Dumb and dumber

By now most people will have heard about the tragedy in Colorado. A gifted young man from a privileged background committed an act of mind-boggling evil. After plotting his murderous rampage for months, he shot 12 people dead and wounded another 59. His victims were strangers who just happened to be in the wrong place at the right time. Children, members of the military, and even an woman that survived a similar rampage in Canada are among the dead. It is such a senseless act of violence that it makes the idea of demon possession seem frighteningly real.

Imagine the families and friends of the victims for a minute. It is hard to fathom the depths of their grief for the senseless murder of their loved ones. This is grief that leaves psychological scars. The only appropriate response to their soul-shaking distress is loving embrace. Words to comfort and ease their pain. Increasing that pain would compound evil with evil.

Unfortunately, some prominent Christian leaders failed to witness for God's love as people mourn from the orgy of violence in Colorado. In fact, these leaders failed miserably.

Not surprisingly, "pastor" Fred Phelps and his merry band of alien zombies from the Westboro Baptist Church are traveling to Colorado tell everyone at the prayer vigil for the victims about the hate of God.

Members of the Westboro Baptist Church appear to be on their way to protest a prayer vigil for victims of the Aurora massacre, according to tweets from members posted by Examiner.com.

Using the hashtag #ThankGodForTheShooter, Examiner.com reports members tweeted out their plans to "super picket" the candle lit prayer service, saying "God is at work in Colorado."

Everybody knows how the Phelps clan operates. They show up at the site of every high profile disaster to emotionally abuse people in distress. Their goal is to goad people in pain to lash back physically to the abuse so the lawyers in the Phelps family can sue for assault. This evil stunt works often enough to fund the Phelps family and the Westboro Baptist Church. The Phelps clan is another example of evil of sufficient caliber to raise questions about demon possession.

It is probably unfair to call Fred Phelps a prominent Christian leader. Phelps serves himself and the only thing about him that you can call religious is his constant use of God's name.

How about Jerry Newcombe? He is the spokesman for Truth in Action, the rebranded organization formerly known as Coral Ridge Ministries. He used the tragedy to tell people they should be afraid of God.

I can't help but feel that to some extent, we're reaping what we've been sowing as a society. We said to God, "Get out of the public arena." Lawsuit after lawsuit, often by misguided "civil libertarians," have chased away any fear of God in the land -- at least in the hearts of millions.

Politician Louie Gohmert also blamed the Colorado shooting spree on the lack of God talk in the public square. You expect politicians to play every underhanded card possible to divide the country. That is their goal. Finding a way to implicate your opponents as complicit in every tragedy is just a time-honored tradition in politics. At least Gohmert has a flair for comic relief. He said we need more God talk and more people carrying guns to prevent future mass shootings.

Gohmert also said the tragedy could have been lessened if someone else in the movie theater had been carrying a gun and took down the lone shooter. Istook noted that Colorado laws allow people to carry concealed guns.

"It does make me wonder, with all those people in the theater, was there nobody that was carrying a gun that could have stopped this guy more quickly?" he asked.

Maybe guns will put the fear of God in others that might want to go on a shooting spree. That won't stop people who want to kill in the name of God. Religious terrorists think they are glorious martyrs whether they succeed in their mission of murder or not.

It is ironic and a terrific coincidence that politician Gohmert and a leader of an evangelical organization would make such similar comments within a few hours of one another. Great minds must think alike. Then again, Rev. D. James Kennedy often used his Coral Ridge Ministries as a de facto political action committee so maybe the coincidence is small.

Evangelist Jerry Newcombe went one step further. He rubbed salt in the emotional wounds of the grieving. According to this Christian leader, if any of the victims had not publicly professed their faith, then they are on the way to hell.

If a Christian dies early, if a Christian dies young, it seems tragic, but really it is not tragic because they are going to a wonderful place.. on the other hand, if a person doesn’t know Jesus Christ.. if they knowingly rejected Jesus Christ, then, basically, they are going to a terrible place.

Everyone knows that the best time to discuss theological issues related to hell and punishment is when people have died. What better loving witness than to tell the grieving that you hope their loved one is saved because otherwise they are screwed. Peace be with you.

Perhaps you can write off Jerry Newcombe as just another culture warrior playing the God card to score cheap political points. Emotional distress is fertile ground for political manipulation.

Rev. Dr. Rick Warren, senior pastor of Saddleback Church, took to Twitter to connect the tragedy to the teaching of evolution. Yes, a 153-year-old scientific theory is responsible for a depraved act of violence. Of course, only humans kill for three R's: recreation, revenge, and resources.

"When students are taught they are no different from animals, then they act like it."

Why a bona fide Christian leader would blame a terrible tragedy on a scientific theory is hard to understand. Perhaps the temptation to score a political point was greater than his desire to minister to those in despair. Perhaps Warren had a change of heart or realized that his tweet was attracting more criticism than applause so he erased it. Here is a link to his original tweet. Someone should tell Warren that screen shots of his tweet are all over the place and nothing ever disappears from the internet thanks to caches.

Most religious leaders reacted appropriately to the grief from the senseless murder and mayhem in Colorado. The problem is less that a few Christian leaders behaved badly than the fact that every tragedy seems to bring out similar acts by at least one prominent Christian leader. It is the consistency of boneheaded comments in the aftermath of tragedies that gives religion a bad name.

You can never go wrong when responding to a tragedy with a message of love and grace but you will be wrong more often than not with message of hatred and blame. Love others as you would wish to be loved. It is not complicated unless you have a political axe to grind.