via Change of Subject by way of Friendly Atheist

Well, now I’m glad I don’t live in Illinois anymore. Illinois District 27 Rep. Monique Davis (a Democrat, sadly) said this to Rob Sherman in a General Assembly meeting on Wednesday:

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.

No. You know what’s dangerous? Censorship is dangerous. Religious bigotry is dangerous. What the hell kind of society does Davis want to live in, that skepticism and intellectual honesty are anathema to her? One that’s dangerous to children, that’s what.

I’m very much against Davis’ version of Christianity and everything it stands for, but I would never dream of saying “it’s dangerous for children to know that your religion exists”. It’s dangerous for children to not know that your religion exists. Children need to learn that there are bigots and wanna-be fascists like Davis in the world so that they can learn how to defend themselves against them.

This entry was posted on Friday, April 4th, 2008 at 4:18 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.