Dec 6, 2018
Original release January 15, 2016.
Encore release December 6, 2018.
Encore release August 29, 2017.
We look at three recent cases in which violent perpetrators of excuse their crimes by pointing to their victims atheism.
Earlier this month, a woman in Louisville, Kentucky was arrested for savagely beating a disabled man with his own cane, reportedly because he denied believing on God. (Luckily the man survived.)
Late last year, Phoenix, Arizona's Anitra Braxton (pictured) was arrested for shooting an acquaintance in the eye and keeping her corpse on the couch as a "shrine from God," all for "not believing in her God."
Meanwhile, Texan Justin Green is serving a 30-year sentence for murdering a fellow veteran, burying him in a shallow grave, and using his credit cards to buy pizza. Family members--who helped Green hide the body--say that Green killed the man because he did not believe in God.
Granted, in all these cases, there are plenty of other plausible reasons--greed, anger, mental illness--why these crimes were committed. But it is disturbing to consider that these people thought that the atheism of their victims was a legitimate excuse.
Plus:
Supreme Court Justice Antonin "Applesauce" Scalia says that, while the Constitution must be neutral when it comes to religious denominations, it can privilege religion over non-religion. Thankfully, Scalia is a) old and b) just one of nine Justices.
Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy "Ten Commandments" Moore has issued another memorandum to the state's probate justices, reiterating his position that they are not required to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. He continues to insist that God's law trumps the US Constitution; this despite the recent US Supreme Court decision (no thanks to Scalia--see above) that marriage equality is consistent with the Constitution.