More atheist bashing by elected officials

[Damien Evans]

There are more developments on this issue. First, after contacting AU National about it, they got back to me and said they were very disturbed about Rep. Davis's comments. They are planning on responding, and I'll let everyone know what they do in the days to come.

In addition, Eric Zorn (the columnist who broke the story) has a follow-up column in Wednesday's Chicago Tribune about this...

Davis' anti-atheist tirade goes national

In addition, this has even gotten recent coverage by Keith Olbermann on MSNBC where he called her the day's "Worst Person in the World"...

Today's Worst Person in the World: Rep. Monique Davis

Stay tuned

That's gold!

 

[pchams]

Time for me to play the devil's advocate, I guess.

Can we really be sure Davis was talking about atheism? Sherman himself actually asked the most important question - "What’s dangerous, ma’am?" - for which he received no answer. My first impression was that she did attack atheism, but now that I know more of the context I'm not so certain. I think she perceives Sherman as an anti-theist and that she is attacking that philosophy. Justified or not, that would make most of the things she says make a lot more sense.

She still has no right to tell him he should get out, but I'd like to see her explain this.

Devil's advocate or not, he clearly was responding to her assertion that his beliefs/non-beliefs were dangerous.
[Cue audio link above]

 

[arthwollipot]

Well, it seems to me that the atheists that most religious people would notice are the small number of atheists who are antitheists, so they assume that they are representative of the entire atheist population. She was probably reacting to that. I would doubt that she's ever encountered a non-antitheist atheist and known that person was an atheist.

Imagine if the only Christians who ever talked much about their religion were people like the Phelps family.

Not defending the *****, mind you, but it does shed a little light on the possible reasons for the vitriol.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

Prayers in school weren't outlawed - prayers organized and/or led by employees of the school were outlawed. Students can pray all they want as long as they don't disrupt instruction.
.....

"STUDENT LED" PRAYER AT SCHOOL EVENT DECLARED UNCONSTITUTIONAL IN 6 - 3 SUPREME COURT RULING; Web Posted: June 19, 2000

While the O'Hare ruling may have been more specific, the result is still viewed by many fundies as it being O'Hare's fault that prayer was banned in schools.

And before you go looking for a bunch of counter-decisions, I already concede the courts have been inconsistent in these cases.

 

[godless dave]

"STUDENT LED" PRAYER AT SCHOOL EVENT DECLARED UNCONSTITUTIONAL IN 6 - 3 SUPREME COURT RULING; Web Posted: June 19, 2000

While the O'Hare ruling may have been more specific, the result is still viewed by many fundies as it being O'Hare's fault that prayer was banned in schools.

And before you go looking for a bunch of counter-decisions, I already concede the courts have been inconsistent in these cases.

That's at a school event, where the student was allowed by the administration to address all students present.

The students in the stands could pray all they want. Students can also have "gather at the flagpole" prayer meetings before school. They can say "grace" before eating lunch. Students can also form Christian clubs and meet on school property - as long as the school allows clubs of all religions to use school property.

 

[MattusMaximus]

UPDATE!!!

Rep. Monique Davis has yielded to public pressure and issued a formal, public apology to Rob Sherman for her remarks!

Read all about it here!!!

Thanks to everyone for passing the word and writing those letters - it worked

In addition, because Sherman lives close to my chapter of Americans United, we've booked him to come speak about his experience. That'll be cool.

 

[Empress]

UPDATE!!!

Rep. Monique Davis has yielded to public pressure and issued a formal, public apology to Rob Sherman for her remarks!

Read all about it here!!!

Thanks to everyone for passing the word and writing those letters - it worked

In addition, because Sherman lives close to my chapter of Americans United, we've booked him to come speak about his experience. That'll be cool.

 

[MattusMaximus]

One correction: Davis's apology to Sherman was not public. She called him over the phone to apologize, and Sherman graciously accepted.

If I had my druthers, I'd like to see her make a public apology. But I'll take what I can get.

 

[QBinBee]

I'm surprised that nobody has pointed out the glaring irony in that Sen. Davis, a Black Woman old enough (born 1936) to remember segregation laws and more specifically the Rosa Parks Montgomery Bus fiasco, explicitly stated to Sherman "You have no right to be here [...] Get out of that seat!"

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

I pointed it out.

 

[Egg]

UPDATE!!!

Rep. Monique Davis has yielded to public pressure and issued a formal, public apology to Rob Sherman for her remarks!

That's good, but I would hope she apologised because she realised she was wrong to have made the remarks she did, not just because of the public pressure. Perhaps, a personal apology rather than a public one suggests that to be the case, but a politician's motives are always going to be viewed with suspicion.

 

[UnrepentantSinner]

Hah! Except for some basic bio info, her entire Wiki entry is about this incident.

Double Hah!

 

[Charlie Monoxide]

Perhaps someone with a web-cam could do one of those "Just Leave Britney Alone" rants and forward it to Davis ....

Charlie (tgif) Monoxide

 

[grayman]

Hah! Except for some basic bio info, her entire Wiki entry is about this incident.

Double Hah!

Other than to ask, "This woman's an educator?", I'll remain neutral in my comments.

Political party: Democratic
Spouse: divorced
Profession: educator