There’s never a bad time for politicians to say, “To hell with separation of church and state; I wanna rally my Christian base!” That’s why Texas Governor Rick Perry called for people to pray for rain last week.

In Florida, Mayor Sonny Nobles of Live Oak took it one step further. He didn’t just wish his city a Happy Easter. He took the time to pin the world’s problems on atheists:

The main point is that if people around the world truly had God in their lives, there would not be any of the things that atheists point to in order to discredit a belief in the Almighty. God is caring and loving. He is not a mean God. If people were to turn toward God and not away from Him, there would be a heaven on earth. God bless us all.

If I have that right, if all the heathens believed in God, the Japanese earthquake and tsunami would never have happened, there would be no starving children around the world, and Rebecca Black would just disappear.

I could make that letter a whole lot more succinct:

Screw you, atheists, for ruining this planet. Sincerely,

Your Mayor.

Keep in mind Nobles wrote this letter in his capacity as town mayor, not as a private citizen.

This is the same town, by the way, where a March meeting between local atheists and a school superintendent had to be rescheduled because threats were made against the atheists:

“We received threats of violence against us if we attended the meeting,” [Atheists of North Florida director Randy] Lewis told the Democrat by email. “We have to take these threats very seriously. Because of the violent history of Christianity.” Lewis had been scheduled to meet with Superintendent of Schools Jerry Scarborough Friday afternoon concerning claims of religious paraphernalia in local public schools.

Jennifer Hancock tried contacting Nobles to find out why he used his title to advance his faith but so far she hasn’t heard back:

Mayor Sonny Nobles has not yet responded to a request for comment as to why he felt it necessary to use his official position as mayor of Live Oak to promote his specific religious beliefs given the current hostile religious climate in Live Oak. He has also not explained why he felt it was necessary to accuse his fellow citizens of being the cause of all suffering on earth as part of his Easter greeting.

We know what he’s going to say, though. Any Christian threatening violence isn’t *really* a Christian. And he didn’t mean to insult atheists — that was just a by-product of him expressing “Christian love.”

Side note: He goes out of his way to blame non-theists for the world’s problems. But I guess everything fine if you’re Jewish or Muslim because you still believe in God? Does anyone really believe he feels that way? Or is it just more politically correct to bash the atheists instead of singling out the Jews?



