A federal judge in West Virginia has ruled that the state corrections agency can’t force an incarcerated atheist and secular humanist to participate in religiously-affiliated programming to be eligible for parole.
Unfortunately this just means they can’t explicitly force them on paper. They’ll still find ways to punish anyone that doesn’t at least go along.
Lol the fact something like this even got to court omg
I know, it seems like it’d have been so easy to make an exception in this case so he wasn’t harmed by it and not allow it to set a precedent.
There should be significant additional legal penalties when the state violates long established laws and precedents.
It’s pointless and stupid. If you’re forced to perform a religious ritual, it doesn’t mean you believe. People believe whatever they want, independent of what they say or do.
The fact that they even tried in the first place is what is most disturbing. Amazing how so many Americans (Republicans) have apparently zero respect for or understanding of the principles in which the country was founded (ie. as a SECULAR nation by design) - but of course in reality they understand EXACTLY what they are doing and they do it anyway because Christianity today is far closer to being being just a front door for fascist ideology rather than something which aims to actually help people.
