“Prayers don’t work. We need legislation,”is the mantra of the “secular progressives” we are told by Lutheran minister Hans Fiene, who just published a column in a religious blog with the headline “When The Saints Of First Baptist Church Were Murdered, God Was Answering Their Prayers.” His response is proof of the tragic division in this country between people who are calling for sane gun legislation and people who are spinning these tragedies out as having different meanings, including Donald Trump who characterized the latest mass murder as “a mental health issue” “it isn’t a guns situation.” 26 people killed by one gun, how could it possibly be a gun situation? First, people react on twitter:
Now, the “God’s in his heaven and all’s right with the world,” drivel share for the day from the fine Rev. Fiene:
For those with little understanding of and less regard for the Christian faith, there may be no greater image of prayer’s futility than Christians being gunned down mid-supplication. But for those familiar with the Bible’s promises concerning prayer and violence, nothing could be further from the truth. When those saints of First Baptist Church were murdered yesterday, God wasn’t ignoring their prayers. He was answering them.
“Deliver us from evil.” Millions of Christians throughout the world pray these words every Sunday morning. While it doesn’t appear that the Lord’s Prayer is formally a part of the worship services at First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, I have no doubt that members of that congregation have prayed these words countless times in their lives. [...]
So when a madman with a rifle sought to persecute the faithful at First Baptist Church on Sunday morning, he failed. Just like those who put Christ to death, and just like those who have brought violence to believers in every generation, this man only succeeded in being the means through which God delivered his children from this evil world into an eternity of righteousness and peace.
Wow. Well, from Rev. Fiene’s point of view, then I guess that if and when we pray we should be praying for yet more of these massacres so that we can all be delivered from this evil world forthwith. Maybe the shooter and all shooters should be canonized as saints, ya think, since they are our means of deliverance? Apparently this tragedy is not a tragedy at all, it’s a feel good story.
So the enemies of the gospel can pour out their murderous rage upon Christians, but all they can truly accomplish is placing us into the arms of our savior. [...]
But we believers see the shooting in Texas as proof of something far different—proof that Christ has counted us worthy to suffer dishonor for his name and proof that no amount of dishonor, persecution, or violence can stop him from answering our prayer to deliver us from evil.
Maybe Donald Trump will nuke the planet and then we’ll all be delivered from evil, the plants and the animals, too, with one big bang and some mushroom clouds, raining down toxic hell from the sky. Remember, the so called Conservative Christians are the folks who would bring you the Rapture and the Apocalypse.