The last time Governor Kristi Noem called for a statewide day of prayer, in support of people struggling with flooding, we got hammered with an April blizzard that dropped two feet of wet snow on some of our neighbors and shut down most of state government for two days.
Maybe her next day of prayer will work better. To protest New York’s reasonable new abortion law that rolls back government intrusion in women’s decisions about their own health, Governor Noem is calling on all South Dakotans to pray and fast:
Representative Jon Hansen put this idea in the Governor’s head with his odious little House Resolution 1003 (theocratic gasbagging that even two Democrats, Reps. Pourier and Ring, approved). Governor Noem responded to HR 1003 with some unique wordsmithing beyond Hansen’s Pharasaic language. I don’t know who wrote her proclamation, but once again, Noem uses her executive pen to preach her Christian religion. She speaks of knowledge derived from “the eternal law,” of crying out “to heaven” for justice, “fear of perdition,” bowing “before the unseen Author of all life” (oops! forgot to put life in all caps, the way her big-government anti-choice base demands), begging “atonement for our own sins,” all code for Come to Jesus with me!
Governor Noem “request[s]” that “people of all creeds or none at all” heed her Christian call by making “pleas to heaven as best their consciences do direct.” Governor Noem thus asks Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, atheists, and others to endorse her specific religion… and she has the gall to say she makes this request “respectfully.”
Hey, Kristi! Let me test your words here: suppose I ask you to spend a day declaring that heaven and God don’t exist. Act in a way that contradicts your deeply held religious belief. Is there any way that I can ask you to deny your faith “respectfully”? Isn’t it inherently contradictive to say, I respect you, now renounce a core part of your worldview and dignity?
South Dakota would be better off if our Governor spent less time ministering and more time administering (like telling Jason Ravnsborg to get back to work). Don’t worry, Kristi: you’re already going to heaven, not by works or proclamations but by grace, so ease up on the official days of prayer. Show your faith and your respect for the rest of us by just doing the job you were elected to do.
p.s.: May 4 appears to be Noem’s third official day of prayer called since taking office. She has also proclaimed May 2 a statewide day of prayer. “Recognizing the love and power of God,” says our Christian Governor, “We specifically thank God….” I assume that’s the royal we.
Only 1 percent of all abortions occur after 21 weeks of pregnancy, according to the Guttmacher Institute, which supports abortion rights. Abortions during the final weeks are rarer still.
Doctors’ and abortion-rights groups say it is extremely unusual for live infants to be born during attempted late-term abortions, which they say usually occur when the baby is extremely deformed or deemed unable to survive after birth. In such cases, families sometimes decide they want to induce labor so they can spend time with the infant before it dies.
“It only happens in instances in which we know that the baby will not ultimately survive, and a choice has been pre-made to provide just comfort care” to the baby so the parents can be with it, said Dr. Colleen McNicholas, a fellow with the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.
Soon, we will be able to take communion on the floor of the Senate. Amen! !@#%&*!
Loren- yeah and protected by armed militia types in case one of those durn furriner Muslim would wander in and take a terrorist stance!
Wow, just wow. Do other governors do this, did Daugaard, and it just went unnoticed? Thought I read the NY laws were just in keeping with Roe vs Wade in case that is repealed. Hopefully she’s a one-termer but incumbents have the advantage. Separation of church and state Ms. Noem.
On May the Fourth Be With You (Star Wars) Day? No way!
Shouldn’t this proclamation clearly state WHAT we are praying/fasting for? This seems a half-step.
“All life is sacred and that every life has dignity and worth.” (We must note “that” makes this a sentence fragment grammatically.) How long is the list of the state’s treatment of others, often recounted in the comments on this site, to show the hypocrisy of this statement in practice?
This is seriously problematic.
hay! that’s Star Wars day! “May the 4th be with you!”
Hmm… I wonder what the Empire’s policy is on abortion….
I’ll be respecting the dignity of my life on Saturday by making sure I remain well-fed.
Hmm… maybe instead of encouraging people to go hungry, a governor should be encouraging people to feed their hungry neighbors?
Fasting seems to just make people loopy and more susceptible to mind-wanderings that they misinterpret as “visions.”
Let’s all keep a close eye on Kristi’s Twitter and Instagram on May 4 to make sure she’s fasting. No chislic parties!
I’m sure she copied that language from somewhere, maybe some 19th century tract or speech. People back then talked that way. It vaguely has the ring of some anti-slavery agitators, you know, the one’s who Republicans now reject in favor of Neo-Nazi and other such dreck.
Princess Leia as your next Governor? No non-inclusive proclamations. No bought off decisions. Just Bad Ass politics!
Promoting Powerful Women In Positions of Power 2020 ~ Watch and see … https://youtu.be/KSYValHWNOs
No I am getting tangled in the language: “. . . the destruction of innocent life cries out to heaven for justice.” The destruction cries out?
Maybe we should all just quote that New Testament: “Jesus wept.”
Leia is my favorite Disney princess.
Today: “Kansas Supreme Court Rules State Constitution Protects Right To Abortion” https://www.npr.org/2019/04/26/717449336/kansas-supreme-court-rules-state-constitution-protects-right-to-abortion
“The law was the first in the nation to ban the procedure, which is used for nearly all second-trimester abortions.”
“. . once again, Noem uses her executive pen to preach her Christian religion.”
Well put. Thank you, Cory
Kristi, I don’t think we’re in Kansas any more.
I’m wishing she would spend s little more time looking into the hemp opportunities in SD. Our state could use this for good income and for helping those of us who battle pain and issues of PTSD.
A personal opinion only.
Thank you,
Dar
The GOP/SDGOP doesn’t feel a need to respect the US or SD Constitutions any longer.
Demented Donny has set the example. GOPers can ignore whatever laws are inconvenient for them. The separation of church and state part has not pleased them for a several decades.
Its quite clear that when they solemnly swear the oath of office, they have fingers crossed behind their backs.
In South Dakota, fasting means just one pizza eaten really fast. As far as preying goes, that happens most every weekend at the bars around 12.30.
While we slip further into the 14th century with GNoem’s drivel, we should remember how the rest of the world advances. A real government wouldn’t pray to get action, it would actually roll up it’s sleeves and go to work. This governor and her legislators are as worthless as teats on a boar. Pull your head’s out, we are failing.
“China’s investment in education parallels its investment in high-tech industry. Today China graduates four times as many STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) bachelor’s degrees as the US, and twice as many doctoral degrees, and China continues to gain. A third of Chinese students major in engineering, vs 7% in the US. Eighty percent of US doctoral candidates in computer science and electrical engineering are foreign students, of whom Chinese are the largest contingent. Most return to China. The best US universities have trained top-level faculty for Chinese universities. American STEM graduate programs reported a sharp fall in foreign applications starting in 2017, partly because Chinese students no longer have to come to the US for world-class education.” Get off the pulpit and get up on the podium to teach our children how to live in the future.
Great response Jerry. Our SD barbie probably doesn’t realize that every parent is unable to use nepotism to support their children.
Guns=Rrepublican votes.
God=Republican votes.
White supremacy=Republican votes.
Anti-abortion terrorism=Republican votes.
LyingRepublicans = Republican votes.
Chamber of Commerce = Republican votes.
Sheriffs, Chiefs, Military = Republican votes.
I stand by my comment that the establishment clause is clear and has been upheld for a couple of centuries as to the meaning of the word “establishment” I read a history of the SCOTUS cases concerning 1A a couple of days ago, sorry, can’ remember where, but it was legitimate. The word “establishment. is broad and includes words such as “support” and “favor”. In other words, Congress shall not favor one religion over any other. Jefferson and Madison did indeed use the words “wall of separation” when discussing the relationship between church and state, and they meant every word they said.
Sorry, the above post belongs on another thread but I lost it in the middle of my thought. It’s because my computer hates me.
Robin, don’t worry, I have your back!
https://dakotafreepress.com/2019/04/11/sd-complicit-national-christofascist-legislative-push/#comment-133946
Thanks again, bcb.
Jerry, your comment at 16:44 was right on the money. That’s exactly the difference between real leaders like NZ’s Ardern and China’s Xi,(Yes, he’s a commie dog dictator, but contrast him with similar in Turkey, Russia, Philippines, etc.) and our SDGOP/GOP.
I can only assume we will be having prayer day for th either 9 commandments as well?
One commandment does not Baer more wight than the others, however the thou shall not kill (abortions) make for the best political stew served up with a Side of emotions (babies)
There is not equal or prayer days for the other 9 commandments. The religion people need to share their passion and enthusiasms for the other 9. That’s what I think is true religion….. just sayin* this is political and the rest is bs
Spelling appears to be atrocious
Sorry folks
A call to collective action?
Sounds like riot boosting to me.
And we’ll have a day of prayer every time a living, breathing child is abused? Every time one goes hungry? Every time a child’s medical needs aren’t met due to cost? Every time a child goes to school wearing inadequate clothing? Every time a rape occurs?
Pastor Kristi is going to be awfully busy writing declarations and praying.
Heartfelt thanks once again to Governor Noem.
As I’ve said before, proclamations like this may not be as influential as they were when most Americans professed traditional Bible Protestantism, but the power of Christ’s death and resurrection is still available to anyone who honestly seeks Him.
Yes, China is a dictatorship that is not a dictatorship. It is a system where private enterprise is accepted and rewarded. It’s a system within a system and the system works very well, much like what ours used to be like. We used to be cognitive about church and state and now our people are much like the Chinese, they are finding they don’t need to gather around and pray for something, they work for it. They still have religion, but they are not silly about it. They still pray but do not wear that on their sleeves.
“China’s household consumption has risen 17-fold since 1986 and its GDP in US dollars has risen 35-fold. China has moved 550 million people from countryside to city in only 40 years, the equivalent of Europe’s population from the Urals to the Atlantic. China has built the equivalent of all the cities in Europe to house the new urban dwellers, as well as 80,000 miles (nearly 130,000 kilometers) of superhighway and 18,000 miles (29,000km) of high-speed trains.
China’s debt-to-GDP ratio stands at 253% (47% government, households 50%, corporate 155%). That is about the same as America’s 248% (98% to government, households 77%, corporate 74%). The high corporate debt number is due to the fact that state-owned enterprises fund a great deal of infrastructure building with debt that is counted as corporate rather than government. China’s debt problem is no worse than ours.”
Think of that, we impoverished many of our farmers and ranchers in South Dakota on a failed tariff mission. We did this with full throated support of the phony prophet GNoem and her two disciples currently serving as senators. We managed to move markets from here to the rest of the world and the rest of the world thanks us for that…without prayer. This trade war will subside next month and Wall Street will howl for those who already have millions and billions. Yes, we will be able to sell our agriculture products to China, but in a different way now. Those products will now have to compete in a global market that we encouraged at the expense of loosing valuable forested lands to further create climate problems. Next year, we can expect the same and probably worse from the weather, we created this mess without divine intervention so there is no amount of praying that will get us out of the trap we are finding ourselves in without rolling up our sleeves and solving it ourselves.
So we need to make sure we spell Allah right when we put it on the school prominently right?
I consider my self a protestant. Every time some wingnut wants to force his/her/its god into public, I willingly protest such nonsensicaL garbage.
The problem with stiring religion into politics creates an unspoken friction, that at times is taken to extreme, on whose sect is more prominent and/or dominant. I don’t want allah or your gods ruling my government. Government is a business and should be ruled as such not guided by the or ant holy book
Kurt, you are a raving lunatic.
“Traditional Bible Protestantism.”
I am not sure one can redefine those words sufficiently for them to carry meaning.
Bob Newland writes:
Traditional Protestantism affirms the principles of justification by faith alone, the priesthood of all believers, and the primacy of the Bible.
Learn more here:
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/protestant
If we did not have religion, we would not have war and hate mongers. We could still hold what beliefs we want to have without going through the play acting and absurd ceremonial grifting that I used to see each Sunday morning as a kid. I still see the magnitude of the mountains, the serenity of the prairie and still gaze with wonderment at the tranquility of a still body of water along with its force of tidal waves. Then I think of science and how that explains it all.
Just remember, when you have a professional grifter like GNoem and company, they always pass the collection plate to your detriment.
World Center One and other key NY locations were lit in pink to celebrate women’s health on 1.22.19, contrary to Kristi’s appeal for this Republican state government sponsored resolution for religious intervention. https://m.timesunion.com/news/article/New-York-lawmakers-to-vote-on-abortion-rights-13551825.
The vote, made possible by the new Democratic majority in the Senate, came 46 years to the day after the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its landmark Roe v. Wade decision. It also updates state abortion laws that were nearly half a century old and, according to Democratic lawmakers, needed to be changed especially in light of recent changes on the nation’s highest court. *** Cuomo said he believes that the federal protections of Roe v. Wade are at risk of being overturned with a Supreme Court that, under Trump, has shifted to a more conservative viewpoint. He predicted that this week’s 5-4 Supreme Court ruling that temporarily upholds a ban on transgender U.S. military members is a split “you’re going to hear over and over.”
At a recent rally in Wisconsin, President Trump went to full-on lie scare tactics. This really is deplorable, to abjectly make up what happens in these situations. From my old days in competitive debate, I always knew who was losing when the lies started flying. That “abortions” can happen post-birth after a discussion between mother and doctor really is beyond the pale.
Worst yet, it undermines the positions of those who hold moral stands on this issue.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/donald-trump-abortion-lies-wisconsin-rally_n_5cc61e06e4b04eb7ff9780b5
From what I have read, there are a few, extremely rare cases where a late term abortion is halted so the parents can hold the fetus and say goodbye. In these instances the fetus cannot survive but a minimum amount of time due to some anomaly.
I am going to recheck this to make sure I have stated it correctly, so don’t hold me to this as gospel.
That’s correct Mike. It’s in really horrible cases where the brain didn’t develop or some other truly heartrending medical condition. The baby may even be stillborn, or only able to live a few minutes and the parents use that time to hold it and mourn. It must just about tear them apart.
Of course, since the GOP leadership has no heart, it doesn’t bother them at all to use such an intensely painful, personal and private experience to create a bald lie, exploiting the family’s grief. Typical. Demented Donny has no conscience, no morals, so for him it’s just another fun lie that gets him cheers.
We know from our friend Tiffany Campbell of Sioux Falls that these heartbreaks happen. She’s been willing to publicly state that she had to endure a somewhat similar circumstance. She was pregnant with twins but both could not survive so she had to have one aborted. Tiffany has been powerfully brave enough to share her story to keep abortion a available because she knows better.
Demented Donny knows nothing.
For my post at 20:11 this article…https://www.vox.com/2019/3/11/18246702/trump-abortion-ralph-northam-virginia-green-bay
Relevent paragraph from Doctor Brandi……….Again, thinking about the scenarios that I’ve seen, it’s really terribly heartbreaking scenarios where it’s a desired pregnancy that people want to spend last moments with before this baby passes. And to think of the patients that I’ve seen that have gone through that, where they just want to hold their baby one last time before it passes away, those are the scenarios that these politicians are suggesting that we are performing infanticide on.
It breaks my heart to hear conservative media and politicians using these terms and not holding the hand of patients that are going through this process
Late term abortion is a political ruse, niot an actual scientific or biological procedure.
Jerry writes:
Does your concept of “science” explain why serenity and tranquility are good? Does it explain wonderment as anything more than a chemical response in your brain?
Well, May 4 is here and I broke fast. I won’t be praying, either.
I started out my day with whole wheat pancakes with ground flax seed that I mix in. I slopped some maple syrup and dabbed a little butter on top. Ummm, ummmm. Not only did it taste good, but the flax seed is good for raising HDL levels and increasing fiber. So, no, I am not participating in fasting and praying today, though, for me, eating my special pancakes is a kind of prayer, almost better than sex, which is, after all, where life in many species, and humans, in particular, comes from, though, of course, there are new technologies that make sex unnecessary for human life. “Life” is complicated in modern times.
As I swallowed each bite of pancake, soaked in maple syrup, I was reminded of Noem’s proclamation, which doesn’t draw the usual distinctions between human life and life in other species. She says in the third Whereas, “Life is sacred from the moment of conception.” Flax and wheat seeds contain embryos, and here was I eating the ground entrails of these poor babies. They are life, after all. Well, it’s perdition for me, and Praise Jesus, if I’m going to hell, I’m eating my pancakes.
Yeah! What Donald Pay said.
I third that!
Mmmm, pancakes. I had granola and craisins and a small orange for breakfast, the second half of a brisket and grilled cheese sandwich from the Brass Kettle with barbecue sauce and some canned pineapple for lunch, and now a supreme pizza from Thatzza Pizza is on its way to my house.
How’s your supper, South Dakota?