John Kasich Calls Daniel Radcliffe's Atheism "Weird"

                 

You know what is weird? Disliking a movie so much you call your local Blockbuster and demand they take it off the shelves.

John Kasich’s reputation as the “normal” Republican comes, in large part, from a lack of serious media scrutiny. But over the weekend, one intrepid reporter, Allie Morris of the Concord Monitor, captured a telling Kasich moment as the Ohio governor stumped for Chris Sununu, a Republican running for governor of New Hampshire.

“Inside a bookstore he didn’t much discuss Sununu’s candidacy,” Morris wrote. “Instead he looked at the latest Harry Potter book and pondered why British actor Daniel Radcliffe is an atheist.”

Morris continued:

“You know that Daniel Radcliffe has declared himself an atheist?” Kasich said to no one in particular. “I’m serious. What a weird thing. Why would a guy who has had all that success just, I mean, what the hell is wrong with him?”

It is true that Radcliffe gave an interview in 2009, at age 19, when he said, “I’m an atheist, but I’m very relaxed about it. I don’t preach my atheism, but I have a huge amount of respect for people like Richard Dawkins who do.”

Contacting Kasich’s press office did not clear up the mystery. “He was expressing surprise that someone who has seen so much success would announce they were an atheist,” his aide Chris Schrimpf told Salon. He did not reply to follow-up questions about why anyone would think there’s a conflict between professional success and overt atheism.

“If I’m being charitable, I could pretend that John Kasich is referring to the stigma associated with being an atheist, which certainly still exists in American society, even among such unlikely groups as the wider LGBTQ community,” Heina Dadabhoy, a prominent atheist blogger and activist, told me by email.

But she felt it was likelier that Kasich was puzzled that his god would bestow success on an atheist Brit like Radcliffe.

Matt Dillahunty, the host of “Atheist Experience Live,” was even more blunt in his assessment.

“I’d like to thank him for clearly demonstrating why, in 2016, atheists are still concerned about how we are publicly maligned and whether we’re likely to be fairly represented by our elected officials,” he said of Kasich. “It’s disgraceful. And it’s not atheists that have something wrong with them,” he added. “It’s politicians who feel free to openly parade the bigotry that should disqualify them from office.” Cont.

Story from - Salon
Video from - The Late Show with Stephen Colbert - YouTube