Preacher's letter to Atheists about Sandyhook

harleysportster
atheist
harleysportster's picture
Posts: 3359
Joined: 2010-10-17
User is offlineOffline
Preacher's letter to Atheists about Sandyhook

Someone in the Freedom From Religion Foundation sent a letter to this asshole preacher, and asked him to retract a statement saying that "god's intervention" is what saved the lone child at Sandy Hook Elementary and that it was insulting to go on television and say that. Here is the preacher's response letter. (NOTE : The preacher notes that the tragedy is "bad for all of us" but says nothing about the kids).

Here is the preacher's letter :

FROM PASTOR JIM SOLOMON OF NEWTOWN:

Dear Melody,
...
Have we met? You addressed me as if a familiar friend. Do you live here in Newtown?

Unfortunately the media hasn't shown "the rest of my story" regarding those children, all precious and dearly loved, who didn't have the opportunity to "play dead." Perhaps they were too good for this world and as another friend of mine has said, "heaven keeps getting better." I've ignored the media since many things are being taken out of context. I'm close friends with those who lost their children and have been for years and they all know as I've said since the day some of those children were born that I think each of those children were precious, wise, insightful, and beautiful gifts to us from God (James 1:17) and were tragically taken away from us (tragic for us, not them, as they are in a much better place) and they will live on with us in our hearts. At the same time, I am feeling very judged and condemned by people who don't even know me constantly critique ing a few words shared apart from their complete context by me while my two young daughters weep over people misunderstanding me as they've been very loved by me.

God's receiving those children into His hands is divine intervention and sovereignty (Psalm 139:16) and love (Romans 8:31-39) too. Please pray for the parents and siblings and other loved ones who remain and please encourage people not to be so judgmental of others hearts or minds based on a few words uttered from their mouths while they themselves are personally grieving. We live here. We love one another. The rest of the country and the world do not have personal relationships with these precious people and so we respectfully ask you all to "back off" and give us some space and time to heal (Matthew 7:1-6).
>
> Under God's Mercy,
>
> Jim

(TYPICAL NARCISSISTIC THEIST BULLSHIT IF YOU ASK ME )

 

“It is proof of a base and low mind for one to wish to think with the masses or majority, merely because the majority is the majority. Truth does not change because it is, or is not, believed by a majority of the people.”
― Giordano Bruno


Brian37
atheistSuperfan
Brian37's picture
Posts: 16463
Joined: 2006-02-14
User is offlineOffline
Ok, say a couple has 5 kids,

Ok, say a couple has 5 kids, and they hire a baby sitter and that baby sitter has a 357 magnum. The couple goes out an leaves the 5 kids under the control of the armed baby sitter.

 

Suddenly a child rapist busts down the door armed only with a kitchen knife. The baby sitter stays in the lazyboy and watches as the child rapist rapes and slits the throats of 4 of them, then shoots the killer before he gets to the 5th kid.

 

If you as a parent knew a baby sitter had the power but also had such a spotty record, would you hire them?

 

This idiot preacher has no concept how broken the claim of "all powerful" is.

 

It has always bothered humans that bad things happen. As a human myself, I get it, no one likes bad things happening, especially when it comes to our species youth. Youth represent in a very genetic sense, our evolutionary drive to continue.

BUT, bad things like this did not happen  because of a god or sin or a man with a pitchfork battling over the neurons in the killers head. This school shooting happened for very mundane, however horrifying, psychological reasons. In laymen's terms without the superstition, the guy was mentally fucked in the head.

If this preacher is unwilling to attribute this to a Muslim god or Muslim sin, or unwilling to attribute it to a Hindu god or Egyptian sun god or Mormon god, why would any good or bad in human existence require their god?

 

I find it selfish and sick, considering our species has always had all sorts of horrors affect it, like the Holocaust, and Japanese Tsunami, that we continue to assign such horrors to superstitious crap, rather than study the CONDITIONS that lead to such events so that we can reduce them in the future.

We cant nor want to stop this preacher from believing. But please, these kids did not die for some cosmic grand reason under the watch of a god. They died because of a REAL GUN and real mental illness, nothing more. If we wish to stop it, and we should work to do it, then cut the crap with the superstition and work on laws and mental health care.

 

 

 

"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers."Obama
Check out my poetry here on Rational Responders Like my poetry thread on Facebook under Brian James Rational Poet, @Brianrrs37 on Twitter and my blog at www.brianjamesrationalpoet.blog


digitalbeachbum
atheistRational VIP!
digitalbeachbum's picture
Posts: 4895
Joined: 2007-10-15
User is offlineOffline
Ignorant preacher.

Ignorant preacher.


harleysportster
atheist
harleysportster's picture
Posts: 3359
Joined: 2010-10-17
User is offlineOffline
Finally

Finally some honesty on the part of a preacher. His attitude : "They are in heaven, it's all well and good, now go away and leave me and my delusion alone."

Isn't that what he is really saying ?

“It is proof of a base and low mind for one to wish to think with the masses or majority, merely because the majority is the majority. Truth does not change because it is, or is not, believed by a majority of the people.”
― Giordano Bruno


Brian37
atheistSuperfan
Brian37's picture
Posts: 16463
Joined: 2006-02-14
User is offlineOffline
harleysportster

harleysportster wrote:

Finally some honesty on the part of a preacher. His attitude : "They are in heaven, it's all well and good, now go away and leave me and my delusion alone."

Isn't that what he is really saying ?

Sounds about right to me.

"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers."Obama
Check out my poetry here on Rational Responders Like my poetry thread on Facebook under Brian James Rational Poet, @Brianrrs37 on Twitter and my blog at www.brianjamesrationalpoet.blog


digitalbeachbum
atheistRational VIP!
digitalbeachbum's picture
Posts: 4895
Joined: 2007-10-15
User is offlineOffline
Same shit, different

Same shit, different stink.

http://www.latintimes.com/home/news/services/print.php?article_id=1712

In the wake of the tragic shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary everyone from politicians and pundits to religious authorities are engaging in hindsight bias attempting to dissect just how and why the second-deadliest school shooting ever occurred.

National Rifle Association CEO and vice president Wayne LaPierre recently said gun-free school zones created a safe haven for such attacks, and that perhaps the massacre could have been stopped if every school had cops with guns. Now, some conservative Christian leaders are claiming Atheists are to blame for the horrific events in Newtown, Conn.

Twenty-year-old Adam Lanza reportedly shot his mother Nancy four times as she lay in bed Dec. 14, packed at least three of her guns, and then drove her car to the Connecticut K-4 elementary school, opening fire in two classrooms around 9:30 a.m., fatally shooting 20 children and six adults, police said. Police are still searching for a motive; witnesses said the shooter didn't utter a word.

James Dobson, a prominent far-right wing Christian, as well as founder of Focus on the Family, and the Family Research Council - a group classified by the Southern Poverty Law Center as an "anti-gay hate group" - recently said the reason behind the shooting at Sandy Hook was obvious. God is enacting his wrath through such tragedies in response to abortion and gay marriage, he claimed.

Speaking to listeners on his radio program, the ironically named "Dr. James Dobson's Family Talk," Dobson said:

"I mean millions of people have decided that God doesn't exist, or he's irrelevant to me and we have killed 54 million babies and the institution of marriage is right on the verge of a complete redefinition. Believe me, that is going to have consequences, too... Somebody is going to get mad at me for saying what I am about to say right now, but I am going to give you my honest opinion. I think we have turned our back on the scripture and on God almighty and I think he has allowed [this Newtown massacre] judgment to fall upon us. I think that's what's going on."

Another conservative Christian leader, Bryan Fischer of the American family Association, said the victims at Sandy Hook had lost God's protection because prayer has been prohibited from schools.

"The question is going to come up, where was God?," Fischer said. "I thought God cared about the little children. God protects the little children. Where was God when all this went down. Here's the bottom line, God is not going to go where he is not wanted... Now we have spent since 1962 - we're 50 years into this now-we have spent 50 years telling God to get lost, telling God we do not want you in our schools, we don't want to pray to you in our schools, we do not want to pray to your before football games, we don't want to pray to you at graduations, we don't want anybody talking about you in a graduation speech... In 1962 we kicked prayer out of the schools. In 1963 we kicked God's word out of ours schools. In 1980 we kicked the Ten Commandments out of our schools. We've kicked God out of our public school system. And I think God would say to us, 'Hey, I'll be glad to protect your children, but you've got to invite me back into your world first. I'm not going to go where I'm not wanted. I am a gentlemen."

Another pastor, leader of the congregation at Old Paths Baptist Church in Tennessee, Sam Morris, insisted that the Sandy Hook shooting was punishment for the separation of church and state in American schools, and the country's growing acceptance of homosexuality.

"Why do you still send your kids to the governmental schools?" Morris asked. "What's behind this shooting that we saw on Dec. 14 in Newtown, Connecticut and the other one's like it? What's going on? Well, number one: deception... I got news for you, when you kicked God out of schools, you're going to be judged for that."

"So, here you are, you're an animal and you're a god! So, what are we going to teach you about in school? Well, we can teach you about sex, we can teach you how to rebel to your parents, we can teach you how to be a homo," he constructively added.

Controversial, quasi-religious organization, the Westboro Baptist Church recently made similar insinuations, announcing through its Twitter account that "God sent the shooter" to "execute judgement."


harleysportster
atheist
harleysportster's picture
Posts: 3359
Joined: 2010-10-17
User is offlineOffline
These guys

These "christian" leaders like James Dobson and all of his ilk make me sick.

Truth to be told, they disgust me more than the Westboro lunatics. At least Westboro shows their true colors, these assholes like Dobson all but say they are just like Westboro, but probably just don't have the guts to admit it.

“It is proof of a base and low mind for one to wish to think with the masses or majority, merely because the majority is the majority. Truth does not change because it is, or is not, believed by a majority of the people.”
― Giordano Bruno


Labrat28
Posts: 9
Joined: 2013-01-20
User is offlineOffline
I think it's a terrible

I think it's a terrible thing to tell someone of any religion that what he's saying is wrong if it serves to comfort people after a tragedy. This is why people work along side others of any religion to serve needs after a disaster. People will call a minister when people die, this is typical of our culture, and that minister will tell them that the person being mourned is in paradise. When someone survives against all odds a minister will typically tell them that God was watching out for them, this is something that can easily be brought up and argued hypothetically instead of in the context of a real tragedy that people are grieving about. I think it would be wise to pick your battles carefully, otherwise you're no better than Wesboro Baptists.


harleysportster
atheist
harleysportster's picture
Posts: 3359
Joined: 2010-10-17
User is offlineOffline
Labrat28 wrote:I think it's

Labrat28 wrote:

I think it's a terrible thing to tell someone of any religion that what he's saying is wrong if it serves to comfort people after a tragedy.

What about the non-Christian parents of those children ? Maybe they would not want to hear that ?

Labrat128 wrote:

This is why people work along side others of any religion to serve needs after a disaster. People will call a minister when people die, this is typical of our culture, and that minister will tell them that the person being mourned is in paradise. When someone survives against all odds a minister will typically tell them that God was watching out for them, this is something that can easily be brought up and argued hypothetically instead of in the context of a real tragedy that people are grieving about.

 And again, there are plenty of non-religious people out there that do not want a minister issuing these kinds of statements. Would you be arguing this same type of rhetoric if it was someone Islamic ?

Labrat128 wrote:

I think it would be wise to pick your battles carefully, otherwise you're no better than Wesboro Baptists.

Non-sequitur. And since when do I give a fuck what you think ?

“It is proof of a base and low mind for one to wish to think with the masses or majority, merely because the majority is the majority. Truth does not change because it is, or is not, believed by a majority of the people.”
― Giordano Bruno


blacklight915
atheist
blacklight915's picture
Posts: 544
Joined: 2011-12-23
User is offlineOffline
Labrat28 wrote:I think it

Labrat28 wrote:

I think it would be wise to pick your battles carefully, otherwise you're no better than Wesboro Baptists.

Well...actually...the Westboro Baptist Church DOES pick its battles very carefully. It's likely because almost all the adults in that cult are lawyers.

 

Labrat28 wrote:

People will call a minister when people die, this is typical of our culture, and that minister will tell them that the person being mourned is in paradise.

Does it not bother you that said minister's claim is most likely false?  I mean, I dearly hope there is some sort of heaven. But, if questioned, I would not be able to give any evidence to support such a belief--or give any reason for it beyond wishful thinking.

 


Atheistextremist
atheist
Atheistextremist's picture
Posts: 5134
Joined: 2009-09-17
User is offlineOffline
This is

 

Labrat28 wrote:

I think it's a terrible thing to tell someone of any religion that what he's saying is wrong if it serves to comfort people after a tragedy. This is why people work along side others of any religion to serve needs after a disaster. People will call a minister when people die, this is typical of our culture, and that minister will tell them that the person being mourned is in paradise. When someone survives against all odds a minister will typically tell them that God was watching out for them, this is something that can easily be brought up and argued hypothetically instead of in the context of a real tragedy that people are grieving about. I think it would be wise to pick your battles carefully, otherwise you're no better than Wesboro Baptists.

 

a fallacious appeal to consequence. I have dead people in my past and I didn't need platitudes or naked assertions about 'paradise' in order to get through it. You are justifying irrationality because it feel might good to people who are suffering. Honesty and humility, empathetic confusion over inexplicable events and real expressions of mutual pain from other parents are what those people need. The last thing required is a double-helping of religious bullshit.  

 

 

"Experiments are the only means of knowledge at our disposal. The rest is poetry, imagination." Max Planck


Labrat28
Posts: 9
Joined: 2013-01-20
User is offlineOffline
harleysportster wrote:What

harleysportster wrote:

What about the non-Christian parents of those children ? Maybe they would not want to hear that ?

Generally, when people say things you don't believe in when it comes to the spiritual, rational people will understand what they are trying to do. I wasn't offended when people told me someone I loved was right here with us, although it is something I did not believe.

 

harleysportster wrote:

 And again, there are plenty of non-religious people out there that do not want a minister issuing these kinds of statements. Would you be arguing this same type of rhetoric if it was someone Islamic ?

Muslim, Hindu, Jew, Voodoo witch doctor, if that is what the family observes it would not bother me. From the way this letter sounds, this minister has seen many of these children growing up and is part of that community. Generally that's one of the key roles that places of worship play in society, a place for people of a community to come together. A minister's job isn't only preaching, it's often times being there for the members of his church, in fact that is where he is going to establish his credibility so his message can be heard.

 

 


Labrat28
Posts: 9
Joined: 2013-01-20
User is offlineOffline
Atheistextremist wrote: a

Atheistextremist wrote:

 a fallacious appeal to consequence. I have dead people in my past and I didn't need platitudes or naked assertions about 'paradise' in order to get through it. You are justifying irrationality because it feel might good to people who are suffering. Honesty and humility, empathetic confusion over inexplicable events and real expressions of mutual pain from other parents are what those people need. The last thing required is a double-helping of religious bullshit.  

Exactly like that, take it outside the frame of the tragedy itself and it isn't offensive.


harleysportster
atheist
harleysportster's picture
Posts: 3359
Joined: 2010-10-17
User is offlineOffline
Labrat28 wrote:Generally,

Labrat28 wrote:

Generally, when people say things you don't believe in when it comes to the spiritual, rational people will understand what they are trying to do. 

Says who ? You ?

“It is proof of a base and low mind for one to wish to think with the masses or majority, merely because the majority is the majority. Truth does not change because it is, or is not, believed by a majority of the people.”
― Giordano Bruno


Vastet
atheistBloggerSuperfan
Vastet's picture
Posts: 13254
Joined: 2006-12-25
User is offlineOffline
While he phrased it poorly

While he phrased it poorly and insultingly, he's generally right.

Of course, most people who are grieving over kids aren't rational. And I think that's a good thing. It means most people care about kids.

So keep your opinions to yourself if you don't want an irrational mom to slap your face off after some psycho killed her kid.

Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.