Shooting wasn't God's Punishment


Sandy Hook wasn't God's Right Hook
by Kelvin Wade

            The nauseating Westboro Baptist Church plans to picket Sandy Hook Elementary school and the funerals of the victims of last Friday's massacre. The "church" pickets funerals as a twisted way of showing that God is judging America for the sin of homosexuality. The Ku Klux Klan then announced it would counterprotest the Westboro Baptist Church leading many Americans in the peculiar position of being on the same side as the KKK for the first time in their lives.
            Truth is stranger than fiction.
            The thought of a church trying to gain cheap media attention by picketing the funerals of innocent children who were murdered is both sickening and infuriating. But, then again, millions of Americans agree with the Rev. Fred Phelps and his ilk.
            You don't believe that? In the aftermath of the Sandy Hook massacre former GOP presidential candidate and minister Mike Huckabee said, "We’ve escorted [God] right out of our culture and marched him off the public square. And then we express our surprise that a culture without him actually reflects what it has become.”
            Again, in the aftermath of the murder of 26 people, James Dobson of the Christian group Focus on the Family said, "I think we have turned our back on the Scripture and on God Almighty and I think he has allowed judgment to fall upon us.  I think that’s what’s going on.”
            In social media, a meme has emerged of people sharing pictures of a letter saying, "Dear God, Why do you allow so much violence in our schools? Signed, a concerned student." The reply beneath it is, "Dear Concerned Student, I'm not allowed in schools. God."
            It's the kind of pithy remark that makes the self-righteous nod and click SHARE. If you're a fundamentalist I can see one clicking SHARE without thinking much of it. But what are you saying? Are you saying that people can't pray in schools? Are you saying that if school endorsed religion that Adam Lanza wouldn't have went on his twisted rampage? Would the Ten Commandments hanging in a classroom stop high powered bullets from flying?
            Are you saying that since we believe in separation of church and state that God allowed this to happen? Or was it abortion or gay marriage that caused God to allow this terrible shooting to happen?
            If that's what you're saying, then how is what you're saying different from the Westboro Baptist Church? We know what they say. They hold appalling signs saying God Hates Fags and Your Loved One is Burning in Hell at funerals. They believe that America is being judged for homosexuality.
            Are you just appalled that they picket funerals but have no problem with their message?
            Because if you endorse their sentiment you're saying that because some states have elected to allow marriage equality for gay couples that a loving God let a disturbed man into an elementary school to pump multiple high-velocity bullets into six year olds. SWAT team members made the surviving teachers and students close their eyes as they led them out of the school because those rounds tore those children to pieces.
            If you believe that God allowed this to happen to teach us some sick lesson, don't condemn the Westboro Baptist Church. You're not that different.

Comments

Anonymous said…
God is a loving God. The last time I read the bible, there wasn't a mention of guns. The invention of guns made by man, used by man, and they kill innocent people. Having mental health background checks won't stop the fact that some people just simply "Snap" and slip through the cracks. What then?
12:42 PM
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