Dumbing Down Jesus

 

Dumbing Down Jesus

 

Photo by Ed Robertson on Unsplash

 

The Merriam-Webster online dictionary defines intellect as: the power of knowing as distinguished from the power to feel and to will: the capacity for knowledge; the capacity for rational or intelligent thought especially when highly developed; a person with great intellectual powers.

That person and that power have come under fire in this postmodern, post-truth America and in many of the world’s advanced techno-industrial nations. American political and religious leadership have turned toward a belief that intelligence is anathema to the new American nationalist worldview. The extreme right-wing with its cancel culture and obsession with censorship have taken hostage the Grand Old Party and turned it into the fascist pursuit of one nation, one party, one mind modeled after the regimes of Il Duce in Italy and the German Third Reich.

Leading the charge in the recent anti-democracy campaign is evangelical Christianity.

One of the most influential figures in the early history of Christianity, Augustine of Hippo (354-430 CE), warned against the danger of intellectual curiosity: “There is another form of temptation, even more fraught with danger. This is the disease of curiosity… It is this which drives us to try and discover the secrets of nature, those secrets which are beyond our understanding, which can avail us nothing and which man should not wish to learn.” ¹

That line of thinking set the tone for populist Christian anti-intellectualism for the next 1,500 years

At his first address to Congress, George Washington offered a bundle of securities worth over $20,000 to establish a national university. Congress refused to involve itself in the project for fear that it would be seen as a rejection of colleges found by religious institutions. ² Thus began the new nation’s foray into state-sanctioned ignorance that began with Augustine’s institutionalization of anti-intellectualism and found a home in an American colonial government via the Maryland Toleration Act of September 21, 1649. That legislation, enacted by the Province of Maryland to protect minority Catholic settlers from Protestant persecution, included articles to put to death anyone who denied the divinity of Jesus-- not a noble beginning for a country that would come into existence over a century later and founded on the principles of the Age of Enlightenment.

Americans share a binary, either-or, black-and-white thinking known as “splitting” ³ that lends itself well to visual media and to hysterical, emotion-triggering news and information media. That manic presence in our lives that reaches into our homes and workplaces every day is an endless stream feeding the split, demanding that we take a side, commit to it, and do not stray from the path of truth that the “fair and balanced” machine has laid out for us.

 

Christian nationalists, Christo-fascists, and evangelicals base their authoritarianism, misogyny, racism, and cruelty toward immigrants and “the Other” on their religion, yet most American adults cannot name the four Synoptic Gospels or identify Genesis as the first book of the Bible ⁴ This might not reflect as negatively on Americans as the raw data would suggest: It could indicate that Americans have moved on from the doctrines and superstitions of Christianity to look for a more logical and believable God. But, and it is an epic “But,” given the intelligence shown by extremists of all stripes, we cannot at this time hope for this improvement in the critical thinking capacity of the American people.

Nothing said here should be taken as a diatribe against Christians in general. Many adherents of that worldview conduct their lives with quiet meditative grace that attracts rather than repels the skeptic and arouses his curiosity about the cause of that sure-footed maneuvering through a treacherous world. One such Christian was Lutheran minister, Dietrich Bonhoeffer,⁵ who gave us fair warning about the effects of stupidity on a nation’s politics and social structures. These effects show up in statistics such as:

·       Twenty percent of the American people believe in the literal interpretation of the Bible. The good news: The number of Americans who believe that the Bible is the literal word of God is now half the percentage of those who believed the same in 1984—20 percent now versus 40 percent then.⁶

·       “A third of Americans mistakenly believe that there is substantial disagreement about evolution among scientists.”⁶

·       Seventeen percent of the American people reject the science of evolution in any form⁷

·       64 percent of Americans want creationism taught alongside of evolution in public schools. 48 percent accept any form of evolution—even theistic evolution. 26 percent accept Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection. 42 percent believe all life have existed in their present form since the beginning of time.⁸ (That number dropped to 33 percent according to a 2013 Pew Research Center analysis. The number of people who thought that “humans and other living things have evolved over time went from 48 percent to 60 percent.)

·       “Majority Still Credits God for Humankind, but Not Creationism. New high of 24% say God not involved in human origins; new 37% low say God created humans in present form.” “Creationist Belief Linked to More Religious, Less Educated, More Conservative Americans.”⁸

·       Contrast that with the 27 percent of college graduates believe all life has remained unchanged.⁹

·       Nearly 6 in 10 American adults “believe that the bloody predictions of the Book of Revelations—which involve the massacre of everyone who has not accepted Jesus as the Messiah—will come true.¹⁰

·       “Don’t be stupid about intelligent design. President George W. Bush and Senate majority leader Bill Frist have recently publicly advocated teaching intelligent design in science classes.”¹¹

·      “President George W. Bush and Senate majority leader Bill Frist have recently publicly advocated teaching intelligent design in science classes. Their endorsement of a discredited, nonscientific view could signal a huge step backward for scientific education. It is time for educated, motivated scientists to get involved and to educate others.”12

·       “George W. Bush, an advocate for Dumbing Down America, said in a 2005 interview, ‘both sides ought to be properly taught, so people can understand what the debate is about.’”^{12 (} Bush obviously did not understand what the debate is about.)

      Great minds have warned us of the dangers of allowing religion to govern a civil society. British philosopher A.C. Graying told us, “The really surprising thing about ID (Intelligent Design) theorists is that they miss the larger point about explanation, which is that to explain something by invoking something itself unexplained is to provide no explanation at all.”¹³  From philosopher of science Karl Popper we get the truism that, “a theory that explains everything—and says nothing can refute it—explains nothing.” Man created the omni-cubed god to cut off all counterarguments before they could even get off the ground. A perfect god is one who cannot be refuted. “God did it” is not an explanation any thinking person could rationally accept.

       TheThe last word belongs to American conservative philosopher, Sidney Hook: “How can anyone who eschews intelligence or reason know or describe what he has faith in.”¹⁴

#

Notes

¹ The quote appeared on the epigraph page of Charles Freeman’s The Closing of the Western Mind. (2002) and again in Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion (2006). Some controversy arose regarding the accuracy of the quote, with some bloggers and online commentors claiming it as a fake quote. A search of Augustine’s Confessions (written in the late 4^th century CE) and his City of God (written in the 5^th century) did not turn find those words; however it did find this quote:

"In addition to this there is another form of temptation, more complex in its peril.. For besides that concupiscence of the flesh which lieth in the gratification of all senses and pleasures, wherein its slaves who 'are far from Thee perish,' there pertaineth to the soul, through the same senses of the body, a certain vain and curious longing, cloaked under the name of knowledge and learning, not of having pleasure in the flesh, but of making experiment through the flesh. This longing, since it originates in an appetite for knowledge, and the sight being the chief amongst the senses in the acquisition of knowledge, is called in divine language, 'the lust of the eyes.'

The quote used by Freeman and Dawkins reads like a paraphrase of the one found in The Confessions.

² Adolphe E. Meyer, An Educational History of the American People, (New York, McGraw Hill Book Co., 1957), 103, Internet Archive, https://archive.org/details/educationalhisto00meye_0/page/102/mode/2up, (Accessed April, 8, 2026)

(The full speech by George Washington is at: First Annual Address to Congress, January 08, 1790, https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/first-annual-address-congress-0)

³ Ilana Redstone, “Splitting: The Psychology Behind Binary Thinking And How It Limits A Diversity Of Opinions”, Forbes, Jan 11, 2021, https://www.forbes.com/sites/ilanaredstone/2021/01/11/splitting-the-psychology-behind-binary-thinking-and-how-it-limits-a-diversity-of-opinions/ (Accessed 30 March 2026)

⁴ Pew Research Center, ^“Religious Literacy: What Every American Should Know,” December 3, 2007, https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2007/12/03/religious-literacy-what-every-american-should-know/ (Accessed April 4, 2026)

⁵ On the Wing, “BONHOEFFER: On stupidity,” https://nsjonline.com/article/2021/12/bonhoeffer-on-stupidity/, December 3, 2021, (Accessed April 1, 2026). See also, https://www.onthewing.org/user/Bonhoeffer%20-%20Theory%20of%20Stupidity.pdf

⁶ Frank Newport, “Fewer in U.S. Now See Bible as Literal Word of God,“ Gallup, https://news.gallup.com/poll/394262/fewer-bible-literal-word-god.aspx July 6, July 6,2022, (Accessed March 30, 2026)

⁷ National Center for Science Education, “Vast majority of Americans accept human evolution, new survey finds,” National Center for Science Education, https://ncse.ngo/vast-majority-americans-accept-human-evolution-new-survey-finds https://ncse.ngo/vast-majority-americans-accept-human-evolution-new-survey-finds February 28, 2025 (Accessed March 30, 2026)

⁸ Pew Research Center, “Public Divided on Origins of Life,” Pew Research Center, https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2005/08/30/public-divided-on-origins-of-life/, August 30, 2005 (Accessed April 5, 2026)

⁹ Frank Newport, “In U.S., 42% Believe Creationist View of Human Origins,” Gallup, https://news.gallup.com/poll/170822/believe-creationist-view-human-origins.aspx , June 2, 2014 (Accessed March 26, 2026)

¹⁰ Nancy Gibbs, “Apocalypse Now,” Time, July 1, 2002, quoted in Susan Jacoby, The Age of American Unreason, (Pantheon Books, 2008), 19.

¹¹ Ushma S Neill,  "Don’t be stupid about intelligent design,”, Pub Med Central https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1236706/, October 1, 2005, (Accessed February 2, 2026)

¹² Charles P. Pierce, Idiot America: How stupidity Became a Virtue in the Land of the Free (New York: Anchor Books, 2010) 48-9.

¹³ A.C. Grayling, The God Argument: The Case Against Religion and for Humanism, (New York: Bloomsbury USA, 2014), 111

¹⁴ Hook, Sidney, “Modern Knowledge and the Concept of God,” July, 1959, In Critiques of God, ed, Peter A. Angeles, 29-30, Amherst NY: Prometheus Books, 1997, 29-30.

The Corporate States of America

The Corporate States of America

 

By Jonathan McIntosh — Cropped version of File:J20_corporate_flag_dc.jpgCropped and uploaded by Trickymaster at de.wikipedia (07:25, 12. Apr. 2009), CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8458827

 

Introduction

Large corporations have commandeered the world economy to such extent that, of the one-hundred largest economies in the world, sixty-nine are corporations. Those numbers don’t appear alarming on the surface but placed in the framework of the 2008 collapse of the world economy, the problems of what to do about “too big to fail” takes on an alarming importance. Only a handful of America’s largest corporations have brought down the housing market, reallocated pension and retirement funds of millions of workers into exorbitant salaries and bonuses for corporate executives, produced massive job layoffs around the world, and caused a spike in personal and small-business bankruptcies.

Corporate representatives in government, such as Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma, have created a “shadow government” that essentially controls American economic policy. The 2010 Supreme Court Citizens United Decision that granted human rights to non-human corporate entities has turned electoral politics into a scramble for massive campaign funds from organizations with no stake in the public interest. The American political system is now governed by those sixty-nine corporate economies, which have perpetual life, unlimited resources, and the ability to make their own law to assure that their rights and their power take precedent over the will of the people and the public good.

We’ve had amble warning about the excesses of corporate power. Thomas Jefferson wrote in an 1816 letter: “I hope we shall take warning from the example of England and crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which are already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and bid defiance to the laws our country.”

And on another occasion:

“Headed toward a single and splendid government of an aristocracy founded on banking institutions and moneyed incorporations and if this tendency continues it will be the end of freedom and democracy, the few will be ruling and riding over the plundered plowman and the beggar.”

And again, in a letter to Secretary of the Treasury, Albert Gallatin: “I sincerely believe […] that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies.”

The history of the United States has no shortage of great leaders who have alerted us to the dangers of the corporate monster; Along with Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Dwight D. Eisenhower issued public warnings of the encroachment of corporate money and corporate power into government.

 

A History of Corporate Personhood: Causes and Consequences

Section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment, passed into law in 1869, reads:

“All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

The Amendment was written primarily to overturn the Dred Scott decision of 1865 that denied citizenship to slaves and clearly refers to person and citizen. But Supreme Court decisions before and after the Fourteenth Amendment have resulted in the creeping — and creepy — definition of “person” to include corporations, including multi-national corporations.

“A corporation is an artificial being, invisible, intangible, and existing only in contemplation of law.” A corporation is not a person. American jurisprudence takes corporate strengths and human weakness into consideration in making and enforcing its laws. Prisons are built for people but cannot contain a corporation. Corporations have perpetual life in which to realize their goals, while humans have about fifty productive and voting years. Corporations have, for all practical purposes, unlimited resources, while the average worker lives on a weekly wage. Corporations have the legal power to make laws as they wish; the citizen can cast a single vote for a representative he can trust to look out for his interest in the legislative and executive branches of government.

Corporate personhood extends back to Roman law, but its American History began with the end of the American Revolution. Citizens of the newly found republic held contractual agreements with agencies in the mother country. Did the Revolution nullify those obligations? Could the United States legislate new laws to supersede English law that created the contracts?

Those questions came before the new Supreme Court under Chief Justice John Marshall in 1816. The state of New Hampshire had passed laws changing the charter of Dartmouth College from a private institution, chartered by the British Crown in 1769, to a state university. The college trustees filed suit. The court ruled that the charter was a contract between the king and the college trustees, and that a state cannot pass laws to alter a contract. That ruling honored corporations and people as equals in contract law.

In the case of Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad, filed before the Supreme Court in May 1886, “Chief Justice [Morrison] Waite said, ”The court does not wish to hear argument on the question whether the provision in the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which forbids a State to deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws, applies to these corporations. We are all of opinion that it does.” That statement was made before arguments were heard in the case, and do not appear in the court record. Subsequent cases before the court have drawn on that case as legal precedent regardless of the error.

Since 1886, the court has heard several cases involving corporate personhood, and the benefit or loss to actual humans has swung in unpredictable directions. Then, in 1978, the issue of corporate personhood exploded.

The Secretary of Labor, Ray Marshall, brought Marshall v. Barlow’s before the Supreme Court. An inspector for the Occupational Health and Safety Act (OSHA) entered Barlow’s Company, a plumbing and electrical installations contractor. The president and general manager of the company denied access to the agent on the grounds that he did not have a search warrant. OSHA had the responsibility and the authority to conduct warrantless searches of businesses to guarantee worker safety, but Barlow’s argued that the corporation enjoyed the same Fourth Amendment guarantee of protection against illegal search and seizure as an individual. The court sided with Barlow’s, and henceforth OSHA inspections of businesses must be enforced with a search warrant, or OSHA must make an appointment with the company to conduct an inspection.

On January 21, 2010, an appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Columbia reached the Supreme Court. Led by the court’s conservative members, Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission, citing free speech rights, struck down the McCain-Feingold Bill and allowed corporate entities to sponsor funds to political elections without revealing their source. Multi-national corporations now control the financing of elections in the United States, and corporate financial contributions to the political process reached the one billion dollar mark in 2018. The Democratic Party under President Obama appealed to the corporate interests for a détente. Democrats softened their support of workplace safety, a livable minimum wage, and government regulation of business.

With Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Shell The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit issued a stunning decision that a corporation cannot be sued for human rights abuses. A panel of the court ruled 2–1 on September 17, 2010, that the Alien Tort Statute gives U.S. courts jurisdiction over alleged violations of international law by individuals only, not by corporations.

Seeing the direction those court decisions will take the country, former President Obama’s plea for détente with the corporate community makes good political sense but has the potential to forever end the democratic system. His party has traditionally championed worker safety, equal employment opportunity, and a livable wage; issues at odds with corporations. If the Democratic party is to survive — that is, to receive unlimited campaign funds from the deep pockets only corporations can provide — it must relax its support of the proletariat. Ergo, détente.

I find reams of eloquent prose about the failure of the American democratic experiment in the phrase, “Follow the money.”

 

Abuses Committed by National and Multi-National Corporations

Who can forget the televised images of Enron company employees who found it hilarious that “grandmas” were in danger of dying in the heat due to the artificial electrical shortages created by Enron to hike their fees for services?

“A Defense Department auditor testified [on August 10, 2010] that DynCorp International billed the government $50 million more than the amount specified in a contract to provide dining facilities and living quarters for military personnel in Kuwait.”

Headlines like that represent a common feature of Americans’ daily lives. We have become inured to corruption. The 2010 mid-term elections resulted in a turnover of the political majority in Congress because of the anti-corruption mood among the electorate. Yet, many of the very people ushered into power have praised the Citizens United decision. The revolution in Washington suggests lyrics from a rock anthem by the British rock group, The Who: “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.”

Human rights violations by corporate entities don’t often garner headlines, though. The only way to get a handle on corporations’ involvement is through research. Here are just a few of those violations. For a full list of name brand-name companies engaging in behavior that might have made Genghis Khan blush, the Global Issues website at http://www.globalexchange.org/.

https://archive.globalpolicy.org/component/content/article/221-transnational-corporations/46979.html offers a full alphabetical list of offending corporations and links to reputable organizations that back up its claims.

Caterpillar, Inc. supplies equipment to the Israeli army for the purpose of destroying Palestinian homes to facilitate annexation of East Jerusalem.

The crimes charged against Chevron are too numerous to list in a paper of this scope, but they include rape, murder, political corruption, and — the plague of America’s dependency on oil — environmental destruction.

Outside of the United States, the Coca-Cola Company behaves like a mafia family. Murders, kidnappings, and torture highlight its activities in Third World countries, and in some of the industrialized world, reads like intrigue and adventure fiction.

Employees of DynCorp have been found to have engaged in sex trafficking with women and underage girls.

 

A different kind of corporate abuse arose with the Supreme Court's Burell v. Hobby Lobby decision. That case gave closely held corporations a super-power in that it permits Hobby Lobby and others to govern the religious preferences of their employees by denying them health insurance based on the employer's religious beliefs, not on those of the employee. That decision went far beyond the question of non-human personhood, it allows corporations to seek to control workers beliefs. That is only one step removed from attempting to control employees' political affiliation.

It goes without expression that the American version of Christianity is little more than a medieval superstition, yet legal attitudes from 1200 CE govern the Supreme Court's decision in Burrell as well as cases like Sebilius v. Hobby Lobby. In that decision the Court ruled that the personal beliefs of a small number of corporate executives can overrule the personal beliefs of some 50,000 employees.

 

The Future of Corporate Personhood: Consequences

The year 2010 marked the crowning of transnational corporations as the new owners of the American government. Where it will lead us is, at this time, anybody’s guess. The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) have prepared the way for the new leadership with international laws that supersede federal and state statutes regarding relaxed food safety governance, reduced product quality standards, a virtual end to workplace safety regulations, and the erosion of individual rights and national sovereignty. We have already seen the cost of those agreements in the recent flood of product recalls, tainted food in the marketplace, and the undermining of workplace safety laws.

Social attitudes, too, have favored the growing power of corporate entities. Contemporary views of entrepreneurship no longer include the bootstrap legacy. An entrepreneur is now one with massive financial backing from banks and capital investment firms. Corporate culture is rapidly becoming the only socially acceptable course of economic pursuit. Employment in a large company, preferably a multinational corporation, is regarded as a most noble profession, one pursued by most college students. The arts and crafts, manual trades, outdoor work, jobs in philanthropic organizations, and vocations in religious organizations are rarely considered by those who came of age in the corporate world, and — judging by a barrage of human-interest stories in the media — shunned by even the chronically unemployed.

 

Conclusion

Of all the conceivable results of the corporatizing of America and the world, the bulk of them are unpleasant but that need not be the reality. The companies that now own the country’s political and judicial system rely on consumerism to feed their gluttony, and they have the power to destroy the consumer culture through the elimination of a middle class with disposable income. They must take care that, in bringing down American wages, they do not undermine their own profits. Worldwide, people have shown a surprising tendency throughout history to sacrifice their individual pursuits and band together to resolve injustices. If our new masters do not tread carefully — with much more care than they have in the recent past — they could find themselves pitted against the very source of their power: the consumer.

 

Note: This work is an updated version of an earlier piece that appeared on this website.)

 

Works Cited:

“69 of the richest 100 entities on the planet are corporations, not governments, figures show” https://www.globaljustice.org.uk/news/69-richest-100-entities-planet-are-corporations-not-governments-figures-show/

 “Corporate representatives in government, such as Senator James Inhofe” https://www.opensecrets.org/members-of-congress/james-m-inhofe/summary?cid=N00005582&cycle=CAREER

 “the will of the people and the public good” Corporate Influence: Exploring the Relationship Between Lobbying and Corporate Power. https://systemicjustice.org/article/corporate-influence/

 “Thomas Jefferson wrote in an 1816 letter” 12 November 1816 Founders Online https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/03-10-02-0390

 “And on another occasion” Google Books, Hidden Treuhand  page 226 https://www.google.com/books/edition/Hidden_Treuhand/wdxvhhUiabEC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22Headed+toward+a+single+and+splendid+government+of+an+aristocracy+founded+on+banking+institutions+and+moneyed+incorporations+and+if+this+tendency+continues+it+will+be+the+end+of+freedom+and+democracy,+the+few+will+be+ruling+and+riding+over+the+plundered+plowman+and+the+beggar.%22&pg=PA226&printsec=frontcover

 “And again, in a letter” “Thomas Jefferson quote about banking-Truth!” Posted on March 17,

2015 by Rich Buhler & Staff. https://www.truthorfiction.com/jefferson-banking/

 “Those questions came before the new Supreme Court” Definition of a corporation by Chief Justice Marshall in Dartmouth College v. Woodward (1819) https://famguardian.org/Publications/PropertyRights/corpor.html

 “A corporation is not a person”: “Surprise! Citizens United Legal Reasoning Doesn’t Rely on Corporate Personhood” By Nick Bentley November 11, 2012 https://reclaimdemocracy.org/citizens-united-corporate-personhood/

 “In the case of Santa Clara County” “Supreme Court: Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad Co., 118 U.S. 394. (1886)” https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/118/394/#:~:text=CHIEF%20JUSTICE%20WAITE%20said%3A,laws%20applies%20to%20these%20corporations.

 “The Secretary of Labor, Ray Marshall brought Marshall v. Barlow’s before the Supreme Court”“Supreme Court: Marshall v. Barlow’s, Inc., 436 U.S. 307 (1978)” https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/436/307/

 “Citizens United V. Federal Elections Committee) Citizens United v. FEC, 558 U.S. 310 (2010) https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/558/310/

 “multinational corporations now control…” ‘Dark money’ topped $1 billion in 2020, largely boosting Democrats. By Anna Massoglia and Karl Evers-Hillstrom, March 17, 2021. https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2021/03/one-billion-dark-money-2020-electioncycle/

 “With Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Shell…” Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum Co., 569 U.S. 108 (2013) https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/569/108/

 “former President Obama’s plea for détente”: U.S. President Barack Obama said Monday he wanted to lower the corporate tax rate and eliminate tax loopholes to pay for that, requesting support from the business community to achieve that goal.” 11 Feb. 2011 https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna41456730

 “jurisdiction over alleged violations of international law by individuals only, not by corporations.”Geoffrey Pariza, Spring 2011, Loyola University Chicago, School of Law “Genocide, Inc.: Corporate Immunity to Violations of International Law after Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum” https://lawecommons.luc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1022&context=lucilr

 “jurisdiction over alleged violations of international law by individuals only, not by corporations.” “Companies Immune From Alien Tort Suits, Court Rules” Bob Van Voris & Patricia Hurtado, Bloomberg, 17 Sep 2010 https://www.business-humanrights.org/en/latest-news/companies-immune-from-alien-tort-suits-court-rules/

 “US: DynCorp Billed U.S. $50 Million Beyond Costs in Defense Contract” Published by Washington Post, By V. Dion Haynes, Wednesday, August 12, 2009 https://www.corpwatch.org/article/us-dyncorp-billed-us-50-million-beyond-costs-defense-contract

 “behavior that might have made Genghis Khan blush” December 2005 https://archive.globalpolicy.org/component/content/article/221-transnational-corporations/46979.html

 “sex trafficking with women and underage girls.” Sex Trafficking Scandal in Post-Conflict Bosnia DynCorp employees and international peacekeepers accused of forced prostitution and child rape in Bosnia. https://icoca.ch/case-studies/sex-trafficking-scandal-in-post-conflict-bosnia/

 “and the undermining of workplace safety laws” Lori Wallach, essay, “Hidden Dangers of GATT and NAFTA: The Case Against Free Trade” (San Francisco: Earth Island Press, 1993), 23-64.

 “…one step removed from attempting to control employees' political affiliation.” https://healthlaw.org/resource/summary-of-the-supreme-courts-decision-in-hobby-lobby/

Suggested Reading:

Grace Blakeley, Vulture Capitalism: Corporate Crimes, Backdoor Bailouts, and the Death of Freedom, (New York: Atria Books, 2024)

 

The U.N. and the Sex Slave Trade in Bosnia. Isolated Case or Larger Problem in the U.N. System? April 24, 2002. https://commdocs.house.gov/committees/intlrel/hfa78948.000/hfa78948_0.htm

 

Matthew Desmond, Poverty, by America (New York: Crown 2023)

 

“Corporations data 2017” https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/12Jdgaz_qGg5o0m_6NCU_L9otur2x1Y5NgbHL26c4rQM/edit#gid=1364122473

 

Timothy Gorringe, Fair Shares: Ethics and the Global Economy, (New York, Thames & Hudson, 1999)

 

The History of Corporate Personhood: How did we get to the point where a for-profit corporation can lay claim to religious rights? Ciara Torres-Spelliscy on the slithering history of corporate personhood. Ciara Torres Spelliscy, April 8, 2014https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/history-corporate-personhood

 

SCOTUS Blog: Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. https://www.scotusblog.com/cases/case-files/sebelius-v-hobby-lobby-stores-inc/

 

SCOTUS Blog

New fallout from Hobby Lobby, By Lyle Denniston, on Jul 9, 2014. https://www.scotusblog.com/2014/07/new-fallout-from-hobby-lobby/

 

Bloomberg Law. Court Opinions. Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., 573 U.S. 682, 134 S. Ct. 2751, 189 L. Ed. 2d 675, 123 FEP Cases 621, 82 U.S.L.W. 4636 (2014), Court Opinion. https://www.bloomberglaw.com/public/desktop/document/Burwell_v_Hobby_Lobby_Stores_Inc_No_13354_and_13356_US_June_30_20

 

SEC. 6. EXEMPTION FOR RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATIONS. https://sblog.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/ENDA-religious-exemption.pdf

 

Hobby Lobby symposium: A decision based on conclusory assertions and results-oriented reasoning. By Marcia Greenberger, on Jul 2, 2014. https://www.scotusblog.com/2014/07/hobby-lobby-symposium-a-decision-based-on-conclusory-assertions-and-results-oriented-reasoning/. 

SEX TRAFFICKING SCANDAL IN POST-CONFLICT BOSNIA: DynCorp employees and international peacekeepers accused of forced prostitution and child rape in Bosnia. https://icoca.ch/case-studies/sex-trafficking-scandal-in-post-conflict-bosnia/

 

THE U.N. AND THE SEX SLAVE TRADE IN BOSNIA: ISOLATED CASE OR LARGER PROBLEM IN THE U.N. SYSTEM? April 24, 2002. https://commdocs.house.gov/committees/intlrel/hfa78948.000/hfa78948_0.htm