A fabrication to manufacture outrage? But … who would possibly be willing to do something like that?

Not necessarily, no. You don’t reduce recidivism by preaching right and wrong, you do it by cultivating healthy behaviors. Criminals, or republicans for that matter, are not afraid of punishment, and don’t really care about right or wrong.

So, you need to kind of help them grow more healthy practices and adaptations, kind of like re-parenting them, since somebody screwed it up initially. It’s ultimately selfishly beneficial to be a good person, and this can be taught. This is more effective than simply leaning on right/wrong like they’re a young child or something.

I mean, do you not do bad things simply because “they’re wrong”, or do not do them because they would make your life worse in ways you can consider, and you have better alternatives?

Afraid so. I believe in rehabilitation over punishment for criminals, with the goal being the eventual cessation of the behavior.

edit: Side note, not because I like it, but because it is necessary to fix our criminal justice system. We have a very abnormally high recidivism rate, where convicted criminals frequently go on to commit more crimes. Also, while relying on severe punishment may make us feel better, it does not actually work to reduce crime. It is also expensive.

So, as uncomfortable as it may sound, it’s about treatment of the core problems with the goal of eventual release back into society. Even for animal abuse. It’s a challenging issue, unfortunately.

Sure, but I think improvement is worth acknowledging. We should not limit reward to just some kind of good enough.

People do not have to learn or grow, it is in no way required to be a live American citizen that exerts power in our system. If we want people to do it, it needs to be supported. Even if that is sometimes distasteful.

Personally I think we should always applaud learning if we want to encourage it further.

Don’t let a thirst for justice get in the way of finding allies. It’s about the school districts and their future, not the individuals trying to fuck them up with religious indoctrination.

So, it’s not “good for her” as much as “good for those kids”. And what she deserves or not is less important than those kids futures of being brainwashed or not. She’s just one person, and punishing her would accomplish nothing helpful, you’re not going to scare off her old friends that way or anything.

Eh, if you define Christian as believing Jesus was the only son of god and the Messiah, then Thomas Jefferson was not one. He did believe in a god and Jesus’ teachings enough to have his own gospel put together, but did not believe in things like the resurrection. He thought the gospels as-given were full of garbage written by corrupted people.

Usually people call that deism, when you believe in a god, but think Jesus was just a dude.