NC: Atheism a sin; atheist councilman "unworthy" of office

[VietnamVet-BRIGHT]

Come on dude, don'cha know you've gotta believe in (and speak to) personally interested invisible aliens that monitor your thinking & actions 24/7 if you want to hold elected office in this country ...

Conservatives threaten to sue city over atheist councilman

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) -- Asheville City Councilman Cecil Bothwell believes in ending the death penalty, conserving water and reforming government - but he doesn't believe in God. His political opponents say that's a sin that makes him unworthy of serving in office, and they've got the North Carolina Constitution on their side


more ... http://rawstory.com/2009/12/atheist-councilman/

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[LoneMateria]

Don't forget you need to tell them you are sorry for being made the way they made you.  Also if you don't sit through an hour lecture once a week you are still not worthy.

[VietnamVet-BRIGHT]

Don't forget you need to tell them you are sorry for being made the way they made you.  Also if you don't sit through an hour lecture once a week you are still not worthy.

That may very well happen given that, according to another article on this story (below), our atheist takes office with the city council of Asheville, NC, Evangelical leader Billy Graham’s residence.


Ashville resident, Billy Graham

And a couple of more points of interest from this story ...

1)  One of the antagonists leveling a complaint about the atheist councilman (note: a religious minority) is a racial minority, a member of a constitutionally protected minority that not in the too distant past was once was legally discriminated against holding public office as well.

2)  The key in which the atheist councilman was able to circumvent to what amounts to the state’s “religious test” and take office (besides the US Constitution’s pre-emption in such matters) was the hair splitting difference between the words “affirm” and “swear.”
 

N.C. law rejects atheists; voters don’t

By David Waters

There was a bit of suspense in Asheville, N.C., Tuesday morning about whether newly-elected city council member Cecil Bothwell should or would be sworn into office. Bothwell, who was elected last month, is an atheist. The North Carolina constitution still bars atheists from holding elected office.

“I’m not saying that Cecil Bothwell is not a good man, but if he’s an atheist, he’s not eligible to serve in public office, according to the state constitution,” said H.K. Edgerton, a former Asheville NAACP president told the Asheville Citizen-Times.

Article 6, section 8 of the North Carolina constitution states: “The following persons shall be disqualified for office: First, any person who shall deny the being of Almighty God.” Fortunately for Bothwell, Article VI of the U.S. Constitution trumps that: “No religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.”

Also fortunately for Bothwell, state law allows officeholders to “affirm” rather than “swear” the oath of office, which exempted Bothwell from the state law that would have required him to “lay his hand upon the Holy Scriptures” and say, “so help me God.”

Constitutional crisis averted. Cecil Bothwell is now a member of the Asheville city council.

In an earlier email to the Asheville newspaper, Bothwell explained that the exact wording of the North Carolina constitution wouldn’t apply to him anyway. “I am not ‘an avowed atheist.’ . . . I don’t ‘deny the being of Almighty God.’ I simply consider the question of denial or acceptance irrelevant.”

Bothwell’s election -- he finished third in a six-person contest with 17.28 percent of the Nov. 3 vote -- is doubly impressive, considering that he is a fan of neither God nor Asheville-area resident Billy Graham, whom he called “an unabashed nationalist, capitalist, militarist and advocate for American empire” in a book he wrote entitled “The Prince of War: Billy Graham’s Crusade for a Wholly Christian Empire.”

If there ever was a wholly Christian empire in Billy Graham’s North Carolina, it ended Tuesday. Might be a good time to update that state constitution.

http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfa ... in_nc.html

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[LoneMateria]

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2009/12/14/decide-north-carolina-bothwell-god-atheist/

The above link takes you to a Fox news survey asking whether the councilman should step down because he is an atheist.  How fucking sad is this poll and its results.

[Recusant]

Considering that it's Fox News watchers who are responding to this poll, I think that the results aren't bad at all.  The votes against the councilman stepping down at this point are 58%, as opposed to 39% for.  For Fox, that's quite progressive.

[VietnamVet-BRIGHT]

Considering that it's Fox News watchers who are responding to this poll, I think that the results aren't bad at all.  The votes against the councilman stepping down at this point are 58%, as opposed to 39% for.  For Fox, that's quite progressive.

Up to 60% within minutes of your post.

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[templeboy]

thats only because PZ Myers posted the poll on his blog: http://www.cricinfo.com/nzvpak2009/engine/current/match/423780.html

[VietnamVet-BRIGHT]

thats only because PZ Myers posted the poll on his blog: http://www.cricinfo.com/nzvpak2009/engine/current/match/423780.html

Hmmmm, there's no such posting of that Fox poll on the page you linked.  

By the way, good sig line.

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[Pineapple]

1% of the poll says he shouldn't step down.