As a state and nation, we’ve lost our minds.
As weary as I get of writing one negative post after another (believe me, I’d love to write something really upbeat sometime), here I am once again wringing my hands and wondering how we ever arrived at this point in our history.
We have a president who’d rather tweet about how great he is than to actually act as a public servant.
We have a U.S. Senator (John Kennedy) who expressed a preference for weed killer over Obamacare.
We have a congressman (the Cajun Barney Fife, 3rd District Rep. Clay Higgins) who is $140,000 behind on his child support payments but who wants to kill all “radical Islamics,” even though he neglects to specify who—or what—defines “radical.”
And now we have a congressman (4th District Rep. Mike Johnson) who wants to throw teenagers in federal prison for a minimum of 15 years because he feels he is an instrument of God.
This is the same Mike Johnson, by the way, who, as a member of the Louisiana Legislature, tried to push through his “Marriage and Conscience Act.” That bill died in committee so Bobby Jindal promptly issued an executive order to enforce the act, which upheld discrimination against gays. Gov. John Bel Edwards rescinded that order last year.
Introduced by Johnson, the “Protection Against Child Exploitation Act of 2017,” would punish not only adults found guilty of sexting explicit photographs to minors, but also would subject minors found guilty of sexting to other minors to federal prison sentences of up to 15 years.
Johnson, like Higgins and Kennedy, is a Washington newcomer (all three took office in January of this year for the first time). In defending his bill, he says, “In Scripture, Romans 13 refers to the governing authorities as ‘God’s servants, agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer.’ I, for one, believe we have a moral obligation as any just government, to defend the defenseless.”
If imprisoning teens for sexting is what he means by defending the defenseless, I shudder to think what his punishment might be, for example, for teens actually engaging in sex? And it’s not like that doesn’t occur.
So he wants to set himself as judge, jury and executioner. Well, I’m not at all comfortable with that. Who gave Mike Johnson franchise right on judging anyone’s moral code?
Okay, I know the answer to that because he’s already said so. He’s God’s servant.
Well, let’s go straight to the Good Book and review.
“But if this thing be true, and the tokens of virginity be not found for the damsel: Then they shall bring out the damsel to the door of her father’s house, and the men of her city shall stone her with stones that she die: because she hath wrought folly in Israel, to play the whore in her father’s house: so shalt thou put evil away from among you.” (Deuteronomy 22: 20-21)
Well, there you go, Mike. And yet…and yet…didn’t Jesus rescue a prostitute from being stoned to death? I’m confused, Mike.
“Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones.” (Psalm 137:9)
I dunno, Mike. That seems a bit extreme to me. But, hey! It’s right there in the Bible.
“Master, Moses wrote unto us, ‘If a man’s brother die, and leave his wife behind him, and leave no children, that his brother should take his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother.’” (Mark 12:19)
Guys, you may want to talk that over with your wife first. Unless, of course, you also subscribe to this little ditty:
“Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection” Timothy 2:11, also translated as: “I permit no woman to teach or have authority over men; she is to keep silent.”
And, Mike, don’t expect your wife to defend you because she will be punished if she does. It says so, right here:
“When men strive together one with another, and the wife of the one draweth near for to deliver her husband out of the hand of him that smiteth him, and putteth forth her hand, and taketh him by the secrets: Then thou shalt cut off her hand, thine eye shall not pity her.” (Deuteronomy 25:11-12)
By the “secrets”? Now, there’s a visual for you.
Here’s my favorite, Mike:
“For whatsoever man he be that hath a blemish, he shall not approach: a blind man, or a lame, or he that hath a flat nose, or anything superfluous, Or a man that is broken-footed, or brokenhanded, Or crookbacked, or a dwarf, or that hath a blemish in his eye, or be scurvy, or scabbed, or hath his stones broken. No man that hath a blemish of the seed of Aaron the priest shall come nigh to offer the offerings of the Lord made by fire: he hath a blemish; he shall not come nigh to offer the bread of his God.” (Leviticus 21:18-21)
So what it’s saying here, Mike, is that heaven isn’t for people like Helen Keller, Ray Charles, Franklin Roosevelt or anyone who wears glasses or contacts.
Paraphrasing, Here a few more, offered without comment:
- Don’t have a variety of crops on the same field. (Leviticus 19:19)
- Don’t wear clothes made of more than one fabric (Leviticus 19:19)
- Don’t cut your hair nor shave. (Leviticus 19:27)
- Any person who curseth his mother or father, must be killed. (Leviticus 20:9)
- If a man beats his male or female slave with a rod and the slave dies as a result, he must be punished. But he is not to be punished if the slave gets up after a day or two, since the slave is his property (Exodus 21:20-21)
- Slaves, submit yourselves to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and considerate, but also to those who are harsh (I Peter 2:18)
- Your male and female slaves are to come from the nations around you; from them you may buy slaves. You may also buy some of the temporary residents living among you and members of their clans born in your country, and they will become your property (Leviticus 25:44-45)
- When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she will not be freed at the end of six years as the men are. If she does not please the man who bought her, he may allow her to be bought back again. But he is not allowed to sell her to foreigners, since he is the one who broke the contract with her. And if the slave girl’s owner arranges for her to marry his son, he may no longer treat her as a slave girl, but he must treat her as his daughter. If he himself marries her and then takes another wife, he may not reduce her food or clothing or fail to sleep with her as his wife. If he fails in any of these three ways, she may leave as a free woman without making any payment(Exodus 21:7-11)
So, Mike, exactly what is your position on slavery these days?
The last thing this country needs now is for some little holier-than-thou despot to assert himself as the moral police over our teenagers—or over anyone else, for that matter.
Sexting is a disgusting practice I wouldn’t want my grandkids participating in. And to be sure, it is against the law—and should be. Adults who sext minors should be punished to the fullest extent of the law. We can all agree on that. But you don’t toss a 15-year-old in federal prison for that. Like it or not, teens are going to do what teens do. Back when I was in school, They did their experimentations in the back seats of ’57 Chevys. At least they can’t get pregnant using an iPhone.
Only a sanctimonious jerk would seriously advocate federal prison for that.
Perhaps he should add another element to that proposed idiotic law. Females and males cannot skinny-dip together. Naturist resorts may not have children under 18 in the resort. Children may not live in subdivisions where full nudity is always allowed by the HOA and local law. Parents may not take photos of nude babies in a play pool.
This idiot has no concept of societal reality; especially that our prisons would suddenly be filled with no room for the bad folks…
I believe that there are way more important things for government to focus on. That work my be too tiring for people with such a microscopic mind.
Apparently he’s got nothing better to do in DC that waste time on silliness like this.
This Republican pandering and grandstanding is getting old. And, as usual, could prove dangerous. One wonders if any of his voters might have kids that might face 15 years in prison for this? Where did he get his theology training?
Tom,
I know both you and Mike, which is what makes this hard. Mike is a great guy and probably the most popular politician in N. La. You think his bill is rubbish. He claims you have completely misrepresented the facts of the bill. Since his bill just passed the US House by a large majority in a completely BYPARTISAN effort, I give the point to Mike.
Still love ya.
Still a despicable law and not unusual for politicians in Louisiana. They all shout about being Christian but legislate like satanists.
So what are the facts? Forbes Magazine appears to disagree with you.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/janetwburns/2017/06/02/house-passes-bill-that-could-jail-teens-15-years-for-sexting/#458c16cb4cf6
And, by the way, 53 Democrats voted against it and all but two Republicans voted for it. Not exactly bipartisan.
Well since there are 193 Democrats in the House, and way more voted for it than against it, I do call it bypartisan. This is in contrast to failing Obamacare that was voted into law without one Republican vote.
And it was already illegal for anyone to text pornographic photos. A teen was charged in Shreveport last year. It’s my understanding that the law closes a loophole that let a demonstrably guilty sex offender go free.
It means Stupid is an equal opportunity employer and not partisan!
I agree with you in concept that teenagers should not be jailed for sexting. It may be worth taking a look at age differences, Say a 17 year old sexting a 13 year old.
My bad, I thought he was a state rep.
Does Louisiana have at least one Legislator or Senator that is at least a little sane and not so despicable as most of them are?
No.
Louisiana’s only U.S. congressman who is not a raving faux christian loon is African-American Democrat Cedric Richmond. Sane and not at all despicable.
True!
He must be one of those parents who cannot or will not “parent” his own children or teach them morals as a real parent should, so he will let the government control the morals he is unwilling to teach. Such a shame. As long as stupid people keep voting for stupid legislators you will only come up with stupid laws that will never pass muster. This is the most ridiculous thing I have heard in quite sometime. You cannot legislate morals. But here we are. To punish a child in that way, for having hormones, is child abuse. I totally agree that sexting is wrong in so many ways but this law is nuts. Most parents I know monitor their children’s social media. That should be enough for “normal” parents who truly care. Crazy times.
I agree with you about the parenting aspect of this ill-conceived law. I think it must pander to his district base that elected him. However, I shudder to think what these parents that supported him would feel if one of their teens was the subject of this law. It is somewhat like their disdain for abortion. If it is needed at home….there is a way. It should only apply to others…so far, this type of voting and thinking has been very successful.
You are correct! People here love him and have the exact viewpoint that this law is for the BAD kids. Their kids are angels!
We have to be the laughing stock of America!
And, unfortunately, America is becoming the laughingstock of the world.
Might be worth checking if he and/or cronies are invested in the prison for profit system. Money seems to be the incentive for a lot of these decisions. Made me think of the documentary ‘Kids for Cash’ where a judge was getting kickbacks for sending juveniles to prison. If I’m remembering right, it was high suicide rates among the teens in that area that inspired someone to take a closer look and expose what was going on.
Yep, Kids for Cash was perpetrated by two juvenile court judges in Pennsylvania. They are both whiling away a long prison term. But the juveniles who were incarcerated for minor infractions by these judges will have lasting trauma.
https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/1761/text
The amendment says: “(a) Any person who, in a circumstance described in subsection (f), knowingly—
The bill states that it will be illegal to photograph any sexually explicit act by a minor. Have any of you seen what’s called “Twerking?” That’s about as sexually explicit as it gets and yet minors “Twerk Dance” at every opportunity both public and private. So if someone is photographing a public dance and a minor is photographed Twerking, it’s jail time for 15 years if the photographer is a minor and probably life in prison if over the age of 17. The law is absolutely unenforceable, idiotic, ill conceived, and typical of politicians with no real knowledge of the pressing problems this nation faces.
I wonder how many teens with influential parents or grandparents will be held accountable for sexting, or how hard the justice system will come down on a teen who is caught sexting a member of one of these influential families. Of course legislators are some of the most influential individuals in our society, so many of them had no second thoughts about passing this legislation. And what happens if Teen A leaves his phone unattended and then Teen B picks up the phone and sexts someone else as a joke, or maybe just out of spite? Of course Teen A will have absolutely no proof he was not responsible and will suffer the consequences, unless dad knows a guy, who knows a guy, who knows the local District Attorney, who quietly makes everything go away! The message I take away from the passage of this legislation is that I now have one more reason to donate money to the campaigns of politicians in order to have a “chip” available for use should the need arise!
I have noticed that a lot of people who come up with these ideas are perverts and I think we can all agree there are lot’s of politicians who fill this bill. Just another freaky politician who has more skeletons hanging in his closet then buried in the cemetery.
Wow! It looks like very few people commenting on this actually read the bill. If you are constituent of the representative let him know how you feel. And if you are not a constituent , call your own rep and let him know how you think. And maybe we should all read the Bible, both Testaments, to fully understand the context and the times when the many Old Testament quotes where written.
The Religious Right wingers elected Donald Trump. Of Course, Tony Perkins didn’t really know Trump until the Repugblican Convention. Fear, ignorance, and prejudice, personal attributes we all have, sorta like sin. Great scripture, my favorite catch all, 1Cor. 13:13 keep learning, something Repubicans can’t do because they are already so f…..smart. and they have alternative facts??love always ron thompson
Watch the TED talk by Adam Foss then forward it to Johnson, and BelEdwards!!!
Adam Foss: a prosecutor’s vision for a better justice system.
And he needs to find a real Bible study class, not the “let’s find all the verses that make me look good and that support my decisions when I don’t care to really think about their effect” class.
Your response was perfect!