Crazy Coincidence

Wednesday morning, I was eating toast and reading the newspaper when I became a tad agitated by a moronic letter to the editor entitled "Liberals Lie". The author of the little gem complained that liberals were doing everything in their power to silence opposition in Washington. He mentioned a bill liberals were trying to pass and the fight against teaching design in public schools. The final sentence of the letter went something like "Support your local conservatives!"
I think what got my goat was the simple fact that this person was a proud conservative making the same tired conservative points and accusations. I know that conservatives do exist--its just hard for me to understand why. How could a person believe that what two consenting adults do in their own home determines whether they'll go to heaven or rot in hell? How could a person base their morality upon something as twisted & strange as the Bible. How could a person see everything so black and white, good or evil? And how could a person feel so strongly about his religious beliefs that he'd send a letter to the editor of the Idaho Statesman in order to rant in our ears?
So this is what I did. I wrote a letter to the editor myself. I wrote something like this: "As a liberal who wants the U.N. to overthrow the U.S. government and take away all of our guns, I must admit that I've been impressed by powerful conservative arguments like the one offered by (dude who wrote "liberals lie"), and now I'm ready to make a concession. Teach religion in schools. I'm fine with that. Quote scripture even. Like "(a passage from the bible which describes how a gang of Sodomites demanded of a man the release of two angels which were visiting that man. The mob intended to rape the angels. The host of the angels begged the mob to spare them. He was able to convince them to leave the angels alone by offering up his daughter and concubine. The men gang raped the two women instead, and left them for dead. The next day, the father took his daughter's body and cut it up into twelve pieces, and sent them to the different tribes of Israel.)" Let our children learn that the God of the Bible commanded child murder (only a test) and genocide (see Numbers). Of course, let the scriptures speak for themselves, and allow our children to decide for themselves."

I submitted this letter Wednesday morning. After work, my roommate Eric, who is a camera operator/editor with CHannel 7, told me that he just came back from Nampa, where a double homicide had occurred. All Eric knew at the time was that it was supposed to be a particularly gory scene. Since Wednesday, details surrounding the murders have been slow to emerge. In today's paper, its was revealed that the two persons killed had been "tortured", and by "tortured" I mean struck repeatedly with an axe. Apparently, the murder suspect, who was found wandering the neighborhood naked that Wednesday afternoon, smeared blood all over the house. Obviously, the murderer was completely out of his mind. But the crazy coincidence is that the same day I wrote a letter to the editor in which I quote a scripture involving rape, murder, and the dismemberment of bodies (to make the point that the Bible is fucked up), a guy tortures and chops up two people. What's more, according to the Statesman, since being caught, the suspect has been commenting continously about the Bible, religion, God, and Jesus Christ. An emergency room doctor who must have treated the suspect said that "He took it like a metaphor literally and that he was following his faith." The affidavit reported that the suspect claimed that he felt bad, and that he tried to lay his hands upon the victims to try and heal them, but he didn't have the "authority".
It would be wrong, of course, to say that religion was responsible for the murders. But then again, I think it would be wrong to say that it had nothing at all to do with them. How much responsibility religion holds for the violent actions of individuals (murderers, terrorists, presidents, etc) is yet to be drawn out. I look forward to delving into the subject in the future.