AFTER failing in his attempt to remove an atheist winter solstice sign placed last year at Illinois’ State Capitol, a religious zealot has now brought a law suit against Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White alleging that the sign was tantamount to “hate speech”.
William J Kelly
Illinois comptroller candidate William J Kelly, described as a “conservative activist” – or nutter, if you prefer – got his knickers in a twist over the Freedom From Religion Foundation’s Winter Solstice which read:
At the time of the winter solstice, let reason prevail. There are no gods, no devils, no angels, no heaven or hell. There is only our natural world. Religion is just myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds.
When the sign was posted last December, Kelly called it “hate speech,” and said he did not believe it was appropriate for a sign that “mocks” religion to be placed next to the Capitol’s Christmas tree and nativity scene.
When he tried to remove the sign on December 23, Kelly was escorted from the Illinois State Capitol building by police.
According to this report, on Thursday of last week Kelly’s attorney filed the lawsuit for declatory relief and permanent injunction, stating that the Freedom from Religion’s sign violated the US Constitution’s Establishment Clause.
Said Kelly:
It’s a slam dunk case because it’s hate speech, OK? That sign was hate speech. It had no business being there. The state of Illinois is liable for this because anyone who saw the sign would have assumed… that this was the State of Illinois’ official position.
The suit alleges White improperly approved the sign for the building.
But the Secretary of State’s office spokesman Dave Druker said:
We acted appropriately. Our job is to protect property within the Capitol Building.
The Madison, Wisconsin-based Freedom from Religion Foundation has placed the sign in several state Capitol buildings across the country.
As to Kelly’s claims that the sign mocks religion, foundation co-President Dan Barker said in December:
He’s kind of right, because the last couple of sentences do criticize religion … But that kind of speech is protected …
Barker added:
The foundation does not approve of the nativity scene. We atheists believe that the nativity scene is mocking humanity by suggesting that those who do not believe in Jesus will go to hell. But notice that we are not defacing or stealing nativity scenes because we disagree with their speech.
Last year was the second that the Freedom from Religion sign had been at the Illinois State Capitol.
The lawsuit was filed in US District Court. A hearing has not been set.
The Freethinker was founded in 1881 by GW Foote, an outspoken critic of religion. After the publication of 
February 3rd, 2010 at 9:57 am
I sincerely hope that this kindly Christian hasn’t made any “hateful” remarks about homosexuals!
February 3rd, 2010 at 10:03 am
There’s more about him here:
http://caosblog.com/archives/11167
February 3rd, 2010 at 10:05 am
And here, but I haven’t got thr time to wade through it all right now!
http://friendsofwilliamjkelly.com/
February 3rd, 2010 at 10:22 am
These guys are getting themselves all worked up because they’re losing the fight. All they have left is money and the court system; public opinion is turning against these religious idiots in a big way.
Go see 8 – The Mormon Proposition!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upWb2jBk5xw
February 3rd, 2010 at 10:47 am
TRUE HATE SPEECH WOULD HAVE BEEN:
At the time of the winter solstice, let reason prevail. We hate all gods, all devils, all angels, we curse heaven and hell. There is only our natural world. Religion is just myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds and all religionists should be discriminated against/not be permitted citizenship/treated as second class citizens/whatever.
More or less what various religionists have been saying to us for the last 2000+ years, but for them it is covered by their right to practice religion
I demand atheist rights – the right to despise religious institutions!
February 3rd, 2010 at 11:11 am
The less believers there are around, the harder these nutters will scream for attention. So far, no deity has made a recognizable move against atheists, as far as I know. So the dwindling numbers of the faithful feel they have to take action in a vain attempt to help their omni-potent god.
February 3rd, 2010 at 12:10 pm
I trust that the case will be thrown out as frivolous, with costs awarded against him.
David B
February 3rd, 2010 at 12:59 pm
Funny, isn’t it, just how hysterical nutters like Kelly get about criticism or questioning of their beloved religion. How they don’t like people thinking for themselves.
Could it be they’ve actually got something to hide? Like, the fact that it’s all a pack of lies, for instance?
February 3rd, 2010 at 3:17 pm
I would say the message on the sign is factual, no mocking or hate so W J Kelly’s point is? Of course! he is a zealot and only allows free speech when it agrees with him and is approved by him.
It will be interesting to hear the argument that stating there is no god etc is hate speech.
February 3rd, 2010 at 5:49 pm
If the National Geographic Society erected a sign reading, “The earth is round”, would the Flat Earth Society(1), be able to sue on the ground that such a sign constituted hate speech? They would, if the judge is bigoted enough to allow Kelly’s suit to go to a jury of godphuqt believers (tautology).
(1) America’s most fundamentalist religion, The Flat Earth Society, with about 40 hardcore members, really exists, and bases its position on its recognition that its bible states unequivocally in 14 places that the earth is flat.
February 3rd, 2010 at 8:37 pm
I go with what’s been said previously about religion under pressure and losing the argument.
I wonder is there another angle to this? I’m not well up on American politics but does being a comptroller candidate mean that Kelly’s running for some sort of political office? It’s a nice piece of publicity, and he gets to have a poke at atheists to boot. Two for the price of one.
Politics, religion, cynicism. Sound familiar?
February 3rd, 2010 at 8:48 pm
I had been under the impression that the Flat Earth Society had fallen by the wayside some years ago, but according to Wikipedia there are still some diehards trying to keep its ideas going! This site, though obviously a “spoof”, is really too funny for words!!
http://www.alaska.net/~clund/e.....ociety.htm
PS I wonder what Sister Talitha’s line on this would be?
February 3rd, 2010 at 10:47 pm
barriejohn: Yeah, if this guy can sue, I should be able to sue every homophobic fundamentalist.
February 3rd, 2010 at 11:15 pm
This is a very good article, from a very Right-Wing, All-American, Christ-honoring site, though some of it is unintentionally mirth-producing!
http://rffm.typepad.com/republ.....ding-.html
“The only money Illinois taxpayers spent regarding the displays was the cost involving the 15 law enforcement officers who escorted Kelly out of the Rotunda, before briefly detaining him to write up an incident report.
“If Kelly was not in possession of the simple facts regarding his blatant attempt to attract publicity, especially the economic aspects of the issue, some critics ask: ‘How could Kelly be comptroller for the entire state of Illinois?’”
“Zanoza went on to say he is happy this year’s display of the Nativity scene went on virtually without a hitch. Thousands of people came to the capitol Rotunda to see the Nativity scene. One committee member told me she was nearly brought to tears when she saw a family, consisting of a Father, Mother and three young children who were viewing the statues of Joseph, Mary and the Christ child. A five year old, the oldest of the children, said, ‘I love baby Jesus!’ With a loving smile, the Father looked at his son and said, ‘I love baby Jesus, too!’”
BTW I had to laugh at the fact that this was the SPRINGFIELD Nativity Scene! Is this whole thing a joke?
February 4th, 2010 at 12:08 am
A hate message would be:
“All who doubt the existence of Jehovah (Yahweh) (Allah) are blasphemers and deserve to die.”
The sign message was a call to reason and clear thought, and in no way incites anger of any kind. I see it as an invitation to rethink what you believe, and why you believe it.
But, Harwood and I have a score to settle. He thinks that agnostics are two hundred years behind the times, while I think that those who assume the universe is an accident are hundreds of years of assumption in front of the evidence. He thinks he’s the scientist, but what he is no different from the pope, assuming things on a convenient hunch. When he can prove that big bang is fact, and how it happened, I will buy him a beer and lunch, but until then, it is counterproductive to assume facts not in evidence.
NeoWolfe
February 4th, 2010 at 7:17 am
When virtually all scientists in a relevant field agree on a theory, it is as close to an established fact as it is possible to get. Anyone who thinks that the nonexistence of “God”, defined as a god with the specific attributes associated with the paramount god of the Abrahamic religions, is unproven, is either unaware of the evidence or lacking judgment. A good place to start would be Victor Stenger’s God: The Failed Hypothesis.
February 4th, 2010 at 9:19 am
Of course the Earth is flat!!
Proof is in The Bible.
These points have all been verified by our Creation Research Department.
We True Christiansâ„¢ don’t need the Blinkered words of Scientists.
In the beginning God drew a circle on the face of the waters to make the earth.
(Prov 8:26-27) when he had not yet made earth and fields, or the world’s first bits of soil. When he established the heavens, I was there, when he drew a circle on the face of the deep,
The world is a flat circle, like the floor of a tent. Heaven is like the tent:
(Isa 40:22 NRSV) It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to live in;
The universe has a center, and it’s visible from everywhere on Earth. This disproves the spherical-earth theory:
(Dan 4:10-11 NRSV) Upon my bed this is what I saw; there was a tree at the center of the earth, and its height was great. The tree grew great and strong, its top reached to heaven, and it was visible to the ends of the whole earth.
(Mat 4:8 NRSV) Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor;
The Earth has edges, and there is gravity in space:
(Job 38:13 NIV) that it might take the earth by the edges and shake the wicked out of it?
(Job 11:9 NRSV) Its measure is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea.
(Deu 13:7 NRSV) any of the gods of the peoples that are around you, whether near you or far away from you, from one end of the earth to the other,
More uses of the term “ends of the earth”; Deu 28:49, Deu 28:64, Deu 33:17, 1 Sam 2:10, Job 1:7, Job 28:24, Job 37:3, Psa 2:8, Psa 19:4, Psa 22:27, Psa 33:13, Psa 33:14, Psa 48:10, Psa 59:13, Psa 61:2, Psa 65:5, Psa 72:8
Let’s not also forget that the Sun Moves around the Earth.
February 4th, 2010 at 9:24 am
To suggest that the universe is an accident is akin to the creationists’ mantra about a wind blowing through a scrap-yard creating an aeroplane.
The Big Bang theory was postulated by studying the properties of matter, gravity and observation of deep space events such as super-novae; currently it is the best fit theory. The Big Bang may or may not have been the start of the universe but it is the best theory considering what little evidence we have; and any reasonable scientist would change their theory in the light of new evidence rather than adopt a dogmatic position.
February 4th, 2010 at 1:17 pm
Good to see American atheists standing up against the bigots. It must be a pretty good secular definition of hell to live in fundie-infested areas.
February 5th, 2010 at 12:47 am
Good to see Sister Talitha putting us right with all the relevant scientific facts there! God has made it all so plain and simple for us poor believers – praise His Holy Name!!
February 5th, 2010 at 5:10 am
Hargrove,
When the scientific field admits (as it does) that it has no idea what conditions or factors existed that caused the big bang, one can lean toward the “accident hypothesis”, but has no scientific reason to believe it as fact. That is no different from someone believing in the afterlife, despite the fact that all animals live out a lifespan and die. Zero evidence.
And it has nothing to do with Abrahamic bullshit religion, it has to do with whether or not a clear thinking individual can imagine a scenario where an entire universe explodes into existence out of nothing. Included in that scenario that life spontaneously generates where conditions allow. When science explains how that can happen by accident, I am signed up, but, until then, atheists are just theorists and I am the scientist and the skeptic.
So what that religion is a bunch of power hungry fakers trying to sell an explanation for existence to a bunch of fearful cavemen, it doesn’t change the question, nor does it change the answer. And the correct answer is, “I don’t know”.
Agnostic.
NeoWolfe