Evil Among Us?

I'd never heard of Ron Petak before his column today in The Omaha World Herald.  It's his response to the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.  

Sure as there is oxygen in the air, evil is among us. It comes in the form of African genocide, drug lords, and ministers and coaches abusing the trust of the children. It comes dressed as religious extremists, drive-by shooters and company CEOs who pilfer from the working man's pension fund.

He's attempting to say evil is among us.  And apparently, only his god can stop it.  Interesting that he alluded to the Penn State child abuse scandal, while completely ignoring a certain other child abuse scandal.

Sunday night, the residents of Newtown and Connecticut and the nation needed God, not the ACLU.

What the flying fuck does the ACLU have to do with this?  If we're calling things evil, I've got a few.

Capitalizing on a tragedy to push an unrelated agenda is evil.

Taking advantage of people's grief to push your religion is evil.

Pretending your god will solve problems, while doing nothing yourself to actually solve those problems, thus leaving them unaddressed, is evil.

I pray you will join me.

And I hope people refuse to join you.  The less people praying the better.  Every second praying is a second spent not helping.  The world's very real problems need action.  Not fantasy.

Credit:  A fellow member of Omaha Atheists