Social engineering

Dirk Gently

No its not china, its the town of Black Jack, Missouri in the good old U.S of A where a city is evicting people from homes who have more than one child and who happen not to be married.

Story here ---> http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,1782423,00.html

Is this acceptable in this day and age, in the self proclaimed leader of the free world. Surely this infringes on the rights of families which do not strictly conform to Christian religious interpretation of the family. What happened to the separation of church and state? The report also mentions other towns in America which have laws against any group of more than three people from living together unless related by "blood, marriage or adoption".

Does anyone agree with these measures taken in Missouri and else where in the U.S. and if so why do you agree with them?

Karl Hungus

I don't know what to say really. If it was one of those private communities, then by all means do what you want, but this is an entire town? Then again, Missouri? Hmm...

Zombrex

clown bag wrote:

No its not china, its the town of Black Jack, Missouri in the good old U.S of A where a city is evicting people from homes who have more than one child and who happen not to be married.

Reason #3421 why living in "Christian America" sucks (by that I mean no disrespect to normal American Christians, only to the Christian Right that is alarmingly increasing in presence over the last 20 years)

I wonder what general American reaction would be if they read about this taking place in a fundamentalist Islamic country.

Sleepy

Reason #9768 why religion should be outright banned.

Moriarty

Repeat of reason #1 why morons should be banned from life.

Nevyn

It is also way to stop communes and those are polyarmorus from cohabiting which is pretty awful.
There are several ways that town bylaws are being used to christianise towns in the USA.

simu

That's always been one of the features of the US, though - ability of niche groups to set up communities in accordance with their own rules.

Dirk Gently

I've heard about towns being set up by religious groups and people go to them because they want to live by those rules set out by the town founders but from what I can see this is not the case here. It seems to be a normal town governed by the constitution of America and people who live there didn't subscribe to religious intolerance. It appears to me that this is an attempted coup on the part of some in the community to get rid of what they see as undesirables.
All I can say is thank god I don't believe in God.;)

Dudess

Oh dear. I actually posted a thread to the Literature forum the other day recommending the author Margaret Atwood. One of her books, The Handmaid's Tale, written in 1985, depicts an America of the not-so-distant future (20 years later or so) which is governed by christian fundamentalists. Margaret Atwood, it appears, had a very accurate crystal ball back in 1985.

Nevyn

Wonderful book and a great author.

Dudess

Yeah, and wouldn't you agree that the subject of this thread is scarily like something you'd find in The Handmaid's Tale?!:(

Crucifix

Holy hell. That's gotta illegal.

Bottle_of_Smoke

What I find strange is that they seem like the model family - and they wanted to get married, were saving to have a "special day" - they clearly hold the values of people evicting them. In this day and fuc*king age.

is ther a website you can put money toward them winning the case? - thats how america works iirc?

Dirk Gently

Bottle_of_Smoke wrote:

What I find strange is that they seem like the model family - and they wanted to get married, were saving to have a "special day" - they clearly hold the values of people evicting them. In this day and fuc*king age.

Something tells me that could be an attempt to appease the religious nutters who are oppressing them. The point is they are entitled to a home no matter what family structure they have. There is no reason why they can't have a great family even though their not married, and what’s to say the family wont fall apart after marriage. Some of these laws also discriminate against friends sharing a house too. It is a disgusting attempt to organise society into married couples with children, and everyone else is excluded.

Pink Bunny

Don't get the idea this is in any way common practice in the states, it's far from it actually!

It flys in the face of Fair Housings Laws and HUD (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development) will have a field day with this in court.

People are protected against housing discrimination and the list of protected classes is below;

It's illegal:
(b) To discriminate against any person in the terms, conditions, or privileges of sale or rental of a dwelling, or in the provision of services or facilities in connection therewith, because of race, color, religion, sex, familial status, or national origin.

In this case the discrimination is regarding familial status.