A lot of journalists going to town on *very* speculative theories of this monster's motivations, of which we in fact know almost nothing at this stage. First it's an anti-Asian hate crime, now it's Evangelical Prudishness Disorder: nytimes.com/2021/03/20/us/…
I realize that when a monstrous act of evil occurs, we search for explanations and that this is a very natural thing to do. Either of these explanations *could* be right. But we're not exactly a country where "mass shootings" are an unknown phenomenon, and most of the time:
We're in the end left stupefied and mystified by the evil (and wondering why we think any lunatic has a fundamental freedom to buy a gun but not an AstraZeneca vaccine.) Ultimately, even at trial--if the shooter survives,
the account makes no sense. This guy's account will not make sense. If he says he killed eight women because Jesus told him too, it will *not* make sense. The rest of America's Evangelicals may or may not be hung up about sex in weird ways--and it *is* their right to be,
and it is *not* our business if they are (that's what "pluralism" and "tolerance" are about, remember?) But I doubt there's a single Evangelical pastor in America advising his flock that if they can't control their "porn addiction"
they should shoot up a massage parlor. Not one. His own church has denounced him as "wicked," which he is.
Isn't it a little hasty for The New York Times to run a front-piece page suggesting that traditional Christian beliefs about sexuality caused this man to do something
Isn't it a little hasty for The New York Times to run a front-piece page suggesting that traditional Christian beliefs about sexuality caused this man to do something
that *really* has no textual support, *at all,* in the New Testament? (John 8:6-7 is pretty well known to Evangelicals, I'd say. Perhaps not so much to the NYT.)
If Evangelicals feel guilty about whacking off, that's their business. So did Alexander Portnoy.
If Evangelicals feel guilty about whacking off, that's their business. So did Alexander Portnoy.
There's much to criticize about American Evangelical culture--I'm concerned about some Evangelicals' commitment to *democracy,* which *is* my business--but linking a heinous spree shooting to beliefs about sexuality that have been part of Western culture since Augustine seems ...
illogical and illiterate.
(Ah, the good old New York Times. What would we do without them? Our days would be shorn of mirth.)
(Ah, the good old New York Times. What would we do without them? Our days would be shorn of mirth.)
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