Aurora, Religion, Guns,

Posted by: on Jul 20, 2012 | 3 Comments

Aurora, Religion, Guns

I just read the comments of Rep. Louis Gohmert, a republican from Texas and he has gotten me really worked up. Using the tragedy in Aurora as a platform, he blames “ongoing attacks on Judeo-Christian beliefs” in our country and goes on to question why no one else in the theater had a gun to take the shooter. As I write those words I get even more outraged by them.

I’m not going to respond to his statements about this being an anti-religious statement by the shooter or an attack on our Judeo-Christian beliefs. If there’s any evidence of this so far, I haven’t read a single word.

Who I really want to hear from are my friends and colleagues who are deeply religious. Could you please explain to me what in God’s name is this guy talking about? How does he come off as “good Christian” by making these types of inflammatory remarks within hours of this tragedy? Did God tell him that this was an attack on his Christian beliefs? If he were alive today, would Jesus carry an assault weapon to fend off his enemies? What am I missing?

My own faith is always in state of flux. I am Jewish but my Judaism is more cultural and spiritual than grounded in a deep belief in God. I believe in some sort higher power but have no clue as to what that is or what that means. What I do know is that throughout the course of history, religion has been used to fight wars, used in many attempts to exterminate entire cultures, and does as much bad as it does good as I think is the case here.

So, all you deeply religious folks out there, explain this guy to me because statements like this make me loose a lot of my own faith in our country and the religious/cultural diversity that makes this a great nation.

3 Comments

  1. Brian
    July 20, 2012

    Your on a roll lately.

    Brian

  2. Skip
    July 20, 2012

    Amen Ira

  3. Gina
    July 20, 2012

    I suppose ol’ Louie decided to take up Tom DeLay’s mantle. Most will remember Tom DeLay as one of George Bush’s TX political posse who was Republican House Majority Whip (and then House Majority Leader) before being sent down on money laundering charges (to say nothing of breaking the 6th Commandment, bless his Christian values).

    Well, after the Columbine shootings, Tom DeLay decided to blame science textbooks for the murders: “Our school systems teach the children that they are nothing but glorified apes who are evolutionized [sic] out of some primordial soup.”

    Must be something in the water in Texas.