Like you and the rest of the nation I am distraught beyond words at the massacre in Connecticut. The horror, the very scope of destruction, is almost more than I can wrap my head around. I find a tear coming to my eye with every story about the victims and the many expressions of sympathy from around the world. I'm in mourning for those children and their teachers.
But now the media coverage has become obsessive, almost circus like in it's repetition and desperate grasps at new angles and obscure interviews. It is verging on becoming a morbid dance of death. We've heard everything we need to hear, and I wish it would stop.
Perhaps you, like me, are disgusted with the grotesque references to prayer, god, heaven, angels, jesus and all the predictable platitudes that the religious drag out whenever a tragedy happens. Religious bloggers and their sheeple who hallelujah their exhortation to prayer (for what I wonder); the crazed pastors and televangelists with their insipid and sickening declarations of why this happened, ranging from the ever popular "God called them home," to it being attributed to god's vengeance for his "not being allowed in school"; and the simply religiously infected need to espouse their religious beliefs publicly and wallow in a kind of breast beating and self flagellation... it all disgusts me.
It is the religious' trained response to inexplicable, and unfathomable acts of natural destruction and insanely driven acts of "evil." It's what they do in reaction to their impotence to do anything meaningful. It's what they've been indoctrinated or paid, to do. I despise the religious all the more for it.
But, I won't judge the parents and families of those victims the same way. They have entered a real hell, the hell no parent should ever experience. Let them express their grief and relieve their pain anyway they can...they will, sadly, have a life time of it. If their exhorting a god to explain, or imploring it to give it meaning, or praising it for taking their child to an imagined Candyland (instead of interceding on the child's behalf and averting the horror in the first place) is what they need to do to assuage their grief, then so be it.
Let them find what comfort where they can. I hope they find some measure of it, for there - but for the finger of fate - go us all.
7 comments:
Hump, it is specifically because of the media obsessive coverage of this story that I have not pursued it at all. I heard the initial reports on the television and left it at that.
I don't want to know the names of those poor children whose lives were abruptly cut short by the acts of an insane young man. I especially don't want to hear all the cliche platitudes that theists love to repeat like drones whenever tragedy strikes.It sickens me to no end how theists in some cases knowingly exploit situations like these to gain adherents and for proselytizing.
My only hope is that the surviving victims and their families can overcome the negative effects of this tragedy. That they can appreciate life more and realize that our time here is not guaranteed. Live life to the fullest now and love those you call family and friends to the fullest now.
The best way to honor the memories of the dead is by living the life that they could not. Make your life a positive statement and enjoy it as much as you can. Seek health and happiness and make the most of who you are and what you hope to become.
Well said, Chat. Thank you.
Bart...for content, capturing the emotion and the horror of the moment and my personal feelings this is your best rant for my money. As always I would add one more thing that sends me into a rage. The likes of Huckabee and his ilk are the first to say some tragedy like this is due to an absence of god which, in schools, is certainly untrue (and in all cases irrelevant).
But the worst of it is these religious leaders wait for this kind of incident. I hate to say it but they wait with anticipation for things like this to happen be it shootings, bombings or all nature of terrible natural disasters. They do not express sorry or pain (except as a heartless preface) but use each incident to advance their personal agenda. They use each incident to widen their power base and enrich themselves personally at the cost of the victims. In this case Bart I truly hate ( I don't use that word often) the likes of Huckabee on par with my loathing of the shooter in this case. No, I hate Huckabee more because he will continue to do this over and over. As far as I am concerned using this kind of thing to advance your personal agenda is no less a crime against humanity than what the shooter did…and far more premeditated.
One other nut job from a Baptist Church said this about homosexuals and Evolution. http://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2012/12/17/i-weep-for-america/ Religion poisons everything.
I have not even looked at the pic of the child victims on the internet. Being a father of a 6 and 8 year old, I just can't bring myself to look at their faces.
As far as the evangelicals claiming that god "called them home": Their god decided that instead of just painlessly taking their souls peacefully while they slept in their beds, he felt that the bodies of these little innocent children needed to have bullets ripped through their bodies and that they needed to witness their classmates and teachers being murdered in front of their eyes.
Praise god.
Someone spent time writing this:
I saw this on Facebook, and since some of you are not on Facebook, I thought I'd cut/paste this for you.
I thought it was really beautiful and comforting.
Twas' 11 days before Christmas, around 9:38
when 20 beautiful children stormed through heaven's gate.
their smiles were contagious, their laughter filled the air.
they could hardly believe all the beauty they saw there.
they were filled with such joy, they didn't know what to say.
they remembered nothing of what had happened earlier that day.
"where are we?" asked a little girl, as quiet as a mouse.
"this is heaven." declared a small boy.
"we're spending Christmas at God's house."
When what to their wondering eyes did appear,
but Jesus, their savior, the children gathered near.
He looked at them and smiled, and they smiled just the same.
then He opened His arms and He called them by name.
and in that moment was joy, that only heaven can bring
those children all flew into the arms of their King
and as they lingered in the warmth of His embrace,
one small girl turned and looked at Jesus' face.
and as if He could read all the questions she had
He gently whispered to her, "I'll take care of mom and dad."
Then He looked down on earth, the world far below
He saw all of the hurt, the sorrow, and woe
then He closed His eyes and He outstretched His hand,
"Let My power and presence re-enter this land!"
"may this country be delivered from the hands of fools"
"I'm taking back my nation. I'm taking back my schools!"
Then He and the children stood up without a sound.
"come now my children, let me show you around."
excitement filled the space, some skipped and some ran.
all displaying enthusiasm that only a small child can.
and i heard Him proclaim as He walked out of sight,
"in the midst of this darkness, I AM STILL THE LIGHT."
Written by Cameo Smith, Mt. Wolf, PA
JIm,
I think you're probably correct in that the fantical purveyors of relion do see these hgorrific events as opportunities to reap the low hanging (read: intellectually substandard, or emotionally fragile). And Huckabee is on the top of my "imprecatory prayer" wish list.
Carl, yes..thanks. He's oneof a number who came out from under theirslime covered rocks of religion to espouse their stupidity. There seems to be no limit to the crazy reasons they attribute to thewir god's wrath on children.
gristle..indeed...nothing says god's loving plan like a murdewrous rampage and mentally destroying the survivors. If such a hideous god thing did exist we'd have to kill it.
Crazydad...of course I'm on fb..where you been?
My what a lovely poem. I was waiting for one of the kids to kick Jebus in the balls and ask wtf he didn't kill the shooter instead of her.
But since it was written by a religionist, only the most imbecilic Candyland fantasy will suffice.
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