Dominos Founder Funding Religious Segregation

[KNOWTHIS]

No surprise that Jeb Bush is praising this ordeal.


Domino's Pizza founder to bankroll Catholic town

John Aravosis points to the latest antics of the American Taliban:

Dominos Pizza founder Thomas S. Monaghan is putting up $250 million to build a Catholic town--a planned community like Disney's Celebration, Florida. Except, far from being the happiest place on earth, Ave Maria, FL will be a place where you won't be able rent porn, or buy birth control, or get an abortion. Residents will be able to admire the "worlds largest crucifix" in their town center. The ACLU says the project is unconstitutional and is considering legal action.

Florida Gov. Governor Jeb Bush, himself a convert to Catholocism, says ominiously that Ave Maria could be "a new kind of town where faith and freedom will merge to create a community of like-minded citizens."

www.vueweekly.com/articles/default.aspx?i=3400

NEW TOWN OUTLAWS FUN

ROSS MOROZ / [e-mail]

A Florida pizza magnate is using his fortune to found a town adhering to strict Catholic doctrine, despite civil libertarians’ complaints the plan is unconstitutional.

Dominos Pizza founder Thomas S Monaghan is putting up his own dough to build the town, called Ave Maria, on 5 000 acres of farmland 40 kilometres east of Naples, FL.

Claiming he is carrying out “God’s will,” Monaghan won’t allow shops in Ave Maria to sell pornography or condoms. Pharmacies will not dispense the birth control pill, doctors will not perform abortions and cable companies will not offer adult channels.

The town will be built around the Monaghan-founded Ave Maria University, set to open next year, and a church that will feature a 20-metre crucifix, the country’s largest.

The American Civil Liberties Union plans to oppose the plan on constitutional grounds, saying no religious group has the right to exercise governmental powers. Florida governor Jeb Bush, a Catholic, has praised the development for basing community on faith and religious freedom. V

[KNOWTHIS]

Like Bill Maher said recently, “when your tax exempt church burns down, you can no longer use the fire department that ‘I’ pay for, you can pray for rain”.


In related theocracy for America news:

Planning a political Exodus

East of Lodi, in rural Calaveras County, lives a man who has one of the most interesting ideas in American politics these days.

Cory R. Burnell wants like-minded Christians to move to South Carolina so they can dominate state elections, form a near-theocracy and, if the courts don't like it, secede from the union, just like that state did in December 1860.



Burnell, 30, is the founder of Christian Exodus, which so far has convinced about two dozen people to move to the Palmetto State as pioneers in the cause against what he believes is a federal government that "promotes evil." South Carolina is small in population and size, making it easier to mobilize supporters and influence elections.

"It's already a Christian-conservative state," said Burnell, who plans on eventually moving his family there. "If it wasn't for federal intrusion, the state of South Carolina would probably govern itself the way it wants."

Burnell's goals for South Carolina mean a state free from Washington's control. It would mean no federal environmental, job safety or education laws. It would mean the end of Medicare, Social Security, welfare, farm subsidies, gun control and other "illegal activities," as Burnell calls them.

His vision for South Carolina includes allowing only those who pay taxes directly to the government the right to vote. Universal suffrage is an "inherent crime," because those who don't pay taxes can vote to have money transferred to their pockets, he says.

And public schools would be a thing of the past, with private schools the only choice for parents.

There are a lot of strict constitutionalists who would agree with him, but Burnell's group also is strongly anti-abortion and believes federal courts over the past 60 years have been wrong to reduce religious references in public life.

"What we've witnessed is a reversal in the right of the minority, and now there's a concept that the minority has a right to put its view on the majority," Burnell said.

Three thousand miles east, non-Christian Darla Wynne of Great Falls, S.C., has successfully fought to keep Jesus out of Town Council meetings there. She sued Great Falls because its council members started directing its Christian prayers toward her in the audience, where she was awaiting a chance to talk against drug dealers in her neighborhood. She's a Wiccan, part of a pagan religion based on ancient Celtic beliefs.

A federal appeals court in 2004 ruled in her favor, stating government boards can't identify a specific religion in their meeting prayers. Most cities in California also have abandoned the practice, although guest pastors giving the invocation before the Lodi City Council usually end with, "In Jesus' name we pray."

Despite their disparate views, Wynne and Burnell have more in common than you'd think.

For her unpopular beliefs, Wynne has had her ribs broken, an eye blackened, her house vandalized nine times, her pets mutilated and hung from her ceiling by people unhappy with her beliefs, not to mention the death threats she's received.

The local police don't respond to her calls to 911, she said Friday, and don't arrest anyone.

Wynne said when she told the mayor of Great Falls, a city of 2,300, of threats to burn her house if she didn't back off, the mayor said, "Maybe you'd better heed those warnings."

And now Burnell is getting death threats for his views, which he's shared in national newspapers, in speeches around the country and on television and radio shows.

"We've had some scary things come our way like death threats," said Nicole Burnell, explaining why the Burnells are vague in identifying where they live. "With the type of project it is, some people can't stand it."

But South Carolina might not be a promised land for migrating Christians, Wynne said. Residents aren't accepting of outsiders, and those who do try to get along with newcomers are often shunned by old-timers, she warned Burnell.

"What these (Christian Exodus) people don't understand is, I've seen a lot of people move here, but not a lot have an ability to stay here," said Wynne, who moved to Great Falls from Alaska in 1998. "This is a small town, and if they think they're going to infiltrate and make it a Christian nation, there's still enough hatred here. I know it's not just directed at me and my faith, it's directed at people who aren't from around here."

[KNOWTHIS]

Florida Representative Katherine Harris, currently a candidate for U.S. Senate and formerly the person who helped engineer George W. Bush’s theft of the 2000 presidential election, will headline the Reclaiming America for Christ conference to be held in Fort Lauderdale this month.

“Reclaiming America for Christ 2006 is your chance to get the tools and training, ideas and energy you need to change America for the better, “ crows the web site for the conference, to be held March 17-18. “Our nation hangs in the balance and it will take men and women – equipped with strategies that work – to reset the wildly spinning moral compass of our great land.” ...

bobgeiger.blogspot.com/2006/03/katherine-harris-to-headline.html

www.gregpalast.com/images/cards_K-Harris-QD.jpg