An Arizona lawmaker suggested Wednesday that Americans should be required to go to church on Sundays.
State Sen. Sylvia Allen (R) made the comment during a state Senate Appropriations Committee meeting on legislation concerning concealed weapons carry in public places, according to local TV station KNXV.
“And how we get back to a moral rebirth in this country, I don’t know since we are slowly eroding religion at every opportunity that we have,” Allen said, as quoted by KNXV. “Probably we should be debating a bill requiring every American to attend a church of their choice on Sunday to see if we can get back to having a moral rebirth.”
She’d added that such a bill would “never happen,” according to the Arizona Capitol Times. Allen later told the Capitol Times that she’d just made a “flippant comment.”
But she explained that the reasoning behind the remark stemmed from her experience growing up in the 1950s, when she said more people went to church.
“I remember on Sundays the stores were closed,” Allen told the Capitol Times. “The biggest thing is religion was kicked out of our public places, out of our schools.”
Alright…she can be forced to attend my church every week and if she doesn’t agree with my religious beliefs, so what. She will have to attend and if she tries to speak out against my Pagan practices during the services she will have her mouth taped shut.
And the 1950’s weren’t some kind of paradise for morality in this country. She was just too young to remember people getting lynched, burned to death, bombed to death…not to mention the mobs, gangs and other criminal groups, and women being raped and treated like pieces of meat who, if they spoke out, got fired.
Legislating morality. Now there’s a novel idea.
And she’s an elected official? I’m a man of faith but religion and government should never mix.
apparently swearing an oath to the constitution (or having a working knowledge of it) isn’t a requirement to be an elected official in arizona… who knew.
This woman comes from Snowflake, AZ a small rural heavily Mormon community on the Mogollon Rim. She also is known for other utterly derpish comments. She is a true believer that the Earth is 6000 yrs old and that the 1950’s was an idyllic time in America where everything was perfect. And she really does believe that morality could be legislated and that people should be forced (her word, not mine) to attend the “church of their choice” on Sunday. She also thinks packing heat is perfectly acceptable in any and all situations and in any public building. She makes Jan Brewer seem completely reasonable by comparison. I am truly embarrassed for my state.