Another ridiculous overreaction by those poor Persecuted ChristiansTM

Christians: stop acting persecuted. You ain’t.

At the moment, a lack of appropriate and reasonable legislation in Indiana currently makes it so that just about any faith-based organisation or group in the state – churches, mosques, synagogues, what have you – can open a child-care center without having to go through licensing or being required to meet certain basic standards. Thankfully, Rep. Vanessa Summers (D-Indianapolis) is trying to change that through introducing a perfectly sensible bill that would, in basic terms, require that:

• Any child-care facilities register with the state and undergo appropriate licensing;
• A background check of anyone wishing to become a caretaker/guardian be completed through the state police department;
• Child-care facilities meet certain standards:
  • A caregiver must be at least 17 years old and either have a high school diploma, or be in the process of getting one, before he/she can apply;
  • Children must be under a caregiver’s supervision at all times; and
  • Require that there be a decent child-to-staff ratio (ie. enough caregivers to efficiently take care of all the children in their charge); and
• A public website be set up to which any and all incidents regarding the injury or death of a child be reported.

That’s it, skipping some minor details. It’s really a rather basic collection of obligations and requirements. After all, religious organisations who take care of children are to be held to the same standards as any others. It’s just the reasonable thing to do, no?

Well, some Christian groups don’t think so, apparently deciding that they like this degree of uncontrolled freedom they have with child-care centers and standards, and they’ve reacted to this bill in the typical Christian manner: by launching a smear campaign against Summers in an effort to stall the bill’s passing.

Rep. Vanessa Summers, who chairs the Family, Children and Human Affairs Committee, had scheduled a hearing on the bill she is sponsoring, but told a packed hearing room that she was delaying the hearing one week until Jan. 27.

[…]

Summers said she had become the target of a smear campaign by opponents of the bill who rallied even her own pastors against her and accused her of being an atheist.

"I have been called anything but a child of God because of this legislation," Summers said, staring directly at Eric Miller of the conservative lobbying group Advance America.

[…]

Summers acknowledged her bill faced tough odds: Miller was able to pack about half of the hearing room with opponents of the legislation. He sent out an e-mail alert last week warning that licensing child-care ministries would lead to government intrusion into faith-based summer camps, vacation Bible schools, Sunday schools and after-school programs.

"We were ready to testify in favor of the freedom we've had since 1979," Miller said, referring to the year the Legislature passed a law that exempted child-care ministries from state licensing.

Ah, yes, the Christian Hysterical Outrage Machine is cranked up to full power: so now, legislation that would merely ascertain that any and all facilities engaging in the caretaking of children meet some basic standards and be held accountable, would somehow lead to the persecution of various Christian organisations and activities. Which have less than absolutely fuck-all to do with anything mentioned in the bill. And, of course, those who push this bill are nasty evil baby-eating atheists. Despite her being an avowedly Church-going Christian. (Ah, but she’s not a True Christian^TM, see …)

Slimy, dishonest gits. It’s overwhelmingly apparent that these twits either can’t abide the notion that they’ll have to be held accountable for taking care of other people’s children, or take anything that serves to regulate their activities as persecution. Frankly, if this is the way their minds work, I wouldn’t be comfortable with letting my children in their care regardless of whether they were licensed or not.

(via Friendly Atheist)