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| Westboro Baptist Church members from Topeka, Kansas protesting in front of RFK Stadium located in Washington, D.C. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
Commenting on tragedy is something that is hard to
do in the immediate aftermath. For that
reason, I have avoided comment on the horrific tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary
School, in which a deranged gunman took the lives of 20 students and 6
adults. I have, however, followed the
comments by others – and, some of the comments that have flooded cyberspace
have left me shaking my head in dismay.
Anyone who might wonder about my position on
religion and politics; I try to steer clear of the former and have a strong
feeling of disgust for the latter; has but to read some of the commentary to
know why. The puerile political
posturing by some former politicians, like former Arkansas governor Mike
Huckabee, who blames the shooting on a combination of lack of prayer in
classrooms, homosexuals, and contraception are too dumb to even attempt a
response to. Huckabee, perhaps realizing
how inane his comments sounded, has since tried to back off them a bit, but it’s
a case of too little, too late. The
initial statements are engraved in stone, and no amount of scratching will
remove them.
But, it’s the statements by those who try to portray
themselves as ‘religious’ leaders that has really left a bitter taste of
bile. Using this senseless tragedy as a
vehicle to push their far out agendas has further validated my decision decades
ago to look at Western religions with a sense of caveat emptor. Take William
J. Murray, son of former anti-school-prayer activist Madalyn Murray O’Hair,
who brought cases that spurred the Supreme Court to get prayer out of
schools. Murray, now a convert to
evangelical Christianity, has gone on record as saying, “lack of
school-sponsored prayer led to this tragedy.”
Like beginning the school day with a Christian prayer would have
dissuaded Adam Lanza from his killing rampage.
Murray needs to get real.
As if Murray’s ridiculous statements were not
enough, Franklin Graham, son of evangelist Billy Graham, joined the chorus,
claiming on American Family Radio’s AFA
Today that the Sandy Hook shooting was due in part to ‘God being taken out
of our schools.’ James
Dobson, considered the number one right-wing religious leader in America,
went even further. He had the audacity
to claim that letting gay couples get married, among other things, caused God
to let children be killed at Sandy Hook.
Finally, we have the nutty congregation of Westboro
Baptist Church, a fundamentalist Christian church from Topeka, Kansas,
threatening to stage a demonstration at the funerals of the victims of Sandy
Hook, declaring that God sent the shooter.
These so-called ‘religious’ leaders would have us
believe that their God approves of the slaughter of innocent children in
retribution for treating all people with dignity regardless of their politics
or sexual orientation, or for policies that put religion where it belongs; in
the home and church; or, for teaching children rational science rather than
religious fantasy in school. This isn’t
even the Old Testament God, but something from a sci-fi horror novel. If there are people out there who buy this
drivel; and I fear that there are many; I can’t sign on to such a religion.
My heart goes out to the families of the
victims. We might never know what
motivated this deadly event, but, the pulpit pronouncements from these
foam-at-the-mouth prophets of doom aren’t helping. I find it strange that none of them seem to
want to venture a comment on the ease with which disturbed people can get
high-powered automatic weapons in this country has contributed to the
continuing slaughter. There are some
sane voices out there. Let’s hope that
they’re not drowned out by all this insane patter.
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