Adding Insult to Injury
By AtheistDad
of AtheistParents.org
The trigger for this article is the bombing of the World Trade Center in New York and the accompanying events. I wasn't going to write anything about it because everybody is writing about it, and most of what's being said is trite and praises the lord and is painful to read (not in a "my heart bleeds for them" kind of way, but in an "I can't believe somebody posted this tripe on the Web" kind of way). But so here I am adding my thoughts, albeit not accompanied by tasteful pictures of exploding buildings.
The real trigger for this article is a set of comments made by two religious fundamentalists here in America. Mr. Jerry Falwell has the following to say about the bombings:
And then there's the issue of Jesus. I thought the whole reason Jesus came to us was because God knew bad times were in our future; the promise was that God was having his son ritually sacrificed in order to prevent the necessity for sacrifice of sinful mankind down the road. Of course a good Christian will say that what matters is the afterlife, that Jesus died so that once sinners were physically dead, they would not have to be spiritually dead. It still seems awfully messed up that God turns his head to allow his lambs to be bombed and in some cases trapped agonizingly under rubble for days before going to meet their heavenly reward. Don't forget that he's doing this to punish the bad guys. It seems awfully ineffectual, inefficient. If I were God, I'd just make judicious use of lightning bolts. But back to Jesus. Didn't he preach understanding and kindness and forgiveness? Didn't he show compassion for whores and criminals rather than suggesting that they were the reason God murdered innocents? It seems a contradiction of preaching and practice when compassionate conservatives like Falwell and Robertson behave as they have. These are not men I would recommend following even if I were a Christian.
I don't suppose I need to tell you this. If you're reading this article, you've most likely already formed the same impressions and need no encouragement to disparage these guys. Maybe I'm hoping some sneering Christian out to blame atheist parents for the attack will run across my page and see the light. Maybe I'm just venting.
I saw a picture on the Web this morning of Falwell, Robertson, and bin Laden huddled together with fire blazing behind them and the caption "Fundamentalist Wack Jobs: Working Hard to Make Your World Suck Just a Little Bit More." I wonder how many Christians actually do see the parallels. Do they know that our 14th century crusades were the Christian version of what bin Laden's doing now? Can they really be blind to the glaring fact that Christian Fundamentalists are hatemongers wearing the garb only of compassion and waging spiritual terrorism?
Something else I saw today, pretty much unrelated to the Falwell/Robertson business, was a page of photographs from around the world. There were pictures from Taiwan, Germany, Switzerland, Russia, England, South Africa, and may other places. People were holding candlelight vigils and carrying flowers to the embassies in their countries. Most of them were crying or otherwise looking downright miserable. I'm generally a pursed-lip cynic, and I usually think this sort of spectacle is dumb and touchy-feely and useless. Heck, on an intellectual level, I do feel that way about the photos I'm talking about. But I was also somehow very upset by them. What occurred to me was that even though the U.S. is seen throughout the world as sort of the big dumb arrogant bully, we are pretty much the big cheese, and to see us vulnerable to an attack like this must be pretty staggering. I mean, it takes absolutely huge, pendulous cajones to come in out of the blue and ram airplanes into major American landmarks. The people in these photographs are mourning the tragedy of course. But they're also frightened. It's pretty eerie.
By AtheistDad
of AtheistParents.org
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The real trigger for this article is a set of comments made by two religious fundamentalists here in America. Mr. Jerry Falwell has the following to say about the bombings:
God continues to lift the curtain and allow the enemies of America to give us probably what we deserve...Pat Robertson stands by and nods his head and thinks of the mercy of God while Jerry is making these pronouncements. There are all sorts of offensive things going on here. The most obvious of course are bigotry and the use of standard Christian scare tactics to take advantage of a horrific event and try to turn people to God. The more subtle bit of offensiveness is the subtext that the God they're trying to turn people to is a real asshole. He makes promises of unconditional love and then turns away to allow things like this terrorism to take place. When we do things he doesn't like, he visits death and destruction upon us. And he doesn't strike down the non-believers only -- were there only pagans and abortionists working in the towers that morning? He's an unjust God who punishes indiscriminately. But, say Robertson and Falwell, you should come to this God, for he will love you and protect you and stand as a shining example of perfect love. We're looking at a blatant contradiction here and an insult to the critical thinking skills of those who would follow these evangelists.
The abortionists have got to bear some burden for this because God will not be mocked. And when we destroy 40 million little innocent babies, we make God mad. I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way -- all of them who have tried to secularize America -- I point the finger in their face and say, 'You helped this happen.'
And then there's the issue of Jesus. I thought the whole reason Jesus came to us was because God knew bad times were in our future; the promise was that God was having his son ritually sacrificed in order to prevent the necessity for sacrifice of sinful mankind down the road. Of course a good Christian will say that what matters is the afterlife, that Jesus died so that once sinners were physically dead, they would not have to be spiritually dead. It still seems awfully messed up that God turns his head to allow his lambs to be bombed and in some cases trapped agonizingly under rubble for days before going to meet their heavenly reward. Don't forget that he's doing this to punish the bad guys. It seems awfully ineffectual, inefficient. If I were God, I'd just make judicious use of lightning bolts. But back to Jesus. Didn't he preach understanding and kindness and forgiveness? Didn't he show compassion for whores and criminals rather than suggesting that they were the reason God murdered innocents? It seems a contradiction of preaching and practice when compassionate conservatives like Falwell and Robertson behave as they have. These are not men I would recommend following even if I were a Christian.
I don't suppose I need to tell you this. If you're reading this article, you've most likely already formed the same impressions and need no encouragement to disparage these guys. Maybe I'm hoping some sneering Christian out to blame atheist parents for the attack will run across my page and see the light. Maybe I'm just venting.
I saw a picture on the Web this morning of Falwell, Robertson, and bin Laden huddled together with fire blazing behind them and the caption "Fundamentalist Wack Jobs: Working Hard to Make Your World Suck Just a Little Bit More." I wonder how many Christians actually do see the parallels. Do they know that our 14th century crusades were the Christian version of what bin Laden's doing now? Can they really be blind to the glaring fact that Christian Fundamentalists are hatemongers wearing the garb only of compassion and waging spiritual terrorism?
Something else I saw today, pretty much unrelated to the Falwell/Robertson business, was a page of photographs from around the world. There were pictures from Taiwan, Germany, Switzerland, Russia, England, South Africa, and may other places. People were holding candlelight vigils and carrying flowers to the embassies in their countries. Most of them were crying or otherwise looking downright miserable. I'm generally a pursed-lip cynic, and I usually think this sort of spectacle is dumb and touchy-feely and useless. Heck, on an intellectual level, I do feel that way about the photos I'm talking about. But I was also somehow very upset by them. What occurred to me was that even though the U.S. is seen throughout the world as sort of the big dumb arrogant bully, we are pretty much the big cheese, and to see us vulnerable to an attack like this must be pretty staggering. I mean, it takes absolutely huge, pendulous cajones to come in out of the blue and ram airplanes into major American landmarks. The people in these photographs are mourning the tragedy of course. But they're also frightened. It's pretty eerie.
September 16, 2001