More atheist bashing by elected officials

[Horatius]

Found on the reason.com blog:

"What you have to spew and spread is extremely dangerous . . . it's dangerous for our children to even know that your philosophy exists! This is the Land of Lincoln where people believe in God. Get out of that seat . . . You have no right to be here! We believe in something. You believe in destroying! You believe in destroying what this state was built upon."

-- Illinois State Rep. Monique Davis (D-Chicago) to Rob Sherman, who was testifying before a committee of the Illinois House. Davis was referring to Sherman's atheism.

And people wonder why some atheists have decided to become more aggressive/evangelical lately.

 

[Phil]

How did Rob Sherman respond?

 

[Polaris]

Every moment of every day I get closer to moving to another nation-state. If only there was one that wasn't socialist, cold most of the year, and full of guerrillas.

 

[Madalch]

Scary.

 

[Phil]

"What you have to spew and spread is extremely dangerous . . . it's dangerous for our children to even know that your philosophy exists! This is the Land of Lincoln where people believe in God. Get out of that seat . . . You have no right to be here! We believe in something. You believe in destroying! You believe in destroying what this state was built upon."
-- Illinois State Rep. Monique Davis (D-Chicago) to Rob Sherman, who was testifying before a committee of the Illinois House. Davis was referring to Sherman's atheism.

Sherman Could have simply given this link.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

Here is the audio.

It's a doozy!

Here's the site I got the link from. It has a bit more of the exchange but really, you've got to hear it!

Rep. Monique Davis to atheist Rob Sherman: `It’s dangerous for our children to even know that your philosophy exists!'

 

[Darren Pollard]

Believe what I believe or else

 

[monoman]

Well, that clip reminded me I should watch pulp fiction again.

 

[Mobyseven]

Every moment of every day I get closer to moving to another nation-state. If only there was one that wasn't socialist, cold most of the year, and full of guerrillas.

Er...

 

[Rufo]

What a way to talk to someone. And were those applause in the end meant to praise her? Way to go encouraging that behavior. Don't they see that this will do nothing but escalate the conflict? It's not working in anyone's favor.

What were they discussing in the first place?

 

[Horatius]

Here is the audio.

It's a doozy!

Here's the site I got the link from. It has a bit more of the exchange but really, you've got to hear it!

Rep. Monique Davis to atheist Rob Sherman: `It’s dangerous for our children to even know that your philosophy exists!'

Right at the end, someone who sounds like a chair of the meeting basically brushes Davis' rant under the rug, and doesn't even let Sherman respond to her.

Can anyone imagine a tirade like that, that focussed on any religion, being ignored? She would have been raked over the coals if she said that about Jews or Muslims!

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

What a way to talk to someone. And were those applause in the end meant to praise her? Way to go encouraging that behavior. Don't they see that this will do nothing but escalate the conflict? It's not working in anyone's favor.

What were they discussing in the first place?

The atheist has been fighting lots of legal battles from the sound of things like getting "In God We Trust" off the money. In this case the minute of silence that is used in schools to get around the prayer restrictions was mentioned so I think that was the issue.

 

[Rufo]

The atheist has been fighting lots of legal battles from the sound of things like getting "In God We Trust" off the money. In this case the minute of silence that is used in schools to get around the prayer restrictions was mentioned so I think that was the issue.

I was just a bit curious what may have prompted Davis' comments. There were mentions of an old church building she thought should be preserved, and she kept talking about Sherman's lack of interest in keeping guns out of schools. The subjects I noticed in the audio clip seemed unrelated to her outburst.

It makes more sense for the subjects you mention to trigger something like that. What's the minute of silence thing?

ETA: I looked it up myself, and it seems to be a pretty silly conflict. Not exactly something worth fighting legal battles about, but not getting this upset about either.

 

[Empress]

One of the more disgusting things I've heard in a while.

Here's a link to her page in the Illinois Assembly, if you'd like to express your opinion to her directly. No email that I saw off-hand, but phone, fax, and address.

http://www.ilga.gov/house/Rep.asp?MemberID=909

 

[JoeEllison]

She's an anti-American thug, and I think she should be booted from office in disgrace... and beaten about the head and shoulders with a rotten halibut.

 

[MattusMaximus]

I am the president of one of the chapters of Americans United for the Separation of Church & State in Illinois, where this event took place.

Rest assured that now that I know about it, we are going to be looking into these despicable comments by Rep. Davis.

Trust me folks, this is just the beginning of this fight. Davis has stirred up a hornet's nest.

 

[JoeEllison]

I am the president of one of the chapters of Americans United for the Separation of Church & State in Illinois, where this event took place.

Rest assured that now that I know about it, we are going to be looking into these despicable comments by Rep. Davis.

Trust me folks, this is just the beginning of this fight. Davis has stirred up a hornet's nest.

I'll pay for the halibut...

 

[MattusMaximus]

I'll pay for the halibut...

I'm hoping to mobilize our membership to do a letter-writing campaign as well as possibly getting a nationwide press release from AU National put out on this in the next few days. These horrendous comments need to be aired publicly and repudiated quite vigorously.

Stay tuned.

 

[MattusMaximus]

I was just a bit curious what may have prompted Davis' comments. There were mentions of an old church building she thought should be preserved, and she kept talking about Sherman's lack of interest in keeping guns out of schools. The subjects I noticed in the audio clip seemed unrelated to her outburst.

The "guns in schools" thing Davis kept harping on is just a red herring. For some more background, you should understand that she's one of the state legislators in Illinois behind the push for a mandatory "moment-of-silence" law (read: backdoor attempt to mandate prayer in public schools). Sherman has filed a lawsuit in federal court in an attempt to kill the law, and it is currently pending. And Davis and her colleagues in the Illinois legislature are not happy with Sherman or my group, either.

Fortunately, I anticipate a lot of people in the legislature getting quite upset with Davis about these comments. I'm going to do what I can to make sure of that

 

[MattusMaximus]

I have a contact in the Illinois legislature that I'm in touch with about this situation. We'll see what I can dig up.

Again, stay tuned.