|
 One of the real problems I have about the aftermath of tragedies is the response of those who try to use the tragedy to further their agendas. I honestly don’t think that the focus should be on gun control, be it arming fewer or arming more. Mental illness maybe, but not gun control. (See Michael Westmoreland-White’s post.)
Even worse than gun-control talk is to use the tragedy to assert one’s own superiority in light of the tragedy. Case in point—Paige Patterson, president of the Southwestern Baptist Seminary, used a chapel sermon to assert Christian, particularly male, superiority.
Here’s what he said:
“Now if you’re a male student, will you just lift your hand for a moment so I can see you? Thank you for that commitment. God forbid that anything happen like this here [VTech tragedy], but each of you that just raised your hand said, ‘Never be more than two or three shots before I’m on him. Doesn’t matter how many of us he takes out. ‘ See, all you had to do was have six or eight rush him right at that time, and thirty-two people wouldn’t have died. Now folks, let’s make up our minds. I know we live in America where nobody gets involved in anybody else’s situation. That shall not be the rule here. Does everybody understand? You say, well I may be shot. Well, yeah, you may. Are you saved? You’re going to heaven. You know, it’s better than earth . . . Now one more time, how many male students are there? I’m counting on you.â€
Why can’t the Christian women “rush him†too? I’d personally find it harder to shoot a girly girl than a jock, maybe a crazed gunman would too! But the major question here would be (I know it sounds trite), if you’re a Christian, what would Jesus do?
Let’s see what Baptist pastor Martin Tiller had to say about Patterson’s approach:
Mr. Patterson, your words are an embarrassment to Southern Baptists, you are an embarrassment to the Evangelical community, your words are an embarrassment to Southerners.
You have single handily insulted 33 grieving families.
You have insulted all male Virginia Tech Hokies. May God have mercy on your soul.
You have no idea of the manliness, toughness, pride, and sheer anger that you have just awoken. Virginia Tech men, are Good Ol’ Southern Boys, tough military men, some of the best football players in the world, and intelligent beyond compare. And yet you have insulted them.
May God have mercy on your soul.
Why have you done this?
So we can all marvel at your manliness?
Jesus says in Matt 6:1 “Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them.”
And that is exactly what you have done here. You have sprouted your manliness for all to see.
You preen yourself as some sort of religious John Wayne.
You raised your hand in the air to show us just how big yours is.
You stand erect, proud of your muscles, your testosterone, and your stamina, all for Southwestern to gaze at and to envy.
You put your words, your girth, your perfect body of religion out on the internet to be downloaded and watched by all.
But lets face it. The God you spoke with to lust to today was not Jesus Christ.
Not the Jesus Christ who offered himself up to his prosecutors.
Not the Jesus Christ who shied away from crowds and told his followers not to tell who he was.
Not the Jesus Christ who told us NOT to resist an evil doer. But to turn the other cheek.
Jesus Christ was not the God you were worshiping when you spoke those words.
You were not a Christian when you spoke those words.
The God you were worshiping was a masculine fantasy.
The God you were worshiping was testosterone.
The God you were worshiping was the penis.
Which today made you a Dickhead.
Thanks Martin! I’m going to take my approach from John chapter 9 where Jesus encounters a tragic life and chooses to touch the hurting man rather than try to use the event to point fingers or glorify himself.
When will Southern Baptists learn that this macho, gun-totin’ junk is anti-Christian? How can they continue to ignore the Sermon on the Mount. I even had a Southern Baptist Seminary student tell me this week that he is “pro-war.” Pro-War?
Here’s what others had to say about Patterson:
Patterson has long worried that American society was turning young boys into pansies. At a Sportsman’s Safari wild game dinner in Arkansas in 2003, he said, “You’ve got to make little girls out of your little boys,” in our society. Little boys, he said, need three things–a dog, a gun and a dad. “Get him a gun,” Patterson urged. “Not a play gun, but a real gun. Play guns are the most dangerous guns in the world.”
Well… tell that to the Virginia Tech student body.
Big Daddy Weave: “Southern Baptists should be embarassed. This is the man who supposedly saved “God’s Last And Only Hope” for the world - the Southern Baptist Convention. You followed his lead as he gave a group of like-minded fundamentalists control of the world’s largest Protestant denomination.”
Rev. Gil.
I know what you’re thinking. “Hey Howie! You say you aren’t supposed to use the tragedy to promote your own agenda and then you do it!”
You’re right. That’s what it looks like, but I’m merely trying to critique those who do. In doing so, I am also in a way using the tragedy. My main point is this: When bad things happen, don’t make them worse. Pray for those who are hurting, including the killer’s parents. Let’s talk about what should be done a bit later so that what we say is more reasoned and thought-out. When it has less of a potential for harm.
| 
