Atheists are condemning the actions of a gunman who walked into the Washington, D.C. office of the Family Research Council, and saying that the role of religion in the public sphere should be fought with reason and logic, not guns.
Police have yet to assign a motive to the actions of the individual who walked into the Christian conservative group’s building and when confronted by a security guard shot him in the arm. “We don’t know enough about him or his circumstances to determine what his connection is to this group [the research council] or his mental state, or what he was doing or thinking of doing. So we’re going to try to sort this all out, pull the evidence together, do all the interviews we can,” said the FBI’s James McJunkin.
Edwina Rogers, Executive Director of the Secular Coalition For America condemned the violence, “While we disagree with the Family Research Council on nearly every issue, the debate surrounding the role of religion in the public sphere should be fought with reason and logic, not guns. We absolutely condemn this sort of senseless violence.” Rogers also said that the organization’s thoughts are with the security guard that was shot, and she called the victim a hero.
No matter how one feels about the FRC’s politics and beliefs, it is impossible to ignore the fact that for the third time in less than a month there has been another high profile shooting. We will never know if this incident could have turned into a mass shooting, but it is becoming difficult to ignore the looming conversation about how we can protect the Second Amendment but keep weapons out of the hands of dangerous people that must be had.
It is inevitable that some individuals on the far right will use the actions of one person to further their political agenda. I can hear Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, and Glenn Beck using this incident to fuel their fantasies of a violent left that is coming to get believers and people of faith. Some very cynical people may even try to use this incident to boost Republican turnout in the 2012 election.
Atheists strongly disagree with those on the right who are seeking a more public or state sponsored role for religion in the United States, but there is no place for violence in this dialogue. When bullets replace words in our society, liberty will wounded, and all citizens, atheist and believer alike cease to be free.
PoliticusUSA
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Tim From LA
Aug. 15th, 2012 at 7:18 pm
I guess shooting someone in the FRC is an liberal atheist. Keep in mind, there are conservative atheist too. And anyway, Liberals hate guns and want to ban all guns…Not so? I guess then Obama is NOT a gun-grabber
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MarkB
Aug. 16th, 2012 at 10:30 pm
No, Tim, Obama’s not a ‘gun-grabber’; just because some NRA-backed nut says it doesn’t make it fact, any more than a weatherman calling the sky green makes THAT true.
Like the rest of the mess, Obama INHERITED “Fast & Furious”, which was only turned into a ridiculous ‘gun-grab conspiracy’ by asses like Daniel Issa, so don’t even try to use that one; but I invite you to point to something that truly suggests anti-gun sentiment from POTUS.
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Mark
Aug. 15th, 2012 at 7:29 pm
I only wish the left were even a quarter as violent as the right wing trash claim we are. The left-what little remains of it in this country-is far too polite and genteel. ALL of the bombings, shootings, fires, etc in the last 40 years have been done by right wing anti-Americans…there has been NO left sponsored violence in the US since the 1970′s, and it might just be time for it.
The right in this country is nothing but trash.
mark
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MarkB
Aug. 16th, 2012 at 10:35 pm
Dude, take a deep breath; we don’t need MORE violence, just because most of it came from the side of politics we dislike.
I’m an old soldier; I know how to create mayhem, trust me. The number of times I’ve been confronted with an outrage, and WANTED to ATTACK IT, is hard to track. But I have yet to do so, because I stand to lose more than I would gain.
We are ALL in that place.
I can only tell you one affirmative thing about violence: NEVER THROW THE FIRST PUNCH; THROW THE LAST.
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Conservative Heart
Aug. 15th, 2012 at 7:30 pm
Atheists and homos are the reason God let that shooting occur. Atheists and homos need to apologize to America and learn to feel God’s true, shining love.
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Sean Russell
Aug. 15th, 2012 at 7:50 pm
So, who was to blame for slavery, Jim Crow, segregation, Pan Am 103, KKK fire-bombings, 9/11, and Pearl Harbor? Atheists and ‘homos’ I guess right? Certainly no christians owned slaves or partook in KKK activities.
Scapegoating: The right wing’s pathetic fallback position. Maybe we should make them wear badges to show who’s an atheist or gay. Or we could even get registry numbers tattooed. Would that make you happy? Can really feel the ‘christian love’ from your post.
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Reynardine
Aug. 15th, 2012 at 8:49 pm
Sean: He’s a Poe.
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MarkB
Aug. 16th, 2012 at 10:38 pm
If we ever meet, please be sure you’re wearing your oldest and grungiest clothes, for I will surely puke all over you for that twaddle.
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Reynardine
Aug. 15th, 2012 at 8:53 pm
They’re already piling on over at Hatewatch, claiming this proves the SPLC is itself a hate organization, inciting anti-straight, anti- Christian, anti-white, anti-uhMericun violence. I have never seen so much DARVO.
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Sarah Jones
Aug. 15th, 2012 at 9:07 pm
Odd how when someone shoots a Democratic representative and her staff, we’re not allowed to even suggest it was THE OTHER SIDE even though they put a target on her.
But now…
without waiting for evidence, and with no one dead (thankfully), they’re going nuts. Typical.
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majii
Aug. 15th, 2012 at 11:33 pm
Take the mote out of your own eye before attempting to remove it from someone else’s eye. There have been many examples of RW extremism since 2009. Your own post is an example of projection and mind reading. It’s projection because you refuse to admit that Richard Poplawski, Wade Michael Page, James von Brunn, Kevin Harpham, David Adkisson, Scott Roeder, James Cummings, and others on the right, have committed acts of terrorism in recent years. The mind reading comes from your unfounded conclusion about liberals celebrating when Loughner shot Representative Gabby Giffords. You have no way of knowing that all liberals were celebrating and blaming the right-wing for the tragedy. It’s all in your head. Unless you spoke to all liberals, you cannot prove your claim. Although I never celebrated and refrained from blaming anyone, I’m sure you included me in your generalization. Oftentimes, generalizations are proven to be wrong.
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A Walkaway
Aug. 16th, 2012 at 11:40 am
Celebrating? HOW IN HELL DID YOU COME UP WITH THAT LIE?
A friend of mine knew the Giffords (I believe a friend of the family) and was upset for weeks. Every liberal I knew and know was in shock and grieving. We were horrified, not rejoicing. A lot of us were angry, because we’d heard the rhetoric and seen the crosshairs on Rep. Gifford. We also saw how it was downplayed and even misreported in the news.
Funny that you’d portray us as uncaring and hypocritical, because the only people I’ve heard be that way are the “Good Christians” around here. I haven’t heard any reactions (yet) to the shooting in Washington (and there haven’t been any letters about it in the paper yet), but I expect that there will be lots of “I told you so”, even though for the last two or three decades the only violence has come from conservatives (and I’d argue that the violent “liberal” groups in the past were actually rather conservative in view… they just wanted THEIR status quo to replace the existing one). Then there are the groups who were blamed for violence even though what they did was self-defense… like the American Indian Movement.
I’ve had several death threats in my life… the only one not from conservative groups (includes communists) was from dope heads (when I was a kid) who were afraid that I’d “narc” on them (I should have – they ended up nearly getting me fired and I was demoted). I’ve never heard of liberals committing violence… but “Good Christians”… the news don’t like to report it but it’s common – and we’ve personally experienced their hate and violence.
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A Walkaway
Aug. 16th, 2012 at 11:49 am
Interesting point… the paper today is making a huge issue out of the fact that there was some connection between the gay community and the shooter… he’d worked as a security guard for an organization connected with LGBT folks.
They downplay or refuse to even report when there are connections between dominionist “Christianity” and terrorists, but when there is some hint of a connection between a hated group (LGBT folks or atheists, for instance) and something the local “Good Christians” don’t like – such as protests or boycotts – they’re quick to report about it.
I also got the feeling that there was a lot more reporting about the attack than when, for instance, Rep. Giffords and the people around here were shot. There certainly is a bigger effort to connect the shooting with a hated group compared to some of the other violence. (When the guy shot up a UU church a few years ago, his reason was barely mentioned – if that – in the local papers.)
Anyone with half a mind could have told the perp that what he was going to do would only help the evil people in the FRC… that they’d use his stupidity to fight against freedom and decency. I’m glad that nobody was killed, and wish that it never had happened.
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MarkB
Aug. 16th, 2012 at 10:49 pm
To connect either side with a violent and unbalanced poor excuse of humanity, because that one took the same beliefs to an extreme, is a waste of time. I totally disagree with the ‘evangelical right’ on every point so far, and have publicly wished for the opportunity to “pimp-slap” some overt speaker for them and others, but I couldn’t truly tell you that I’d follow through with the opportunity. (Well, if it was Rush Limpbaugh……….)
The people who do things like this are warped to start with; their politics are irrelevant. Had each believed differently, it would merely have shifted their targets.
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