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.
Great now punish them for trying
As a Latin American, it seems to me that Christian fanaticism is so wide spread in the US it almost feels cartoonish, like the sort of general impression one gets from any cult or fundamentalist religious group. And I’m from Latin America!
It always reminds me of North Korea, or China. No matter what else you do, you must be seen to believe in the right thing or else you are some kind of evil deviant.
What the religion or belief system is actually is is about is almost irrelevant. The important thing is to believe, understanding it is entirely not required and almost frowned upon.
So while I’m all for this, think about the person trying to get a parole board to write off on their parole. Even if the person is in the right I can only imagine that it’s still in that person’s best interests to at least act the good christian because the parole board can deny them for any reason with no need to explain.
American society is so fucked.
You also get special privileges if you’re religious in prison, like better food if you’re keeping Kosher or Halal and being let out of your cell to go to religious services. Even if you’re an atheist, I could see why you would pretend.
