When thoughts, prayers and words harm

So, a friend of mine shared an article from the religious section of a conservative online magazine called “The Federalist.” In the days since he shared the article with me, I have seen multiple responses to it in social media. I didn’t respond to it right away, and I think that might be fortuitous. 

This particular article was written by Hans Fiene, who is a Lutheran pastor from Illinois. In the article, Mr. Fiene discusses the recent mass shooting at a church in Sutherland, Texas where 26 parishioners, who were gathered for Sunday services were snuffed out by a man carrying a semi-automatic rifle.

His piece is in response to those of us who say that the time is long overdue for our legislators, and government to do something besides offer thoughts and prayers after one of these horrific events. In his piece, Fiene lays out an argument for the idea that the 26 who died in that church were actually having their prayers answered. No, they were not praying for a mass shooter to walk in to their church and gun them down—some of them children at point blank range—but to be delivered from evil. In this case, however horrific it might seem to the rest of us, an evil act was the instrument of deliverance.

When I initially read the piece, I was appalled, and flabbergasted. I didn’t quite know how to form my thoughts around a response to something, that on its face, seems so beyond ludicrous. But as luck would have it, other conservatives with access to the media made statements this week that I found almost as appalling.

Roy Moore, a man seeking a Senate seat in Alabama, has been accused of pursuing romantic, or sexual relationships with several women while he was in his 30s and they were in their teens. At this point, nobody knows the veracity of the allegations, but it certainly wouldn’t be the first time a powerful older man made unwanted sexual advances.

What is incredible are the statements made by a couple of conservatives who have come to his defense.

 Alabama State Auditor, Jim Ziegler, actually invoked the Bible to come to Moore’s defense. “Take Joseph and Mary. Mary was a teenager and Joseph was an adult carpenter. They became parents of Jesus,” Ziegler told the Washington Examiner.

He further defended Moore by stating that nothing illegal had occurred, because it’s not like he had sexual intercourse with the teens. “There is nothing to see here,” Ziegler told the Examiner. “The allegations are that a man in his early 30s dated teenage girls. Even the Washington Post report says that he never had sexual intercourse with any of the girls and never attempted sexual intercourse.” 

The current age of consent in the state of Alabama is 16. Regardless of party, wouldn’t you think a state official would think more carefully about commenting on these allegations? One of the women was 14 at the time she alleges that Moore tried to persuade her to touch him sexually.

Alabama Bibb County Republican chairman Jerry Pow told Toronto Star reporter Daniel Dale that he’d vote for Roy Moore even if Moore did commit a sex crime against a girl. "I would vote for Judge Moore because I wouldn't want to vote for Doug," he says. "I'm not saying I support what he did."

Because it’s totally better to vote for a guy who wanted a 14-year-old to touch his penis through his underwear than to vote for a Democrat. Ziegler invokes the age gap in Mary and Joseph’s marriage to defend Moore, and maybe that makes sense.

Maybe Moore was just keeping things godly—something he feels we all should be doing.

While he recently spoke to a group at an Alabama church, he explained what he believes to be the reason for the mass shootings.

 “You wonder why we're having shootings, and killings here in 2017? Because we've asked for it," Moore said. "We've taken God out of everything. We've taken prayer out of school, we've taken prayer out of council meetings."

If only kindergarteners  were saying a prayer at the beginning of the day, we wouldn’t have to worry about getting shot down in public places.

These are not the first truly bizarre, or even thoughtlessly insensitive statements conservatives have made in either defending their colleagues, their policies, or their positions.

In August of 2012, Todd Akin, who was a Missouri Representative running for the Senate explained his reasoning behind the idea that women who are victims of rape shouldn’t be able to choose to have an abortion if they become pregnant.

 “It seems to me, from what I understand from doctors, that’s really rare,” Akin told local media in an interview. “If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down. But let’s assume that maybe that didn’t work or something: I think there should be some punishment, but the punishment ought to be of the rapist, and not attacking the child.”

If you are sexually assaulted, and become pregnant, you may just have to rethink the incident. If you got pregnant, it probably wasn’t rape.

And more recently, in regards to climate change, Michigan Representative Tim Walberg explained that humans are essentially helpless. It’s just out of our hands.

 “I believe there’s climate change. I believe there’s been climate change since the beginning of time,” Walberg said. “Do I think man has some impact? Yeah, of course. Can man change the entire universe? No.”

He continued: “Why do I believe that? Well, as a Christian, I believe that there is a creator in God who is much bigger than us. And I’m confident that, if there’s a real problem, he can take care of it.” 

So, the next time you are in a quandary over “paper or plastic,” just know that it doesn’t really matter, because whether the polar icecaps melt away or not has nothing to do with you.

I know that we can all be thoughtless. I know we can be passionate about our viewpoints. But we don’t all have a vast and public platform that reaches thousands.

As Michael Hutchence of INXS wrote, “Words are weapons, sharper than knives.”

When we discount the suffering of others by invoking our faith or sharing baseless viewpoints, we diminish our sense of common humanity and connection to each other. We trivialize the pain felt by those who have been harmed by violence, abuse, or disaster.

And when we trivialize someone’s pain, we are, in fact, trivializing them.

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