Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Right-wing Christian rape and murder fantasies


Please note: This is very disgusting stuff. Don't read further if you're squeamish.

From TPM:
"Duck Dynasty" star and conservative icon Phil Robertson told a gruesome, vivid story on Friday about the hypothetical rape and murder of a family to illustrate the perils of atheism, according to audio surfaced by Right Wing Watch.

The website reported that Robertson made the remarks during a speech at a Florida prayer breakfast that was later broadcast by the conservative radio program TruNews.

From the Right Wing Watch report on Robertson's speech:
“I’ll make a bet with you,” Robertson said. “Two guys break into an atheist’s home. He has a little atheist wife and two little atheist daughters. Two guys break into his home and tie him up in a chair and gag him. And then they take his two daughters in front of him and rape both of them and then shoot them and they take his wife and then decapitate her head off in front of him. And then they can look at him and say, ‘Isn’t it great that I don’t have to worry about being judged? Isn’t it great that there’s nothing wrong with this? There’s no right or wrong, now is it dude?’” Robertson kept going: “Then you take a sharp knife and take his manhood and hold it in front of him and say, ‘Wouldn’t it be something if this [sic] was something wrong with this? But you’re the one who says there is no God, there’s no right, there’s no wrong, so we’re just having fun. We’re sick in the head, have a nice day.’”

“If it happened to them,” Robertson continued, “they probably would say, ‘something about this just ain’t right.”

Yes, something about this "just ain't right," but Robertson doesn't seem to realize that it's him.

No atheist says that there's no right or wrong. How could Robertson even imagine such a thing? No atheist would say that there's nothing wrong with that scenario. Indeed, it's the Christian who seems to enjoy fantasizing about horrendous violence. What does that tell you?

Besides, Robertson's little story, as sick as it is, doesn't demonstrate that there's a magical judge somewhere in the sky who'll punish such crimes. It only demonstrates that Robertson, and people like him, really, really want to believe that.

Christians imagine an ultimate judge, because they want to think that people they don't like will be punished, eventually, whatever happens to them in this world. And they want to think that deserving people - themselves, of course, and people like them - will be rewarded,... eventually.

Maybe that's a nice fantasy, but so what? Atheists aren't competing over fantasies, to see who can invent the nicest one.

And in the real world, it's useful to recognize that justice, if it's to come at all, must come from us. We must work to defend the innocent and determine justice, because there's no magical solution if we fail to do that ourselves.

We must work to protect our environment, to save ourselves from ourselves, because this is the only Earth we've got, this is the only life we've got, and if we don't do it, no one will.

And we must determine right from wrong, because there are no shortcuts. There is no magic book to tell us that slavery is good and women's rights are bad. (Thankfully, the faith-based are very good at ignoring what they don't want to believe, even when it's written in their own Bible.) There is no magic man in the sky telling us to kill people who work on the Sabbath or burn women alive for having sex.

Sure, when tragedy strikes a Christian family, they might believe something which will make them feel better. (Or not. Often, Christians are led to believe that it's their fault, somehow, because otherwise 'God' would have defended them.) But whether comforting or not, is there any reason to believe that it's true?

Some of us think that the truth matters.

3 comments:

Gregg said...

Wow, Christian torture porn!

That's one creepy guy.......

jeff725 said...

"Religion has never had a big problem with murder....it depends on who's DOING THE KILLING and who's GETTING KILLED. The more devout they are, the more they see murder as being NEGOTIABLE." --George Carlin

I saw Phil's rant on Additcting Info.

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2015/03/25/phil-robertson-rape-fantasy-speech-reveals-terrifying-glimpse-of-the-right-wing-mindset-video/

Check out this comment from someone named Dorothy Hoyt-Reed:

"“And then they can look at him and say, ‘Isn't it great that I don’t have to worry about being judged? Isn't it great that there’s nothing wrong with this? There’s no right or wrong, now, is it dude?’”

"Many years ago when I was about 20 years old, a friend of mine was killed in a car accident. A woman, an evangelical Christian like Robertson, with whom I worked, asked me if I thought he had gone to heaven. I said he was a really good person, so probably. She said that he would only go to heaven if he had accepted Jesus and was "born again". I asked her if a mass murderer was "born again" before dying would he go to heaven. She said yes. To clarify I asked her if a good, moral person didn't get "born again", would he go to heaven; she said no.

Years later, I was teaching in a very strange rural school district where the kids openly talked about partying and "hooking up" with each other, and were very disrespectful to adults. I found out they all attended this one evangelical church. I asked one of them how they could reconcile their rude, wild behavior with being a Christian. They told me that their youth minister said that no matter what they did, as long as they believed in Jesus, they would go to heaven.

I no longer trust evangelical Christians. Fortunately, I do know some very moral Christians, so I don't lump all in the same pile of excrement. For example, there is the Plymouth Congregational Church in Lawrence, Ks. which helps the less fortunate, and welcomes all, including performing, first gay commitment ceremonies, and now gay marriage ceremonies. Kind, loving people, a lot like I always considered Jesus to be. And I have read the Bible without the help of a "study group" to interpret it for me."

Bill Garthright said...

Jeff, the only problem I have with that link comes at the end of the article, where he calls Phil Robertson an "opinion leader." I nearly gagged up my breakfast.

He's as much an "opinion leader" as Duck Dynasty is "reality" TV. Like many celebrities in America, he seems to be famous for being famous, with absolutely zero substance behind it.

He has fans, no doubt, but Robertson doesn't lead anyone. When the scum rises to the top, you just naturally find little Phil Robertson's floating around in it, that's all.