Last night, President Obama delivered a speech at a memorial service for those killed in the school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. His speech was extremely religious in tone. But for me the really offensive part came toward the end of the speech when the President said about the victims that “God has called them all home.”
This is a surprising and extremely insensitive statement coming from the President. It is surprising that he would push his religion so forcefully on the nation at a time when people are emotionally vulnerable. Twenty kids and six adults were just murdered and the President is talking about how God is lonely and wants some company. I guess the pitter patter of Ethiopians kids who starved to death wasn’t enough for God.
What if some of the victims were called home to Hell instead of Heaven? That is what Christianity preaches, right? We all deserve to be tortured for all eternity and are only saved by grace alone. All those who are not saved by Jesus are destined to be tortured for all eternity in Hell, right? How does the President know that all the victims were saved?
The President’s statement also implies that God was the cause of death for these children. It wasn’t that Adam Lanza killed his mother, took her assault guns, and murdered a bunch of children and a few adults. No, this mass murder was planned perfectly by God. It was part of his divine plan to bring these kids “home.”
Maybe their parents would like them at their real home here on Earth in the land of the living. Maybe an all-powerful deity could have stepped in and saved these kids and all the other children that die every day from illnesses, starvation, accidents, and acts of violence committed by other crazy killers.
“God called them home?” Fuck that! Shame on President Obama for saying such a thing. Did God call home all the children and adults killed by Obama’s drone attacks?
If the President wants to avoid more children from being “called home” maybe he could push for strong gun regulations so that people like Lanza wouldn’t have the access to weapons of this kind. But no, that would require him to actually do something himself and who is he to get in the way of God calling children home.
Check out my Examiner article: School shootings caused by ‘Under God’ in pledge
