Just Like Old Times
This goes on all the time, but no one bothers to report it in the mainstream press.
There was a fire in a Baptist church and the Democratic Governor of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich, decided to give the church taxpayers’ money to rebuild. Since he couldn’t do that directly, he found a way to do it through a grant to a school that rents space in the church. The legislature was unhappy: Illinois House panel criticizes deputy governor in hearing on $1 million grant to school.
A local activist atheist, Rob Sherman, was also unhappy and went before a legislative meeting to complain about the subterfuge, where one legislator objected to his presence and told him to leave, as chronicled by Chicago Tribune metro columnist Eric Zorn: Rep. Monique Davis to atheist Rob Sherman: `It’s dangerous for our children to even know that your philosophy exists!’
Point one is that the state of Illinois is not rolling in spare cash and a lot of programs are being cut, so the $1 million is a significant amount of money in the current budget crunch. Point two is that the state is not supposed to be funding churches, which is essentially what is going on here. Point three is that your religious views have nothing to do with your rights as a citizen under the US Constitution.
I don’t know Rob Sherman, but even if he is the most smug, self-important, obnoxious individual on the planet, he still has a right to insist that the government act in accordance with the laws. Even if he is totally wrong on an issue, he has the right to be heard because he is a citizen, and, presumably a voter and taxpayer.
When my first ancestors landed on this continent in the 17th century, it was to avoid the religious wars that were going on in Europe. They bought a sizable chunk of land, most of the eastern Mohawk Valley from the Schenectady to Utica, so they obviously weren’t economic immigrants. It is more than a little disheartening to see that a country founded by a lot of different groups fleeing religious persecution, has taken up the practice.
9 comments
I don’t care if Rob Sherman is an atheist; indeed, I don’t care if Rob Sherman had a history of spitting on crosses placed lovingly in the hands of aborted fetuses: no one, and I mean no one, should have his or her religious views verbally abused by a member of a legislative body, as part of the actual process of that body. It’s un-American, plain and simple. Rep. Davis should first publicly apologize… and then resign. No, I’m not holding my breath.
She’s an Illinois Democrat, to make matters worse.
She is the type that will have her children live in a safe little box knowing nothing “distasteful” or contrary and never discuss alternatives to her decided way of thinking. The child will have to confront reality at some point but will be completely unarmed and unprepared for the real world and as a result will most likely fail to adapt or realize that it has been lied to and deceived and reject everything that it was told.
Rob Sherman is one of the smuggest, self-important, obnoxious blowhards in Illinois (and that’s obviously up against some pretty stiff competition). But the bigger question is why nobody’s investigating our smug, self-important, obnoxious blowhard of a governator for this mess. The bill to put a recall provision for elected officials into the Illinois Constitution can’t clear the General Assembly fast enough for my liking.
I’ve seen that too often among the home-schooled children of local people, Fallenmonk, especially those that have entered the military. They don’t last very long, and have to come home, or they never come back. It was one thing in the time of family farms, but most of them end up unemployable outside of a church job.
I had a feeling from comments on Zorn’s site, Michael, that Sherman might not be the most diplomatic individual on the planet, but if I was Jewish or Catholic I would be upset that a Baptist church was being given state aid while I was being pressed for greater support of my own house of worship.
This whole affair is suspect, and I can’t believe a governor of any state would do something this stupid for an individual church. The normal course would be to press cronies to raise the money through lobbyists.
Recall provisions are very handy things to have in the state constitutions.
As background, in Chicago we take pride in our architecture and are, more than most cities, active about both preserving landmark buildings and welcoming the new. Pilgrim Baptist Church was designed in the late 1800’s by Louis Sullivan (an icon in Chicago whose remaining works are trying to be preserved), is on the National Register, designated a Chicago Landmark and suffered a devastating fire a year ago (ironically enough during a renovation project). The congregation is not substantial enough to afford the funds required to rebuild the interior. This is where the governor stepped in figuring he’d get a political twofer: support preserving a landmark building and court the congregation’s black vote. Religion was an irrelevant player in this duet. Regardless of that and the whole Sullivan history, the state certainly doesn’t have the money to put towards this project and should, as far as I’m concerned, be more focused on balancing the state budget than worrying about Chicago buildings. Blagojevich, in so many ways, has proven himself to be no better than his (R) predecessor.
Alice, a building designed by Louis Sullivan and on the National Register is eligible for dozens of programs that would help to pay for the restoration if someone knew about them and knew how to apply for them. The state would have been better served by helping the congregation with the application process, rather than getting directly involved. The American Institute of Architects would have been the first place to look for resources and there are certainly locals resources that could have helped them with grant preparations.
Louis Sullivan isn’t just a Chicago architect and his work is appreciated around the world. The money could have been found without involving the state or politics. [There are a few architects in my family, so Frank Lloyd Wright, IM Pei, Louis Sullivan, and Le Corbusier are familiar names to me.]
I agree with everything you’re saying. This was nothing more than a political move by our governor. The background I gave was more to give others an idea of the how the governor thought his justification to allocate the money could be sold to the public rather than uncovered as the crass, political move that it was.
If that was his intent, he failed miserably, because he presented the case for why the government assistance was not necessary.
We had a hell of a fight down here about a county renting several unused “temporary classrooms” [mobile homes/trailers] to a religious pre-school/daycare that was wiped out by a tornado. On one side you had a county commissioner who ran for-profit pre-schools.
I didn’t get involved because they were being rented, not given. They were surplus, not needed. The county’s costs were minimal. The cost of trying to find daycare for the families who used the pre-school would not have been minimal, as most had subsidized daycare assistance and few for-profit daycare centers would accept them. It’s not like there are a host of people wanting to start low cost daycare centers, churches are about the only people left in the sector.
This is just a series of bad choices by politicians.