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| Sandy Hook Victims. Photo: ABC News. |
Former Governor Mike Huckabee said he suffered “vicious attacks” after telling Neil Cavuto on Friday, “We ask why there is violence in our schools, but we’ve systematically removed God from our schools.”
“I’ve said some controversial things from time to time, but none which prompted such a backlash as” that statement he said on his own Fox News program this weekend.
While he said blaming the tragedy on a lack of prayer would be “ludicrous and simplistic,” the shooting is a part of a cultural shift from a God-centered culture to a self-centered culture.”
Huckabee directly tied the shooting to an anti-life culture, from redefining marriage to providing abortion-inducing drugs to all.
“We dismiss the notion of natural law and the notion that there are moral absolutes and seemed amazed when some kids make it their own morality to kill innocent children. We diminish and even hold in contempt the natural family of a father and mother creating and then responsibly raising the next generation and then express dismay that kids feel no real connection to their families or even the concept of a family,” he stated.
“Churches and Christian-owned businesses are told to surrender their values under the edict of government orders to provide tax-funded abortion pills,” his monologue continued. “We carefully and intentionally stop saying things are sinful and we call them disorders. Sometimes, we even say they’re normal.”
The onetime presidential candidate was one of many to discuss the impact of culture and politics on the tragedy at the Newtown school, which has been closed indefinitely.
Many on the Left – including inside the White House – have used the mass murder to promote gun control legislation.
The New Yorker’s Adam Gopnik referred to Second Amendment advocates as the “child-killing lobby.”
At National Review David French replied that if Gopnick “is ‘pro-choice,’ he in fact believes that some innocent life not only shouldn’t be defended, but that fellow citizens should have a constitutional right to take that life on a whim.” A consistent standard would oppose abortion, he implied.
As horrifying as the incident was, Southern Baptist theologian Russell Moore pointed out that “violence against children is also peculiarly satanic, because it destroys the very picture of newness of life.”
Moore, who is the dean of the school of theology at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, said since children represent the Kingdom of Heaven, “The satanic powers want the kingdoms of the universe, and a child uproots their reign.”
Some have questioned whether the killing of kindergartenders – “babies” as the media called them – should be likened to the murder of the unborn in the womb. Bryan Kemper, the youth director of Priests for Life, said it was not merely right to make the correlation but necessary.
“I believe we must make these comparisons,” he said – comparisons that include history’s atrocities from Newtown to Auschwitz. “The fact is, abortion is a hidden crime that will not be shown on the evening news; therefore we must use every opportunity to reveal the horror that is the abortion massacre.”
Emotions continue to rise days after the fact. Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly broke into tears on the set after hearing one of the victims’ parents talking about their loss.
“This tragedy is compounded in emotional force by the fact that it comes in such close proximity to Christmas,” Dr. Albert Mohler said. “But let us never forget that there was the mass murder of children in the Christmas story as well. King Herod’s murderous decree that all baby boys under two years of age should be killed prompted Matthew to cite this very verse from Jeremiah. Rachel again was weeping for her children.”
“But this is not where either Jeremiah or Matthew leaves us,” Dr. Mohler wrote. The promise of the Gospel proves that “[e]ven in the face of such unmitigated horror, there is hope.”
