The these two stories had me shaking my head today in wonder. The first involved the
young child who was tortured and died before the age of two. At the funeral, a fight broke out -- at one point the brawl apparently came close to toppling the child's coffin.
Several people began to taunt Thomas [the chil'd father] because of his relationship to the foster parents. He clutched the funeral program in his fists, his eyes closed.
Glover [the child's mother] was assisted to the casket. Just as she reached it, the brawl began.
Who threw the first blow was unclear. Thomas was punched on the left side of his face. He was removed from the chapel and taken to a couch, the left side of his face severely swollen, a bloody gash beneath his left eye. Family surrounded the couch to protect him.
In the chapel, chairs were thrown aside and flower displays were knocked over. Several people grabbed the boy's casket to keep it from being flung down. Glover screamed.
As people cried out for calm, the fight spread to the funeral home lobby and into the street. The lectern with the visitor's book was knocked over. Someone reported seeing a gun, and stunned onlookers fled the building.
The
other story, same day, had to do with a mother who apparently felt that giving her son a gun to go out and finish an altercation that had occurred earlier was the correct thing to do.
[Milwaukee Police Chief] Flynn said he did not know what sparked Tuesday night's altercation.
"Listen, we're dealing with immature young men who do dumb things," he said. "The only problem for us now is they do dumb things with semiautomatic handguns."
And a mother who is not terribly grown up either.
It's not it the water, it is in the society. When a society chooses to reject God as the ultimate authority, who then becomes the authority? Government? And where does Government get its authority? From the individuals it governs - right? So, ultimately each individual is his/her own authority. Chaos ensues. You are seeing the fruits of that chaos here.
ReplyDeleteWhose god? I'm kind of partial to the Flying Spaghetti Monster.
ReplyDeleteI'm beginning to think you and daddio would be partial to a theocracy, Tony. Who gets to be the high priest?
ReplyDeleteAnd still the question remains, if God is not the ultimate authority, who is? In a completely secular society, does everyone get to determine for themselves what is right and what is wrong?
ReplyDeleteTim, I've met you and you seem genuinely nice and caring toward others. Why? If the flying spaghetti monster is your ultimate authority, what possible difference does it make if you are nice to others or not? Will the flying spaghetti monster be upset with you if you are not nice?
And if you knew your Catholic teaching at all, you would know that Jesus was, is, and always will be the High Priest. And before he left he appointed Peter and his successors, currently Benedict XVI to lead His Church on Earth.
Nice comment. Still, what's the point. I don't agree that your superstitious beliefs have any meaning for anyone except for those who have been taken in by the mythology. And now that society is beginning to grow up and move away from believing in fairy tales, you're upset and defensive.
ReplyDeleteI understand that. I'm sorry you feel so hurt.
I do know my Catholic teaching. I just believe that the loving ideas of Jesus (yeah, he was real, but he wasn't a god) have been manipulated and twisted for centuries by a substantially internally-chosen power structure bent on maintaining sway over the herds to increase their power.
You're a nice guy, too.
If the flying spaghetti monster is your ultimate authority, what possible difference does it make if you are nice to others or not?
Well, it was a joke first of all. You did understand that, right? And, I'm nice and caring because it's the correct thing to do. I don't need a god to tell me that, and neither do you.
Either I am lousy at my writing, or you just don't get it. It seems like at some point in most of our discussions you come back to "What's your point?".
ReplyDeleteMy point is that when man removes any absolute definition of right and wrong and chooses to define it for themselves, you will end up with the horrific behaviors you bemoaned in your blog.
I don't belive society is "growing up" but it appears we can agree that it is moving away from religion. That is not a good thing (although I know you disagree).
"I'm nice and caring because it's the correct thing to do." While I agree with you that it is the right thing to do (because that is what God has told us to do), not everyone agrees with you. So to them it's the right thing to do because Tim says so? Holds about as much weight as the Flying Spaghetti Monster says so.