A House Democrat to sponsor personhood amendment
Today is the first day that bills can be pre-filed for next year’s session of the General Assembly.
We’re told that two lawmakers intend to submit “personhood” resolutions – proposed constitutional amendments that would declare that life begins at fertilization, as would legal protection. All abortions would be banned; in vitro fertilization would be restricted.
Mississippi defeated a similar measure last week by 58 percent.
In the Senate, the sponsor will be Barry Loudermilk, R-Cassville – no surprise, given his pro-life reputation. In the House, the sponsor will be Rick Crawford of Cedartown.
Here’s the thing: Crawford is a Democrat.
“I’m from rural Georgia,” he said. “I have to be well in step, and people have to trust me to represent their interests. It’s not a surprise to anyone that I’m pro-life. This is a discussion that is appropriate for us to have.”
Crawford is currently teaching political science at Shorter College – the school that now requires all employees to foreswear pre-marital, adulterous or homosexual relationships. Crawford also once studied to be a pastor at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky. So the biography fits.
But the fact that the premier piece of anti-abortion legislation in the House will be carried by a member of the minority caucus clearly is a sign that the rift between House Republican leaders and Georgia Right to Life is still going strong.
With Bobby Franklin gone to his Maker, and James Mills now in the business of sending certain state prisoners to theirs, we may have a shortage of rank-and-file House GOP members willing to be caught in the crossfire.
- By Jim Galloway, Political Insider
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271 comments Add your comment
Tom
November 15th, 2011
9:50 pm
The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason: The Morning Daylight appears plainer when you put out your Candle.
– Benjamin Franklin, the incompatibility of faith and reason, Poor Richard’s Almanack (1758)
Tom
November 15th, 2011
9:53 pm
And I have no doubt that every new example will succeed, as every past one has done, in shewing that religion & Govt will both exist in greater purity, the less they are mixed together.
– James Madison, letter to Edward Livingston, July 10, 1822
Tom
November 15th, 2011
9:54 pm
The civil government … functions with complete success … by the total separation of the Church from the State.
– James Madison, 1819, Writings, 8:432, quoted from Gene Garman
Tom
November 15th, 2011
9:55 pm
We hold it for a fundamental and undeniable truth “that religion, or the duty which we owe our Creator, and the manner of discharging it, can be directed only by reason and conviction, not by force or violence.” The religion, then, of every man must be left to the conviction and conscience of every man: and that it is the right of every man to exercise it as these may dictate.
– James Madison, A Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments, addressed to the Virginia General Assembly, June 20, 1785
honested
November 15th, 2011
9:56 pm
Tom,
Thanks!
Those who are most confused seem to trace their confusion to our ‘founders’ while having no idea what the founders said or thought.
Tom
November 15th, 2011
9:56 pm
What influence, in fact, have ecclesiastical establishments had on society? In some instances they have been seen to erect a spiritual tyranny on the ruins of the civil authority; in many instances they have been seen upholding the thrones of political tyranny; in no instance have they been the guardians of the liberties of the people. Rulers who wish to subvert the public liberty may have found an established clergy convenient allies.
– James Madison, A Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments, addressed to the Virginia General Assembly, June 20, 1785
Tom
November 15th, 2011
9:57 pm
Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprize, every expanded prospect.
– James Madison, letter to William Bradford, Jr., April 1, 1774
Tom
November 15th, 2011
9:58 pm
Who does not see that the same authority which can establish Christianity in exclusion of all other religions may establish, with the same ease, any particular sect of Christians in exclusion of all other sects? That the same authority which can force a citizen to contribute threepence only of his property for the support of any one establishment may force him to conform to any other establishment in all cases whatsoever?
– James Madison, A Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments, addressed to the Virginia General Assembly, June 20, 1785
Tom
November 15th, 2011
9:58 pm
Experience witnesseth that eccelsiastical establishments, instead of maintaining the purity and efficacy of Religion, have had a contrary operation. During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What have been its fruits? More or less in all places, pride and indolence in the Clergy, ignorance and servility in the laity, in both, superstition, bigotry and persecution.
– James Madison, A Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments, addressed to the Virginia General Assembly, June 20, 1785
DannyX
November 15th, 2011
9:58 pm
The Baptists used to be the biggest supporters of separation of church and state in our young country.
td
November 15th, 2011
10:03 pm
“We have no government armed in power capable of contending in human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for the government of any other.”
1798, Address to the militia of Massachusetts John Adams
“The experiment is made, and has completely succeeded: it can no longer be called in question, whether authority in magistrates, and obedience of citizens, can be grounded on reason, morality, and the Christian religion, without the monkery of priests, or the knavery of politicians.”
1788, “A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America, John Adams
Tom
November 15th, 2011
10:03 pm
It is necessary to the happiness of man that he be mentally faithful to himself. Infidelity does not consist in believing, or in disbelieving, it consists in professing to believe what one does not believe.
– Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason (1794)
Enough Already
November 15th, 2011
10:03 pm
When will it end? Why is it always MEN who want to dictate to we women what we can and cannot do with our bodies? I’m not Pro-Life, I’m Pro-Choice. I do not condone abortion but who am I to say who can and cannot have one? To say I’m Pro-Life is to say I’m Anti-Choice. The Good Lord gives us, as individuals, the right to choose. Why can’t they?
Tom
November 15th, 2011
10:04 pm
Independence is my happiness, and I view things as they are, without regard to place or person; my country is the world, and my religion is to do good.
– Thomas Paine, The Rights of Man
td
November 15th, 2011
10:05 pm
“I have lived, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth — that God Governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid?”
July 28, 1787, Address at the Constitutional Convention, Ben Franklin
Tom
November 15th, 2011
10:06 pm
All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit.
– Thomas Paine, (1737-1809), The Age of Reason, pt. 1, “The Author’s Profession of Faith” (1794)
Tom
November 15th, 2011
10:07 pm
It is from the Bible that man has learned cruelty, rapine and murder; for the belief of a cruel God makes a cruel man.
– Thomas Paine, as quoted by Joseph Lewis in Inspiration and Wisdom from the Writings of Thomas Paine
Tom
November 15th, 2011
10:07 pm
There is scarcely any part of science, or anything in nature, which those imposters and blasphemers of science, called priests, as well Christians as Jews, have not, at some time or other, perverted, or sought to pervert to the purpose of superstition and falsehood.
– Thomas Paine, as quoted by Joseph Lewis in Inspiration and Wisdom from the Writings of Thomas Paine
td
November 15th, 2011
10:07 pm
“In my opinion, the present constitution is the standard to which we are to cling…. Let an association be formed to be denominated ‘The Christian Constitutional Society,’ its object to be first: The support of the Christian religion. Second: The support of the United States.”
Apr. 16-21, 1802, Letter to James Bayard, Alexander Hamilton
Tom
November 15th, 2011
10:08 pm
The study of theology, as it stands in Christian churches, is the study of nothing; it is founded on nothing; it rests on nothing; it proceeds by no authorities; it has no data; it can demonstrate nothing and admits of no conclusion.
– Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason (1793-5)
Tom
November 15th, 2011
10:08 pm
Everything wonderful in appearance has been ascribed to angels, to devils, or to saints. Everything ancient has some legendary tale annexed to it. The common operations of nature have not escaped their practice of corrupting everything.
– Thomas Paine, as quoted by Joseph Lewis in Inspiration and Wisdom from the Writings of Thomas Paine
Tom
November 15th, 2011
10:08 pm
No falsehood is so fatal as that which is made an article of faith.
– Thomas Paine, as quoted by Joseph Lewis in Inspiration and Wisdom from the Writings of Thomas Paine
td
November 15th, 2011
10:08 pm
“The great pillars of all government…[are] virtue, morality, and religion. This is the armor, my friend, and this alone, that renders us invincible.”
Jan. 8, 1799, Letter to Archibald Blair, Patrick Henry
Tom
November 15th, 2011
10:09 pm
The Bible: a history of wickedness that has served to corrupt and brutalise mankind.
– Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason (1793-5)
Tom
November 15th, 2011
10:10 pm
The Christian system of religion is an outrage on common sense.
– Thomas Paine, as quoted by Joseph Lewis in Inspiration and Wisdom from the Writings of Thomas Paine
Tom
November 15th, 2011
10:10 pm
The Bible is a book that has been read more, and examined less, than any book that ever existed.
– Thomas Paine, as quoted by Joseph Lewis in Inspiration and Wisdom from the Writings of Thomas Paine
td
November 15th, 2011
10:10 pm
“Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty, as well as the privilege and interest of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers.”
Feb. 28, 1797, Letter to clergyman Jedidiah Morse, John Jay
Tom
November 15th, 2011
10:11 pm
Priests and conjurors are of the same trade.
– Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason (1793)
Tom
November 15th, 2011
10:11 pm
The story of the redemption will not stand examination. That man should redeem himself from the sin of eating an apple by committing a murder on Jesus Christ, is the strangest system of religion ever set up.
– Thomas Paine, as quoted by Joseph Lewis in Inspiration and Wisdom from the Writings of Thomas Paine
Tom
November 15th, 2011
10:12 pm
The Church was resolved to have a New Testament, and as, after the lapse of more than three hundred years, no handwriting could be proved or disproved, the Church, which like former impostors had then gotten possession of the State, had everything its own way. It invented creeds, such as that called the Apostle’s Creed, the Nicean Creed, the Athanasian Creed, and out of the loads of rubbish that were presented it voted four to be Gospels, and others to be Epistles, as we now find them arranged.
– Thomas Paine, as quoted by Joseph Lewis in Inspiration and Wisdom from the Writings of Thomas Paine
td
November 15th, 2011
10:12 pm
“The cause of America is in a great measure the cause of all mankind. Where, say some, is the king of America? I’ll tell you, friend, He reigns above.”
1776, Common Sense, Thomas Paine
Tom
November 15th, 2011
10:12 pm
Whenever we read the obscene stories, the voluptuous debaucheries, the cruel and torturous executions, the unrelenting vindictiveness, with which more than half the Bible is filled, it would be more consistent that we called it the word of a demon that the Word of God. It is a history of wickedness that has served to corrupt and brutalize mankind; and for my own part, I sincerely detest it, as I detest everything that is cruel.
– Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason (1794)
Tom
November 15th, 2011
10:12 pm
As to the Christian system of faith, it appears to me as a species of atheism — a sort of religious denial of God. It professed to believe in man rather than in God. It is as near to atheism as twilight to darkness. It introduces between man and his Maker an opaque body, which it calls a Redeemer, as the moon introduces her opaque self between the earth and the sun, and it produces by this means a religious or irreligious eclipse of the light. It has put the whole orbit of reason into shade.
– Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason (1794)
Tom
November 15th, 2011
10:14 pm
The Citizens of the United States of America have a right to applaud themselves for having given to mankind examples of an enlarged and liberal policy: a policy worthy of imitation. All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship It is now no more that toleration is spoken of, as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people, that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights. For happily the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens, in giving it on all occasions their effectual support.
– George Washington, letter to the congregation of Touro Synagogue, Newport, Rhode Island, August, 1790
Tom
November 15th, 2011
10:17 pm
“I know that Gouverneur Morris, who claimed to be in his secrets, and believed himself to be so, has often told me that General Washington believed no more in that system [Christianity] than he did.”
– Thomas Jefferson, in his private journal, February, 1800, quoted from Jefferson’s Works, Vol. iv., p. 572 (”Gouverneur Morris was the principal drafter of the Constitution of the United States; he was a member of the Continental Congress, a United States senator from New York, and minister to France. He accepted, to a considerable extent, the skeptical views of French Freethinkers.” — John E Remsberg, Six Historic Americans.)
Tom
November 15th, 2011
10:18 pm
“The pictures that represent him on his knees in the winter forest at Valley Forge are even silly caricatures. Washington was at least not sentimental, and he had nothing about him of the Pharisee that displays his religion at street corners or out in the woods in the sight of observers, or where his portrait could be taken by ‘our special artist’!”
– The Reverend M J Savage, quoted from Franklin Steiner, The Religious Beliefs of Our Presidents, p. 22
Tom
November 15th, 2011
10:20 pm
“I have diligently perused every line that Washington ever gave to the public, and I do not find one expression in which he pledges, himself as a believer in Christianity. I think anyone who will candidly do as I have done, will come to the conclusion that he was a Deist and nothing more.”
– The Reverend Bird Wilson, an Episcopal minister in Albany, New York, in an interview with Mr. Robert Dale Owen written on November 13, 1831, which was publlshed in New York two weeks later, quoted from Franklin Steiner, The Religious Beliefs of Our Presidents, pp. 27
Tom
November 15th, 2011
10:20 pm
“I called last evening on Dr. Wilson, as I told you I should, and I have seldom derived more pleasure from a short interview with anyone. Unless my discernment of character has been grievously at fault, I met an honest man and a sincere Christian. But you shall have the particulars. A gentleman of this city accompanied me to the Doctor’s residence. We were very courteously received. I found him a tall, commanding figure, with a countenance of much benevolence, and a brow indicative of deep thought, apparently 50 years of age. I opened the interview by stating that though personally a stranger to him, I had taken the liberty of calling in consequence of having perused an interesting sermon of his, which had been reported in the Daily Advertiser of this city, and regarding which, as he probably knew, a variety of opinions prevailed. In a discussion, in which I had taken part, some of the facts as there reported had been questioned; and I wished to know from him whether the reporter had fairly given his words or not. I then read to him from a copy of the Daily Advertiser the paragraph which regards Washington, beginning, ‘Washington was a man,’ etc., and ending ‘absented himself altogether from church.’ ‘I endorse,’ said Dr. Wilson with emphasis, ‘every word of that. Nay, I do not wish to conceal from you any part of the truth, even what I have not given to the public. Dr. Abercrombie said more than I have repeated. At the close of our conversation on the subject his emphatic expression was — for I well remember the very words “Sir, Washington was a Deist.”‘”
– Mr. Robert Dale Owen, newspaper reporter, afterwards a member of Congress and later Minister to Naples, after interviewing Dr. Wilson, giving the substance of the interview in a letter written on November 13, 1831, which was published in New York two weeks later, quoted from Franklin Steiner, The Religious Beliefs of Our Presidents, pp. 26-27
Tom
November 15th, 2011
10:21 pm
“In regard to the subject of your inquiry, truth requires me to say that General Washington never received the communion in the churches of which I am the parochial minister. Mrs. Washington was an habitual communicant. I have been written to by many on that point, and have been obliged to answer them am as I now do you.”
– The Right Reverend William White, the first bishop of Pennsylvania, friend of Washington and bishop of Christ’s Church in Philadelphia, which Washington attend for about 25 years when he happened to be in that city, in a letter to Colonel Mercer of Fredericksberg, Virginia, on August 15, 1835, quoted from Franklin Steiner, The Religious Beliefs of Our Presidents, pp. 27
hiram bronson granbury
November 15th, 2011
10:24 pm
Anyone who dares to lay hands on the highest image of the Lord commits sacrilege against the benevolent creator of this miracle and contributes to the expulsion from paradise.
- Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf Vol. 2 Chapter 1
hiram bronson granbury
November 15th, 2011
10:26 pm
In short, the results of miscegenation are always the following: (a) The level of the superior race becomes lowered; (b) physical and mental degeneration sets in, thus leading slowly but steadily towards a progressive drying up of the vital sap. The act which brings about such a development is a sin against the will of the Eternal Creator. And as a sin this act will be avenged.
- Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, Vol. 1 Chapter 11
hiram bronson granbury
November 15th, 2011
10:29 pm
What we have to fight for is the necessary security for the existence and increase of our race and people, the subsistence of its children and the maintenance of our racial stock unmixed, the freedom and independence of the Fatherland; so that our people may be enabled to fulfill the mission assigned to it by the Creator.
- Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, Vol. 1 Chapter 8
Pro-Life? While Georgia Children Go To Bed Hungry Every Night
November 15th, 2011
10:37 pm
THERE ARE A LOT OF HYPOCRITES ON THIS BLOG. You want to preach pro-life on one hand and on the other you want to throw rocks.
I am for PRO-LIVING! I am for taking care of the babies and children who go to bed hungry at night.
Why are you all so worried about a child that has not been born! TAKE CARE OF THE CHILD THAT IS ALREADY BORN!
IS THAT TOO MUCH TO ASK?
Married for life
November 15th, 2011
11:02 pm
Because, Pro-Life?…, it’s all about power, and control, and enslavement. It has nothing to do with a religion of love, a religion of Jesus.
No Longer Republican
November 15th, 2011
11:39 pm
Kudos to Married for Life and Pro=Life?
Jennifer
November 15th, 2011
11:46 pm
Oh Good Lord. This is all I needed to hear.
Teddy Roosevelt
November 16th, 2011
12:43 am
Enough already, because I am smarter than you
Bobby
November 16th, 2011
1:26 am
So I’m going to be taxed for not being a Christian the next time I have to renew my car tag?
Ole Farmer
November 16th, 2011
4:54 am
Insane.
Ol' Timer
November 16th, 2011
5:24 am
“Get all the fools on your side and you can be elected to anything.” ~Frank Dane