In the face of tragedy the grotesque face of religion takes center stage

I didn’t want to write this blog. I’ve been avoiding it for days.  The horrific Aurora, Colorado massacre doesn’t need my analysis or post mortem. The media has dissected, poked, prodded, speculated, pontificated and squeezed every conceivable angle out of it. Anything I could add would be just one more disgusted and horrified voice among millions.   

But I am compelled to denounce those who, like flies drawn to feces, crawl out of the dung to  take advantage of horrific events, to promote their belief, raise their profile, and make a living capitalizing on disaster and human failure.  Those who seize upon tragedy in order to up the ante of hate and ignorance in our world or promote their business.  A despicable segment of our citizenry who deserve nothing but universal disgust and condemnation from every person who, regardless of their religious perspective, retains a spark of intellect, honesty, respect for reason and decency .

I’m speaking of Evangelical preachers and Xtian shaman, self appointed spokesman for their imaginary god, purveyors of myth and fable who live at the fringes of reality and dare not miss this opportunity to espouse their fanatical devotion to stupidity, no matter how off the mark, far fetched, hurtful, divisive or mindless it may be.  Examples:  

Jerry Newcombe, an Evangelical leader, didn’t even wait for the smoke to clear before he to affixed blame for the mass murder on America’s loss of the fear of hell, and the removal of prayer from public school and separation of religion from our government  Then, to make sure his point is made,  when one step further and told the victim’s relatives that those who weren’t committed to Christ, weren’t born again, are burning in a terrible place.  I guess the shooter will be going to the good place...he was a Presbyterian in good standing, according to his pastor.  

Rick Warren, **  Evangelical preacher, shaman emeritus to the GOP, and head of the mega Saddle Back Church, blames the massacre on the teaching of evolutionary theory.  It seems children, and this murderer specifically, has been convinced by the study of evolution that they are no better than animals, and thus have opted to “act like animals.”  The fact that no animal species besides humans have ever been documented committing mass killings of their own kind seems to be lost on Reverend Warren.

Fred Phelps, of the infamous Westboro Baptist Church, has announced his plans to picket funerals, harass mourners and protest in Aurora to promote his sick contention that the deaths were god’s punishment for the US’s continued acceptance of homosexuals.

Franklin Graham, the successor charlatan to his father Billy Graham’s cash cow ministry, don’s his ministry logo cap and t-shirt  (see above) and travels to Aurora with his team of prayer merchants to pray for the victims and let them know he and “He” is there for them, as though without him the devastated folks would never heal.  Naturally, if his mega business gets promoted by some camera face time, so much the better.

Then some Xtian wood working fanatic builds twelve 3 ½ foot tall 2 x 4 wooden crosses on bases, trucks them into town, and sets  them up - one for each of the deceased. Seems he did the same thing for the Columbine massacre thirteen years ago.  Those victims are still dead.  I imagine the twelve new crosses will have a similar non-effect on the recent victims. I wonder if all the deceased are actually Xtians, or if he gave it a moment’s thought, or if he even cares.

And on it goes.  Instead of promoting unity, kindness, understanding and giving real support to the people affected they and we are treated to  threats of eternal torture; the condemnation of science;  the hate sign waving; the meaningless platitudes, hosannas  and useless prayers; the tortured reasoning and utter lack of it; the erecting of miniature execution devices as monuments to delusion... all rolled out for everyone to marvel at  like some grotesque carnival of de-evolution.  Like a convention of witch doctors chanting their gibberish, brandishing their rattles and totems, vying for a following.   Like a bizarre dance of death cultists.  

The perpetrator of this horror will get his due.  Justice will be served, albeit it will be of little comfort to his victims and their families or the town that will bear this burden forever.  But the perpetrators of religiously inspired hate, divisiveness and delusion, the promoters of useless myth and ignorance who would spew their obsession and seek to capitalize on this tragedy will escape with their skins in tact.  There is no justice in that.

[ ** CORRECTION:  following the publication of this article, a reader advised me that the statement attributed to Rick Warren was a misinterpretation by another atheist blogger.  I apologize for this error and retract it.  Whole story of the error here:    

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/unreasonablefaith/page/2/