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Friday, December 11, 2009
Boomer with Attitude / News Surreal Asheville: white atheist vs. black Confederate
Posted By John Grooms on Fri, Dec 11, 2009 at 2:42 PM
Cecil Bothwell was sworn in yesterday as a new member of the Asheville City Council, which was more of an accomplishment than you might think. Some people want him banned from council already. Bothwell, a longtime alternative journalist in Asheville, was elected last month, but his swearing in was opposed by critics who claim he can’t hold public office because he’s an atheist. North Carolina’s constitution, you see, still includes a provision that bars from public office anyone who “shall deny the being of Almighty God.” It’s antiquated, it’s unenforced, and, more importantly, it violates the U.S. Constitution, which both guarantees freedom of religion and specifically states, “no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.” A lawsuit may be forthcoming from Bothwell’s opponents, however, who apparently enjoy wasting time and money.
Bothwell calls himself an atheist on his MySpace page, although he says he prefers the term “post-theist.” “I don't ‘deny the being of Almighty God,'” Bothwell told the Asheville Citizen-Times, “I simply consider the question of denial or acceptance irrelevant.”
An even odder sidelight to the controversy comes in the form of H. K. Edgerton, Bothwell’s most vocal critic. Edgerton is the former head of the Asheville chapter of the NAACP, but more recently has taken to “promoting Southern heritage” by standing on Asheville streets dressed in a Confederate soldier's uniform, and flapping a Confederate flag.
And the surreal adventure that is modern day Asheville continues.
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