A friend alerted me to a great list a blogger put together of the various culprits who deserve blame for the Virginia Tech massacre. At last count, the site had 56 different offenders, including most of the predictable far-right bugaboos.
The American Family Association, a major religious right group, has produced a video that identifies the real culprit at Virginia Tech: all the predictable far-right bugaboos.
In a new video, the right-wing American Family Association attributes the tragedy at Virginia Tech to: a lack of prayer in school, a lack of the Bible in school, a lack of spanking kids, a lack of physical punishment in school, abortion, condoms, Bill Clinton, internet pornography, free speech, the entertainment industry, “satanic” music, and liberal culture in general.
You really have to see the whole video — titled, “The Day They Kicked God out of the Schools” — to believe the stunning stupidity of it all, but it starts off with the following voice-over, which offers the viewer a hint of the nonsense to come:
“Dear God, why didn’t you save the school children [at multiple school shootings in recent years]? Sincerely, concerned students.
“Reply: Dear concerned students, I am not allowed in schools. Sincerely, God.”
Now, the American Family Association has been one of the leading purveyors of theocratic nonsense for years, so this comes as no surprise to anyone familiar with the group’s work, but in this case, the devil’s in the details.
It’s tempting to point out that most Christians would consider it heretical to presume to speak for God, particularly when lying to advance a right-wing agenda. It’s also tempting to point out that based on the AFA’s worldview, God can’t be “kicked out” of anything — He’s everywhere. And some truth-huggers might also be tempted to point out that school prayer is alive and well in public schools across the country, and that the only practice that is legally prohibited is state-sponsored, school-endorsed prayer. (The AFA prefers a system in which the government replaces families as being responsible for promoting religion among children.)
But Steve M. points out the most entertaining aspect of this little piece of ridiculous propaganda:
[T]he AFA’s not just posting it. The AFA is selling it.
That was quick.
And the AFA isn’t selling a longer version of this — the AFA is selling this video, and no more, for a “donation” of five bucks. Running time of the above video? About three minutes. Running time of the video you purchase? About three minutes. (You can also purchase just the audio track, for the same price.)
That’s right; this “pro-family” outfit sees the Virginia Tech slaying as a fundraising opportunity, asking the AFA’s suckers supporters to buy a video that not only lies to them, but is already available online for free.
In other words, the AFA not only wants to exploit a massacre for political purposes, it also wants to exploit a massacre for some quick cash.
I’d add that the AFA has been in on the money-making side of the culture war for a while now. Long-time readers may recall an item from December, when we talked about the AFA using the alleged “war on Christmas” as a cash cow — selling more than 500,000 buttons and 125,000 bumper stickers bearing the slogan “Merry Christmas: It’s Worth Saying.” The AFA’s Don Wildmon refused to get into specifics, but acknowledged that the project turned a profit — so much so that he planned to sell buttons about other holidays as well.
I don’t claim to be a theologian, but where’s the part in the Bible about Jesus looking to turn a culture war into a quick buck?