Lotus Geek :: Chicago Tribune: Representative tries to put the fear of God in atheist

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I know I have been on a religious bent lately, and I swear I am moving onto other things, but this story has me so insensed that I just had to blog about it. I found this story in the Chicago Tribune titled, "Representative tries to put the fear of God in atheist". This article describes a confrontation between atheist activist Rob Sherman and Rep. Monique Davis (D-Chicago) during Mr. Sherman's testimony Wednesday (2 April, 2008) afternoon before the House State Government Administration Committee in Springfield, Illinois. According to the article:

Rep. Monique Davis (D-Chicago) interrupted atheist activist Rob Sherman during his testimony Wednesday afternoon before the House State Government Administration Committee in Springfield and told him, "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," Davis said. "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."

Wow. Just... wow. As the writer of the article correctly points out, if this type of attack had been spewed at a Christian, Jew, or Muslim, there would be a great deal of public outcry - and most likely a call for some type of sensure against Rep. Davis. But, since this was an attack on an atheist, this story has not garnered any mainstream media attention at all. That's sad.

I also believe that Rep. Davis gives a bad name to the multitude of Christians who live much closer to Jesus' teachings of love, tolerance, and inclusion. Instead Rep. Davis is a horrible example of what Christians should not do. I know the Christians whom I count as close friends of mine are just as appalled by this as I am - appalled not only at the attack on someone who doesn't believe as Rep. Davis, but that this type of intolerance and borderline hatred should be waged publicly during government testimony and proceedings.

I found a different page that includes the entire transcript of the exchange - this is from Eric Zorn of the Chicago Tribune:

Davis: I don't know what you have against God, but some of us don't have much against him. We look forward to him and his blessings. And it's really a tragedy - it’s tragic - when a person who is engaged in anything related to God, they want to fight. They want to fight prayer in school.

I don't see you (Sherman) fighting guns in school. You know?

I'm trying to understand the philosophy that you want to spread in the state of Illinois. This is the Land of Lincoln. This is the Land of Lincoln where people believe in God, where people believe in protecting their children... What you have to spew and spread is extremely dangerous, it's dangerous --

Sherman: What’s dangerous, ma'am?

Davis: It's dangerous to the progression of this state. And it's dangerous for our children to even know that your philosophy exists! Now you will go to court to fight kids to have the opportunity to be quiet for a minute. But damn if you’ll go to [court] to fight for them to keep guns out of their hands. I am fed up! Get out of that seat!

Sherman: Thank you for sharing your perspective with me, and I'm sure that if this matter does go to court --

Davis: 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.

I hope the people of Chicago won't accept this type of intolerance from one of their elected officials. This is not what our government stands for, and I should hope that Rep. Davis is not representative of her constituency.

OK, I'm off my soapbox now. Back to your regularly scheduled geek stuff...

Rock

Comments

1 - Yikes. Sigh.
I wonder if one of Ms. Davis' objectives in going ballistic was to divert/distract attention away from the issue at hand: a possibly corrupted donation of State money to a church. Clearly she succeeded, if indeed that was her purpose. Now everyone is talking about her, not about the money.

Would be interesting to know if she is a member of the church that (allegedly) received money improperly....

Posted by Bob Balaban At 04:12:07 PM On 04/07/2008 | - Website - |

2 - As a voter from Chicago, I am disgusted that this wasn't brought up more around here. I have no idea who Davis is or what area of Chicago she was elected in, although I can probably guess pretty easily, but I think more people need to hear what crap she is spewing. Eric Zorn is one of the more opinionated columnists around here but he does get the point across rather well.

It is too bad we can not ask or elected officials what their religious views are prior to the elections, but once they get in and hang themselves like this, we can be sure that they will not get reelected without this coming back to bite them.

I also find it interesting that Rep. Davis assumes that all residents of Illinois are god loving/fearing.

"This is the Land of Lincoln where people believe in God," Davis said. "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."

My wife and I and my brother and his wife live in Illinois and none of us believe in god. Does that mean we do not have the right to live here?

Hmm, maybe I can stop paying state taxes since I am not supposed to be living here.

Posted by Roy Rumaner At 06:52:27 PM On 04/08/2008 | - Website - |

3 - As an Illinois voter, I'm insulted that you assume we chose to elect Rep. Davis because we didn't bother to _think_, Devin. Religion is a very touchy subject during elections. You can't ask a candidate for their religious views without sounding discriminatory or bigoted, so we do our best to choose officials based on their goals for the state action-wise. Obviously this one came back to bite us, but don't for one second assume that it's because we were too lazy to research our candidates.

Posted by Esther Strom At 05:14:09 PM On 04/08/2008 | - Website - |

4 - Thanks Devin, you reinforced my point exactly.

Incidentally, you are definitely one of my "Christian friends" that I had in mind when writing this piece - I knew you (and others) would be just as appalled as I was, and disappointed that someone could so twist Jesus' teachings.

And you're right - she is an elected official. You alluded to my fears - that the constituency of her district will not pay attention to this at all because it wasn't reduced to a sound byte and force-fed to them by the media.

I guess we're both a little jaded at this point, my friend Emoticon

Take care, and thanks for responding.

Rock

Posted by Rock At 03:55:48 PM On 04/07/2008 | - Website - |

5 - so Rock, you know more than a little of my history in this regard. the good Mr Devin Olsen aside, in my experience most Christians are nodding their heads in agreement. i can't think of too many ppl who would be appalled. i could think of many more who would either be cheering (got what he deserved!), or completely uninterested (got what he deserved, move on... zzzz).

crap. i might be even more jaded than you! i'm not just jaded unfortunately. i'm loaded for bear. i've seen too much of it up close, having been a Christian for a long time myself. i'm trying to get better. i was at a wedding recently. some of the ppl there were missionaries. old friends of mine actually. i'm trying to get to a point where, what they are doing with their lives is OK with me. up to recently it really wasn't. but that's my issue, not theirs. until i can be as charitable to them as i want them to be to me, and to others, i'm the hypocrite in the equation.

it's not easy being human, it seems.

Posted by jonvon At 05:13:08 PM On 04/07/2008 | - Website - |

6 - "But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you shut off the kingdom of heaven from people; for you do not enter in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in." - Mat 23:13

Rep Davis is an elected official.

Perhaps this event will cause Illinois voters to think a come election day. Then again, perhaps not (sorry, I've become a bit jaded lately).

-Devin.

Posted by Devin Olson At 03:39:12 PM On 04/07/2008 | - Website - |