Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

The Naked Jesus

Home
Progressive Christian
Why I’ve Said Nothing About Bowling Green

Why I’ve Said Nothing About Bowling Green

Last updated on: February 4, 2017 at 5:47 pm by John O'Keefe

Why I’ve Said Nothing About Bowling Green 2017-02-04T17:47:23-05:00 John O'Keefe

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

USE AS YOU DESIRE

I was recently asked by a follower of The Naked Jesus, “How come you didn’t create a meme about Bowling Green? It seems to me you lost a great opportunity to make fun of Conway.” I’ve been praying over this ever since I started to see those posting. Here was my response to the question:

Over the past several years we’ve had some horrid shootings; Fort Lauderdale Airport, Cascade Mall, Baton Rouge, Orlando, San Bernardino, just to name the most recent few. These mass shooting took the lives of young and old, and all ages in-between, by some very hurt, twisted, sad people. These mass shootings left deep scars on our nation; while leaving deeper scars on the individuals involved in those shootings, and the communities where those horrid events took place. I honestly feel making fun of a fake shooting, discounts the pains of real mass shootings.

In that, in the pain of others who have suffered the true horror of a mass shooting, I couldn’t in good conscience play upon the hurt others have concerning those true events. For me, taking a poke at a stupid statement, made by someone striving to make a political point, is easy – but it’s not fair to those in pain. You see, it doesn’t matter what political views are, I find it wrong to make fun of her statement.

Seeing memes proclaiming “I survived the Bowling Green Massacre” plays into the lower base of our humanity, while ignoring the true pain of those who have survived mass shooting, and those who lost loved ones. While many will disagree with me, I get that – but, I also stand with those who truly lost people they loved in mass shootings; my heart breaks for them. While it’s easy to jump on the stupid things people say, this one is just not one I’m willing to jump on. What hurts the most, is that I have found many of those memes connected with people, and organizations, who claim to be progressive in their faith, or political views – and as a progressive I must say, “We should be better than that.”

Let our voices be voices that challenge the status quo; let our voices be voices that challenge those who abuse; let our voices challenge those seeking to harm others; let our voices hold those who hurting; let our voices not be used to harm others. When we play the card of a fake massacre, we allow our voices to be used to hurt others.

Previous Post

January 25, 2017

Love is Going Deeper

Next Post

February 8, 2017 The Words of an Abuser

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category abuse bad Bad Theology Blue Christian Karma Christmas Church Clinton Coming Out Day Cruz Dance Dangerous Church Discrimination Disruptive Faith disruptive peace Disrutive Church Doctrine Dominionism Evangelism Faith Fun good grace Hell Hillary Inclusive Justice Keller Leadership love Messy Church Missional New Parable Open Peace Play Politics Prayer Progressive racism random Safe Church Sessions Story Theology Trump truth Uncategorized

Select a Month March 2019 December 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 February 2018 December 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 October 2015 August 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

How many plagues did God send upon Egypt?

Select your answer to see how you score.

12 7 5 10