On April 2nd, the Illinois House State Government Administration Committee held a hearing regarding the Illinois Governor’s $1 million grant to the Pilgrim Baptist Church. One might consider this kind of grant to be a strange occurrence, but after hearing the hateful stream of invective spewed by Representative Monique Davis in response to atheist activist Rob Sherman’s testimony, the testimony of an Illinois citizen with the same rights as a Christian citizen, it doesn’t seem quite so extraordinary.
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.
Not only does he have no right to be there, but his ideas are so dangerous that people should not even know that they exist. At least she is proof that our campaigns really are necessary, but it’s sad to think that this kind of thing can go on relatively unnoticed in the United States of America today. I think I just heard Thomas Jefferson roll over in his grave.
