Religious Right Just Can't Resist Exploiting Aurora Tragedy for Political Gain

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/clay-naff/religious-right-just-cant_b_1691617.html

Clay Farris Naff
Science and religion writer, journalist, author


I wasn't going to write a word about the horror in Colorado. Survivors of the mass shooting in Aurora and loved ones of the dead deserve our sympathy, support, and public policy silence for awhile. I disdain all the chatter about gun control policy at a moment like this. But at least that is a debate with some relevance to the situation, even if its timing displays poor taste.

What I find utterly revolting and indecent, however, is the rush by the Religious Right to exploit this tragedy to trash their enemies, judge the victims, and bully people into joining their religious and political movement.

On the American Family Association's radio program AFA Today, the hosts wasted no time lining up a far-right Evangelical minister, Jerry Newcombe of Truth in Action Ministries, to tell the audience that among the dead in the theater only those who were true Christians have gone to heaven. The rest, he suggested, are already consigned to hell.

Thanks, Preach. Great message to share with the grieving families. Of course, AFA Today doesn't give a turd about their feelings; the lesson of the day was not of comfort or comprehension; it was yet another opportunity to scare their listeners into joining the flock. And not just any flock. The program went to great lengths to discredit any minister or church that deviates from the Old Time Religion view of God as a stern and wrathful judge. How, according to Rev. Newcombe, should we respond to the shooting?

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