The U.S. Supreme Court is rejecting reality to push far-right Christian fundamentalism, according to a new analysis published by The New York Times.
Pamela Paul blasted the court's decision in Kennedy v. Bremerton School, in which SCOTUS held that a public school employee could pressure students to participate in prayer.
"But this court’s right-wing majority is following the dictum of our Trumpian age: Objective truth doesn’t matter," she wrote. "Subjective belief — specifically the beliefs of the court’s religious-right majority — does. The Kennedy decision wasn’t based on the facts but on belief in the face of facts. Moreover, those six justices are determined to foist their beliefs on the rest of the country. In allowing for greater 'religious expression,' the court curtailed the liberty of those whose prayers take other forms, Americans who practice non-Christian faiths and people who do not practice religion at all."
Paul noted that the rejection of reality for religious myths is running contrary to the direction of the country.
"This comes at a moment when, for the first time, a minority of Americans belong to a church, synagogue or mosque — only 47 percent in 2020, down from 70 percent in 1999," Paul explained. The number of nonbelievers is on the rise, with roughly one in four Americans identifying as atheist, agnostic or 'nothing in particular.' Belief in God also fell to an all-time low in 2022, with 81 percent of Americans believing in God, down from 98 percent in the 1950s. This trend is surely part of what drives the resurgent Christian right, and it may well even be on the minds of the current conservative majority on the Supreme Court, five of whom are Catholics and one of whom was raised Catholic but attends an Episcopal church. With their brand of religious dogma losing its purchase, they’re imposing it on the country themselves."
Paul wrote that the court is punching down by imposing its religion on others.
"They target a vulnerable population," she wrote. "It’s also a largely powerless population. While the percentage of nonbelievers in America is increasing, secular humanists and atheists are among the least represented groups in American politics. And while 60 percent of Americans say they would vote for an atheist for president (up from 18 percent in 1958), only one member of the 117th Congress identified as unaffiliated with any religion in a 2021 Pew poll. None identified as atheist or agnostic."
The report she cited misrepresented the position of Rep. Jared Huffman (D-CA), who told Stephen Colbert that he might be agnostic and publicly identifies as a "humanist."
"Such intolerance mirrors the strong-arming intentions of the Supreme Court’s conservative majority. Unhappy with what much of the country believes, the court’s right wing chooses to believe what it would like and foists the results on the rest of us," Paul wrote.
Read the full report.
