The only thing to do, he said, is to laugh it off.

“I guess if I could narrow it down to one feeling it would be embarrassment,” Stewart said. “We are not holding our elected officials to any higher standard than bullies on a playground. Even if in his heart he believes that, he should still have the forethought to not say it as an elected official.”

Commissioner David Unruh made the remarks during a county staff meeting in reaction to a letter from the Freedom From Religion Foundation, a group that fights for separation of church and state. The foundation accused the county of violating the Constitution by denying an atheist the chance to speak during the invocation period at commission meetings.