Monday, July 28, 2008

God, Gunfire And "Dem Lib-ruls"

Police say the man who opened fire in a Knoxville Unitarian Universalist church had plenty of blame to go around for not being able to find a job, as Reuters reports:
Suspect Jim Adkisson, 58, who was being held on $1 million bond, had previously worked as a mechanical engineer in several states. He described his violent plans in a four-page letter found at his home, which also explained that his age and "liberals and gays" taking jobs had worked against him.
On the other hand, he would've made a great talk-radio host.

My fear now -- and I am praying for this not to happen -- is that right-wing, neo-con Christians will use this incident to take cheap shots at the Unitarian Universalist church, which is known for liberal beliefs. You may not hear it in public, but I have no doubt some hard-liners think God lifted His protection from the UU church because of liberalism. That's just as ridiculous as Pat Robertson's assertion that God lifted His protection from the U.S. before 9/11. (Incidentally, I was raised in the Presbyterian Church U.S.A., which isn't known for being hard-line conservative, either.)

R.J. Eskow at The Huffington Post points a long angry finger of blame back at the right:
Who really killed those Unitarians? Was it the preachers who spread hatred and intolerance? The politicians who court and flatter them instead of condemning their hate speech? The media machine that attacks liberals, calls them "traitors" and suggests you speak to them "with a baseball bat"? The economic system that batters people like Jim Adkinson (sic) until they snap, then tells them their real enemies are gays and liberals and secular humanists?

If you ask me, it was all of the above.
Kindly resist any temptation to throw stones. Many more people could have been killed in this unbelievable act, and the fact that so many survived is proof to me God protects His Own.

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