All week I've been reading about Elena Kagan and every article makes a point of how, if she is confirmed, for the first time ever there will be no Protestants on the bench.
Thanks to my blissful ignorance about religion, this statement makes no sense to me. I had to ask around. Powder Burns explained that a Protestant is basically a non-Catholic Christian. They have other names. Lutherans, um, Methodists? Shriners? I don't really know.
So basically what all of these articles are saying, without really saying it, is that the Supreme Court will, for the first time ever, be 100% Catholic. Like, ROMAN Catholic. Which could mean that the Pope could, in a sense, be in charge of the highest court in the land. That's scary, but seems a bit paranoid to me. Frankly, I don't think the Pope has that much pull right now.
(Jesse Ventura thinks the Attorney General should go all RICO on the Catholic Church. I don't know what that means, but it has something to do with the way we go after organized crime, and Harvey Dent used it in The Dark Knight to arraign all of Gotham's criminals at once. )
What strikes me about the whole affair is: why the hell is religion in this at all? I know there are no atheists or agnostics on the bench, so they're all religious anyway. Do I care if they're Neapolitan or Butter Pecan? No. Because it's not a job requirement. I'm no expert, but I would venture a guess that knowledge of law and the Constitution would be the job. And, you know, judgement.
And I sure as hell don't care if the woman is GAY. Any inquiry about it should have been answered with, "None of your fuckin' business," and "Do you really wanna start this fight? You really wanna say we can't have gay Supreme Court Justices?" But to avoid, you know, fighting for something, instead we get this flurry of awkward assurances from old acquaintances that she is, in fact, heterosexual. "No, I never actually went out with her in college, but lots of guys I knew dated her. Oh yeah. No, she totally dated dudes."
Anyway, all this comes around to why is religion such a factor in public office? I'm not knocking anybody's belief. I just wonder why it matters in the courts. Hence the comic.
Of course, I owe this whole thing to George Carlin. He nails it. But if I only did comics on subjects that George Carlin hasn't already discussed brilliantly and hilariously, I'd have nothing to write about.
All week I've been reading about Elena Kagan and every article makes a point of how, if she is confirmed, for the first time ever there will be no Protestants on the bench.
ReplyDeleteThanks to my blissful ignorance about religion, this statement makes no sense to me. I had to ask around. Powder Burns explained that a Protestant is basically a non-Catholic Christian. They have other names. Lutherans, um, Methodists? Shriners? I don't really know.
So basically what all of these articles are saying, without really saying it, is that the Supreme Court will, for the first time ever, be 100% Catholic. Like, ROMAN Catholic. Which could mean that the Pope could, in a sense, be in charge of the highest court in the land. That's scary, but seems a bit paranoid to me. Frankly, I don't think the Pope has that much pull right now.
(Jesse Ventura thinks the Attorney General should go all RICO on the Catholic Church. I don't know what that means, but it has something to do with the way we go after organized crime, and Harvey Dent used it in The Dark Knight to arraign all of Gotham's criminals at once. )
What strikes me about the whole affair is: why the hell is religion in this at all? I know there are no atheists or agnostics on the bench, so they're all religious anyway. Do I care if they're Neapolitan or Butter Pecan? No. Because it's not a job requirement. I'm no expert, but I would venture a guess that knowledge of law and the Constitution would be the job. And, you know, judgement.
And I sure as hell don't care if the woman is GAY. Any inquiry about it should have been answered with, "None of your fuckin' business," and "Do you really wanna start this fight? You really wanna say we can't have gay Supreme Court Justices?" But to avoid, you know, fighting for something, instead we get this flurry of awkward assurances from old acquaintances that she is, in fact, heterosexual. "No, I never actually went out with her in college, but lots of guys I knew dated her. Oh yeah. No, she totally dated dudes."
Anyway, all this comes around to why is religion such a factor in public office? I'm not knocking anybody's belief. I just wonder why it matters in the courts. Hence the comic.
Of course, I owe this whole thing to George Carlin. He nails it. But if I only did comics on subjects that George Carlin hasn't already discussed brilliantly and hilariously, I'd have nothing to write about.