Rob Sherman, atheist activist

Listen to to the audio of the original exchange at the Friendly Atheist!

Sherman, demonstrating quite a level of professionalism, thanked Davis for sharing her perspective with him.  In response, Davis ordered him to "Get out of that seat ...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."

MSNBC's Keith Olbermann calls Davis the Worst Person in the World.

Here's where it starts to get complicated.   After being told repeatedly to get out of his seat because he was an atheist, Sherman commented that he felt like Rosa Parks, "who also was told, get out of that seat and arrested when she didn't give up her seat on the bus to a white person."

Illinois Representative Monique Davis

Now, as an Illinois resident and an atheist, I find myself appalled that (in Ms. Davis' opinion) I don't have the right to testify, and that my philosophy is dangerous to children.  I'm offended that the "IL" in my house address apparently means that I believe in some kind of supernatural being.  But on the other hand, I'm not the subject of slavery, Jim Crow laws, lynching, institutional racism or many other of the hurdles overcome by the black civil rights movement.  Yes, atheists are in the midst of a civil rights struggle, but such a comparison is way over the top. 

Well, now Ms. Davis has called Rob Sherman and apologized, claiming that she was upset by events earlier and ended up taking out her anger on Sherman. On his blog, Sherman claimed he had forgiven her.  It seemed as though the scandal had passed.  But then, this sentence (since removed from the site) appeared on Rob Sherman's blog:

Now that Negroes like Representative Monique Davis have political power, it seems that they have no problem at all with discrimination, just as long as it isn't them who are being discriminated against.

MSNBC's Keith Olbermann, in response to Sherman's "Negro" comment, alters his opinion to name Sherman as the Worst Person in the World.

Sherman's foot, meet Sherman's mouth.  We could start with the poor choice of the word Negro (later explained by Sherman as a misunderstanding of the evolution of the word over the decades).  More importantly, though, is the transition from an atheist-rights issue to a racial issue – an overly-generalized and sharply-pointed one at that!  Eric Zorn put it nicely on his column in the Chicago Tribune: "Sherman's beef was with Monique Davis, legislator. Not Monique Davis black legislator or black legislators in general."

What do we take away from this?  Quite a few things, it would seem.

Not the least of these lessons is that a member of the Illinois legislature felt it acceptable to deny rights to an atheist solely based on that belief.  If you (or your campus group) would like to contact Ms. Davis regarding this issue, you can find her office information at http://www.ilga.gov/house/Rep.asp?GA=95&MemberID=1148.  

We can learn some good practices from Sherman.  He showed a great deal of professionalism and prudence in thanking Davis for sharing her perspective, and for graciously accepting her apology.  We could all learn from his tact and calmness here.

On the other hand, we can all take a good lesson in "what not to do."  To again quote Mr. Zorn, "Invoking Civil Rights-era terminology to sharpen an attempt to draw an ironic (and dubious) analogy between persecuted African Americans and persecuted atheists is not a polemical stunt I would recommend to anyone."

Secular Student Alliance board member Mary Ellen Sikes makes another observation of this situation:  "It does provide an excuse for educating the public about the differences between raw secularism and humanism – unbelief takes no position on prejudice, while a truly humanistic worldview does not recognize superficial distinctions among humanity."