April 8, 2008

Just annoying

Sarah notes two stories where AmeriChristians attack atheists as either dangerous or, in the mind of one church sign, nonexistent. These people make Christianity look really, really, really bad.
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.”
Sigh.

5 comments:

Bootleg Blogger said...

Holy shit! Whoever was chairing the committee should have excused Davis! So much from freedom of religion. On the other hand, I guess if I wanted to troll for idiots a gathering of politicians would be a great place to start.
Later
BB

Streak said...

Yeah, I agree. Just bigoted crap.

But it reveals something about the way some conservatives see the world, right? That ideas are dangerous and knowing more is even more dangerous.

What puzzles me is how insecure so many Christians are about their faith. If they are so sure they are right, then why see unbelief as a threat? I think it is a threat because their own "faith" is so superficial and vulnerable.

leighton said...

This seems atypical of the view of most rank-and-file conservatives; I'm more used to people like Davis going out of their way to promote and demonize their enemies in order to drum up votes and donations. My guess (biased by my personal experience) is that Davis is a closet atheist trying not to make waves in her communities of reference, or perhaps someone with a close relative who has recently "come out." It's a lot like closeted homosexuals and their relatives promoting all sorts of anti-gay legislation.

Though I suppose it's possible that her pastor is exerting undue influence on public policy through her.

Bootleg Blogger said...

No doubt, Leighton. She's got her soundbytes on record for the next election. This also contradicts the usual assumption that everyone who wears their religion on their sleeve is a Republican. Democrats have theirs, too, and it stinks no matter who it is.

Streak- I'm sure we both can remember plenty of times in our youth being told to "be careful" who we listened to - we didn't want our faith to be shaken or some other version of it. Like you mentioned- what kind of faith is it if it can't withstand challenges and stay true to the principles of the faith?

Later-BB

Wasp Jerky said...

What I find particularly amusing is that facts don't even back up her statement. By just about any way you care to outwardly measure "morality," atheistic Western Europe is far more "moral" than is the Christian U.S. Violent crime? Abortion rates? Teen pregnancy? It seems that atheists are better Christians than Christians are.