Keeping Albuquerque Atheist Free: City Council Member Runs On The Lack of Faith of His Opponent

We recently saw the outrage among fundamentalists when questions were raised whether a creationist can be a good mayor at St. Petersburg, here. Now Albuquerque City Councilor Don Harris is mailing voters to warn them that his opponent is . . . wait for it . . . an atheist. It appears that atheists cannot be good city council members since one cannot fill a pothole if your soul is empty of the Lord. The Godless office seeker, David Barbour, is shown on the right.

Harris sent out the mailer to inform people that “[Barbour] is a donor to Atheist organizations and speaker at Atheist events…”

Harris is truly a piece of work. Not only does he warn people that there is an atheist wanting to serve humanity, but Barbour has actually engaged in protests “even in foreign countries.” Oh my God. A man who exercised free speech in this and other countries wants to serve his community. Stone him, I say.

An atheist site asked Harris to explain what major speeches Barbour gave in support of atheism. Here is what was reported:

Harris responded to our post with information indicating that Barbour was a member of a Unitarian Universalist congregation, who gave a talk on atheism and donated money to a scholarship in honor of Charles Darwin.

So, the money he gave was in support of science education, not atheism alone.

And here’s a description of that terrible, horrible, no good, why-would-you-ever-want-to-vote-for-him? talk that he gave:

On July 2nd, 2003 Katherine Hepburn passed away. The world lost a fine person, an excellent actress and a confirmed atheist. This service explores Ms. Hepburn’s life, the positive aspects of atheism and the reasons why a Unitarian congregation is better off with some atheists and humanists. Along the way we find out about some atheist resources and what is happening locally in the atheist community.

I cannot believe that such a person got this close to serving on the Albuquerque city council.

Of course, Harris is following the rule books of both Democratic and Republican presidential candidates like Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, John McCain and Sarah Palin who ran on their faith and incorporated their religious beliefs as one of the reasons to vote for them. For an earlier column, click here.

What is astonishing is that Albuquerque’s alternative weekly paper, the Alibi, endorsed Harris. Whatever Barbour is lacking in policy, how can a newspaper endorse someone who engages in such campaigns? The Alibi needs to withdraw that endorsement if it is to retain any credibility as a newspaper, let alone an alternative newspaper.
For the story, click here.