Here at Ground Zero of the Tea Party Movement, I get lots of reactions to my bumper stickers, some almost violent. On Saturday night, the day Gabrielle Giffords was shot, I found a business card stuck onto my windshield. It was stamped with the identifiable, well-known COEXIST design (at left), which is one of my bumper stickers.The card explained, on this day of all days, why we can't co-exist:
Can all world religions coexist? Does it matter what you believe? Does your belief make it true? Imagine having to jump from an airplane that was about to crash. If you had three possible items to strap to your back, which would you choose: a tire, a briefcase full of money, or a parachute? There is only one right answer that can save your life. This is why all religions can not coexist. They each give different ideas about God, but only one is true! Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (John 14:6) He made an exclusive claim. Either it is true or it is not.There was more, of course, but you get the drift.
Was the day a coincidence? Maybe.
And maybe not, too.
~*~
From Slate, more on The Tea Party and the Tucson Tragedy by Jacob Weisberg:
It is appropriate, however, to consider what was swirling outside Loughner's head. To call his crime an attempted assassination is to acknowledge that it appears to have had a political and not merely a personal context. That context wasn't Islamic radicalism, Puerto Rican independence, or anarcho-syndicalism. It was the anti-government, pro-gun, xenophobic populism that flourishes in the dry and angry climate of Arizona. Extremist shouters didn't program Loughner, in some mechanistic way, to shoot Gabrielle Giffords. But the Tea Party movement did make it appreciably more likely that a disturbed person like Loughner would react, would be able to react, and would not be prevented from reacting, in the crazy way he did.