Nutty Right-Wingers try to oust atheists from office in North Carolina

from Church & State magazine:



February 2010
By Rob Boston


Attack On North Carolina Candidate Focuses Attention On State Constitutional Bans On Nonbelievers In Public Office


While working as a journalist covering municipal government in Asheville, N.C., Cecil Bothwell carefully watched members of the city council and came to a simple conclusion: He could do their job.

“As a reporter, I covered local government issues from 1993 to 2007 and felt I had a pretty good handle on the important issues here,” Bothwell said.

Last year, Bothwell decided to test his thesis. He mustered a corps of grassroots volunteers and launched a campaign for a seat on the city council. Running as an unabashed progressive, Bothwell stressed themes like environmental stewardship and good government.

It wasn’t an easy campaign. During the race, Bothwell’s opponents attacked him for a critical book he authored about Billy Graham and assailed his religious beliefs – or more accurately, his lack of them. Bothwell opponents pointed out that in his book, The Prince of War: Billy Graham’s Crusade for a Wholly Christian Empire, he spoke frankly about his own dearth of faith, writing, “I don’t believe in supernatural beings of any stripe….” ...........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.au.org/media/church-and-state/archives/2010/02/no-religious-test-tested.html

the African-American neo-confederate Edgerton have made no progress at all, in their effort to stir this pot -- but somehow they keep sucking some people's attention from real issues

actually ongoing. The man is seated in his office, and this all came to nothing. That it is reappearing in an Australian publication does not mean the story is current.