ACLU opposes creation of 'Catholic town'

[Coexist]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11499702/

WTF is this? Is this old news? I did a search and didn't see any threads about this. Talk about needing to surround yourself with your own kind and shut off any diversity.

Oh, no - the filthy Protestants ideas might rub off on my kids!!!
:rofl:

<snip>
Tom Monaghan, the founder of Domino‘s Pizza, wants a towering Roman Catholic Church at the center of his proposed new town. He also prefers people who have the same religious beliefs as he does. He wants them to move into his aptly named Ave Maria, Florida.

There‘s one group standing in the way of Monaghan‘s lifelong dream, the American Civil Liberties Union, of course. Howard Simon is the executive director of Florida‘s ACLU. He joined Tucker Carlson from Miami.

[bryant69]

1. Seems like they have a decent case

For all that tucker is trying to obsuficate it.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[Warpy]

2. There have been religious towns before

Religious communities were set up on large tracts of private land, incorporated as towns, and allowed to be as crazy as they want to be. Eventually, they all fail to one extent or another: some are abandoned completely, others stay in business as secular towns that tolerate everybody else.

Utopians, especially religious Utopians, think they can recreate paradise on earth if only they can get away from all the rest of us sinners and the distractions to their prayerful life that we provide. They invariably turn their heaven on earth into a hell on earth as the rules tighten, people are systematically shunned and purged for minor infractions, and the whole population finds itself stifled, not freed from temptation.

This one will likely be no different, only it may self destruct even quicker than the average has. The only more religiously contipated individual than Monaghan I've ever seen is Mel Gibson. He's going to have trouble finding enough fanatics to accept his petty dictatorship and keep the place going.

[Tesha]

5. Ocean Grove, NJ

Formed by the Methodists as a summer vamp, they used to close the
town on Sundays. (Seriously! The streets in and out were barricaded
and there was no driving within the town on the day of rest.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocean_Grove%2C_New_Jersey

Never struck me as particularly crazy, but I only saw it in the
declining years of its special status.

Tesha

[Broke In Jersey]

8. There was only 2 streets into Ocean Grove, NJ....

and they were closed with gates on Sundays. Actually a very nice & quiet community. Very quiet. Which is why most people I know still refer to it to this day as 'Ocean Grave'. I didn't know it was set up as a religious town....thought it just morphed into one over time.

[Squeech]

6. Not really

Some of the religious utopias thrived, e.g. the Shakers. Their problem was of course that, being celibate by doctrine, they couldn't replenish their congregation. But the last remaining 90 year old Shakers have title to millions of dollars of community property, and no regrets at all, other than being lonely.

The Oneida Community did pretty well too. (IIRC they weren't celibate, quite the opposite; their charismatic leader propounded a doctrine of free love, and mandated which couplings should bear offspring.) Upon the death of the charismatic leader, the rest of the congregation eventually dropped his doctrines, but continued in the family business, silversmithing. Today the Oneida company is one of America's foremost producers of fine tableware.

[kcass1954]

3. Very short discussion earlier in the week.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=474200&mesg_id=474200

While we don't have an exclusive on nutjobs down here, we do seem to have more than our fair share.

[pschoeb]

4. a Tom Monaghan town? no one would move there anyway

You know he would have a Dominos Pizza only monopoly policy. Even the most ardent coservative hardline Catholics would choose a life with the ability to get good pizza, over their religion, so no one would move in.

On the plus side maybe then Tom Monaghan would move the fuck out of Ann Arbor. But doubtlessly this will fail much like his ,Ave Maria College in Ypsilanti is failing.

[DavidDvorkin]

7. A town with only one pizza parlor?

It would never work!

[KamaAina]

9. Good grief! It's all the way out by Immokalee!

http://www.avemaria.com/pdf/map_Loc.pdf

My grandparents lived in Naples for a number of years after Grandpa retired. We went through Immokalee once on a trip to central Fla. It's mostly poor and agricultural, with many migrant workers. What a perfect backdrop for Monaghan's squeaky-clean antiseptic "utopia". :sarcasm:

They might as well call it "John Edwards' Two Americas". :eyes:

[KamaAina]

10. "Welcome to DUville, pop. 85,900. No FReepers after sundown!"

Think we could get away with that? Well, then...

[SmokingJacket]

11. There's a "Spiritualist" town near where I live...

http://www.lilydaleassembly.com/

It has zip code and the kids go to public school, but you have to belong to the church to buy property there. And in the summer, you have to pay to even go in...

[RamboLiberal]

12. Sunday London Times had story - I was about to post it

Glad I haven't bought Dominos in at least a decade.

'Pizza pope' builds a Catholic heaven
Tony Allen-Mills, New York

A FORMER marine who was raised by nuns and made a fortune selling pizza has embarked on a £230m plan to build the first town in America to be run according to strict Catholic principles.

Abortions, pornography and contraceptives will be banned in the new Florida town of Ave Maria, which has begun to take shape on former vegetable farms 90 miles northwest of Miami.

Tom Monaghan, the founder of the Domino’s Pizza chain, has stirred protests from civil rights activists by declaring that Ave Maria’s pharmacies will not be allowed to sell condoms or birth control pills. The town’s cable television network will carry no X-rated channels.

The town will be centred around a 100ft tall oratory and the first Catholic university to be built in America for 40 years. The university’s president, Nicholas J Healy, has said future students should “help rebuild the city of God” in a country suffering from “catastrophic cultural collapse”.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-2058771,00.html