Comment

Comment by Bianka Bee on December 17, 2012 at 2:26pm

It seems that most people need to believe that something bigger than them is taking care of life because it's a hard reality knowing 20 small children were killed. Let alone the small children that are being killed daily in other parts of the world. It's a comfort even though it's completely false. I'm thinking that probably on some level a lot of intelligent religious people know that but they can't let go of that safety blanket. It's definitely frustrating being a minority in this way!

Comment by Pat on December 17, 2012 at 10:40am

@Loren. I doubt a completely secular speech, like the one given the President last night, will occur in our lifetime. Yes, it would be nice to have a leader acknowledge that good and evil reside in humans, and not some outside spirit realm. That the problem is not lack of god in schools, nor the solution more incessant groveling to a non-existent entity. But, it wasn’t just the audience in Newtown, CT. It was a national audience he was speaking to.

I watched it, and I recall one of the first speakers give about 2 whole seconds of lip service to non-believers. After that, it was "everyone in the magic sky daddy pool," which, to be blunt, I found rather hypocritical. The other thing that struck me about the whole ceremony was they had a Muslim, a couple of Jewish rabbis, and an inordinate amount of Christian ministers there. Nice, I suppose, in the sense of some pretense and thinly veiled veneer of diversity of belief. But at the very end, a young Lutheran minister tells everyone in the audience - including the Muslims, Jews and non-believers - to go in peace with Jesus Christ. WTF?! Even in times of great sorrow, with a public recognition not everyone thinks the same, they still have to pound Jesus up everyone's ass?! 

Comment by Loren Miller on December 17, 2012 at 8:24am

As it comes to Obama's speech in Newtown, you have to consider his audience.  Clearly he did.  I seriously doubt that the residents of Newtown wanted to hear rational and reasonable and logical.  That would have gone over about as well as a lead zeppelin.  These were (in all likelihood) mostly religious, mostly christian people who expected to be addressed along the lines of their faith, and Obama gave them what they wanted.

Which begs the question: what if, instead of Sandy Hook Elementary, the target had been an atheists' school (if such a thing exists anywhere)?  How would his address have been different, other than in the exclusion of the biblical references?  And would such an address ... COULD it be equally well received by a believing audience?  To be honest, I would like to hear such a elegy, to hear empathy and comfort not couched in religious terms but in purely human terms, if for no other reason than that such would be nearly unprecedented in my experience.  About the only other time I've heard such usage of language would be in memorials for Christopher Hitchens.  The problem is that there, it was far less a tragedy than it was a foreseen circumstance which was painful nevertheless.

Doesn't change the fact that a secular speech equivalent to Obama's address would be something to hear.  Anyone care to take a shot at it?