Oklahoma Sentences Teen to Attend Church

[Annik]

Yes, because church really makes you a more attentive driver.


Going to church has little bearing on your "moral" behaviors (except a not-so-curious hesitance to not have sex out of marriage).

[Minimalist]

Going to church has little bearing on anything...except an absurd sense of self-importance!

[TaraJo]

Going to church has little bearing on your "moral" behaviors (except a not-so-curious hesitance to not have sex out of marriage).

Really? Church does that? I dunno; I've seen way too many born-again fundies putting their pecker in non-wife places. I'm forced to say going to church doesn't even do this.

[Kirbmarc]

Yes, because church really makes your a more attentive driver

I think Annik got it right: even leaving aside the blatant violation of the separation between Church and State, the sentence doesn't make any sense.

It's just a PR move of the judge. I wouldn't be surprised if he were interested in politics.

[Annik]

Going to church has little bearing on your "moral" behaviors (except a not-so-curious hesitance to not have sex out of marriage).

Really? Church does that? I dunno; I've seen way too many born-again fundies putting their pecker in non-wife places. I'm forced to say going to church doesn't even do this.

Sorry, I should've been more specific. This is most prevalent in younger people. It isn't like every "good Christian" youngster is abstaining, either.

[festive1]

I remember hearing rumors about the Church youth "lock-ins" being a den for BJ's... But then again, oral sex isn't sex, right?

[Minimalist]

I'd settle for it.

[Kousbroek]

But then again, oral sex isn't sex, right?

Hey, if the POTUS says so who are we to argue ...

[The Grand Nudger]

Which is still illegal and was enough to get manslaughter charges to stick. I don't like the judge using church as a punishment, but that does not change the fact that the kid should be grateful for not being incarcerated.

If we're so ready to discard the consistent application of law -in reference to the limits it imposes on itself - by law....when we feel that we've "gotten off the hook" what room do we have to complain about that process when another who we feel is undeserving gets off the same hook? Should we be grateful when the law convicts a violent offender and then simply says "don't do it again - get your ass some jesus boy" as they take off the cuffs?

If we were interested in demanding justice ourselves at some point, we would encourage people to demand that the law be carried out properly and consistently even when it is to their detriment. We wouldn't encourage people to be grateful when it hasn't been..simply because that failure to do so was beneficial to them (in truth..it isn't). A defendant who stands before the court demanding that they sentence him appropriately as they attempt to "let him off the hook" has a much greater claim to any future "justice" than the one who slithers off content to have gotten away with what they had been convicted of. This person can no longer make demands of the law (imho- and it cuts both ways, a law that operates like this can no longer make demands of us).

Obviously, the relief of avoiding punishment can toss this whole justice thing to the curb pretty thoroughly. But we aren't doing ourselves any favors if/when we do so. Not something specific to this particularly "sentencing", just as a general aside with regards to what one "should be grateful for".

[Anomalocaris]

Yes, because church really makes you a more attentive driver.

Well, you'll sleep so soundly during the sermons you'd be wide awake for driving afterwards.

Although you might exceed speed limit by a few scores of miles per hour on the way out of the parking lot.

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oral sex isn't sex, right?

Right. We ought not lower the standard of what counts as home base.

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I'd settle for it.

It's more practical to get a soft noddle into the mouth than the other place.