Sally Kern & Monique Davis: A Comparison of Two Fundie Bigots
F*ck The Dimocrats!!, F*ck the Republicans!!!, Stop Reading Your Fax, Fool!!, The War on Sex/Sluts/Gays/Whatever, Wingnutteria April 8th, 2008
Having been raised as a Catholic and having some deeply devout religious folks in my family, I understand more than anything the power of religious faith; and I’m more than willing to respect people who truly believe in their faith in whomever deity they choose.
Where I draw the solid line, though, is when religious folk cross the line from promoting their faith and belief to disrespecting and attacking those who freely choose not to share their particular belief…and when religion is used as a club to beat down those that they don’t like.
Two recent events prove all too well how excessive religious zealotry and blind bigotry can do mighty harm.
Case #1 you probably know about, since it’s been all over the news of late: Oklahoma Representative Sally Kern’s most recent rant against “the homosexual lobby” that was originally part of a speech she did before a private Republican group, but thanks to YouTube and the Victory Fund, got spread worldwide.
Victory Fund transcription of State Rep. Sally Kern’s (OK) rant on homosexuals (via YouTube)
Of course, such slanders against homosexuals are all too familiar, and all too common, and reflect the usual ignorance and hatemongering that we all seem to expect from the Religious Right.
Case #2, on the other hand, has gotten little or no media play, but in many ways is even more disturbing…though, considering the depth of religious zealotry within particular Black communities, I probably shouldn’t find it any more surprising at all either.
This is Illinois State Rep. Monique Davis going off on atheist activist Ron Sherman during a recent hearing of the Illinois State Assembly’s State Government Administration Committee. The subject originally was Sherman’s opposition to a $1 million state grant that got in the hands of a local Chicago Baptist church: but apparantly Rep. Davis wanted to make it a bit more personal, and went after Sherman’s faith (or lack thereof).
For the record, Davis is Black and a Democrat; while Sherman is White and a Green Party member.
Recording of Rep. Monique Davis (IL) berating atheist Rob Sherman (via YouTube)
An excellent source and background of the Davis/Sherman rumble can be found here
Notice that both Kern and Davis both claim the name of “God” and the fusion of faith and country to attack their alleged foes as somehow “anti-American” or “alien”; note also that both claim themselves as representing “the majority” and abuse history to claim their bigotry.
So…what is the main difference between the two?? Not much, in my view…other than the visibility of the victim groups being attacked.
Homosexual groups have rallied in force against Kern visibly and rapidly, to the point that Kern has had to seek defense behind the firewall of the usual right-wing activist groups like Friends of the Family, Morality in Media, and other such anti-gay organizations. By contrast, however, you could hear the sound of crickets over any hint of public criticism over Davis’s slams of atheists…..other than the few right-wing attempts to link her with Rev. Jeremiah Wright (and by extension, Barack Obama) as the typical example of Black rapicity.
Could it be because so much of the liberal blogosphere is so obsessed with Republican bigotry that they tend to gloss over the same kind of bigotry when it is spewed by Democrats?? Or maybe, it’s
because atheists are so small in number in comparison to fundamentalists that they don’t have the collective political power to challenge the likes of Rep, Davis??
Whatever the cause may be, it is vitally important for Black progressives (if not ALL progressives, in fact) to be as critical of hatemongering when it comes from our side as it does when the people on the Right spew it. In my view, Monique Davis is as unfit to serve her consitiuents as Sally Kern is…and in the end, there is no difference between them as equally reactionary. You don’t have to be an atheist or a homosexual to oppose them equally; just being a living human being with a brain and a soul and a conscience will do.
You may not like what atheists believe in or what homosexuals do in their own private time; but they are as much equal citizens as you are; and as long as they do no harm to you or anyone else, it’s not your place to condemn them for what they believe. We are still (for now, at least) ruled by the Constitution, not the freakin’ Taliban.
Oh, and final memo to Rep. Davis: Abraham Lincoln was actually a non-believer in God for most of his life, alternating between atheism and agnosticism. Only at his deathbed did he convert to Christianity. Perhaps you meant a different “Land of Lincoln” than what you said in your rant, madame.
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Tags: atheism, freedom for me, fundie bigotry, not for thee
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