Mississippi judge wields Book of Revelations essays as punishment for underage drinking

[DonViejo]

Source: RawStory

A Mississippi judge has been offering minors arrested while in possession of alcohol an opportunity to keep the charge off of their permanent record by allowing them to write an essay based upon the Book of Revelations, reports Fox10 TV.

Telling youthful offenders, “If you enter a plea of guilty, it’s on your record,” Harrison County Judge Albert Fountain gives them the option of writing the 1,000-word essay based upon scripture, along with addressing the effects of alcohol in their writing.

“I don’t force them to do that. It’s their choice. That’s just my recommendation. They can write it on anything they want to,” the judge explained, adding that he also takes away their license for 10 days while placing them on a 90-day probation conditional upon good behavior.

“It just felt like I had to do something different,” Fountain said. “There is more to it than just sentencing someone, and I felt I needed to make a difference.”

-snip-

Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2015/03/mississippi-judge-wields-book-of-revelations-essays-as-punishment-for-underage-drinking/

---

Harrison County Judge Albert Fountain (Fox10)

[LongTomH]

1. Just forcing kids to READ the Book of Revelations is cruel and unusual.......

.......punishment!!!!!

I wonder what the judge will decide if one of the kids does a scholarly analysis of the hypothesis that St. John wrote Revelations under the influence of some funky mushrooms? First bit of psychedelic literature in history!

[Daemonaquila]

9. Just the opposite, per scholars.

Revelations was a coded political document according to some scholars. Put in that context, it really has no place as a religious text in the first place.

http://www.npr.org/2012/03/07/148125942/the-book-of-revelation-visions-prophecy-politics

[LongTomH]

10. Yes, I've read that Revelations is a coded diatribe against the Roman Empire.

That's the one accepted by most mainstream scholars, in opposition to the bloody, horrorshow interpretation I was served up with in my childhood: "You need to get saved right now; because the Lord's comin' back to Earth and he will call for all sinners and unbelievers to be killed before him." Yeah! I escaped, as I said before.

Ms. Pagels does add a lot of good historical background. I was being a bit facetious with the mushroom hypothesis; although I have seen that from various sources. Both interpretations could be true: St. John could have written a lengthy coded screed against the empire, and he could have been using some interesting mushrooms to give his prose some more color.

[awoke_in_2003]

16. Reading the bible...

made me an atheist. It is pure fiction, and bad fiction at that. It makes L. Ron Hubbard's Battlefield Earth seem like a masterpiece.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

2. Wouldn't Genesis 9 be better?

Genesis 9

Noah's Sons

18 And the sons of Noah, that went forth of the ark, were Shem, and Ham, and Japheth: and Ham is the father of Canaan.

19 These are the three sons of Noah: and of them was the whole earth overspread.

Noah's Shame and Canaan's Curse

20 And Noah began to be an husbandman, and he planted a vineyard:

21 And he drank of the wine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent.

22 And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without.

23 And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it upon both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were backward, and they saw not their father's nakedness.

24 And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done unto him.

25 And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren.

Shem's Blessing and Noah's Death

26 And he said, Blessed be the LORD God of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.

27 God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.

28 And Noah lived after the flood three hundred and fifty years.

29 And all the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years: and he died.

Wait: Noah gets drunk, and the guy who stumbled upon this is the one who ends up cursed? What? Maybe your punishment depends on whom you know.

[snooper2]

3. The funniest part of that horrible writing is at the end it is always :and he died

LOL

cracks me up...


blah blah blah- and he dead

blah blah blah- and he dead

[robbob]

5. What's the world coming to?

When a 500 year old man can't even sleep naked in his own tent?

[Larry Engels]

7. Note that there are exactly three races: Hamites, Japethites and Shemites.

The Hamites inhabit the Dark Continent.
The Japethites inhabit the European Continent.
The Shemites inhabit the Fertile Crescent.

As you can see, the Oriental peoples do not exist.

[happyslug]

14. At the time of the Story, that is all the people of that region would know of...

Europeans of the 1400s did NOT write about who lived in North America, for they knew almost nothing about it. Europeans did write about the Chinese, the Mongols, and even the Japanese, for they had knowledge of those people (not always correct knowledge but knowledge that such people existed).

My point is, when the Book of Genesis was written it reflected the knowledge of the people writing the book AND the knowledge of the people who would later read those stories. Just like people living in 1400 Europe did not write about people living in Brazil or Mexico (Europeans had some knowledge of people living in Greenland and Newfoundland) nor did they write stories about such unknown people, unknown to them AND their readers. These books were written to explain what was known to them not to state facts unknown to them. Thus the three Races that people in what is now Israel knew of are mentioned in Genesis, but NOT people that anyone in what is now Israel would NOT know of.

[happyslug]

13. You should read the Comments on the section you quote.

http://biblehub.com/commentaries/genesis/9-22.htm

The Comments make it clear that Ham did something wrong, what it was is unclear for it appears to be a sin of OMISSION, not a deliberate sin.

The commentators tend to say the problem with Ham was he did NOTHING to end the nakedness of his father, while his two brothers did something Thus the "Sin" of Ham was seeing someone in distress (his own father being naked) and did NOTHING ABOUT IT. His two brothers did do something about it, by putting "Garment" over they father AND NOT embarrassing him further by seeing Noah Naked.

Sins of Omission was a big issue prior to the Renaissance. People were told they were their brother's keepers and needed to take care of them. Thus rich people had a duty to take care of the poor. Capitalism weaken this concept for helping the poor meant less money for Capitalists and as such Capitalists embraced the rule that the best way to help someone was NOT to help them, but force them to do it on their own. I.e. Capitalists supported Ham's decision NOT to cover his father for by covering Noah, Ham's two brothers "weakened" Noah's ability to help himself.

Thus Ham was Cursed NOT because he saw his Father Drunk and Naked, but that he did NOTHING about it when it was clear Noah needed help.

[jmowreader]

19. No dude, you missed it entirely

After Noah got into the ergot-infested wine again and became so blotto he ripped off all his clothes before he fell asleep, Ham had his brothers put a cowhide or something over him so he wouldn't freeze. So what does Noah do when he wakes up? Instead of thanking his sons for keeping him from FREEZING TO DEATH, he consigns Ham's kid to a life of slavery for looking at Noah's dick, even though of the five men in the story he's the only one who didn't get a chance to.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

21. Thanks, jmowreader and happyslug, for

the interpretations and commentaries. It was not clear to me from the verses alone what the issue was. Saaaaaay....

Maybe this means that if one slaps one Bible verse on an 18" by 24" piece of corrugated plastic, ignoring thousands of others, and shouts through a bull horn while standing across the street from a same-sex marriage or funeral service that the object of his hatred is going to hell, the person doing the shouting is missing the whole point.

Is that possible? Nah, couldn't be.

Thanks again.

[Thor_MN]

20. Can't remember who, but there was a comedian who had a bit along those lines.

That a father should only let his son see him naked once, when the boy was about eight.

So that he rest of his life, the son would swear that his father had the biggest d!ck he had ever seen.

[Dawgs]

4. Right, because the one thing that will turn someone to God is forcing it on them as punishment.

This is a major fail.

[LiberalElite]

6. What's next, a Catholic judge

giving them 5 Hail Mary's and an Our Father? (I was raised RC)

[Gore1FL]

8. My essay

Revelations is basically the book of Daniel plagiarized by a cave-dwelling hermit that hated Rome.

Like the book of Daniel, it is all bullshit.

[Roy Rolling]

11. hmmm

It's hard to take him seriously when they misidentify the Book of Revelation as Revelations.

A common mistake, but it shows someone is not paying attention.

[Corey_Baker08]

12. I Wish I Had That Opportunity I Was Sentenced To 3 Days In Jail For Minor Consumption When I Was 18

As well as a $500 fine & mandatory enrollment in a drug/alcohol rehabilitation clinic, and 7 years later its still on my record...

First time I'd ever been in trouble at all, I was at a party celebrating our recent graduation from high school & someone on their way to the party got pulled over had an unopened case of beer in his car & the police made a deal with him that if he told them the location of the party they would confiscate his beer and let him go with a warning...

Next thing ya know my classmates and I were sitting around a campfire drinking & reminiscing on school and then about 10 cop cars raced up, cops got out with guns drawn, it was in the country with cornfields surrounding us so some people took off, but I didn't I figured I'd be in bigger trouble if I ran from the police & got caught like most who ran did thanks to the police k9 who bit the hell out of about 9 people.

Nope being honest & not running got me nowhere in fact I received harsher punishment than the rich kids that ran including the mayor's son & daughter as well as the judges son who I believe all got diversion as punishment...

[booley]

15. wasn't the author of Revelations possibly high on hallucinogens when he wrote it?

Even if he wasn't, it could be easily argued Revelations is about the Roman Empire, not modern era.

Seems this is looking for just the right well informed smart ass for th judge's plan to back fire in a really awesome way.

[czarjak]

17. I was taught growing up...

That when the Book of Revelation warned of "false prophets", it meant Mormonism. Vote for Mitt your honor?

[alcibiades_mystery]

18. We're surrounded by morons

And they have power.