Religious Right Just Can't Resist Exploiting Aurora Tragedy for Political Gain

I wasn't going to write a word about the horror in Colorado. Survivors of the mass shooting in Aurora and loved ones of the dead deserve our sympathy, support, and public policy silence for awhile. I disdain all the chatter about gun control policy at a moment like this. But at least that is a debate with some relevance to the situation, even if its timing displays poor taste.

What I find utterly revolting and indecent, however, is the rush by the Religious Right to exploit this tragedy to trash their enemies, judge the victims, and bully people into joining their religious and political movement.

On the American Family Association's radio program AFA Today, the hosts wasted no time lining up a far-right Evangelical minister, Jerry Newcombe of Truth in Action Ministries, to tell the audience that among the dead in the theater only those who were true Christians have gone to heaven. The rest, he suggested, are already consigned to hell.

Thanks, Preach. Great message to share with the grieving families. Of course, AFA Today doesn't give a turd about their feelings; the lesson of the day was not of comfort or comprehension; it was yet another opportunity to scare their listeners into joining the flock. And not just any flock. The program went to great lengths to discredit any minister or church that deviates from the Old Time Religion view of God as a stern and wrathful judge. How, according to Rev. Newcombe, should we respond to the shooting?

"This would be a good time to ask yourself, why have you not accepted Jesus Christ? ... Unless you repent, you know, you too will fall under God's judgment." That was, word for word, the take-home message broadcast with approval by the American Family Association before the families concerned had even had a quiet moment to come to terms with this awful event.

But for pure, unadulterated indecency, it's hard to beat Congressman Louie Gohmert of Texas. Appearing on a radio program hosted by former Congressman Ernest Istook, Gohmert spared no time before politicizing the tragedy in the most irresponsible manner imaginable:

"You know what really gets me, as a Christian, is to see the ongoing attacks on Judeo-Christian beliefs, and then some senseless crazy act of terror like this takes place. ... Some of us happen to believe that when our founders talked about guarding our virtue and freedom, that that was important. ... We have been at war with the very pillars, the very foundation of this country."

I'm not sure why he didn't come right out and blame Barack Hussein Obama and Nancy Pelosi for the shootings, but perhaps he was so caught up in his bloviating that airtime just ran out. Talk like this just adds one more piece of evidence to the case that the American Religious Right has sunk back down in the slime pit to the record depths it set back in the 1950s.

Already this month, we've heard Rep. Michelle Bachmann lead a vicious, unfounded, and wildly irresponsible attack on State Department official Huma Abedin. (I give grateful credit to Sen. John McCain and other Republicans who have rebuked Bachmann for her slanders.) Joining her in the charges that Abedin has "family ties" to the Muslim Brotherhood was, among others, the above-mentioned Rep. Louie Gohmert.

And now this. It calls to mind the 1954 Army-McCarthy Hearings, in which Senator Joe McCarthy, having ruined thousands of lives and weakened our government with false accusations that it was riddled with Communists, was finally called to account by the Army's chief counsel, Joseph Welch. He famously asked, "Have you no sense of decency, sir?" (See it for yourself below.)

The dark days of the '50s were brought on by the Red Menace. Our dark night lies in the penumbra of 9/11. Let us hope that at long last the American people will turn to these merchants of fear and ask, "Have you no sense of decency?"

 

 

 

Follow Clay Farris Naff on Twitter: www.twitter.com/claynaff

Comments

[CMR64]

08:01 AM on 07/27/2012

In all this whatever happened to Christ's love....?

[Tuskin Roberts]

10:53 AM on 07/24/2012

Nothing sells religion like fear and uncertainty.

[reikimaven]

05:41 PM on 07/23/2012

Seriously, don't they teacher proper writing, grammar, etc. in the schools any more?

[powercosmic]

05:08 PM on 07/23/2012

I find it hilarious that these people don't make the connection between our totally christian dominated society and these kinds of incidents.

Our country is over 80% christian, these kinds of incidents don't happen in countries like sweden that are 85% atheist.

[powercosmic]

05:04 PM on 07/23/2012

Well, this is really a bad idea because the xtianists are going to see violence as a profitable way to evangelize people.

[Masala]

03:54 PM on 07/23/2012

The best thing Pastor Newcombe can do is reiterate his statement and stop judging. All other Pastors and legislators need to realize that the job of judging everything belongs to God and not them. This is a great blog and I'm glad I read it. Michelle Bachmann needs to be brought up on slander charges, but I know Ms. Abedin won't do that. I wish an Islamic scholar would come forward and explain to these "right-wing-nut-jobs" that there is no state in the US with Sharia Law. The guy who robbed me still has his hands, duh. No woman has been condemned to death for adultery by the US Courts, duh. No state has it. I want the right-wing-idiots stop saying how they are going to repeal and stop Sharia Law. God judges not these so called pastors.

[Donegality]

03:49 PM on 07/23/2012

They have jumped on this as because the left maintains a track record of utilized events such as this to establish the paradigm of rhetorics for the remaining time it is in the collective memory of the people. The right has been late to many events only to show up and having to play a semantics game tha has already been established thus barring equal opportunity in the marketplace of ideas.

[Larry Motuz]

03:29 PM on 07/23/2012

Pray for these:

Goats, who dream they are lambs;
Unclean, who dream they are washed;
Asleep, dreaming they are awake;
Deaf and blind, dreaming they hear and see;
Empty, dreaming they are full;
Starving, believing they have eaten;
Thirsty, believing they have drunk;
Malign, dreaming they are loving;

And for us who look down upon them.

[notaspellingace]

12:28 AM on 07/24/2012

Prayer and lucky horse shoes are equally effective in solving problems.

[Larry Motuz]

09:56 AM on 07/24/2012

Never believed in lucky horse shoes myself.

[ChalaD]

04:35 AM on 07/30/2012

Horse shoes, lucky or no, are more useful than prayers.

[JBS]

02:12 PM on 07/23/2012

Newcombe & his ilk should pay more attention to what Jesus had to say about the sheep and the goats.

Matthew 25

41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’

44 “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’

45 “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’

46 “Then they will go away to eternal punishment,

Don't do any good for all your sins to be forgiven if you just go out and commit them all over again.

If a man say , I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen , how can he love God whom he hath not seen ?

[notaspellingace]

12:29 AM on 07/24/2012

Jesus is a dead myth on a stick, and no one knows what he said. No one has ever proven Jesus ever lived.

[halaniceguy]

05:38 PM on 07/31/2012

Actually A man named Jesus did live. While not a lot he has been written about outside his supposed Bible.
He was not however what Christians believe him to be. He is not the Messiah nor even close to the Son of God.

[Stuart Lawrie]

12:12 PM on 07/23/2012

I find it strange that the religious right jumped on this bank wagon, when it has been proven that this man was Christian and went to church. They have shot themselves in the foot again. I didn't realise this at first and assumed that he was Atheist. Then came the news, I should have realised an Atheist would never commit a crime like this, it takes religion to get someone to do this.

[reikimaven]

05:22 PM on 07/23/2012

Why would you "assume he was an Atheist"??????

[micaiah157]

11:43 AM on 07/23/2012

It sounds to me like they are just relating the tragedy to their beliefs, their lives -- how is that exploiting? I'm sure if you looked around you could find the "left" also "exploiting" the story to push for more gun control. Let people talk.

[Masala]

03:38 PM on 07/23/2012

People have right to talk, but let truth, decency and tact come out of their mouths. I have seen the "left" give facts of the case and offer condolences to the families involved and affected. The "right" has NOT cornered the market on the right thing to do or say. Let's get that straight! The tragedy that happened has not pushed any kind of political agenda nor has Mr. Holmes offered up a reason for his motives. I think, until the time he offers up one, our condolences should be to the families affected by this tragedy and that includes the family of Mr. Holmes too. This is what HUMANS do.

[tthicks99]

04:37 PM on 07/23/2012

Ah ... Gun control is relevant when talking about a MASS SHOOTING. However, a blow by blow of who a pastor thinks is going to heaven and who's not, or some tirade about how this is just another example of the war on Christian beliefs is not.

[Martha Hill]

11:42 AM on 07/23/2012

and how quick was the left to blame Rush Limbaugh and his ilk for the tragedy? I agree that Christians should not be quick to judge - but neither should anyone else. These evils were perpetrated by ONE man, he alone deserves the blame.

[phal4875]

03:42 PM on 07/23/2012

I must have missed any blame directed at Limbaugh.

[thorrsman]

10:20 PM on 07/23/2012

You must have indeed. And I wonder how, considering how quick the Left was to lay that blame where they usually do.

[notaspellingace]

12:31 AM on 07/24/2012

I didn't see anyone mention Limbaugh other then Martha Hill

[phoenixx1]

10:43 AM on 07/23/2012

Well, I got my windshield so filled with flags I couldn't see
So I ran my car upside a curb & right into a tree
By the time they got the doctor down
I was already dead
And I'll never understand
Why the man standing
In the Pearly Gates said...
But your flag decal won't get you
Into Heaven anymore
We're already overcrowded
By your dirty little wars
And Jesus don't like killin'
No matter what the reason's for
And your flag decal
Won't get you into Heaven anymore.

John Prine 'Flag Decal'

[Robert Blackburn]

09:54 AM on 07/23/2012

I too give credit to John McCain for rebuking Michelle Bachmann for her attack on Huma Abedin, but since the shootings in Colorado, McCain has been on the air defending the 2nd Amendment and proclaiming that there's just insufficient proof that easy access to assault rifles is part of the problem. All I can figure is that John McCain is less afraid or Michelle Bachmann than the NRA.

[Larry Motuz]

09:21 AM on 07/23/2012

How quick to judge are haughty Christians who have not heard, "Blessed are the meek."

[reikimaven]

05:26 PM on 07/23/2012

Oh, they've heard it. They just aren't listening because it doesn't give them the right to judge and abuse others.