The original source material for this is on Salon’s web site, but I followed the links to get a little more detail. The short of it is that without any information or evidence to support their claims, members of the Christian Right (and the ones who have influence over politicians in DC and on a state level) are placing the blame for the Newtown shootings on homosexuals, supporters of abortion rights, and non-believers’ desire for secularism in public schools.
Behold the crazy. It burns. And it’s more dangerous to people homosexuals and non-believers than popular response to such things would let on.
Sandy Hook Shooting: James Dobson Outrageously Blames Shootings on Gay Marriage and Abortion
“Our country really does seem in complete disarray. I’m not talking politically, I’m not talking about the result of the November 6 election; I am saying that something has gone wrong in America and that we have turned our back on God.
As my brother said once, maybe it’s so we can even out our God tan.
I mean millions of people have decided that God doesn’t exist, or he’s irrelevant to me and we have killed 54 million babies and the institution of marriage is right on the verge of a complete redefinition. Believe me, that is going to have consequences, too.
Consequences where? The perpetual assertion that “you’ll get yours eventually” is one of the cornerstones of religion, but it has not ever been backed up with anything other than thinly (or un-) veiled threats and the constant use of groups of people they don’t like as scapegoats. Why that doesn’t fall under the category of hate speech, I’m not sure.
And a lot of these things are happening around us, and somebody is going to get mad at me for saying what I am about to say right now, but I am going to give you my honest opinion: I think we have turned our back on the scripture and on God almighty and I think he has allowed judgment to fall upon us. I think that’s what’s going on.”
… and I think you’re a babbling idiot. Mine is a lot more valid than yours, too, since I’m basing my judgment on the fact that you’re blaming a tragedy like Newtown on more people refusing to believe in a god whose existence can’t be demonstrated. When put in perspective, it sounds like you’re just using this as an opportunity to express a good case of butthurt.
Bryan Fischer: God Did Not Protect Connecticut Shooting Victims Because Prayer Banned In Schools (VIDEO)
The question is going to come up, where was God? I though God cared about the little children. God protects the little children. Where was God when all this went down. Here’s the bottom line, God is not going to go where he is not wanted.
Based on what? The bible shows that God’s “interference” in the affairs of humanity is more of a tally of the times things went favorably for the authors, and were subsequently interpreted as divine intervention.
Now we have spent since 1962 — we’re 50 years into this now–we have spent 50 years telling God to get lost, telling God we do not want you in our schools, we don’t want to pray to you in our schools, we do not want to pray to your before football games, we don’t want to pray to you at graduations, we don’t want anybody talking about you in a graduation speech…
… because that would constitute an endorsement of a particular religion in a state-funded institution. No one is saying kids can’t pray in school; they just can’t do so at the command of a member of the faculty or staff.
In 1962 we kicked prayer out of the schools. In 1963 we kicked God’s word out of ours schools. In 1980 we kicked the Ten Commandments out of our schools. We’ve kicked God out of our public school system. And I think God would say to us, ‘Hey, I’ll be glad to protect your children, but you’ve got to invite me back into your world first. I’m not going to go where I’m not wanted. I am a gentlemen.
Over the course of the entire bible, God kills approximately 23 million people and endorses the murder and genocide of countless tribes at the hands of Joshua. Your god may be many things, but he’s not a gentleman. Satan, on the other hand, gave us the opportunity to understand the concept of good and evil, revealing that God lied to Adam ad Eve about what would happen to them if they ate from the tree.
Why the shock and awe? [by Franklin Graham]
The Bible answers this question with certainty, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked” (Jeremiah 17:9). In fact, the Bible gives clear testimony to just how evil the human race became. “The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord…was grieved in His heart” (Genesis 6:5-6).
And what better way for God to express his displeasure at humanity by using some crazy guy as his “hand” to enable the murder of 20 innocent children. If this is His response to our behavior, I don’t see any reason for giving him our loyalty. He sounds like a vindictive lunatic if that’s his MO.
Where do we go from here? We might start by looking at what we watch and listen to. For example, South Korean rapper sensation, Psy, who has gained worldwide acclaim by “singing” that Americans should be killed “slowly and painfully,” including, “daughters, mothers, daughters-in-law and fathers” was featured last weekend at “Christmas in Washington,” a charity concert attended by President Obama.
Psy gained worldwide acclaim for a silly song that went insanely viral. It was only later when his comments about killing Americans came out. I’m not going to excuse them, but he did apologize for it and explained that it was in response to our policy of torturing Iraqi captives, the killing of two Korean schoolgirls, and the targeting of children as potential terrorists because of their involvement in some recent attacks. It’s not as if we’re blameless.
The implication here is that President Obama, in attending this event, wasn’t going because of Psy’s recent popularity, but because he agrees with the comments he made a decade ago. Think back to Reverend Jeremiah Wright … it’s the same idea of guilt by association.
The Newtown Shooting [by Pastor Sam Morris]
“Why do you still send your kids to the governmental schools?” the pastor asked the congregation. “What’s behind this shooting that we saw on Dec. 14 in Newtown, Connecticut and the other one’s like it? What’s going on. Well, number one, deception… I got news for you, when you kicked God out of schools, you’re going to be judged for that.
I’m not a psychologist, but I suspect a crazy mother with a sever bunker mentality, her ownership of a lot of guns, her mentally unstable son, and his ability to access said guns had more to do with it than anything else. But sure, blame a lack of belief if that makes you feel good.
He added: “They think homeschoolers are a bunch of crazies, man. But I’m going to tell you something, I’ve never seen a police officer or a medal detector at a home school. Never. Amen. Now, there’s plenty of guns at my home school. Amen. I guarantee you we’re not going to have a mass shooting at any of the schools that are represented in this building today. I guarantee you, if there is a shooting, it won’t last very long. Amen. I guarantee you there’s at least six or seven guns in this place right now. Amen.
That’s exactly what we need. An armed religious zealot with fantasies of how he would deal with his own little home invasion.
“So, here you are, you’re an animal and you’re a god! So, what are we going to teach you about in school? Well, we can teach you about sex, we can teach you how to rebel to you parents, we can teach you how to be a homo!”
Sure. The same way defensive driving encourages you to be careless on the road, and paleontology teaches you how to be a goddamned dinosaur.
As I said, it all boils down to the fact that these people are afraid of their way of life and the degree of privilege they had within it are going away in favor of a more egalitarian society. In response to this threat, they’re blaming every horrible event – natural or man-made – on that which they perceive to act in opposition to their beliefs. Hardly the kind of behavior we’d expect from the people who claim to follow the teachings of a man of peace … but not unexpected considering the degree to which the current generation of fundamentalists are cherry picking the bible to serve their own needs.
