Terry Mattingly writes on GetReligion.org, the weblog that examines the media's treatment of religion ("they don't get it"). Here is some of what he wrote about yesterday's Virginia Technical University massacre in "Waiting for the 'why' shoe to drop."
You’re waiting.
You’ve been out there clicking from site to site, because you know that the 24/7 cable-news channels are trapped in old-video-loop hell. You’re looking for new information, but you are also waiting.
You’re waiting for the shoe to drop. You know which shoe I am talking about -- the religion shoe.
... You’ve seen the photos of mourners in church pews, believers offering comfort and seeking solace. You know that people will pray and pray and that journalists will aim cameras at them, because, you know, that’s what people in the Bible Belt do. They pray. ...It’s a good photo, but it’s just prayer. Right?
...Or maybe Pat Robertson will say -- something. Who knows what he’ll say.
Perhaps the atheist version of Robertson will call a press conference somewhere and say that this tragedy is more evidence that life is random and without purpose. Reporters need an atheist version of Robertson.
You’re waiting to find out what video game the shooter played, all hours of the day and night. Did he go to see 300 one too many times? Was he driven crazy by Satan or too many Left Behind novels? People on both sides of the Culture Wars want to know.
You’re waiting to see if he killed more women than men.
...You heard reporters say the shooter was Asian and you immediately thought: Asia? What part of Asia?
You’re waiting for something that points toward the source of this evil. You want to know a source, don’t you?
"You have vandalized my heart, raped my soul and torched my conscience. You thought it was one pathetic boy’s life you were extinguishing. Thanks to you, I die like Jesus Christ, to inspire generations of the weak and the defenseless people."
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18169776/?from=ET
Posted by: | Apr 19, 2007 at 04:18 AM