Jesusistanis Demand ANSWERS! HOW Did This Happen THERE?!?
In the very heart of Jesusistan, a heretic has arrived on the scene.
He may or may not be the Antichrist, so the Jesusistanis are getting ready to smite him in WAR if he doesn’t tuck his pointed tail between his cloven-hoofed legs and get the hell out of politics!
As you will see, the Jesusistanis have a novel argument they’re attempting to use to drive this guy out of the office he was elected to. I’ll have some thoughts on that after we learn all about Cecil Bothwell.
When Cecil Bothwell took the oath of office as a city councilman this month, he did not swear to uphold the U.S. and North Carolina constitutions “so help me God.” He merely affirmed that he would, without mentioning the Almighty. Nor did the political newcomer place his hand on a Bible. He simply kept it at his side.
Bothwell, you see, is an atheist — or as he often describes himself, a “post-theist.” And that has outraged some in this picturesque mountain resort who say Bothwell violated an obscure clause in the state constitution that disqualifies from elected office “any person who shall deny the being of Almighty God.”
A conservative group has distributed pamphlets warning locals that Bothwell is “Satan’s helper” and a “radical extremist” who is “bashing religion.” A supporter of Southern heritage has threatened to sue Asheville for allowing Bothwell to take office.
The controversy has lighted up talk-radio phone lines nationwide and prompted hundreds of calls and e-mails to Bothwell, a soft-spoken environmentalist who lived for 21 years in a house — which he built himself — that relied on solar power and a gravity-fed water system.
“I didn’t anticipate all this attention,” Bothwell said last week, after presiding at his first City Council meeting. “I haven’t even done anything yet.”
Raised a Presbyterian, Bothwell began questioning Christian beliefs as a young man. He’s a member of the Unitarian Universalist church, which includes atheists and agnostics as well as believers in God.
H.K. Edgerton, a former local NAACP president who has paraded wearing a Confederate Army uniform and waving a Confederate flag, said his lawyer was preparing a lawsuit against Asheville.
“If you’re an atheist and don’t believe in God and still want to hold office, I have a problem with that,” Edgerton said. “And the constitution of North Carolina has a problem with that.”
Asheville City Atty. Robert W. Oast Jr. declined to comment on what action the city would take if Edgerton follows through with his plan to sue.
Six other states have provisions outlawing atheists in public office. The North Carolina clause was in the state constitution when it was drafted in 1868. In 1961, the U.S. Supreme Court reaffirmed that states were prohibited under the U.S. Constitution from requiring a religious test to serve in office. The court ruled in favor of an atheist in Maryland seeking to serve as a notary public.
But David Morgan, editor of the Asheville Tribune, a conservative weekly, said the issue was not the separation of church and state. It was a matter of honoring the state constitution.
“If you don’t like it, amend it and take out that clause. But don’t just pick and choose what parts you’re going to obey,” Morgan said. “This is serious business. I mean, the belief in God is not exactly a quirk.”
In an editorial, Morgan wrote of Bothwell: “He is taking an oath he obviously doesn’t believe in.”
No, the State of North Carolina is trying to force Mr. Bothwell to take an oath that he could not possibly HONOR. Clearly this cannot be allowed to stand, even down in Jesusistan. Asheville is an island of intelligence and sanity down that way, and I believe they’ll defend Bothwell.
This is why I despise organized religion. Bothwell is clearly a good guy who contributes a lot, but because he doesn’t mouth the praises of Jesus the damned Jesusistanis want to run him out of town on a rail. Now if Bothwell was a guy who cheated on his wife, raped his daughter, gambled, stole from the public trust, smoked crystal meth….. and also praised Jesus every other sentence, the Rushpubliscums would be singing his praises to the high heavens.
How STUPID is it to base your perception of fitness for office on the willingness of a hypocrite to mouth hypocrisy?
Tags: cecil bothwell, hypocrisy, north carolina, religion
December 20th, 2009 at 11:05 am
I’m not surprised this happened in Asheville. We went there on vacay last summer, and man, what a nice town. We’d move there, if we could.
AS for the dipshit editor of the Asheville Tribune showed what a moron he is. Laws don’t get taken out of constitutions just for the hell of it. They get taken out when cases go to court, so I say “Bring it, Edgerton.”
December 20th, 2009 at 11:24 am
I am from that general area. It’s about a 45 minute drive from Asheville to where I originally come from.
I used to think I wanted to go back someday. Not so much anymore.
December 20th, 2009 at 4:25 pm
How stupid is it to draft a state constitution that knowingly and obviously contradicts a national document of greater authority?
December 20th, 2009 at 6:21 pm
I am really glad I don’t have to deal with people like this all the time. Let them take it to court and we godless heathens might get a minor victory. I am just across the bridge from another one, Pete Stark and his constituents think not much of it from the people I talk to over there on that side of the Bay.
December 20th, 2009 at 6:28 pm
Jess,
Do you mean that UC Hastings thing,where the Christian group excludes gays in violation of UC rules? Or yet another stupid thing?
December 20th, 2009 at 9:01 pm
And the wise man say I don’t want to hear your voice
And the thin man say I don’t want to hear your voice
And they’re cursing me, and they won’t let me be
And there’s nothing to say, and there’s nothing to do.
Stop Whispering, start shouting
Stop Whispering, start shouting
And my mother say we spit on your son some more
And the buildings say we spit on your face some more
And the feeling is, that there’s something wrong
‘Cause I can’t find the words and I can’t find the songs.
Stop Whispering, start shouting
Stop Whispering, start shouting
Dear sir, I have a complaint.
Dear sir, I have a complaint.
Can’t remember what it is.
Doesn’t matter anyway.
Doesn’t matter anyway
Stop Whispering, stop whispering
Stop Whispering, stop whispering
Start Shou………….
Crazy GD Cons…
December 21st, 2009 at 12:08 am
If we were to talk about all the stupid things, Oso, we would all be here for years and years with the combined knowledge it seems we all have. With Pete Stark, I am referring to his being an out atheist and his constituents not being to worried about it. I don’t know very much about the whole Hastings thing other than the blurbs I have seen in the paper here locally and what someone else had said on another posting. I’ll have to read up further on that. My concentration this year has been marriage equality in different states, HCR and pro choice issues.
December 21st, 2009 at 1:18 am
I like Pete Stark. Didn’t know he was an atheist but that doesn’t change anything.I did a post at MadMikes on Hastings this evening,from a satirical angle.
Sending a dedication out to you and your family “sitting in the park”. I heard someone call it the Cholo National Anthem, taking the place of Angel Baby.
December 21st, 2009 at 2:55 pm
Pete Stark is my Congresscritter. As an agnostic myself, it pleases me to no end that Pete is an honest guy doing his best and won’t let the first lie out of his mouth be his oath of office.
December 21st, 2009 at 4:18 pm
Oh, and on the subject of GOD and prayers, I’m guessing GOD didn’t appreciate this from Senator Shitbag.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/20/AR2009122002872.html?hpid=topnews
Going into Monday morning’s crucial Senate vote on health-care legislation, Republican chances for defeating the bill had come down to a last, macabre hope. They needed one Democratic senator to die — or at least become incapacitated.
At 4 p.m. Sunday afternoon — nine hours before the 1 a.m. vote that would effectively clinch the legislation’s passage — Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) went to the Senate floor to propose a prayer. “What the American people ought to pray is that somebody can’t make the vote tonight,” he said. “That’s what they ought to pray.”
It was difficult to escape the conclusion that Coburn was referring to the 92-year-old, wheelchair-bound Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.V.) who has been in and out of hospitals and lay at home ailing. It would not be easy for Byrd to get out of bed in the wee hours with deep snow on the ground and ice on the roads — but without his vote, Democrats wouldn’t have the 60 they needed.
December 21st, 2009 at 4:19 pm
ascap_scab,
Didn’t he let somebody have it at a town hall awhile back?
December 21st, 2009 at 4:31 pm
Oso yes he did, during one of his summer town halls. The couple I have attended, of his, to bolster up supporters for HCR he does not suffer fools gladly. Hey ascap where are you if you don’t mind answering? I’m in Atherton in Eschoo’s district.
December 21st, 2009 at 6:23 pm
Jess,sad to say I’m in Concord, garden spot of the East Bay.Garamendi since Tauscher got deported,I mean promoted.
December 21st, 2009 at 7:19 pm
All got up in a Jonny Reb uni and waving a dixie dustrag and the guy has a problem with atheists in office ? I am waiting for Rod Serling to strp from the shadows drawing on an Old Gold any minute…
December 21st, 2009 at 8:20 pm
I live in the truck, but my mail goes to San Leandro.
twitter.com/WhereIsScabbie