Texas Governor Rick Perry has issued a statement regarding the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, which took the lives of 20 innocent little children and six adult school employees, and Obama's recent call to ban assault weapons and for further gun control laws. In Perry's religious based statement he said, "Guns require a finger to pull the trigger. The sad young man who did that in Newtown was clearly haunted by demons and no gun law could have saved the children in Sandy Hook Elementary from his terror."
Perry's blaming the insane and heartbreaking massacre on "demons" who haunted Adam Lanza is far beyond ignorant. Perry is trying to take us back to the time when Christianity ruled Europe, which is known as the Dark Ages.
Even though Perry is probably correct in claiming that a ban on assault weapons would not have saved the children in Newtown (the 10 year ban on assault weapons from 1994 through 2004 had no measurable impact on reducing violence in which guns were used, nor did it do anything to stop the 1999 Columbine massacre), Perry is mired in the depths of foolishness, hypocrisy and unAmericanism when he offers prayer as a solution to this real and deadly problem. His statement reads, "There is evil prowling in the world - it shows up in our movies, video games and online fascinations, and finds its way into vulnerable hearts and minds. As a free people, let us choose what kind of people we will be. Laws, the only redoubt of secularism, will not suffice. Let us all return to our places of worship and pray for help. Above all, let us pray for our children."
Perry likes to paint himself as a stalwart American, yet, he attacks a key cornerstone of the American Republic which is the rule of law when he states, "Laws, the only redoubt of secularism, will not suffice." He is also ignoring the fact that America was founded as a secular nation and not as a Christian or Judeo-Christian nation.
His call for us to rely on prayer is so full of hypocrisy it is stomach turning! Does Rick Perry rely on prayer, or does he rely on trained armed guards? Just as Barrack Obama, Rosie O'Donnell and the pope all depend on trained armed guards for their own protection and the protection of their families, so does Rick Perry.
Perry's religious/ignorance based statement does give freethinkers a great opportunity to blast holes in the religious right. It does this by claiming prayer will protect children. Based on the promises found in the Bible this is completely true and Rick Perry is 100 percent correct. For just one key example, John 14:12-14 says that Jesus promised Christians that after he died and went back up into Heaven Christians would be able to ask for anything in prayer and he would give it to them. It reads, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father. And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it."
Based on this Bible promise, Rick Perry is clearly right. The only problem is the Bible is nothing more than ancient gibberish as testing this Bible promise will prove. Any Christian can test it right now by going to a local funeral home and praying right then and there, asking in the name of Jesus that one of the dead people be given their life back and raised from the dead since the Bible on several occasions claims Jesus did just that and this Bible promise says Christians can do what Jesus is said to have done plus much more. So raising someone from the dead based on John 14:12-14 should not be a big deal for any Bible believing Christian. And if they can't raise someone from the dead then massive amounts of doubt will enter their minds and the minds of any Christian who is made aware of the failure of the test of Jesus' promise at John 14:12-14. This will cause sincere Christians to leave Christianity behind for something more in line with their God-given reason. Without unquestioning Bible believing masses of people the religious right is powerless and individuals and society is much safer. It is wrong for Deists and freethinkers not to confront dangerous Biblical nonsense such as this as the American revolutionary and Deist Thomas Paine made clear when he wrote in The Age of Reason, The Complete Edition, "It is an affront to truth to treat falsehood with complaisance."
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