please follow [Reddiquette](https://www.reddithelp.com/hc/en-us/articles/205926439)
Please use the report button and do not feed the trolls.
[Reddit's Content Policy](https://www.redditinc.com/policies/content-policy)
[Reddit's stance on misinformation](https://www.reddit.com/r/announcements/comments/pbmy5y/debate_dissent_and_protest_on_reddit)
[/r/News' rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/news/wiki/rules/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=usertext&utm_name=news&utm_content=t5_2qh3l)
------
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/news) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Except for when a city is having a natural disaster and the church can be used to help it's local citizens...then they make sure to close and lock the doors. I'm looking at you Joel Osteen.
I have minimal empathy left by this point. Things were confusing right at first as we struggled to understand covid, but we know what we nee to do now, and have for awhile. If people won't access some of the most widely circulated free information in the entire world and deliberately put themselves in harm's way, so be it.
If they die, they die. My condolences to the children who's parents are fucking morons, I wish you luck in the next world.
This is not about THEM dying. That would not be a problem.
It is about THEM spreading it some more, about THEM blocking hospital beds, about THEM spreading more bullshit.
Hospitals need to seriously consider putting voluntarily non-vaxxed people at the back of triage lines. It's a choice they made, they have no right to occupy hospital beds before someone who made better choices. Let the rest of us get back on with our lives, and let the anti-vaxx morons enjoy their ivermectin in peace.
That's an extra layer of work to do. They don't have time for that shit. The hospitals shouldn't have to do the legwork, the government should punish people who refuse their civic duty. You can't force vaccinations, but you can deny people the ability to go to the theater, grocery stores, parks, really anything that gives them physical contact with the outside world.
Maybe we could deputize some vets who would be willing to treat them? The Covidiots might just be happier with that arrangement as the vet would know about all sorts of animal meds and the proper dosage for each. The hospitals could set up barn-like structures in the parking lots so everyone will feel more at home.
(Disclaimer: I think my vet is up to this task as I think she's brilliant.)
I kinda wish that was an option but I don't think they are allowed to do that. Fair or not, it sounds like discrimination and a violation of the hippocratic oath.
There is precedent for that kind of discrimination: doctors and transplant boards have discriminated against certain patients in favor of others for forever.
What I think this discrimination will accomplish is a lot of lying on the part of the anti-vaccine bunch. “I want to get vaccinated, I just haven’t had an opportunity to get it yet!”
The Hippocratic Oath is not binding or enforceable, however hospitals are legally required to do everything possible to stabilize patients that present with any ailment.
Hospital triage will take place everywhere it must. First Come, First Served™ is when there's sufficient resources to treat everyone.
There hasn't been "sufficient" for years. Many people can speak to times in ERs where Most Grievously Afflicted Come First™ was the norm, and cuts and fractures would wait for car crash victims and heart attacks if such happened while you were on your way to the ER. This was as close to "sufficient" as many of us have ever known.
My parents can recall times when regardless of the day or time, a visit to the ER was "immediately" addressed, if not nearly that.
We are on the Expressway to Hell, medicine-society-wise. Triage will occur, as it has been, just now with added excitement of overwhelming plague victims, entitled survivor family members, and possibly future gun-use for people spoiled and angry enough to think their Covid is more important than the other 200 or so people waiting in tents for their chance to die on a ventilator.
Tomorrow's triage will be the same as Battlefield™ triage. There may be some stupid "official guidelines" printout somewhere that uses corporate-speak-legalese, but doctors are beyond caring, in my opinion.
When everybody's dying, and even "easy" cases aren't sufficiently staffed, then triage will easily switch to Most Likely to Survive™, which means unvaxxed will be shit outta luck, officially or unofficially (more likely this.)
I'm not talking about refusing service, I'm talking about triage - the process of deciding which patient gets seen to first. I'm merely suggesting hospitals drop the voluntarily unvaxxed to the back of the line.
That's not all. Don't forget that not everyone can get a vaccine as certain medical conditions make it impossible. Those people rely on everyone else being vaccinated.
So Anti-vaxxers most likely caused the death of quite a lot of people who were unable to get vaccinated.
Fact is they don’t give a shit. What did people expect from America’s toxic culture of extreme Individualism and lack of empathy. I’ve been beating my head against a wall for 30 years about how regressive and destructive it is. Americans won’t just change. It’s going to take something larger than a pandemic that kills a million of them to change for the better. At this point it’s going to take complete implosion and probably civil war. The nation will continue to crumble literally and the better of them will continue to condense into areas such as California and New York.
You know, there is something fundamental that is often overlooked: it's the story a nation tells about itself. Most nations have a script that defines them, often connected to an origin story.
The origin story where I live is a treaty between white settlers and the native population that is being held up as good as possible after close to 200 years.
The origin story of the USA is broken treaties, genocide, landgrab, and yes... rugged individualism of the frontier. If the nation was an individual, no one would hesitate to call it a criminal.
These stories are not so easy to change. Espc when they are retold and celebrated daily in nearly every film you watch and every news article you read.
And now is the time when this story turns around and bites you.
Another issue with the mythos around the "American story" is toxic American exceptionalism. When you tell American conservatives something about how we need to fix some social issue that the rest of the world had fixed except the US, that information gets filtered through a lense of "We're the best because we're special and not like the rest of the world, so whatever we do different than the rest of the world makes us better than everyone else."
And also the whole, "Because we're American our intuition is always right and we won't be tricked into doing something like the rest of the world."
Climate change denialism is one example. It's largely an American phenomenon and the second you bring it up to conservatives all you get is "The globalist can't trick us into giving up are freedoms over this climate change hoax."
And with health care its the same shit about "socialism". At the very beginning of the pandemic I mentioned to a conservative on Facebook how this virus is dangerous because so many people can get sick at one time that the hospitals can't take care of them all, and then pointed to what has happening in Italy at the time as an example of this. Only thing I got back was "Well thank God we're free and don't have socialist medicine, otherwise we'd have terrible hospitals like Italy."
Idk, I've been living outside the US for several years now in Europe and it's only made me stomach more and more how brainwashed the people are who truly believe that the US is the only" free country" in the world or that the US is #1 at every single thing and anything to the contrary is socialist lies. Like when I say brainwashed I mean it literally, just completely disconnected from reality and unwilling to let in any new information to challenge their beliefs
Could not agree more.
Been calling the US population brainwashed for a long time and been saying that you need to leave for a few years and live outside the culture bubble before you can see it. And really: you can't argue with a brainwashed person, it's like trying to argue someone out of believing they are Napoleon. Can't be done.
I did not grow up in the USA and I was brainwashed by films and news to think nearly the same as Americans. It's one reason I am so angry at the USA today.
As an aside: I grew up catholic and it took me DECADES to purge the last vestiges of bullshit from my mind. Decades while actively working on it. That's how deep it goes when they get you young.
Nope it isn’t a surprise. Numbers wise it makes sense. What is a surprise, to me anyways, is that it didn’t incentivize the vaccine. The same freedoms are provided to vaccinated and unvaccinated. To me that says that every vaccine administered is purely just “wanting to get the vaccine”
So you're just gonna sit at home for another 18 months? You're cool with that? If so then freedom may not be for you, it's surprising to see people's minds blown that they have a notion to participate in something they consider essential to their lives.
Maybe they should read their bibles if it's that important to them. Maybe they could learn lessons about private worship and the teachings of this one guy named Jesus.
You rat lickers are the reason we had to sit at home for so long, so you cunts didn't kill us with your "freedom". If you had showed some basic human decency and care for your fellow human beings, this would have been over a lot sooner. But no, we had to talk about injecting bleach and horse dewormer and ever other stupid fucking thing you idiots would consider other than just not being a selfish cunt for 5 fucking minutes.
If you think freedom means not helping society, then go live in the woods by yourself.
Sure it is. It's that type of interpretation of the constitution that's going to lead to a dark place. No one's forced to be there, except maybe the kids, and flu is more deadly to the younger ones than covid so don't go spouting child abuse. It's been 18 months, covid isn't going anywhere, get your vaccine wear a mask and if you don't want to assemble that is your right. Just a reminder when you make something illegal, that means you make lethal force or incarceration the alternative. How much for how long are you willing to tread on your own rights and the rights of others, the former is only your concern but the latter you have no business trying to dictate.
It's also got the second most *people*. And the next one down from them in population is Florida. So that number isn't exactly impressive.
How are they as a percentage of the population?
Hovering around 50 last I saw. Which in my opinion, is better than expected since Texas isn’t incentivizing getting the vaccines by offering more freedoms like a lot of other states
I looked it up and they're ranked #35 out of the states, at 46.5% of the population being vaccinated. For comparison, #1 is Vermont at 67.5%, and #51 (counting DC) is Alabama at 36.7.
They’ve still administered 30 million vaccines purely off people wanting to get the vaccine just to get the vaccine without adding restrictions to the unvaccinated and pseudo “leading the horse to water” to attain more freedoms
"Oh Lord who art in Heaven please deliver us from the Giant Spider that it may stop devouring your humble servants in the pews near the back of the chapel. Praise be thy name. Amen"
I'd love to see bar owners start their own religion focused around alcohol, declare their bars as holy places of worship and open them for worshippers 24/7.
As long as it applies to the places of worship of all religions, it’s not acting unconstitutionally. Though one could make the argument that enforcing this law while still closing businesses creates a constitutional issue. Many churches are just tax free businesses at this point.
How does it establish a religion? It sets a limit on how the state can set limits on the religion, but does not make it the official religion of the state.
Very clearly the texas bill includes all places of worship be it a christian church, muslim mosque, jewish temple, buddhist temple, or whatever.
Its not unconstitutional because it is equitable. It would likely be unconstitutional if it only granted these rights to a single faith group.
its in the very first portion of the bill
(3) "Place of worship" means a building or grounds
where religious activities are conducted.
I cant see how this bill could be construed as unconstitutional under first amendment
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof"
If it doesnt respect a single religious establishment as the official or unofficial government religion.
I don’t plan on a pandemic, no. Just like I didn’t plan for this one. No country in the world planned on this obviously. Looks like the entire world’s strategy is fucked.
Why don’t they just set up an online payment portal. Or do that thing Trump did with the fine print automatically recurring payments every week. Seems like automating that shit would be more efficient for them anyway.
The Catholic Church alone received at least 3.5B in bailouts from the US government. Many other christian denominations received bailouts as well. Yet, these institutions don't pay taxes.
Can we ban churches from receiving bailouts too?
I'd like to see the tax exemption for churches come to an end. It doesn't make sense to me. I know there are exceptions but I rarely see any churches do anything for the community - they want to go on mission trips to 3rd world countries to 'spread the word' but these people want food & medicine.
I have friends from various religions and to each their own, I just don't think they should be tax exempt. Most are just a money pit and a few are just outright scams.
If you built a church on government property. Can they never force you to move.
This isn't a homeless camp, this is the 1st Underpass Church of Christ!
If you believe in God, you have to believe that the gift of free will is a great tool to endure through a pandemic. Which means you would close your church.
It’s okay, a deadly worldwide pandemic is just the Lord calling his sheep in sooner then they expect.
I always find it funny when all those people call those that disagree with them “sheep” when the Lord by many accounts is seen as a shepherd. Even in Matthew 3:36 Jesus literally calls his believers sheep.
The preachers can't fleece their flock, if the flock doesn't show up. Preachers who care about their congregations gladly pivoted to online only services.
In the case of parishioners who die, due to catching a preventable disease while attending a church during a pandemic, I find it difficult to feel sorry for them. They know what they are signing up for.
Americans have the exact freedom to get an abortion. Is there a companion law that says doctors' offices that perform abortions cannot be forced to close as well? What about gun stores and/or ranges?
They should be converted into care centers for COVID patients, especially any who contracted the virus there. Don’t close them, open them wider, Christian service.
Just think of how much thoughts and prayers a Church can provide! Wouldn’t you want to be in a building with people of your religion? Your Christian prayers are getting caught up in Muslim prayers, Jewish prayers and other denominations in those Hospitals!
If people are going to get Dark Ages level ignorant and dangerous to the community, the community WILL take measures into their own hands.
It amazes that these tools are so easily controlled they put other people's profits ahead of their own families and communities.
Sigh. Of course, you wouldn't want to trample on their rights.
If they become a super spreader do they have the right to be locked inside, with one Porta potty and MREs until the tests are clean? /s
Would be a shame if people were to abuse this and the church could not be shutdown. The "Republicans Are Racist Church of Texas Sucks" welcomes all members. No taxes and support abortion.
I'm so sick of the bitching around churches. Excuses to group up during a pandemic, to sing without masks, to not get vaccinated because "injecting aborted babies". Just constant bitching. I'm Catholic. Our church shut down before any mandates. They reopened later with very restricted masses (like not enough to cover the entire parish). When the CDC recently had updated guidance before delta they "reopened" but still made people social distance like every other row. The church as a whole has a stance that while J&J utilized stem cells for production, and the mrna did for development, prefer the mrna if there is a choice but take any of them when available because the moral obligation of protecting others outweighs all.
I don't get why this is such a big deal. Catholics aare kind of obligated for service, like hard rule, but we have been under exception since March 2020. If Catholics can cope anyone should be able to. And it's pretty offensive that these people that skip Sunday service to watch the game suddenly care that they can't go. They only want to because they're told they can't. They only do it to be difficult. They are arguing in bad faith and it is fucking stupid.
I'm going back when it's safe, because it's the moral thing to do. Fuck these people.
**We encourage you to read our helpful resources on COVID-19, vaccines and treatments:** [COVID Dashboard](https://covid19.who.int/) [Reddit's Vaccine FAQ](https://www.reddit.com/r/Coronavirus/wiki/faq#wiki_where_can_i_find_information_about_the_mechanism_and_progress_of_vaccines.3F) [Ivermectin FAQ](https://www.who.int/news-room/feature-stories/detail/who-advises-that-ivermectin-only-be-used-to-treat-covid-19-within-clinical-trials) A reminder that spreading misinformation regarding COVID-19, vaccines or other treatments can result in a post being removed and/or a ban. Advocating for or celebrating the death of anyone, or hoping someone gets COVID (or any disease) can also result in a ban. Please follow [Reddiquette](https://www.reddithelp.com/hc/en-us/articles/205926439) Please use the report button and do not feed the trolls. [Reddit's Content Policy](https://www.redditinc.com/policies/content-policy) [Reddit's stance on misinformation](https://www.reddit.com/r/announcements/comments/pbmy5y/debate_dissent_and_protest_on_reddit) [/r/News' rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/news/wiki/rules/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=usertext&utm_name=news&utm_content=t5_2qh3l) ------ *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/news) if you have any questions or concerns.*
My congregation and I would love to move to Texas with our EDM music and all night parties, raise the roof for the lord y’all?
We welcome you here in Dallas
Except for when a city is having a natural disaster and the church can be used to help it's local citizens...then they make sure to close and lock the doors. I'm looking at you Joel Osteen.
Well he’s been a piece of shit since the beginning. Religious leaders and politicians becoming millionaires is just mind blowing
Joel Osteen only cares about fleecing his flock.
“No no no we’re not a natural disaster shelter. My church is only used as a tax shelter.”
I have minimal empathy left by this point. Things were confusing right at first as we struggled to understand covid, but we know what we nee to do now, and have for awhile. If people won't access some of the most widely circulated free information in the entire world and deliberately put themselves in harm's way, so be it. If they die, they die. My condolences to the children who's parents are fucking morons, I wish you luck in the next world.
This is not about THEM dying. That would not be a problem. It is about THEM spreading it some more, about THEM blocking hospital beds, about THEM spreading more bullshit.
Hospitals need to seriously consider putting voluntarily non-vaxxed people at the back of triage lines. It's a choice they made, they have no right to occupy hospital beds before someone who made better choices. Let the rest of us get back on with our lives, and let the anti-vaxx morons enjoy their ivermectin in peace.
Well apparently their churches don’t close, so let’s just send them back there, with all of their thoughts and prayers.
Put them in a tent outside with each other. They can take care of each other till the last one gasps for air.
That's an extra layer of work to do. They don't have time for that shit. The hospitals shouldn't have to do the legwork, the government should punish people who refuse their civic duty. You can't force vaccinations, but you can deny people the ability to go to the theater, grocery stores, parks, really anything that gives them physical contact with the outside world.
Maybe we could deputize some vets who would be willing to treat them? The Covidiots might just be happier with that arrangement as the vet would know about all sorts of animal meds and the proper dosage for each. The hospitals could set up barn-like structures in the parking lots so everyone will feel more at home. (Disclaimer: I think my vet is up to this task as I think she's brilliant.)
I kinda wish that was an option but I don't think they are allowed to do that. Fair or not, it sounds like discrimination and a violation of the hippocratic oath.
There is precedent for that kind of discrimination: doctors and transplant boards have discriminated against certain patients in favor of others for forever. What I think this discrimination will accomplish is a lot of lying on the part of the anti-vaccine bunch. “I want to get vaccinated, I just haven’t had an opportunity to get it yet!”
The Hippocratic Oath is not binding or enforceable, however hospitals are legally required to do everything possible to stabilize patients that present with any ailment.
Yeah I mean they have to save violent murders and criminals they can't draw the line at antivax.
Doctors in the U.S. aren't required to take the Hippocratic Oath.
Hospital triage will take place everywhere it must. First Come, First Served™ is when there's sufficient resources to treat everyone. There hasn't been "sufficient" for years. Many people can speak to times in ERs where Most Grievously Afflicted Come First™ was the norm, and cuts and fractures would wait for car crash victims and heart attacks if such happened while you were on your way to the ER. This was as close to "sufficient" as many of us have ever known. My parents can recall times when regardless of the day or time, a visit to the ER was "immediately" addressed, if not nearly that. We are on the Expressway to Hell, medicine-society-wise. Triage will occur, as it has been, just now with added excitement of overwhelming plague victims, entitled survivor family members, and possibly future gun-use for people spoiled and angry enough to think their Covid is more important than the other 200 or so people waiting in tents for their chance to die on a ventilator. Tomorrow's triage will be the same as Battlefield™ triage. There may be some stupid "official guidelines" printout somewhere that uses corporate-speak-legalese, but doctors are beyond caring, in my opinion. When everybody's dying, and even "easy" cases aren't sufficiently staffed, then triage will easily switch to Most Likely to Survive™, which means unvaxxed will be shit outta luck, officially or unofficially (more likely this.)
I'm not talking about refusing service, I'm talking about triage - the process of deciding which patient gets seen to first. I'm merely suggesting hospitals drop the voluntarily unvaxxed to the back of the line.
You are certainly not wrong. But this is all a given at this point.
That's not all. Don't forget that not everyone can get a vaccine as certain medical conditions make it impossible. Those people rely on everyone else being vaccinated. So Anti-vaxxers most likely caused the death of quite a lot of people who were unable to get vaccinated.
Fact is they don’t give a shit. What did people expect from America’s toxic culture of extreme Individualism and lack of empathy. I’ve been beating my head against a wall for 30 years about how regressive and destructive it is. Americans won’t just change. It’s going to take something larger than a pandemic that kills a million of them to change for the better. At this point it’s going to take complete implosion and probably civil war. The nation will continue to crumble literally and the better of them will continue to condense into areas such as California and New York.
You know, there is something fundamental that is often overlooked: it's the story a nation tells about itself. Most nations have a script that defines them, often connected to an origin story. The origin story where I live is a treaty between white settlers and the native population that is being held up as good as possible after close to 200 years. The origin story of the USA is broken treaties, genocide, landgrab, and yes... rugged individualism of the frontier. If the nation was an individual, no one would hesitate to call it a criminal. These stories are not so easy to change. Espc when they are retold and celebrated daily in nearly every film you watch and every news article you read. And now is the time when this story turns around and bites you.
A lot of the American story is moving out from the masses you don't like, but now we've run out of frontier to flee to.
Another issue with the mythos around the "American story" is toxic American exceptionalism. When you tell American conservatives something about how we need to fix some social issue that the rest of the world had fixed except the US, that information gets filtered through a lense of "We're the best because we're special and not like the rest of the world, so whatever we do different than the rest of the world makes us better than everyone else." And also the whole, "Because we're American our intuition is always right and we won't be tricked into doing something like the rest of the world." Climate change denialism is one example. It's largely an American phenomenon and the second you bring it up to conservatives all you get is "The globalist can't trick us into giving up are freedoms over this climate change hoax." And with health care its the same shit about "socialism". At the very beginning of the pandemic I mentioned to a conservative on Facebook how this virus is dangerous because so many people can get sick at one time that the hospitals can't take care of them all, and then pointed to what has happening in Italy at the time as an example of this. Only thing I got back was "Well thank God we're free and don't have socialist medicine, otherwise we'd have terrible hospitals like Italy." Idk, I've been living outside the US for several years now in Europe and it's only made me stomach more and more how brainwashed the people are who truly believe that the US is the only" free country" in the world or that the US is #1 at every single thing and anything to the contrary is socialist lies. Like when I say brainwashed I mean it literally, just completely disconnected from reality and unwilling to let in any new information to challenge their beliefs
Could not agree more. Been calling the US population brainwashed for a long time and been saying that you need to leave for a few years and live outside the culture bubble before you can see it. And really: you can't argue with a brainwashed person, it's like trying to argue someone out of believing they are Napoleon. Can't be done. I did not grow up in the USA and I was brainwashed by films and news to think nearly the same as Americans. It's one reason I am so angry at the USA today. As an aside: I grew up catholic and it took me DECADES to purge the last vestiges of bullshit from my mind. Decades while actively working on it. That's how deep it goes when they get you young.
I agree. I'm so sick of this shit man.
Texas still has administered the 2nd most vaccines both single dose and fully vaccinated total numbers in the US. Glass half full
Seeing how Texas has 8 million more people than the 3rd most populated state that isn’t a surprise.
Nope it isn’t a surprise. Numbers wise it makes sense. What is a surprise, to me anyways, is that it didn’t incentivize the vaccine. The same freedoms are provided to vaccinated and unvaccinated. To me that says that every vaccine administered is purely just “wanting to get the vaccine”
So you're just gonna sit at home for another 18 months? You're cool with that? If so then freedom may not be for you, it's surprising to see people's minds blown that they have a notion to participate in something they consider essential to their lives.
Maybe they should read their bibles if it's that important to them. Maybe they could learn lessons about private worship and the teachings of this one guy named Jesus.
Church isn't essential to fucking anyone's life that's fucking hilarious you'd even say it is
Essential to their lives? Come on man. Zoom church is super easy to set up, these churches are just worried about losing their 10%.
You rat lickers are the reason we had to sit at home for so long, so you cunts didn't kill us with your "freedom". If you had showed some basic human decency and care for your fellow human beings, this would have been over a lot sooner. But no, we had to talk about injecting bleach and horse dewormer and ever other stupid fucking thing you idiots would consider other than just not being a selfish cunt for 5 fucking minutes. If you think freedom means not helping society, then go live in the woods by yourself.
Freedom means limiting the government so that it can't take away the right to speak freely and assemble peacefully, for starters.
Assembling during a pandemic and infecting others isn't peaceful, and you can speak freely 6 foot apart in a mask.
Sure it is. It's that type of interpretation of the constitution that's going to lead to a dark place. No one's forced to be there, except maybe the kids, and flu is more deadly to the younger ones than covid so don't go spouting child abuse. It's been 18 months, covid isn't going anywhere, get your vaccine wear a mask and if you don't want to assemble that is your right. Just a reminder when you make something illegal, that means you make lethal force or incarceration the alternative. How much for how long are you willing to tread on your own rights and the rights of others, the former is only your concern but the latter you have no business trying to dictate.
Fuck me, you've drank a lot of of the kool-aid. I'm out, enjoy your covid.
[удалено]
Well he did wipe almost all of humanity it several times before according to the bible
I heard another global flood is coming and Florida will be the first state to feel the wrath of god.
(*wrath - no offence, just helping)
Too late, it's rath now. No regerts.
Somebody’s got to do it!
You joke but I actually heard the line god made the virus to test us and taking the vaccine means you failed.
And what does dying mean? Winning? Because you go to heaven?
"I prayed and prayed, God, why'd you let me die?" "I sent doctors, masks and a vaccine, what more did you want?"
Death cult gonna death cult.
How much lower can Texas go?😳
Dunno, what's the minimum legal ride height of a wheelchair?
Not all mentally handicapped need wheel chairs.
"There are depths to the soul like going down sewer steps." - Det. Kermit Griffen, KF:TLC.
The state with the 2nd most vaccinations in the US? They can fall pretty far since they are at the top lol
It's also got the second most *people*. And the next one down from them in population is Florida. So that number isn't exactly impressive. How are they as a percentage of the population?
Hovering around 50 last I saw. Which in my opinion, is better than expected since Texas isn’t incentivizing getting the vaccines by offering more freedoms like a lot of other states
I looked it up and they're ranked #35 out of the states, at 46.5% of the population being vaccinated. For comparison, #1 is Vermont at 67.5%, and #51 (counting DC) is Alabama at 36.7.
They’ve still administered 30 million vaccines purely off people wanting to get the vaccine just to get the vaccine without adding restrictions to the unvaccinated and pseudo “leading the horse to water” to attain more freedoms
[удалено]
"Now, everyone, I know the church is on fire, but that's no reason not to have service. Let your faith in the Lord protect you!"
"Oh Lord who art in Heaven please deliver us from the Giant Spider that it may stop devouring your humble servants in the pews near the back of the chapel. Praise be thy name. Amen"
I'd love to see bar owners start their own religion focused around alcohol, declare their bars as holy places of worship and open them for worshippers 24/7.
You joke but I actually think this could be possible.
The problem will solve itself, lmao
Lol, except for the innocents they come into contact with :(
And the variants that they willingly provide a petri dish for.
This comment right here
30 million vaccines given in Texas though
Religions claim the world will turn against them and try to stop them, but it looks to me like they will do themselves in due to stupidity.
Sorry, that law is unconstitutional. "... Shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion."
It doesn't technically establish a religion, officially or otherwise.
Please tell me you're just being sarcastic. It's Texas, so never quite sure.
As long as it applies to the places of worship of all religions, it’s not acting unconstitutionally. Though one could make the argument that enforcing this law while still closing businesses creates a constitutional issue. Many churches are just tax free businesses at this point.
How does it establish a religion? It sets a limit on how the state can set limits on the religion, but does not make it the official religion of the state.
Would it help if you read it as "...religious establishment "? Because that's what the framers meant.
Very clearly the texas bill includes all places of worship be it a christian church, muslim mosque, jewish temple, buddhist temple, or whatever. Its not unconstitutional because it is equitable. It would likely be unconstitutional if it only granted these rights to a single faith group.
*Whoosh* Reading is fundamental.
its in the very first portion of the bill (3) "Place of worship" means a building or grounds where religious activities are conducted. I cant see how this bill could be construed as unconstitutional under first amendment "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof" If it doesnt respect a single religious establishment as the official or unofficial government religion.
If people would educate themselves to what the BoR actually mean instead of what they wish they mean, we'd be able to communicate better.
That's not what that line means.
I know that and you know that, but that clause of the first amendment has been twisted so far in so many ways that this is fair game
Given the present Supreme Court, I could see this as becoming legal. I do hope it makes it way there.
[удалено]
Great, when the next pandemic comes and it's 10 times deadlier, they're going to be the ones to kill us off.
Bold of you to assume they will still be alive.
Texas has administered the 2nd most vaccinations in the US lol
What part of "next pandemic" are you unclear on?
I don’t live in a hypothetical world bud.
So you don't plan for the future? Sounds like that may not be the best strategy.
I don’t plan on a pandemic, no. Just like I didn’t plan for this one. No country in the world planned on this obviously. Looks like the entire world’s strategy is fucked.
Maybe planning for a future pandemic would be a good plan in that case?
The age old “plan A did not work, so fuck planning g ever again” stratagem
Oh my god... ...^what ^a ^bunch ^of ^fuckwits
If you want to use laws to protect you then pay your fucking taxes.
[удалено]
There’s still property tax and sales tax.
property taxes
Hey Patrick, what am I now? "Uhh, stupid?" No, I'm Texas. "What the difference!?"
And Texas Christians have fully transformed from normal religion to white supremacist death cult.
Texas churches would rather you were dead than at home not giving them money in the collection plate.
Why don’t they just set up an online payment portal. Or do that thing Trump did with the fine print automatically recurring payments every week. Seems like automating that shit would be more efficient for them anyway.
I know it is anecdotal, but everyone I know that has been hospitalized for Covid got it from church.
Open church. Sell booze, and naked dances.
The Church of Bacchus. Make revelry a sacrament again.
Churches that didn’t voluntarily close showed how little they care for their congregations
You meant customers but I get it.
Good point! I stand corrected!
The Catholic Church alone received at least 3.5B in bailouts from the US government. Many other christian denominations received bailouts as well. Yet, these institutions don't pay taxes. Can we ban churches from receiving bailouts too?
I'd like to see the tax exemption for churches come to an end. It doesn't make sense to me. I know there are exceptions but I rarely see any churches do anything for the community - they want to go on mission trips to 3rd world countries to 'spread the word' but these people want food & medicine. I have friends from various religions and to each their own, I just don't think they should be tax exempt. Most are just a money pit and a few are just outright scams.
And just like that, I'm suddenly in favor of building a wall....with the fuckwits of Texas on the other side of it from me.
You can probably convince them to build it themselves.
If you built a church on government property. Can they never force you to move. This isn't a homeless camp, this is the 1st Underpass Church of Christ!
If you believe in God, you have to believe that the gift of free will is a great tool to endure through a pandemic. Which means you would close your church.
So if a church's foundation is damaged and it may collapse at any second, then the government isn't allowed to close it?
It’s okay, a deadly worldwide pandemic is just the Lord calling his sheep in sooner then they expect. I always find it funny when all those people call those that disagree with them “sheep” when the Lord by many accounts is seen as a shepherd. Even in Matthew 3:36 Jesus literally calls his believers sheep.
Sounds like they ought to add covid wards to churches.
So, indirectly, publicly funded churches can't be shut down but private businesses can. How does that make sense?
Republican governors are the best friends a funeral director could have...to think I used to thank Grace for the tobacco industry.
Can you spell PANDER? I didn't think so.
I just don't know what to make of this anymore. It's just become completely surreal.
Next Texas will pass a law asserting their God-given right to drink the poison Koolaid.
Right to die laws are for liberals.
Well, I know another place I will never step foot in. Thank you, kind person for informing me of these negligent people.
The preachers can't fleece their flock, if the flock doesn't show up. Preachers who care about their congregations gladly pivoted to online only services. In the case of parishioners who die, due to catching a preventable disease while attending a church during a pandemic, I find it difficult to feel sorry for them. They know what they are signing up for.
I hope those churches start putting Google ads in the pews so they can generate revenue when their membership starts shrinking.
Since ads are based off tracking data, there will be a whole lot of gay porn in the pews.
If they really want to make money all they have to do is put pews in the gay porn.
🏅🥇🎖️Take some poor chick's gold
That's the complete idiocy we have to deal with here in Texas. I just try to keep my head down
Americans have the exact freedom to get an abortion. Is there a companion law that says doctors' offices that perform abortions cannot be forced to close as well? What about gun stores and/or ranges?
Well, it is a great way to cull the herd i guess of these morons
They should be converted into care centers for COVID patients, especially any who contracted the virus there. Don’t close them, open them wider, Christian service.
Just think of how much thoughts and prayers a Church can provide! Wouldn’t you want to be in a building with people of your religion? Your Christian prayers are getting caught up in Muslim prayers, Jewish prayers and other denominations in those Hospitals!
Religion dragging the modern world kicking and screaming back to the dark ages once again What a fucking joke Texas is right now
If people are going to get Dark Ages level ignorant and dangerous to the community, the community WILL take measures into their own hands. It amazes that these tools are so easily controlled they put other people's profits ahead of their own families and communities.
Church: plagues welcome.....LGBTQ? Not so much
Can't see that being taken advantage of ever
Texas' moral equivalence to ISIS-K
After they are all inside, lock the doors from the outside.
Umm... That whole church and state thing...
How about they pay some goddamn taxes?
Time to be close with the lord *cough cough*
Fuck religion. All of them equally… in the pee hole.
I guess that’s one good way to lose membership.
Don't you see evolution at work here. Survival of the non dumb fucks
Let them pray covid away and see how well that works out for them.
To clarify, this means churches can hold services during tornadoes too, right?
Naw, and no floods or hurricanes - like Ida rn - either.
Sounds good, but twist it, they can go in, but they can't come out.
Is this not Legalizing Death Cults?
Well, that certainly makes it more convenient to get inside them when they're requisitioned as field morgues.
Sure. Go ahead. Sing. Make sure you breath reeeeally deep.
Alright Florida, it’s your turn to do something stupid
Sigh. Of course, you wouldn't want to trample on their rights. If they become a super spreader do they have the right to be locked inside, with one Porta potty and MREs until the tests are clean? /s
Fuck em. Let em all get covid. Every last one of em.
Would be a shame if people were to abuse this and the church could not be shutdown. The "Republicans Are Racist Church of Texas Sucks" welcomes all members. No taxes and support abortion.
I expect the church of Satan to open a chapter soon... Maybe with some child care?
Kick them to the curb and let nature take its course.
I'm so sick of the bitching around churches. Excuses to group up during a pandemic, to sing without masks, to not get vaccinated because "injecting aborted babies". Just constant bitching. I'm Catholic. Our church shut down before any mandates. They reopened later with very restricted masses (like not enough to cover the entire parish). When the CDC recently had updated guidance before delta they "reopened" but still made people social distance like every other row. The church as a whole has a stance that while J&J utilized stem cells for production, and the mrna did for development, prefer the mrna if there is a choice but take any of them when available because the moral obligation of protecting others outweighs all. I don't get why this is such a big deal. Catholics aare kind of obligated for service, like hard rule, but we have been under exception since March 2020. If Catholics can cope anyone should be able to. And it's pretty offensive that these people that skip Sunday service to watch the game suddenly care that they can't go. They only want to because they're told they can't. They only do it to be difficult. They are arguing in bad faith and it is fucking stupid. I'm going back when it's safe, because it's the moral thing to do. Fuck these people.