The massacre in Newtown, Connecticut is too awful for anyone to fully comprehend, especially from a distance. You watch the coverage of people you don’t know and will never meet, and yet you still find yourself nearly overwhelmed as the stories of terror, of immense sorrow and loss, and of heroism are told.
Particularly as a parent, you cannot help but wonder: What if it had been my child gunned down in elementary school? And then you begin to realize there’s a reason the death of a child is said to be the hardest thing for a human being to endure, the “grief surpassing all.”
Just last week I wrote an acquaintance–a good and decent and gentle man–who lost his son. Like everyone else in a similar situation, I hoped there might be something I might say to assuage, even just a bit and even for just a moment, the pain. (There’s not.) But there’s something else you’re aware of in situations like that, which is to try to avoid saying something stupid or shallow or insensitive that will only add to the grief.
I thought about that after hearing the comments of former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee. Appearing on Fox News’s “Your World,” host Neil Cavuto asked Huckabee, an ordained Southern Baptist minister, how God could let something like this happen.
And here (courtesy of Mediaite.com) is what Huckabee said:
It’s an interesting thing. We ask why there’s violence in our schools but we’ve systematically removed God from our schools. Should we be so surprised that schools would become a place of carnage? Because we’ve made it a place where we do not want to talk about eternity, life, what responsibility means, accountability. That we’re not just going to have to be accountable to the police, if they catch us, but we stand one day before a holy God in judgment… Maybe we ought to let [God] in on the front end and we would not have to call him to show up when it’s all said and done at the back end.
When I watched this I had quite a strong, negative response, and in trying to understand why, I settled on several reasons.
One is that Huckabee’s argument is painfully ignorant. The odds are extremely high that the killer was either afflicted with an antisocial personality disorder–meaning a person without conscience or empathy–or suffering from some other personality disorder.
According to media reports, Adam Lanza killed his mother and then drove to Sandy Hook Elementary School, where he proceeded to kill 20 children and six adults before killing himself. For Huckabee to assume Lanza went on his rampage because “God has been removed from our schools” is witless. A diseased and twisted mind would not be dissuaded from carrying out a massacre by a generic prayer said at the beginning of the school day.
If on the other hand Huckabee believes that removing God from our schools lifted His protection from 20 children and seven adults in Newtown, which resulted in their deaths, then he’s very confused theologically. For one thing, Huckabee is part of a faith that teaches that sometimes suffering and death are evidence of one’s devotion to God (see the fate of Jesus and almost every one of His disciples). For another, why would the victims be people who had nothing to do with the offenses that so upset Huckabee? And why would anyone link the attacks to “removing God from our schools” rather than indifference to the plight of the poor–a concern spoken about much more often in the Hebrew Bible and New Testament?
Governor Huckabee is using a heartbreaking and inexplicable mass killing to push his conservative social agenda. Now as it happens, I’m somewhat (though not entirely) sympathetic to the conservative social agenda. But to use this incident, even before the bodies were removed from the school, to argue that if only we had let God in “on the front end” we wouldn’t now need him “on the back end” borders on being grotesque. And it’s not the first time Huckabee has done this. He made similar comments in the aftermath of the mass killing in Aurora, Colorado. The psychologist Abraham Maslow once said that if you only have a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail. For Mike Huckabee, his hammer is removing God from school–and he tends to see every massacre as a nail.
Theodicy–how to square the existence of a loving God with the existence of evil–is a profound and complicated issue. It doesn’t lend itself to easy answers. Yet Huckabee has now, on several occasions, reduced things to a cartoonishly simple level.
Mr. Huckabee may have thought he was defending God in what he said. In fact, in a moment of overwhelming grief and sorrow–one that called for some measure of grace, humility, and wisdom (which President Obama showed in his beautiful and moving tribute)–Huckabee offered an explanation I found flippant and offensive. And my guess is I’m not the only one.
I agree with Huckabee's comment. If we had God more present in our lives we would not have so many people with mental issues. There would be more LOVE in our lives. And yes, this may sound odd to you but LOVE = God is a powerful thing!!!! These are the extremes. If you were a teacher you would understand this more. We see the change.
So LOVE will also cure cancer, heart disease, and let us all live to 600 years of age.
It is wrong to take G-d out of the classroom, it may not be related to the accident but these are the times where people are receptive to look inwards and see that maybe it pays to bring G-d to the classroom regardless of the accident. People of faith see it that way
The shooter adam lanza went to a catholic school. Don't they have god there?? Try another stupid argument.
You're not the only one. In addition to being grotesquely insensitive and fundamentally incoherent, Huckabee's "explanation" is profoundly at odds with Christianity. It's the same ugly politico-Christianity that we've seen many times going back to the attempt to suggest that AIDS was a plague visited on homosexuals for their sins. Unfortunately, a large segment of conservative Protestant evangelicals embrace this sort of crap.
No doubt you believe it's "crap" to believe that if you smoke heavily you're more liable to get Iung cancer. The simple fact is that if you don't have a fondness for anal sex, you're less likely to get AIDS and if you believe that there are consequences in life for the choices you make regarding conduct that some believe is morally offensive there is nothing "at odds with Christianity" except in the minds of those who likely have a strange definition of what Christianity is to begin with.
There are valid *medical* and *scientific* reasons to be wary of anal sex. That’s why gay men have to take precautions (and lesbians practice it only rarely).
You don’t need to invoke God (who never once told the Hebrews to avoid anal sex).
And being wary of anal sex is not the same thing as sitting in judgment on gays for their being gay.
Christianity teaches personal salvation of one’s soul through one’s faith in, and relationship, with Christ. Supposition’s about divine wrath visited on any group, community or nation are fundamentally at odds with this essential teaching. Whoever does not understand this has no understanding of the Gospels. Period.
Well, in his “defense”, Huckabee is a bit of an idiot.
I like Huckabee most of the time, but not this time. This incident has brought out the ignorance in the entire political spectrum. Geraldo Rivera was on Fox spouting off about some kind of nonsense. The liberals, predictably, are using it as an excuse to push for gun control. n nIt is very likely that the young man doesn't have just a 'personality disorder' but is schizophrenic. Schizophrenia is an organic disease of the brain that afflicts 1% of the human population irrespective of ethnicity or nationality. It is completely incurable. Anti-psychotic medication can not cure it. They merely dampen down the severely psychotic episodes that sweep through the deranged consciousness of the sufferer. n nIt is a disease of the young. The old name for it was 'dementia praecox,' meaning 'youthful madness.' For the safety of both the psychotic individual and for society at large they must be confined to institutions and not be left free to roam around on their own. Would any society let a person with a virulent contagious disease roam around? Of course not. Involuntary institutionalization of schizophrenics is the only possible effective approach.
I doubt if Mike Huckabee is being understood properly here. He has been and is a man of great understanding of moral issues. His most energetic and profound support of Israel and Jews testify to that. His is being wronged here and may be due an apology. I would certainly grant him the benefit of any doubt as to his good and fair intentions. I don't have any doubt. He is a very religious man. I am not. Yet I still support him.
How energetic and profound support of Israel and Jews testify to Huckabee's great understanding of moral issues? nSurely a person who has no grasp or understanding of moral issues can and does have energetic and profound support of Israel and Jews.
I happen not to like much if anything about Mike Huckabee, but Wehner is using this to pounce on him. Huckabee is not saying that THIS psychotic Lanza murdered because of lack of God in schools. Yet Wehner thinks he is skewering easy target Huckabee for claiming that religion perfectly explains this particular case. No, Huck is not saying that. He's making a general point about society. Giving that point of view its due, it is that character and conscience are being eroded by lack of religion, and losing character and conscience can have profound damage to society in general, and can lead to crime and other horrors. I for one am quite convinced there is a lot of truth to that point of view. Why, for example, are so many of these massacres happening in the last 5 years (I heard a stat that 6 of 12 of these mega massacres happened since 2007–very weird and interesting stat). Surely mental illness did not just become an epidemic since 2007? Huck made his point poorly and inappropriately, and clearly this particular case seems to be about mental illness, but there is room in this tragedy to talk about culture generally. Like why did no one seem to notice or care about this guy's mental illness? Why did no one report it? Those are questions that do raise cultural issues. Perhaps Huck is off base attaching it to religion per se, but that is part of it for sure.
BDZ – I agree with you, and I have found myself in the past day and a half pondering the same questions and coming to some of the same conclusions. But why can't we just mourn for a few days? Why can't people like Huckabee just shut up when something like this happens? We don't need their guidance. If I want spiritual guidance, I'll turn to my priest. That the media deems it necessary to pontificate doesn't mean that decent people need to play their sick, cynical game. Shame on Huckabee, and shame on anyone else who has publicly exploited this tragedy for their own agenda, no matter how noble their intentions. There are two dozen families dealing with unimaginable loss. Isn't that enough for the rest of us to process?
I agree that Wehner is once again looking more for an excuse to bash someone who deserves less of a bashing than the liberal exploiters of this tragedy do. That Wehner chooses to fixate on Huckabee says something more about the strange priorities of Commentary that they've demonstrated of late.
I think what Mr .Huckabee was saying is that if we did not push God out of our schools and basically society, maybe people would not so quickly jump to the violent ideas. The president made his speach but it is his friends in Hollywood that glorify the violence in their movies and TV shows. (which President Obama showed in his beautiful and moving tribute) give me a break. Like the words to the Sandy victums just to get elected. He should be talking to BABA Walters and he freiends. nMaybe we need to return to God and peacful ways. Mike Huckabee is correct 100%.
This article completely missed the whole point that Mike intended. When he quotes that evil happens because we "removed God out of our schools," is instead him telling us to look at the whole picture, our society. More and more we are moving away from a nation under God, and more and more morals are becoming a thing of the past. Christian values are summed up as loving God with all your heart, soul and mind, and loving your neighbor as yourself. We are no longer a nation that follows this. This was a very improper article to lash out at Mike, so please see his stance before judging him based on six sentences.
Gov Huckabee is responsible for the deaths of for police officers in washington state. He pardoned arkansas criminal Maurice Clemmons and Clemmons killed four cops in an espresso shop here in Washington. Huckabee is a dangerous fool.
Paul, I appreciate what you write here. Huckabee's comments are despicable! But the actions of the shooter are not those of a personality disorder. This is the kind of thing a psychotic person does. I suspect we'll find evidence that he was developing schizophrenia. n nAntisocials can do terrible things, but it is always in service to self. Killing a bunch of kids is not anything he would benefit from. This is psychosis.
I dislike Huckabee for many reasons. And I agree he should have shown much greater respect for the victims and their families by holding his tongue for a few days. But using this event to further an agenda began with Obama….."we must demand meaningful action" (or something close) But I agree with BDZ in thinking Huckabee was talking about the general coarsening of our civic culture that began in the '50's and has the banning of school prayer in the early '60's as a "Pearl Harbor" type event. The handling of the mentally ill is the real issue here (the Gabby Giffords shooter, the Aurora Colo. shooter and now Lanza nut jobs all) and the Left does not want to talk about that! Mr. Wehner is being as simplistic in judging Huckabee as he accuses Huckabee of being. But with my feelings about Huckabee, I can understand why Mr. Wehner wrote what he has written.
This is an extraordinarily wrong-headed piece from Mr. Wehner. Perhaps Huckabee's point was ill-timed and poorly stated but, overall, he is on to the real problem. The Left has controlled our education establishment, our media and arts and all of our major cultural institutions for more than two generations now. They changed these institutions, and our wider culture, to suit their own ideology and continue to do so. The results are coming in: unspeakable horror in Newtown, Columbine, and Aurora in a country where guns are simply less prevalent and less available than at any time in our history. Add to this violence worsening social indicators (i.e., 48,000 Americans will become HIV positive this year, all avoidable, behavior-driven illnesses) for example, and our bureaucratic non-responses, and we have all the evidence we need to suggest that the Left's social experimentation, its non-traditional views on the individual's relationship with the community and the state, and its views on the role of government and schools is failed. Huckabee used awkward shorthand, I believe, to describe these trends. The question remains, when will the Left be held accountable for its failed social experimentation? When will they bear their responsibility for our Newtowns and Columbine's?
I agree with your assessment. Since the Supreme Court inadvertently established atheism as the State Religion over 50 years ago, moral accountability disappeared, and moral decline has been the consequence. If Mr. Wehner has been "educated" in public schools since that time (I presume he is younger than I am
it would explain his lack of understanding of the deeper cause of this tragedy. Of course a prayer in school that morning would not have saved those poor children, any more than a band aid would have fixed the murderer's madness; the damage was already done long ago. We are reaping the bitter fruits of generations of social experimentation.
Peter's post and some of the reactions to it underscore the problem for nonlibertarian conservatives. How does one talk about the role of culture in the range of behaviors that manifest themselves in a world that many of us think is rotting away without sounding like Huckabee does? He's a man of deep religious convictions and his reactions to many events will be seen through that type of prism. Is it, as Peter is suggesting, just a matter of ill-timing? But if one can't raise these types of issues when our world is being shattered, when can they? A presidential campaign? Well, we just saw that. I myself don't have any definite answer other than it's always best to come down on the side of being discrete and muted. But that type of response, in effect Peter's, won't make the problems of the culture go away.
We should raise those issues–but not at a time of pain and grief. n nI'm angry at liberals for not having taken even one day before pouncing on this issue to demand gun control. n nI'm angry at conservatives for not having taken even one day before pouncing on this issue to demand security guards and armed teachers at schools. n nAnd I'm angry at Huckabee and the Religious Right for sitting in judgment on the American people for what one demented evil man did. Enough with the fire-and-brimstone "God is punishing us" nonsense.
ATT – Thanks for this. Let me try to answer. An event like this reminds us what it means to be human. My daughter is 9 years old. How many times int he past 48 hours have I reached out and hugged her for no apparent reason? Why was I not as perturbed as usual last night, as we finished reading well past her bedtime, when she said "I'm hungry. I need to eat something"? With each hug I was expressing my appreciation for life and what is has to offer, but I also felt a tinge of guilt – that this enhanced appreciation was coming at the expense of so many families. nI want to be careful how I say this, but there is something beautiful in the human capacity to handle such horrors, and for people far removed, both personally and geographically, to both grieve for those suffering and yet learn from that suffering. nPeople like Huckabee and any number of others – both liberal and conservative – who insinuate themselves into the this process are self-absorbed jerks. The shattering of our world that occurred in CT on Friday will be with us for a long time. Perhaps if we took a moratorium from politics, and if the media refused to exploit the tragedy, we could as a society have a more meaningful discussion over the "causes" of such events. Instead, we once again plunge ourselves into politics, and whatever larger meaning we might have extracted from the shooting is gone, almost instantaneously. In (an otherwise good) sermon at church this morning the priest mentioned the "God out of the schools" argument, to audible gasps from the congregation. Good luck having a meaningful discussion with those people now. nI thought conservatives were opposed to the politicization of every aspect of life. If so, this is a good time for us to hold our tongues.
Mike, we should be so fortunate to exclude the politicization of so much in life. That's exactly why statism, or modern liberalism, is so repugnant. The state intrudes into everything(and I say this not as a libertarian). Increasingly in the US we are at the mercy of what the state says we can or cannot do. Literally, financial support depends on government support which, in turn, makes it susceptible to what our government leaders demand and believe. You teach and I'm sure you know how the state supplies the tropes and how if one sings a different tune he does so at his professional peril. I don't want "God" intruding either, but true believers will fight back(Huckabee, or priest)and when they do, the increasingly secular culture will recoil in dismay and anger. Neither group has an adequate explanation for such massacres, and certainly in our present situation, none will be offered and discussed with the insight and calm that you and I would like. By the way, never stop those hugs. My children are grown; both are professionals. I always hug and kiss them every time they're around. At one time they were embarrassed(their teen years), but as they have matured, they reciprocate instinctively.
Peter Wehner openly shows his own ignorance about anyone who displays "anti-social behaviour" . nWehner writes "…The odds are extremely high that the killer was either afflicted with an antisocial personality disorder–meaning a person without conscience or empathy–or suffering from some other personality disorder. …[and segues that assumption with] … A diseased and twisted mind would not be dissuaded from carrying out a massacre…" n nI hope he gets dragged off by the police to a psych ward. In Massachusetts, all it takes is one doctor to decide that Involuntary Commitment is required. In New York, two doctors have to sign off. n nIt happens that the police are not always correct in interpreting someone's "behaviour", but once they decide, you better have a really good lawyer to call, assuming the psych ward allows you to make a single phone call. n n
That's a bunch of nonsense. n nThe doctor has to certify that he's sure that the patient presents an imminent danger to himself and to others. Then yes, the patient can be put in a facility against his will. But if he's examined there and there's no evidence that he presents a danger, he'll be out of there in less than 3 weeks. n nBecause mental hospitals don't have even a tiny fraction of the money it would take to institutionalize everybody.
Perfectly put, Mr. Wehner.
You can't pray away the crazy. That's medieval thinking.
Mr. Huckabee is not saying that praying will rid the country of the 'crazy's' but rather that there is a great decline in our 'moral compass'. While the definition of morals varies from person to person, the fact that so many in our society today really have no one to look up to. Everyone needs someone they admire, for the good they do, and we sure have a very short supply of these types. Sure there are many who do good for others but not enough attention is garnered towards them. It's the one's who get into trouble that have the most attention. Perhaps if we really got serious about bullies, young and adult, and really started letting those who seem "a little odd or different" that people see them instead of pretending they don't exist, could go a long way in making those who feel like they are nobody, know that they are somebody.
Mr. Wehner has allowed himself, like most of "Today's" thinkers, what with their allergy to anything religiously-related, to obscure the obvious point that Mr. Huckabee was trying to make: Values, such as "good," or "bad," or "evil," have been written-out of today lexicon and discuourse. The result of this high-minded moral-ethical agnosticism is that Evil is having a field-day when and where it chooses to because our schools have rendered everyone into helpless as lambs for slaughter.
regarding: n nWhen I watched this I had quite a strong, negative response, and in trying to understand why, I settled on several reasons. n nHave you considered your own attitude towards religion and especially the evangelical Christian? n nWe have created a society where religion is uncool-and the 10 commandments are to be followed if convenient and do not interfere with self actualization. n nWehners' position give me a strong negative response- n nThe odds are extremely high, that the shooter, a self absorbed, over indulged, individual was destroying happy children because he saw himself as a victim of an unsatisfactory childhood. Nurturing his resentment and lamenting the absence of what he felt was his due. Maybe his mother decided to no longer home school him, maybe he could not bear the loss of her total attention? n n
Peter Whener should stop writing for Commentary. He is neither a cultural conservative nor a financial conservative. At best, he might be a defense conservative,although I doubt he is even that. Huckabee was absolutely right in what he said. Does Peter (and his supporters) ever stop for a moment and think why there are no mass murderers from amongst religious Jews, evangelical Christians or Mormons? it is absolutely stupid to say that faith has no influence on people. I bet Peter a dollar to thousand that there are very few, in any, mass murderers amongst church going people. Today's godless, pornographic, violent mass culture has blood on its hands and Peter Wehner should peddle his idea on Daily Kos, not Commentary.
I am afraid that you are wrong, although I am a great admirer of Huckabee. There were tens of thousands, millions, of Church goers in the Nazi party. The ministers in those churches were evil. And, as for many many Mosques today, they can be easily identified with those Nazi 'churches'. Too often, perhaps almost always, religion is used for evil purposes. It is also used for good purposes at times. Hence we cannot use the word God, the word Christian, the word Jew, etc., to be synonymous with 'good'. There, Huckabee erred.
The comment referred to "evangelical Christians" which is hardly what would describe those "Christians" in the Nazi party. Rather, the denominations that we would call "Mainline" were the ones who chose to be passive in the face of Hitler. Therein lies the difference.
On the money. Reflexive antipathy to Evangelical Christians as to the Puritans whose spiritual heirs American Evangelicals are is offensive. n nI recall a program once aired on PBS about Nazi persecution of homosexuals during which a gay Jew–doubly evil and condemned in the Nazi view–spoke movingly of his German Evangelical Christian relatives who sheltered him as a boy and saved his life. n nThe Vatican was stone silent regarding Hitler and the Nazis throughout their rule and and silence translates to consent. Catholic monasteries served as safe havens and waystations on ratlines for fleeing Nazis after the war. The Lutheran church launched an effort to deJudaise Christianity under Hitler. I have never heard Evangelicals accused of similar "official" crimes. n nI am not a Christian and so I don't believe in existential evil, heaven or hell. I do hold with the Hebrew Bible and plain Hebrew Text has it that a community cannot hold itself entirely innocent of a homicide committed in its midst. That such a horrific event as happened in Newtown can occur in ordinary American society suggests at least some failing on the part of that society. n nBy my reckoning, Huckabee may not be far wrong. Certainly his condemnation of amorality and Godlessness in our society society is more compelling than kneejerk condemnation of gun ownership with which the airwaves are awash.
You're as wrong as can be, Wehner, it's not about God and prayer being inserted into a classroom or anywhere else to used as a talisman to ward off evil, it's more complicated than your simpleton reaction indicates. When we drive God and His moral imperatives from society, why should there be ANY surprise that evil gains a foothold and perpetrates these heinous acts? n nWe search for causes, trying to excuse the actions of evil by blaming guns, mental illness, a difficult childhood, whatever…. it is hate and evil that we see. You want to excuse this killer's evil because he had a personality disorder or anti-social whatever. He knew right from wrong, he knew the value of his OWN life – he wore a bullet proof vest for crying out loud. He didn't feel remorse? Why did he kill himself? He certainly felt hate – it's likely he knew love as well. Your attempts to excuse him are reprehensible. And your attempts to excuse the annihilation of God from society are one of the components that leads us to where we are today. n nThe simple fact is that secularism, atheism, and socialism have NO basis for moral outrage over even the most debased acts in society. If we are all dancing to our own DNA, as Richard Dawkins says, then there is no place for morality in the atheist's worldview. Darwinists tell us that human beings have no more value to human life than an ape, or a cat or a gerbil – that we are simply the product of time + matter + randomness – that human life has no greater value than the primordial ooze from which we sprang. Dawkins and Sam Harris deny that evil even exists, Harris saying Christianity is worse than rape. n nWe tell our children that there is no truth, that morals and truth are all relative – "what's good for you may not be good to me," "go ahead – have sex and if you don't like the consequences, rip the fetus from your body, it's not a human life." The Journal of British Ethics (you read that right – ETHICS! you can look it up) had a recent article debating to what age society should allow "post-birth" abortions – 3 weeks, 3 months or 3 years – it's just a little barely formed human, why should we not be able to get rid of it if it hinders our lifestyles??? Oregon passes assisted suicide laws. And we're surprised when we see human life devalued? Sickening. n nWhen we take God from society, tell our kids over and over and over again that there is no truth – it's all relative (does anyone else realize how oxymoronic, if not just moronic – the term "relative truth" is???) that there is no moral compass that exists outside of ourselves, why should any of us be surprised when we see these atrocities??? n nThere is only ONE Truth, ONE Way, it is not relativistic, it is not individualistic – it is not "right for you but wrong for me," morality does not bend to time or situations, it is fixed and unchanging. Until we restore God's rightful place in society, it will only get worse. n nYour article is pathetic, Wehner. n
You're as wrong as can be, Wehner, it's not about God and prayer being inserted into a classroom or anywhere else to be used as a talisman to ward off evil, it's more complicated than your simpleton reaction indicates. When we drive God and His moral imperatives from society, why should there be ANY surprise that evil gains a foothold and perpetrates these heinous acts? n nWe search for causes, trying to excuse the actions of evil by blaming guns, mental illness, a difficult childhood, whatever…. it is hate and evil that we see. You want to excuse this killer's evil because he had a personality disorder or anti-social whatever. He knew right from wrong, he knew the value of his OWN life – he wore a bullet proof vest for crying out loud. He didn't feel remorse? Why did he kill himself? He certainly felt hate – it's likely he knew love as well. Your attempts to excuse him are reprehensible. And your attempts to excuse the annihilation of God from society are one of the components that leads us to where we are today. n nThe simple fact is that secularism, atheism, and socialism have NO basis for moral outrage over even the most debased acts in society. If we are all dancing to our own DNA, as Richard Dawkins says, then there is no place for morality in the atheist's worldview. Darwinists tell us that human beings have no more value to human life than an ape, or a cat or a gerbil – that we are simply the product of time + matter + randomness – that human life has no greater value than the primordial ooze from which we sprang. Dawkins and Sam Harris deny that evil even exists, Harris saying Christianity is worse than rape. n nWe tell our children that there is no truth, that morals and truth are all relative – "what's good for you may not be good to me," "go ahead – have sex and if you don't like the consequences, rip the fetus from your body, it's not a human life." The Journal of British Ethics (you read that right – ETHICS! you can look it up) had a recent article debating to what age society should allow "post-birth" abortions – 3 weeks, 3 months or 3 years – it's just a little barely formed human, why should we not be able to get rid of it if it hinders our lifestyles??? Oregon passes assisted suicide laws. And we're surprised when we see human life devalued? Sickening. n nWhen we take God from society, tell our kids over and over and over again that there is no truth – it's all relative (does anyone else realize how oxymoronic, if not just moronic – the term "relative truth" is???) that there is no moral compass that exists outside of ourselves, why should any of us be surprised when we see these atrocities??? n nThere is only ONE Truth, ONE Way, it is not relativistic, it is not individualistic – it is not "right for you but wrong for me," morality does not bend to time or situations, it is fixed and unchanging. Until we restore God's rightful place in society, it will only get worse. n nYour article is pathetic, Wehner.
I'm an atheist and I have more compassion and ethics than some "Christians" I know. Religion is a cloak for too much evil in America. So stop demonizing me and I will do the same.
You can argue about Huckabee's response, but coming from a Southern Baptist minister it's not surprising. What's surprising is Wehner's cheap shot and the phony claim that he's a conservative.
"For Huckabee to assume Lanza went on his rampage because “God has been removed from our schools” is witless." n nAnd here's where the Libertarian mind shows its limitations, inasmuch it can't comprehend a connection between a society-wide respect for life and a base-line for decent behavior. Years ago, even criminals considered the mass homicide of children as disgusting, over the line. They had certain standards held afloat by a society-wide consensus. No such thing exists today in a culture the highest "sin" of which is to be judgemental.
Our lovely American ancestors bashed Indian babies to death against trees and massacred Indian women by the thousands. Wake up — read history. n
Mr. Wehner, like all the other leftist peacocks in the world, just loves to strut around in his fanned-out mult-culti feathers and cackle derisively whenever anyone dares to let his or her religious values show. Well, what Mr. Wehner fails to realize is that such boorish behavior says more about himself than any religious person ever could!
Nice to see your compassion here. All I see is hate from you. Lovely.
I believe that we the people have only one more chance to get this right, before we loose America for good. nWe started our school day the same way, every day. We had a reading from the Bible, a Psalm or Proverb, (nothing that could be mistaken for forcing christianity on anyone), then, we ALL stood, hand over hearts, and recited the pledge. After giving HONOR to G_d and country, we were ready to learn. We learned boring stuff, like English, and Math, and Social Studies, and History, and Geography, and even had time for silly things like, uh, Health, and Biology, and Art, and Music even. I'm 65 years old and can still add, subtract, multiply, and divide in my head, how many of today's high school graduates can say that. nTo add insult to injury, my favorite kids show was Hoody Doody. Remember at the end of each show, either Hoody or Buffalo Bob would take a close up and say these horrible words, "Now kids, don't forget Church or Sunday School". As a kid growing up, we went to church every Sunday, and you know what?, most of the kids in my neighborhood did as well. We respected our elders, as quant as that sounds. I would never think of calling an adult by their first name, we were taught manners, in school, and at home.
What happened in Sandy Hook is tragic. I can understand why some would be offended by Huckabee's response. I am also offended by the national media attention and the presidents faux-grief. This is not a national issue. As a practical matter religion, psychological evaluations, or the most draconian gun control laws will not, can not, prevent tragedies such as this. We live in a culture where violence, aided an abetted by the media, is glorified. Perhaps, like many other new norms we are having to adjust to in this country, violence is a new norm we will also have to adjust to. Face it we are inundated with violence and gore being glorified in movies, sports, music, TV, and video games. Lying, deceit, and cruelty also seem to be acceptable new norms. Some body just killed a bunch of people in a mall, unemployment is always going to be about 8%, oh well let's get over it and move on. I know it's politically correct to deny these new norms, but really aren't they what we have devolved to.
The president's grief seemed extremely real to me. A father's sadness.
Huckabee was right! I have to reeducate my children after the religion of evolution is forced down their throats and teach them about Jesus and creation. r nr nPut God back in our schools!
The problem with huckabee's argument is that Adam Lanza went to a catholic school. I hear that that is where they not only allow god in the front door, his presence is a requirement__Per Huckabee, 26 INNOCENT people desrved to die because his version of god was not allowed in the schools. That is sick, vile, perverted, morally corrupt, reprehensible. I would invite Huckabee to go to Sandy Hook and say those exact words to the faces of the parents of the dead children.
So if we had school prayer, crazy people would never kill kids???? That's totally stupid. Adam Lanza was raised religious and killed 26 people. Religion and prayer cannot stop bullets.
I listened to Huckabee's remarks on Fox News and found them inspiring and appropriate. Without a faith in G-d life becomes a meaningless and cruel charade. People live in despair, and seek relief from its challenges by turning to fantasies of death and destruction. For the mentally unbalanced, Newtown was an extreme example of what a sense of hopelessness and impotence, increasingly pervasive in our society, can produce.