"JESUS IS TEH AWSUM" BILL ADVANCES

Carrying a Bible on the school bus is the new heterosexual marriage -- a right you had no idea was under siege:

Missouri House gives first OK to constitutional amendment emphasizing the right to pray

The Missouri House gave preliminary approval Monday to a proposed constitutional amendment that would emphasize the right to pray in any public setting, including public schools.

The action came after more than an hour of spirited debate over whether such an amendment would make any difference and whether the names of individual deities should be inserted into the Constitution.

At one point, lawmakers voted to insert into the Constitution a citizen's right to acknowledge "the inerrancy of the Bible." But they deleted that reference on a subsequent vote.

Omigod! Does that mean it's still a capital offense in Missouri to say the Bible is inerrant? They didn't even free the tens of thousands of Christians who are on Missouri's Death Row for this?

Rep. Ray Salva, a Sugar Creek Democrat, tried to insert a requirement that all sporting events include a time to pray between recitation of the pledge of allegiance and the start of the event. That proposal was ruled out of order.

Because everyone knows you can't possibly just pray before a sporting event -- or, rather, you can pray, but God doesn't hear your prayer unless other people who don't want to pray have been pressured to pray at the same time.

...Republicans, including the proposal's sponsor, Rep. Mike McGhee of Odessa, acknowledged that the new wording would not change the law. But McGhee said it was needed to highlight that children had the right to carry Bibles on school buses and could write about Jesus in class.

Rep. Jim Lembke, a St. Louis County Republican, said "you can't get much clearer" than the current Missouri Constitution's guarantee of religious freedom. But the new wording would be a rebuke to people who have tried to outlaw prayer in public schools and sought the removal of the Ten Commandments from public places.

"This will send a clear message to people who might want to mess with those rights to keep their hands off," Lembke said.

And that's really what this is all about -- telling other people to bugger off! Because that's what Jesus would do.

Rep. Trent Skaggs, a North Kansas City Democrat, demanded to know where Bible-toting children had not been allowed to ride school buses. McGhee said he didn't know the location.

But a friend of a friend said his wife's cousin's kid saw it happening and it's totally true, swear to God.

Oh, and why is this happening?

The sometimes wild maneuvering reflected the feeling of most Democrats that the proposal was nothing more than meaningless verbiage designed to go on the ballot to drive religious conservatives to the polls in November.

Ah. Of course.

Alas for them, the race in November might be McCain vs. Obama, and this might actually drive Obama voters to the polls.

By the way, if you want to see what the Missouri constitution says about religious freedom, go here.