This is Hemant. And Jessica. And you're listening to the Friendly Atheist Podcast. Please go to patreon.com slash friendly Atheist Podcast to support the show. Hello, how are you?

Hi, I'm good. It's, uh, we're both. Are you vaccinated yet? I'm done. You're done. I'm done. We, are you two weeks out? Could we be doing this in person right now? We might be. Yeah. Still waiting for the rest of the family to do it. But, um, yes.

Sure. That's exciting. One day we'll see you again. I'm going to have to shower again before we record. I never, I've gotten used to not having to do that. Why start now?

Let's, let's start with this insane, uh, comment from Cindy Hyde Smith that was making the rounds this week. Here's the setup for it. Republicans everywhere, predominantly Georgia is the one that happened yesterday.

They've passed laws that basically figure out ways to stop black people from voting without saying the word black.

And in Georgia, they passed like most egregious version of this bill. And they were having a subcommittee hearing about it in the Senate this week because Democrats have a bill that would stop the racism, at least in some significant ways.

And one of the people speaking out against that was Mississippi Senator Republican Cindy Hyde Smith, who by the way, if you don't remember when she was running her reelection campaign this past year, she was joking about lynching.

She, she's exactly what you would expect like a Southern Mississippi white Republican to kind of be and say and like she fits your description, whatever your hair, does she have to be answered to that is yes.

Anyway, here's what she argued as to why we don't need to pass a voting rights bill. She said, you know, I can't speak for Georgia, but I can speak from Mississippi on why we would never do. Oh, I'm sorry, I should explain one of the things Georgia did or at least said they were going to do is they're going to block people from early voting on Sundays.

Now, I was that an anti how is that a racist thing because it turns out the time that a lot of black churches in Georgia and elsewhere too, but in Georgia, they go to church on Sundays before an election. And then afterwards they plan souls to the bowls of ends. They go vote on Sunday.

So of course, how do you get around that without saying the word black? You say, Oh, we're just shutting down early voting on Sunday. So here's Cindy Hyde Smith. I can speak for Mississippi on why we would never do that on a Sunday or hold an election on a Sunday.

You know, this is our currency. This is a dollar bill that says the United States of America in God, we trust etched in stone in the US and a chamber is in God, we trust when you swore in all these witnesses, the last thing you said to them in your instructions was so help you God in God's word in Exodus 2018.

It says, remember the Sabbath and keep it holy.

Is this a Sabbath Saturday sometimes?

Yeah, there's many things wrong with this one is one is yes, Saturday is the Sabbath for many people.

Sunday's convenient, but Saturday is kind of the if you say God made the universe in six days and the seventh day is the Sabbath like well, the seventh day of the week by most accounts would be the Saturday.

And a lot of it again, none of this matters, but also that's not a reason, even if you happen to have Sabbath on a Sunday, that is never stop Christians from doing the things they wanted to do.

Sure. You go to church on Sunday, a pastor's working on a Sunday, you took poorly on Sundays, yep, after church. So there's all of those reasons that the Sabbath is totally pointless when you're trying to argue why we don't need voting rights.

The third favorite part about that is she quoted Exodus 2018, you know what 2018 actually says tell me when the people saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain and smoke they trembled with fear they stayed at a distance.

That has nothing to do with the Sabbath. I think she was referring to Exodus 28, which is the commandment one, but also it's just telling that Cindy doesn't know her Bible versus correctly.

Shout out a random one. I'm sure the work. I mean, they all have to do with keeping black people from voting. If I remember my biblical scholarly, it's what Jesus said. Yeah, exactly.

Yes, whole big jam. Yes, when Cindy Hyde Smith was sworn into office this year.

...