UPDATE X2: The Christian right are lining up on the chopping block

I have noticed a trend. Not one that will come as a surprise to any of my readers, but a trend all the same.
In the aftermath of one disaster or another, right wing conservative Christians like to use the back drop of such events to push their own agenda on the emotions of a raw and vulnerable citizenry.

Jerry Falwell, and Pat Robertson have been the most prolific offenders over the years, but today it seems there is no end to the line of crazies that want to blame the Batman theatre shootings on something that they oppose for completely unrelated reasons.

They wilfully put their necks out on these matters, it is up to us to deliver the punishment when they are proven guilty of peddling bullshit on the backs of other's misfortune and grief. 

Here is a list of the 'real' reasons James Eagan Holmes shot dead 12 people and injured dozens more, as presented by the defilers of decency before the facts are in.

Evolution

Rick Warren set about linking evolution to the theatre shootings on Friday, in a tweet that has mysteriously now disappeared.

!!! UPDATE !!!

It would appear that Rick Warren does have an excuse for removing the offending Tweet.

In a kind of notpology, he states that it was nothing to do with the Aurora tragedy, and was in response to something else entirely.

I'll let him explain in his own words;

TWITTER’S limit on words allows no context for statements. A lack of contxt causes misinterpretation. So when you tweet what’s on your mind, people preassume (incorrectly) that you are talking about what’s on THEIR mind. This is a clear example. My tweet was a brief response to a question to me about SEXUAL PROMISCUITY. It had NOTHING to do with the tragedy in Colorado.! I had received this email from a dad: “Pastor Rick, my daughter told me her teacher said in class “There’s nothing wrong with sex with multiple partners! Sex is a natural, inate drive, and any attempt to limit it to one, single partner is a manmade construct.” THAT is what I was commenting on. Unfortunately, you also incorrectly presumed the context.

So he hasn't withdrawn the statement, just moved the context. Apparently, he still sticks to his original comment, just that it is limited with regard to sexual promiscuity.
Well, that's nice.

Unlike Jerry Coine, though, I will not be retracting my comment. It is still an absurdly ignorant thing to say, and if there were no room for context in a 140 character tweet, just how was his interlocutor to know that it applied to him? Although, I will state for the record, that its inclusion here is now somewhat  moot; assuming he presents the evidence to back up his claim.

Secularism

Louis Gohmert, Republican Congressman for Texas's 1st congressional district felt he had been taken out of context, so added the transcript of the entire interview so that people could make their own decisions - in context.


I wouldn't want to take Congressman Golmert out of context, so please afford him the effort of reading it yourself, and not just relying on the soundbite I have provided for you here;

Well it… some of us happen to believe that when our founders talked about guarding our virtue and freedoms that it was important … you know… whether it was John Adams saying that our Constitution was only for people with ‘moral and religious people’ and ‘wholly inadequate to the governments of any others.’ Ben Franklin, ‘Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom, as nations become more corrupt and vicious they have more need of masters’. I mean it goes on and on… you know… George Washington, ‘of all the disposition and habits that lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports.’ We have been at war with the very pillars, the very foundation of this country… and when… you know… what really gets me as a Christian, is to see the ongoing attacks on Judeo- Christian beliefs and then a senseless crazy act of terror like this takes place.

Removal of prayer

Bryan Fischer, Director of Issues Analysis for the American Family Association, says it's the removal of prayer and the 10 Commandments from American schools that's responsible;

How many more mindless massacres like the one that took place last night in Aurora, Colorado will it take before we tell the ACLU and the Supreme Court to take a hike and we get back to unapologetically and publicly trusting in God?

David Barton’s insightful book, “To Pray or Not to Pray,” traces the catastrophic consequences in American life since the Supreme Court kicked God out of our public school system in 1962 by prohibiting school prayer.

The prayer that these judicial tyrants banned in all their mindless and unconstitutional wisdom was about as inoffensive as you can get. “Almighty God, we acknowledge our dependence upon Thee, and we beg Thy blessings upon us, our parents, our teachers, and our Country.”

Jerry Newcombe of Truth in Action Ministries deserves a special mention, along with Fred Jackson, news director at the American Family Association, and Teddy James of the AFA Journal, introduced secularism, Hollywood and homosexuality as reasons for the killings;

Why do things like this happen?

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...

Tens of millions of young people in this culture seem to have no fear of God. It's becoming too commonplace that some frustrated person will go on a killing spree of random people. If they kill themselves, they think it's all over. But that's like going from the frying pan into the fire. Where's the fear of God in our society? I don't think people would do those sorts of things if they truly understood the reality of Hell.

Later, we hear;

Jackson: In the community there were community standards that reflected biblical principles, whether people knew it or not, the standard in the community was based on Scripture. In that short period of time, roughly forty years, we have seen such a transformation in values in our communities, whether it’s rural or whether it’s big city. I have to think that all of this, whether it’s the Hollywood movies, whether it’s what we see on the internets [sic], whether it’s liberal bias in the media, whether it’s our politicians changing public policy, I think all of those somehow have fit together—and I have to say also churches who are leaving the authority of Scripture and losing their fear of God—all of those things have seem to have come together to give us these kinds of incidents.

Newcombe: I think that’s so true. It’s as if we said to God, publicly or in the public arena, ‘get out, You’re not welcome here anymore’ and it’s as if God removed His protection from our land.

Until James Eagan Holmes deigns to inform us why he carried out his attack, everything these reactionary thugs have to say on the matter is moot.

Who knows? Maybe one of them has got it right this time, but if they haven't, I shall be calling on each of them to retract their previous statements, and to make a full and public apology.

!!! UPDATE #2 !!!

Not to be outdone, Republican former AZ Senator, Russell Pearce has had the audacity, first, to blame the victims, only to go on and say he was taken out of context.

What he really meant, of course, is that it is the fault of all those anti-gun rules that left all the theatre goers so vulnerable to attack from a crazed gunman who acquired all his armoury legitimately.