Calling Christians of Good Will

[catsittingstill]

I just read a horrible post in Pharyngula.

Those of you who follow the news may recall hearing about the crash of a small plane carrying 14 people in Montana; all aboard were killed. This was obviously a tragedy, made more poignant by the fact that seven of them were children. To make the tragedy particularly bitter, nine of them were from a single family, two children, two spouses-of-children, and five grandchildren of one Irving Feldkamp, who lost a shocking swath of his family in a single appalling event.

Irving Feldkamp owns a chain of clincs called Family Planning Associates. They do real Family Planning, meaning they provide both birth control, and abortions for when birth control fails.

I bet you can see this coming. I bet some of you are cringing, seeing this coming. It is, I'm afraid, just as bad as you think.

One "Gingi Edmonds" wrote a story on Christian Newswire, gloating over his loss.

We warned him, for his children's sake, to wash his hands of the innocent blood he assisted in spilling because, as Scripture warns, if "you did not hate bloodshed, bloodshed will pursue you". (Ezekiel 35:6)

A news source states that Bud Feldkamp visited the site of the crash with his wife and their two surviving children on Monday. As they stood near the twisted and charred debris talking with investigators, light snow fell on the tarps that covered the remains of their children.

I don't want to turn this tragic event into some creepy spiritual 'I told you so' moment, but I think of the time spent outside of Feldkamp's - Pam Feldkamp laughing at the fetal development signs, Bud Feldkamp trying not to make eye contact as he got into his car with a small child in tow - and I think of the haunting words, 'Think of your children.' I wonder if those words were haunting Feldkamp as well as he stood in the snow among the remains of loved ones, just feet from the 'Tomb of the Unborn'?

I particularly like the "I don't want to turn this tragic event into some creepy spiritual "I told you so" moment. Because, of course, that's precisely what she wants to do.

So now is the time for Christians of good will, Christians who don't think a good God would even contemplate an evil act like murdering five children for the "sins" of their grandfather, Christians who are revolted by anyone gloating over someone else's pain, Christans who are appalled by the idea that anyone would deliberately try to make a grieving old man's suffering even worse, to speak up!

Don't tell me; I have it on good authority you exist, and I believe it. Tell Gingi. Her e-mail is gingi@gingiedmonds.com. Tell the world: write your local paper; write your state paper; put a post on your blog. Speak out against this evil; do it boldly and unashamed and without apology.  Even if you disagree with abortion you can still make the point that you are revolted by Gingi's heartless attempt to profit from  Feldkamp's tragedy.

Go forth and show the world that Christians are not intolerant evil jerks who increase suffering.  And pass it on.

Comments

Re: God would even contemplate an evil act like murdering five

[tfabris.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I wouldn't call accidents and natural disasters "evil". I think that to get that moniker, it needs to be premeditated by a creature that posesses intelligence and free will.

And yes, there is also that "sins of the father" argument. But a Google search on the phrase "sins of the father" tells me there's a specific Bible verse that says you're not supposed to do that kind of punishment. (Among other verses that say that kind of punishment is to be expected.) So anyone trying to make that argument from a Biblical perspective probably has some 'splaining to do anyway.

Re: God would even contemplate an evil act like murdering five

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

Well, if there's a God decreeing natural disasters, that would count as being premeditated by a creature that possesses intelligence and free will, and yet not coming from human evil, in my book :-)

But I guess I was just thinking of them as evil because they make innocent people suffer. Perhaps it would be more accurate to call them "random bad things." The fact remains that innocent people sometimes suffer because of things that have nothing at all to do with human evil, and that while human evil may explain all "evil" in the word (pretty much has to, if you define it that way, unless you believe that there are other creatures that possess intelligence and free will) it doesn't explain the reason for all human suffering.

Re: God would even contemplate an evil act like murdering five

[pocketnaomi.livejournal.com]

I definitely see a difference between "evil" and "stuff what hurts someone." The former is a subcategory of the latter in my eyes -- no harm, no foul; I don't think that an action, however malicious the intent, can be evil if it doesn't actually do anyone any damage, which is why I don't believe in the concept of "evil thoughts" -- but only a subcategory. To be evil, something has to be both harmful and either deliberate or negligent (either of which imply done by a conscious being), and the hurt done has to be unnecessary to prevent greater harm and known (or should have been known) to be unnecessary. (Thus, for example, Tom Paxton's example of the refugee with two babies and one broken arm, who puts one down and walks on carrying the other so that at least one may live, is not committing an evil act, merely a tragic one, even though she is knowingly and deliberately taking an action which will harm someone.)

Whether it is evil to knowingly do something unnecessarily harmful to someone who thoroughly deserves it is a question I have not yet answered to my own satisfaction.

Re: God would even contemplate an evil act like murdering five

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure I would require an act to cause actual harm to be evil. For example if someone tried to use a rifle to shoot me dead, but missed and the bullet buried itself harmlessly in the earth, I would still consider that an evil act even though no harm was done.

But maybe this is a disagreement over semantics; I agree that "bad thoughts" are not evil if you don't act on them.