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Disturbing News
By bk | April 19, 2007 20:56
I didn’t think there was anyone who did not find the recent events at Virginia Tech horrific, sad and just depressing. I thought anyone hearing of this news would have nothing but compassion and concern for those affected by this terrible event. Well, it turns out I was mistaken.
The creeps at Wesboro Baptist, of ‘God Hates Fags’ fame, have determined, presumably through their direct connection to God, that
[T]eachers and students who died on Monday brought their fate upon themselves by not being true Christians.
according to the article in CBS news.
Personally, I find this very, deeply disturbing. And to make matters even worse, a contingent from this church intends to demonstrate at the victims’ funerals. That is just over the top - I generally consider myself on the pacifist side - but if one of these people demonstrated at my loved ones funeral, claiming a person I care about ‘deserved’ something like this - I would probably pop someone in the mouth. Not proud of that, but this sort of completely unsubstantiated and insensitive statement, and action that is totally insensitive would be nearly impossible to ignore.
This is the sort of behavior that makes me agree with Sam Harris, this sort of religious fundamentalism (which seems to be out against everyone who is not within that particular group) is quite dangerous - this group already have the God Hates Fags thing, the God Hates America thing and here they are with God Hates College Students. I think they should change their name from Westboro Baptist to “God Hates Everyone But Us.” The key reason I tend to agree with Harris is that this sort of fundamentalist BS couldn’t exist without the religious moderates. It would be really nice if the current religious moderates were at the radical end - that would be really cool.
Before I get comments saying I’m against free speech - let me just say, I am completely in favor of free speech, even (especially?) speech I don’t agree with. The issue is that most of us know when and how to form our speech in a way that is relevant and appropriate. As the US Supreme Court has pointed out, there are instances of speech that is not protected - yelling ‘fire’ in a theatre for example. What the Westboro Baptist folks are intending to do amounts to just that - and while almost everyone, believers and non-believers alike, will dismiss them as ‘crazy’ - just imagine what it would feel like to have these people protesting at a friend or family member’s funeral, say ‘he/she deserved it.’ This is (one of the) reasons I agree with Harris - religion can be quite dangerous, and it doesn’t seem to be getting any less so.
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