Monique Davis: Bigoted Nutter Extraordinaire

Representative tries to put the fear of God in atheist

Tribune staff report

April 6, 2008

Did you hear about the state legislator who last week blasted a Lutheran minister during a committee hearing for spewing dangerous religious superstitions, and then attempted to order the minister out of the witness chair on the grounds that his Christian beliefs are "destroying what this state was built upon"?

Of course you didn't, because it didn't happen and would never happen. Not to a Christian, not to a Jew, not to a Muslim or to anyone who subscribes to any faith.

Such an attack would rightly be considered scandalously out of bounds in contemporary society.

But you probably also didn't hear about what actually did happen:

Rep. Monique Davis (D-Chicago) interrupted atheist activist Rob Sherman during his testimony Wednesday afternoon before the House State Government Administration Committee in Springfield and told him, "What you have to spew and spread is extremely dangerous . . . it's dangerous for our children to even know that your philosophy exists!

"This is the Land of Lincoln where people believe in God," Davis said. "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."

Apparently it's still open season on some views of God.

Outside of Change of Subject, where I posted a transcript and the audio, Davis' repellent, un-American outburst received no attention whatsoever.

Copyright © 2008, Chicago Tribune

For more information, check out Rob Sherman's website.

Still don't believe it? You've got to listen to the audio recording for yourself. It's not that long, so it shouldn't take long to download. Here it is from the Chicago Tribune, courtesy of the Illinois Information Service.

Seriously. Any of you who live in Illinois? You need to contact her and let her know that this shit isn't acceptable because like it or not, she was not alone in this. She had people clapping and giving her "that's right" through this tirade, and that means she's not as much of an anomaly as you think.

Here is her contact info page. Her email address isn't listed there, but you can reach her at mdavis@hdsmail.state.il.us

Edit: Well, I emailed her. This is what I sent:

Representative Davis,

I wanted to express to you just how saddened I am by the statements you made to Rob Sherman, by your unhesitating and unapologetic denunciation of atheism as inherently destructive and essentially un-American. I have always respected and valued the contributions of Christians to our history, and in the name of that history I am asking you to seriously rethink the impression you are sending of what it means to live in Christ.

As was written by the apostle Paul: "All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law. For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God's sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous. (Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law, since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them.)" Romans 2:12

This means that you are a subject of Christ, and subject to the judgement of God. You know this. What you may not know is that Paul never asserted that gentiles (read: non-Jews, since Christianity wasn't its own sect yet) were not capable of pleasing God. In fact, if you read Romans carefully, you can see reflected in it Paul's deep commitment to embracing those of different ways and beliefs. He would never have tried so hard to initiate dialogue with gentiles if he did not believe they had nothing to offer Christ's church. That's why his contribution to the Bible is not in the form of a formalized written book. They're letters. One part of the conversation. Paul engaged in respectful dialogue with those of other faiths.

Are you wiser than Paul? Are you more able than an apostle of God to judge who is and is not pleasing God in America?

Remember also that it is not for you to judge Rob Sherman, publicly or in private, or even in your own heart. The right of discernment does not belong to you or to any mortal. You have heard the law, and you have heard the message of Christ. But those who are declared righteous are those who OBEY the law. You are a mortal, an individual human. Let Rob Sherman's conscience bear witness for him. Do not presume judgement, which belongs only to God. That is the foulest sort of idolatry, the worship of one's own self.

I sincerely hope that you think long and hard about what this means for you, and for the people who applauded you in that room. I sincerely hope for the sake of your continued participation in Christ's church that you ask yourself what is really expected of you, and what is forbidden to you. May these considerations temper your public rantings in the future.

Respectfully yours,
Ashley Holmes

Special thanks to James McGrath for lending me some insight into Paul's letters with which I can chide this woman to my heart's content.