Clergy in Boca Raton, Florida are speaking out against a local elections official’s decision to remove a polling site from a mosque, saying Muslim houses of worship shouldn’t be treated any differently than churches or synagogues.
Is this possible in this country? In FL?
No, polling sites should not be in religious buildings. There are citizens of another faith and no faith who do not want to enter a Baptist, Jewish, Muslim or Roman Catholic building.
This type of thoughtful interaction and dialogue is what can happen when folks ignore the irrational hysteria and screaming, and actually think about the reality of the situation.
Would have been nice to have it happen in Cleveland, but unfortunately, irrational hysteria and screaming ruled those 4 days.
First off, the Florida Family Association and it’s mother ship should be investigated to see if they receive any tax dollars and/or breaks and have them rescinded immediately. AND big KUDOS to those faith leaders that had the BALLS to speak out.
“There are lot of people who have allowed themselves to buy into the notion that all Muslims are bad and Sharia law is coming to take away our rights.”
How could they ever come up with that idea?
is there a polling place set up in the mess of the Flying Spaghetti Monster somewhere that I could vote in?
Would it not be nice FOR ONCE the dumb fuck religious nuts who insist on inserting their brand of belief into government functions reap their rewards. Like having their tax exemptions taken away, does not even need to be that of the church itself but the individual losing their clergy tax breaks.
No, polling sites should not be in religious buildings.
I fully agree.
There are citizens of another faith and no faith who do not want to enter a Baptist, Jewish, Muslim or Roman Catholic building.
I disagree with this reasoning. It shouldn’t be any religious site as the site should have absolutely nothing to do with any religion.
For perspective, how many polling places in this county are set up in non-religious, public buildings? Not surprised that Lubavitchers would “feel uncomfortable” voting in a mosque; many would feel the same voting in a Litauer synagogue!
If it’s inappropriate for the polling stations to be at the mosque, they should be removed from all houses of worship.
They sound like citizens of little faith.
Walk in, get your ballot, vote, turn in ballot, walk out. If you are one of the above, add these steps to the list: use hand sanitizer to get the undesirable religion off your skin; drive home; grab a plastic garbage bag, and head for the shower; deposit contaminated clothing into the bag and close with twist tie; shower thoroughly, soaping at least twice; after drying and dressing, deposit garbage bag in trash bin and clean shower stall with bleach cleaner; and, finally, try to understand how absurd your concerns are.
As a lifelong atheist, I personally couldn’t give a shit which building they have them in haha - but you’re right, it’s an uncomfortable mix of civics and religion - just don’t do it at all.
Applause for these true religious leaders.
That said, I think the issue is silly. There should be lots of polling places. The more, the better.
The type of people who are uncomfortable about entering a place of worship are the same type of people that call in anonymously about some black man waving a gun around when they are really an unarmed man.
Just start taxing churches, all their properties and the incomes to their grifting, fast buck phony preachers! You’ll see real quickly how these phony politically-driven churches disappear!
Right? It’s like some funhouse image of the kind of thing soft bigots said about gays ten or twenty years ago and about blacks before that. “Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but I’m just not comfortable with it, that’s all.”
Houses of worship have big parking lots, big assembly halls and roofs and are usually located in residential areas. That’s why we use them for polling places. They are often the only suitable locations in a precinct.
So GTFO the idea that isolating yourself from people who dress or act or think differently is a good thing for an American to do, put on you big boy undies or big girl panties, man/woman up and go brave the skirry bogiepeople who aren’t just like you and do your extremely minimal, and optional, damn civic duty to the Republic.
I am very happy to hear that Clergy in Boca Raton are speaking out against this very bad decision. If this is gong to continue to be a problem, perhaps the election board will consider public facilities to be used as voting polls. What’s wrong with the schools, libraries, recreation centers, etc., as voting places and thus, this matter would not be an issue? It is as if, the entire episode was indeed stage purposely to avoid focusing on more important issues. A sure sign of a RepubliCANT!
Great idea, we just stop using churches for any government activities. This is like a major WTF that we even do this at all (not just for Mosques, mind you; ALL houses of worship).
If polling sites shouldn’t be in religious buildings then neither should bingo nights, clothing drives, and pancake breakfasts. There’s no end to it except for rational persons to grow a pair and start pushing back at the idea bigots have viewpoints that should be “respected.”