Devout
How interesting. Deep religious convictions are compatible with mass murder. Deep religious convictions even inspire and motivate mass murder.
The man accused of assassinating the top Democrat in the Minnesota House held deeply religious and politically conservative views, telling a congregation in Africa two years ago that the U.S. was in a “bad place” where most churches didn’t oppose abortion.
How deeply deeply deeply religious of him to draw up a list of legislators to murder for the crime of not wanting to force women to bear children against their will. Many deeply religious people see men as people and women as tools. Apparently murder-guy is of that clan.
Friends and former colleagues interviewed by AP described Boelter as a devout Christian who attended an evangelical church and went to campaign rallies for President Donald Trump.
Being a devout Christian=voting for Trump? I’m not seeing the connection. I know Trump is happy to force women to have babies they don’t want to have, but that’s not because he’s a devout or even frivolous Christian. It’s because he likes harming people.
“It’s because he likes harming people.”
He’s also in the “women aren’t people” camp, but then I’m not sure he regards anyone as people who isn’t himself. He’s peculiarly solipsistic in that way. He doesn’t know anything that’s not inside his own brain. Even in his calculus, however, I’m sure that male humans matter more than female ones. Females are just objects to use, manipulate, and control, in ways that men aren’t.
Simply writing that someone holds “deeply religious views” at once suggests that because the views are “religious”, they are in some way “good”, or “sincere” , and so exist in some realm that is beyond criticism; and thereby any action that follows from those views partakes of these same qualities: they were in some way “good”, or at least “sincere”, and therefore cannot be criticised, What this mealy-mouthed sort of writing does is to justify religious fanaticism, and tar with the same brush those many believers, of whatever persuasion, who do not go out and assassinate people. Why not bluntly and honestly call the man a religious fanatic? Why is it so difficult to do this nowadays?
I always ask myself, WWJM: who would Jesus murder?
It’s not mysterious to many of us how religious extremism may be connected to murder. It’s only mysterious to religious extremists in denial about how their religious extremism may be connected to murder.
The part most confusing about this story to me isn’t that a Christian wacko murdered people this week instead of an Islamist wacko or some other kind of religious wacko. It’s that the creep is described both as:
and
Which is it? Did he live in a big house with his wife and kids or did he have male roommates? Both?
@Papito,
He had a house in rural MN, but rented a room from a friend in Minneapolis as a pied-à-terre for when he was working there.
Tim @ 2 – Ya, that’s the whole point of adding “deeply”. That word used that way makes my skin crawl. Sanctimonious and phony at the same time. Blegh.
I thought that the scenario wasn’t confusing at all, but normal. Before my husband retired, he lived away from home (for days at a time in the nineteen-nineties, and for months at a time in the twenty-teens) but was still happily married with five children and a nice house, if not quite in the same league. Lots of men can’t commute daily to their place of work, and have to stay away from home during the week, or longer if working abroad. They often share digs with colleagues, or rent a room as a lodger, to reduce costs.
However, my husband has never been motivated to hurt anyone. He’s also an atheist, if that makes a difference.
Thanks for the explanation, Maroon and tigger. I have never encountered such a lifestyle choice. I have known some folks who have second homes when on assignment – I’ve had one myself – but never with roommates.
Papito, when I was in my doctoral program, I had a house in Oklahoma with my husband, but rented a room from a fellow student in Texas. She was living in the house; I only had a room. I don’t know if it’s that unusual, but it probably isn’t usual, either. It’s one of those things that happens, but a lot of people might never encounter it.