Jesus Saved My Child!

You know what I think when you say things like that? Nice job shitting on those who are suffering.

Right this minute there’s some crazy old guy holding a 5-year-old hostage in a bunker and the “news” interviewed another parent who said, “My two boys got off the bus at the stop just before this happened. Jesus SAVED my boys!”

Let’s think about this logically. Your kids get off the bus EVERY DAY at the same spot. Do you think Jesus guided the madman to wait until after your stop? Or did Jesus just decide that one poor kid would be the victim that day. I can picture it now, Jesus all up there in the sky saying “Eenie meenie minie moe, that‘s the kid that’s gonna go.” What makes your kid special? Or the taken child not worthy of saving? It seems to me when people say Jesus/God/Allah saves their special person it’s a slap in the face to those families of the victims. You might as well walk up and slap that boy’s mother in the face.

eenie meenie minie moe – photo by woodleywonderworks

We hear this every time something horrible happens. Some parents at Sandy Hook praised the lord that their child wasn’t in that classroom. As if their deity sat up there and aimed the killer on purpose to a different room. Or that infamous story of that one guy deciding last-minute and for no apparent reason not to board a plane that later crashes. God saved him! But what about the hundreds of other people on that plane? What did those 20 little kids in Connecticut ever do to piss off God enough that he’d send a killer to mow them down?

Because that’s what you’re saying when you say your person is so special they were protected while others died. You’re saying the dead people must have deserved it.

IF your deity can save this child or that passenger over another, why can’t he save them all? Get into the mind of the killer and change it? IF your deity is powerful enough, why do those people have to die at all?

Oh right, there’s the other side “Jesus wanted Billy or Sally up in heaven with him.” Another slap in the face.

This is a big reason why people like me have such disgust for people like you. You throw your piety out there with no respect for the feelings of others. I would never say my kid is more deserving of life than your kid. I may not most like other people’s children but I would never wish anything bad happen to them.

Here’s the thing: IF your deity is so great as to chose which person lives and which person dies why not save them all. And IF your deity wants company up in heaven, why not have everyone die peacefully. Why should a 5-year-old need to be shot at all? Or live through painful cancer before finally dying? Or be molested by supposedly pious people?

It’s because there is no deity. There’s nobody out there picking and choosing. Shit happens. Some humans are wonderful and caring (like that bus driver shot and killed yesterday while trying to protect the children) and others are twisted and horrible like the men who shot up an elementary school or kidnapped a small boy.

We’re on our own here on this big beautiful planet and we need to take better care of each other. Instead of praising some invisible shield, be thankful by showing respect to the families of the victims.

And while we’re on the subject, stop praising your deity whenever your team wins a game or you get a great parking spot or an A on your test. If he can’t save a 5-year-old from getting kidnapped or killed he certainly has nothing to do with your good luck or hard work or the talents of sports players or doctors. Give credit where it’s due, to the humans that get things done while you’re over there ineffectually praying to your imaginary friend.