The bodies of the innocent victims of the Colorado shooting early this morning haven’t even been removed from the theater and Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association, which sponsored Gov. Rick Perry’s prayer rally last year and has been designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, is already out with his “We brought it on ourselves” theory (paging John Hagee).
In Fischer speak this means that a lone gunman opening fire in a crowded theater is the fault of the gays, the Muslims and all other non-Christians, RINOs, Democrats, anyone living in San Francisco, foreigners, the cast of Glee, Chief Justice John Roberts and the Affordable Care Act, JC Penney, Mitt Romney’s openly gay former foreign policy adviser, the liberal media, poor people, etc.
Oh, and science. Let’s not forget science.
Why even post this? You’ve giving his idiot’s pulpit even more reach. The best thing you can do is ignore him because you’re not going to change his mind (or those of his flock). Accept that fools will speak foolishly and continue to fight for the separation of church and state. Don’t give him or Westboro or any of the talking heads the free exposure.
Because ignoring him will not make him go away or change his mind either. He and his group needs to be met with strong opposition and negative publicity so that perhaps in the future, less people will jump on his hateful bandwagon and even wrinkle their nose at his name.
Louie Gohmert continues his quest for Stupidest Person Alive by commenting on the Aurora shooting claiming it was the result of continuing attacks on Christianity. (No, that makes no sense whatsoever.)
He went on to bemoan the fact that nobody in the theater audience was packing heat to stop the shooter quickly.
Now, sit down and try to follow this. The shooter had multiple weapons and was wearing Kevlar. It was pitch dark. The shooter threw in smoke bombs. The shooter didn’t have to aim at anybody, just fire into the crowd. People were screaming and running every which way.
In that situation what would an untrained, amateur gun toting nut do? Well, besides kill more innocent people.
Gohmert lives in a fantasy world in which Jason Bourne is in the audience and cooly ends the situation. Gohmert’s world is inhabited by terrorists behind every tree, black helicopter conspiracies, government collusion, aliens, Big Foot and who knows what else. The man needs help.
I very much appreciate receiving your daily e-mail with news links. It helps keep me informed. At the same time, I am often disappointed at your lead ins and comments in the TFN Insider section of the daily e-mail.
These comments are often counterproductive because of the caddy tone and over reaction. I often think, why are these people I agree with lowering themselves to the same polemic, rhetorical level of those they are “exposing”?
You need to go back and read or listen to Barbara Jordan and raise you level of discourse. Don’t stoop to meet crazy, nasty people on their own terms.
I’d like to think he meant the shooter rejected God when he set out to harm other people (which may be true), but given Bryan Fischer’s background, that’s probably not what he meant.
Travis. I am sorry about that. Actually, TFN was fairly normal and balanced until I showed up here about 6 years ago and taught them that the only way to fight a two-bit bastard is to get right in the middle of his/her face, hold up a mirror to it, and let their invective be reflected back onto them.
The sad history in dealing with the Religious Right is that people in the mainline churches, which I suspect include a lot of people at TFN, used to deal with the Religious Right by rolling over and playing dead. The Religious Right would do something crazy, dangerous, or hurtful to people, and we would just say:
“Oh, just ignore them and they will go away. No one is stupid enough to take them seriously.”
I have heard that so very many times in churches and out on the street. That is why the Religious Right is so strong now and our country has been taken over by Tea Party crazies. Good and honest men and women—like you Travis— stayed silent and did nothing for decades. The Religious Right looked around and said:
“Hey, we have no vocal opposition!!! We can say or do anything we want to, be as nasty as Satan if we think we need to, lie and cheat to get our point across—and those nitwits down at the United Methodist Church will just lay there like a bunch of sheep before the shearers. You know what. If those idiots are going to stay silent, then we can add some new rhetoric to our cause—that being that the Religious Right officially represents all of Christendom!!! Man!!! We could make tons of political and social hay with that claim!!!”
AND THEY DID.
Jesus said to speak the truth in love to those with whom one disagrees. The Religious Right speaks what they believe to be the truth (apparently) with outrage, a mean spirit, spite, and steel-withering hatred. They are quite literally consumed by hatred.
From the TFN perspective, Jesus also said if you have a disagreemnt with a person within the faith, go directly to them and tell them. That is what TFN does. Rebuke them if they are doing wrong. That is what TFN does. If they are doing evil in the open or in secret, shout the details from the rooftop so all men will see what they are doing and so nothing will be hidden. That is what TFN does.
Unfortunately, some people and organizations on the Religious Right are so hardboiled that none of that works. You have to bust them over the head with a 2 X 4 just to get their attention, much less talk to them.
For these really hard nut cases like the Religious Right in this country, Jesus set an example in Matthew 23. That example is to hold a verbal mirror up in front of their faces and give them a tongue lashing that rapes their skin bloody and goes to the very center of their bones. This is also what TFN does.
Travis. The approach that you suggest (and I know that you did so kindly and with a clean and reasonable heart) would work with most reasonable people. The problem is that you and I are reasonable people. We often make the mistake of thinking that all other people are exactly as kind and reasonable as we are. The approach that you suggested was tried with the Religious Right for many decades in this country, and it met with utter failure because they are not kind and reasonable people. They are extremely self-righteous old Pharisees who have appointed themselves as the ONLY TRUE REPRESENTATIVES OF GOD ON EARTH. In other words, in their own minds, they have come to believe that THEY ARE GOD. Any disagreement you might have with them automatically makes you an enemy of God because you are daring to disagree with THEM—and they think they are God. Thus, they see you as a tool of Satan and an enemy of God. Therefore, they do not have to be nice to you. They do not have to treat you kindly. After all, God is going to destroy Satan and all of his demons one day in the Lake of Fire. So hey, if you are a person that disagrees with the Religious Right, you are headed that way too—and they just consider that they will start the process on you a little bit early. Kindness, gentleness, love, reasonableness, compassion (and 100 other similar terms you could list here) are ALL COUNTED AS WEAKNESS by the members and followers of the Religious Right. Like wild animals, they turn and rend those they perceive to be weak.
TFN does what it does and does it the way it does it because it is the only approach that has been shown to actually work with the Religious Right—puts them on the run in the minds of the American people It actually keeps people out of their camp. It works, and the tide is turning.