For eight years Buffalo Grove mayor Sidney Mathias sat through the orations of Rob Sherman, his town’s outspoken atheist. Week after week Sherman showed up at village board meetings to complain, among other things, that allowing the Jewish Community Center to use a public park violated the separation of church and state. Mathias always listened patiently. On April 19 the genial mayor presided over his last meeting. He was stepping down after being elected to the state legislature.
Sherman bolted from his seat and stormed out of the council chambers, slamming the door behind him.
Now, after two stints in jail for refusing to complete his court-ordered domestic violence counseling, he’s trying to get his conviction overturned and to revive his career as the self-described “Jesse Jackson of atheists.”
Family violence is always a touchy subject, so I approached Sherman by E-mail. Ten minutes after I logged off the telephone rang. It was Sherman.
Out in the kitchen, Celeste Sherman is frying up hamburgers. A little flustered by the presence of a guest, she asks Rob how many patties she should fix.
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“Eight o’clock comes along, previous show is over,” Sherman says. “People are tuning in and they’re hearing dead air. Great. This is how I’m trying to earn the money to pay for his college tuition? So it was a major embarrassment.”
