Horrifying Christian responses to Connecticut shooting December 16, 2012
By: William Hamby Subscribe
Bryan Fischer suggests his god runs a protection racket.
God let the Connecticut shooting happen because there's no prayer in schools. So says Bryan Fischer, one of the big wigs at the Christian hate group, American Family Association. After asserting that "God is not going to go where he is not wanted," Fischer went on to detail his god's extortion racket: "Hey, I'll be glad to protect your children, but you gotta invite me back into your world first."
It's really a pretty terrifying concept. And it is, by definition, extortion. Jesus, who holds all the cards by virtue of creating everything and having absolute power over everything, will let children be senselessly murdered if we don't pray in school every morning. It's extortion, pure and simple, and what's worse, there's pretty good historical evidence that even when there is lots of prayer, God falls down on the job of protection. An awful lot of children have been raped in churches by his own clerics.
Fischer Fischer
Many people, including a lot of Christians, will rightly point out that this is not every Christian's conception of their god. But it's not a fringe belief, either. Mike Huckabee, no less than a contender for president in 2008, said this: "We ask why there is violence in our schools, but we have systematically removed God from our schools. Should we be so surprised that schools would become a place of carnage?"
Of course, there's plenty of verifiable fringe lunacy out there, too. Westboro Baptist Church, famous for proclaiming the bloody wrath of a vengeful god against pretty much everybody, will be picketing the school, because clearly it's their fault for not hating gay people enough.
Right Wing talk show host Steve Deace had a few choice words as well:
If you're willing to agree with me up front that asking kids to write suicide notes in schools, teaching them there is no God and thus no real purpose to their lives, letting children see movies glorifying the occult and gory violence, and that allowing and subsidizing parents killing at least 4,000 of their own children each day contributes to this culture of death, then maybe -- just maybe -- we can have an honest conversation about guns. But if you can't see that ultimately this is a cultural/spiritual problem, then the reality is you really don't care about human life.
I'm not sure where Mr. Deace lives, but it does sound like a very scary place. I am not aware of any school in America that teaches children there is no god, and no real purpose in life. I am aware that there are over 33,000 schools in America teaching that there is a god, and a great many of them teach the extortion version. I'm also unfamiliar with the curriculum in which children write suicide notes. It is my understanding that R rated movies, which would probably account for all of the movies with gory violence, are restricted to viewers 17 and older by the MPAA, and would thus not be shown in schools. I really have no idea which occult movies he might be referring to, but I suspect they are also R rated. In the end, I can only view this bit of diatribe as scaremongering of a fashion similar to Mr. Huckabee's and Mr. Fischer's. It just has a little more "oomph."
One of the most horrifying Christian comments yet was made by a fellow named Tom Thompson. I can't figure out which of a number of Christian Tom Thompsons it might have been, but a fellow named John Rennard tweeted the following quote ascribed to him, and at least 45 of his friends thought it was pretty spiffy:
About 20 children are receiving the BEST CHRISTMAS PRESENT EVER....the presence of our God and our Lord Jesus Christ! Thx Tom Thompson for that perspective.
What comment can be added to this that could make it sound any worse? Twenty children were murdered in cold blood, and this guy gets on Twitter and essentially says, "Hey, parents, why don't you throw a party! Your kid's death is the best thing that could have happened. Praise Jesus!" Would he dare to say such a thing to a parent's face?
The thing is, and this is a very important point to keep in mind, that statement is consistent with most Christian doctrine. It's logical. It follows from the teaching that Christians will go to heaven when they die, and heaven is a magical paradise so much better than earth that it defies description. Given the choice between struggling for another 70 years on earth, filled with suffering, pain and death, or heading on to the promised land at 6 or 7, it makes all the sense in the world to shuffle off now.
Inevitably, someone will respond to this article by angrily accusing me of painting Christians with too broad a brush. Most Christians, they will aver, are good-hearted people who love their children and would never, ever think of saying such hideous things as the people I'm quoting. They will say I'm exploiting tragedy to push my own secular agenda. And you know what? They'll be right on both counts. Most polls show that only about a quarter of America's Christians subscribe to the most conservative, authoritarian models of Christianity. And yes, I am promoting a secular agenda in the wake of a national tragedy.
To begin with, I want to make something very clear: Most people are good people. Most people are kind-hearted, empathetic, and love children. That includes Christians, atheists, Muslims, Hindus, Wiccans, and pretty much any other religious affiliation you can think of. Most people are mostly good most of the time. I am not, in any sense, criticizing people. I am criticizing Christianity. The religion. The dogma. By pointing out this last fellow who had the temerity to call a mass murder a good thing, I hope to show just how completely the Christian doctrine of extortion and eternal punishment/reward can warp a person's sense of morality. Do we imagine that if he was not a Christian, he would have said such a thing? That's food for serious thought.
As to the accusation of calling attention to my agenda during a tragedy, yes. Of course I am. And so is absolutely everyone else in the country who is talking about it. Everyone has an opinion on this tragedy, and when they speak, they are voicing their bias. Their agenda. Everyone is trying to put their ideas out there because they believe in their own viewpoint. They want things to be better, and they believe that if people hear their thoughts, they may be convinced by them. I am no different. I think that our Christian culture of masculinity, male superiority, entitlement, and coercion is a contributor to our fetishest obsession with vengeance. "Vengeance is mine, sayeth the Lord." God hates fags. God will let your children die if you don't pray properly. I think these attitudes are part of the problem. Now is the perfect time to call attention to this fact -- while we are most concerned with finding answers.
To all the Christians out there who would never think or say such things as those uttered by their brothers in faith, I sympathize. I know it can't feel good to think that people are judging you by their actions. And in fairness, some people probably are judging you too harshly simply because you are a Christian. We atheists are not perfect, and sometimes we confuse practitioners of Christianity with the doctrine. But there is, lurking at the bottom of your belief system, a logical path to this kind of extremism. The notion that your god would send me to hell unless I believe in him is extortion. Maybe you don't think of it that way, but that's what it is. The idea that earth is pretty awful and heaven is the best place in the universe does lead logically to the idea that these murdered children are better off now than they ever would be in this life. These are your doctrines. Not mine. Now might be a good time to take a step or two backwards and ask if they are truly good and holy." |
