States of Confusion

So much religious fanaticism, so little time…

Can you match the acts of evangelical extremism to the states that they occurred in?

1) The Newton Correctional Facility here is accused of giving preferential treatment to inmates who subscribe to a Christian prison ministry’s evangelical teachings.
2) The Catholic Church in this state urged its flock to fight against a proposed constitutional amendment that would continue to allow embryonic stem cell research here.
3) The sale of Bibles is exempted from state sales tax here, prompting the American Civil Liberties Union to sue, claiming discrimination against the holy books of other religions.
4) Evangelicals threatened to sue Walgreens here after the drug store chain fired four pharmacists for failing to uphold the laws of this state by not filling prescriptions for emergency contraceptives.

A) Georgia
B) Illinois
C) Missouri
D) Iowa


ANSWERS

1) D: In court testimony, the Iowa-based prison is accused of allowing an evangelical ministry to take over “an entire unit of a state prison and turned it into an evangelical church.”
2) C: The Catholic Church in Missouri opposes the stem cell research drive, likening the experimentation with human embryos to experiments performed on Jews in Nazi concentration camps.
3) A: Bibles can be bought tax free in Georgia
4) B: Illinois has a law barring pharmacists from refusing to fill prescriptions for contraceptives, prompting Walgreens to fire the four pharmacists. But let’s not pat Walgreens on the back for its brave stance it in the face of evangelical extremism here — the company is trying to save the licenses of its pharmacies there. In fact, the company, which allows pharmacists not to fill the prescriptions so long as it doesn’t violate the laws of an individual state, has offered to move the four to Missouri, where they can deny women access to federally-approved medication in Walgreens stores all they want.