Remember 2012 GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain?

Of course you remember Herman Cain. Everyone remembers Herman Cain.

Well, that guy has responded to American Atheists’ recent victory in which they were able to donate atheist literature to Georgia state parks since the parks were already allowing in donated Bibles.

Does he support the atheists or oppose them?

It’s hard to tell. He refers to the lawsuit threat as “frivolous” while at the same time arguing that it’s the atheists’ right to place those books in the cabins.

Here’s Cain:

… in a recent case here in Georgia, an atheist named Ed Buckner rented a cabin in a state-owned park and was upset when he found a Bible in the cabin. The Bible had been placed there as a donation of literature by a Christian group. The state had not paid for the Bibles and had not distributed them. But Buckner was still upset, apparently feeling it is not enough for him not to believe in God. He doesn’t want anyone else being persuaded to believe in Him either. … … I’m having a hard time thinking that many people will want to relax on their vacation while reading The Skeptics Annotated Bible, but this is America so the atheists can give it their best shot.

Umm… okay. We will! Thanks for your permission! I think…

Then, Cain goes off on some crazy tangent about how our country is really founded on biblical principles:

But if you want to know the founders’ own attitude toward God and faith, all you have to do is visit Washington D.C. and look at all the buildings with scripture passages inscribed. Or look at our money, which says in no uncertain terms, “In God We Trust.”

Right, just look at “In God We Trust” on our money. A phrase that began appearing on our currency in 1957 in response to the threat of Communism. I can’t remember which Founding Father made that happen. Probably George Washington. Had to be.

Cain also acts like all the founders *loved* Christianity. They didn’t. Some were just Deists. And most who were Christians weren’t the kind of Christians Cain is thinking about.

He continued:

We are a nation under God. Properly applying the Constitution means the graduation speaker who decides to utter a prayer will neither receive the government’s endorsement nor the government’s opposition. It means the group who wants to put Bibles in the state-owned cabin will experience the same neutrality. It means Congress will make no law respecting establishment of religion, but all — including people in government — are free to make clear God has ultimate sovereignty over our nation.

Of course, the courts have said repeatedly that’s the wrong interpretation of the First Amendment. If a school’s administration allows prayer in a graduation speech, that is a form of endorsement — not to mention those administrators would have to allow, in a similar situation, atheists to tell the crowd “God doesn’t exist” and Muslims and Hindus that their God(s) do… that’s just not a door worth opening nor what graduation speeches should be about. (To get around this, Christian groups have started to tell administrators to just take a blind approach to graduation speeches. If they don’t know what’s in the speech, they can’t be held accountable if a prayer magically slips in, right…?)

And politicians have always been free to state their beliefs about God, but the moment they try to legislate them, they’ve gone too far. They shouldn’t be putting those beliefs on government memorials, or passing them through anti-science bills, or voting against LGBT rights for religious reasons.

By the way, Cain is the same guy who once opposed the building of a large mosque on public property in Murfreesboro, Tennessee because it was an “abuse of our freedom of religion.” So much for everyone’s rights.

The man should stick to pizza. At least when he screws that up, no one cares.



