HuffPost Editor Roy Sekoff Discusses The Sarah Palin Coin Controversy On The Joy Behar Show

HuffPost Editor Roy Sekoff appeared on The Joy Behar Show Wednesday night to talk about religion in politics and the controversy surrounding Sarah Palin's "In God We Trust" coin conspiracy. Joining Roy, was Libertarian and magician Penn Jillette.

Behar started off the discussion by playing a clip from Fox News, debunking claims by former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin implying that President Barack Obama was trying to secularize the nation's currency by moving the term "In God We Trust" from the faces of American coins and onto the edge of coins. The decision to move the term was made by a Republican-controlled Congress and was approved by Former President George W. Bush.

Roy argues that Palin has never let the facts get in the way of a good raging paranoia. He points out that the "scary thing" is that Palin admitted to her source for the claims: a friend. The former governor of Alaska never bothered to research her friend's claims.

Behar goes on to ask Roy and Jillette about the Stupak Amendment to the House health care bill, the Catholic Church's influence on health care legislation, gay marriage, and the Mormon Church's support for an anti-discrimination statue that would protect gays and lesbians in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Asked if the Mormon Church and other institutions were being fair to gays, Roy said no:

They're obsessing about marriage and they're obsessing about abortion. But not much talk about poverty. Not much talk about the poor. And if you took out all the mentions of poverty and the poor from the bible, very thin book."

Watch:

 

Comments

[PresidentRobertBooth]

Great video

Penn is particular is always interesting to listen to.

[balrog221]

Penn is my new hero

[mdlw]

She's a storyteller--

http://palingates.blogspot.com/2009/09/shapeshifting-sarah-palin.html

[expired]

We deserve an up or down vote.

http://boldprogressives.org/majorityvote/p-gwa-1?gclid=CI-1ncychp4CFQjyDAodJV9Fqg

[Stretchumall]

It's funny...It doesn't have In God We Trust on my Checks, Pay checks, personnal checks, rebate checks or any other checks.
Thats it No more checks, i will not give Checks to those who favor this on money and not Checks!

[Kim Nosrettac]

(PART 1)
I don't understand why people don't bring this argument up more often:

Right now, we live in a country where health insurance companies can deny coverage to newborn babies who are too fat or too skinny. We've all read the news stories. These children are born with preexisting conditions, and if they get sick, without healthcare, they're far more likely to die earlier than otherwise. Furthermore, a great deal of the uninsured in this country are children. Some reports claim the majority are children, but we can at least assume some are children and some children are babies. So we have all these uninsured babies at risk of dying, and at the same time people who call themselves pro-life walking around with picket signs and saying we have no moral responsibility as citizens to provide them with healthcare from birth (or even while they're still in the womb if their parents can't afford coverage).

Why are we not using these babies? Why don't politicians hold these babies up to the crowds and ask why good Christian people don't think they should chip in to keep these babies healthy and alive? Do they think the babies are lazy? The babies should go out and get jobs and pay for their own healthcare (assuming they're not both too fat and too lazy)? Instead, I've seen House Reps holding up babies to make the exact opposite argument.

(CON'T)

[Kim Nosrettac]

(PART 2)
Maybe some of the Christians would admit they're not really pro-life so much as anti-murder. They won't pay for their neighbor's healthcare, but they would support laws against killing their neighbor outright. Ok, so those guys have to change some website language and print new t-shirts. Other Christians might come around though. They might even start to think adult life deserves their protection too. After all, life begins at conception. We can't pick some arbitrary day out of nine months to say "now we have valuable life." How could we pick some other arbitrary day--an eighteenth birthday, for instance--to say "now we have valuable life, but only if you can afford it."? Those Christians, being such critical thinkers, would even come to believe they should pay for the few people who are simply don't want to work. Being lazy isn't a crime or sin so terrible that a Christian society should let that person die. Those lazy people aren't the most cunning and capable among us. They're simple and stupid, sort of like most babies I know.

[jrutle]

Neo-cons are nothing if not conflicted in their value system. It strikes me as the ultimate in Christian hypocrisy to preach about the rights of the unborn if one is not willing to also accept social justice as a moral imperative and care about the welfare of all as a community concern, not just as an individual responsibility.

[ClareP]

They're not conflicted, they're too brain dead to see their own contradictions. Try arguing it with one sometime. They don't get it, and are shameless about it.

[Harvee Wallbanger]

Wow, they covered a lot of ground there. Personally, I am with the panel in that the Government shouldn't have any say about marriage. Who one decides to spend their life with is nobody's business, except for the other person/people involved.

As far as Sarah Palin, the more she speaks, the more ridiculous she makes herself look. Huffpo should move anything to do with SP over to the entertainment page. She has merely become entertainment.

[Fred Hood]

not even that she is the poster child for hate and what is wrong with our country

[butterfly218]

Kudos to Sarah . She convinced us that goverment was bad , goverment does not work and then she quit the goverment so now goverment works in her state . Good for you Sarah , you figured it out and got out of the way . I hope more Repugs follow her or maybe we will just vote them out so that we can see goverment work for the people .

[Fred Hood]

It never ceases to amaze me.....our country was founded by people seeking religious freedom....now some say their religion is the one that should have all the freedom and chit on the rest.........can't have it both ways many do not follow your pagan hate beliefs

[DennisMM]

That's a popular legend. They sought religious freedom only for themselves. They immediately set up laws and policies based on their own dogma and persecuted those who would not live under such strictures. This is how Rhode Island came to be founded. Check Wiki or other sources for more.

Just curious - pagan hate beliefs?

[DertyK1979]

Idiot, our founders left their country because of Taxation, Tyranny, & Poverty....Caused by BIG GOVERNMENT(Read your history books starting with the 5,000 year leap)...there were all types of religions and yes even atheists involved in our founding, but they all believed that your Rights can only come from God. Not from people....not from Government...from God only. Wake up...you do not want to give up your God given Rights to the government (for the non believers, you don't want the Government telling you how to live your life) and yet that seems to be the path we are going. More so now with Bush and Obama.

[texmike]

Palin knows full well she doesn't need to "research" anything she says. She knows there are plenty of other non-thinkers out there, happily willing to fork over cash and votes to be spoon fed new delusional tales of government conspiracies. She has a big career at FOX News waiting for her.

[cravingtruthiness]

One major problem with a Fox career for Pale-in: you have to show up every day and actually work, even if 'work' means sitting in a make up chair before speaking nonsensically to a camera.

See, if she quits that job as well, there would be no one left to hire/give money to her.

[dgh94104]

S arah P alin represents a culture of victimization and non-accountability. She says whatever comes to mind -- facts be d amned. Her intellectual capacity is virtually zero. She is a cancer not only on the Republican Party, but on the entire United States of America.

[Fred Hood]

WELL SAID a fan

[gbrooks]

I love Penn. He makes so much sense to me.

[Jessica Guerra]

Me, too. And he's not a liar like 90% of the other people on TV.

[CollinJE]

How long will it be until the Republicans realize that Goldwater was right when he told Reagen that tying the party to religious would be the downfall of the Republican party.

[Fred Hood]

worked too

[KevinMast]

Well Palin's idol Ronald Reagan said "Facts are stupid things."

[huff-fan]

I think someone had a good point earlier. If charitable organizations are to be advocates for the poor then it is unavoidable that they would be involved in politics. Perhaps churches and other organizations should be labeled political organizations. Taxing Catholic and mega churches would be a great source of revenue.

From the IRS. To be tax exempt an organization must not be an ...

action organization, i.e., it may not attempt to influence legislation as a substantial part of its activities and it may not participate in any campaign activity for or against political candidates.

[Fred Hood]

I VOTE THEY PAY.......they do not meet this law

[Harvee Wallbanger]

The Constitution gives churches their cake and allows them to eat it too. Even defining what a religion is treads on hallowed ground. The Constitution prohibits the Government, it does not prohibit a religion or a church.

[Fred Hood]

pay back.

declare yourself a church
donate everything you own and make to the church