Four Dead, Thank God!
"I just want to thank God for letting me score the winning touchdown."
"Why does God hate your opponents?"
"Um... Because... they're apostates?"
-Second City sketch
"God was with me and the whole time I was behind cover -- this has got to be God, because of the firepower that [the gunman] had vs. what I had -- was God."
-Security guard Jeanne Assam
Herein lies my problem with worshipers. Well, one of them, anyways: credit where it's not due. Ms. Assam believed that God helped her kill a psychotic gunman, but apparently it didn't occur to her that he didn't help out any of his victims before she did. Why, for instance, did He decide to let police lose the gunman's trail after he had killed two young church members?
I guess they just weren't devoted enough to Him. Otherwise, they would have caught him and he wouldn't have killed two more young women before he was stopped.
I wouldn't mind if she had said that her faith in God gave her the courage to face the psycho down. I understand the sentiment: even if she was killed, her soul was consigned to God already etc etc. She acted bravely and necessarily to save the lives of who knows how many others, and should rightly be commended for her actions. Instead, she claims that God was with her and gave her "the assignment to end this".
Here's a question: would God have been there if she wasn't?
"Why does God hate your opponents?"
"Um... Because... they're apostates?"
-Second City sketch
"God was with me and the whole time I was behind cover -- this has got to be God, because of the firepower that [the gunman] had vs. what I had -- was God."
-Security guard Jeanne Assam
Herein lies my problem with worshipers. Well, one of them, anyways: credit where it's not due. Ms. Assam believed that God helped her kill a psychotic gunman, but apparently it didn't occur to her that he didn't help out any of his victims before she did. Why, for instance, did He decide to let police lose the gunman's trail after he had killed two young church members?
I guess they just weren't devoted enough to Him. Otherwise, they would have caught him and he wouldn't have killed two more young women before he was stopped.
I wouldn't mind if she had said that her faith in God gave her the courage to face the psycho down. I understand the sentiment: even if she was killed, her soul was consigned to God already etc etc. She acted bravely and necessarily to save the lives of who knows how many others, and should rightly be commended for her actions. Instead, she claims that God was with her and gave her "the assignment to end this".
Here's a question: would God have been there if she wasn't?
Labels: Religion
2 Comments:
You asked the question. Now put yourself in Jeanne Assam's shoes at that time with a psychotic gunman shooting at you. Or maybe you've been there, done that.
To answer the question directly: no, He wouldn't. God wouldn't have killed the man, and more to the point, made no effective effort in stopping him before the psycho already killed four people. I don't think He was there at all: I think Jeanne Assam was, and I also think she did all the work. God didn't do Jack, frankly.
There is a statement that's been repeated endless times, and just as foolishly:
There are no atheists in foxholes!
...Which is nonsense, as people who are terrified may or may not pray to whatever deity they can imagine: this does not mean they exist.
I don't think the statement applies in this case, as Ms. Assam was not invoking out of fear, but the idea is similar. A God who shows up only in situations of great stress but doesn't prevent the situation from happening is rather short sighted, I think.
Thanks for the comment.
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