A guy who phoned in to CSpan this morning identified himself as part of a "teabag group" in Waycross (Waycross, Georgia, I guess) and was almost in tears as he asked a question of Senator John Barrasso. The caller had been praying for Senator Robert Byrd to die or be otherwise unable to show up for the Health Care vote. He was concerned that since Byrd had shown up but Senator James Inhofe hadn't, perhaps the prayers got misdirected and took out one of their boys, instead.
Can we count the number of ways this is wrong? I don't believe prayers ever affect this kind of thing either way but this guy obviously does. What kind of sick puppy would you have to be to want to use that "power" to cause the death of another human being? Especially another human being who was on his way to vote to expand health insurance — and to therefore probably save an awful lot of lives?
Let's give the guy the benefit of way more doubt than he deserves and assume he wasn't just worried that the bill would raise his taxes. Let's say he honestly thought this bill would cost lives...which I think is a big lie but let's say the man bought into it. Wouldn't then the appropriate prayer be for all Democrats (not just Robert Byrd) to come to their senses and change their votes? That wouldn't change the outcome either, but at least you wouldn't be turning God into an assassin.
And of course, there's the whole inane assumption here that you pray for the death of Person A and since God is so confused and has such lousy aim, he kills Person B, instead. So he's not only an assassin, he's a stupid, inept one, at that.
But the worst part of the whole thing is that Senator Barrasso just sat there and told the caller that Senator Inhofe was probably fine and that his vote wasn't needed today. He did not say, "You should be ashamed of yourself for praying for the death of another human being!" As any decent person would.
Labels: politics