God’s Boat Plan

I tend to be suspicious when people start invoking God as directing their actions.  Whether it’s sports figures suggesting that God cares about the results of a silly game, or politicians suggesting that God favored them over their opponent, or people who presume they know what God would want to be published on a billboard or a bumper sticker . . . well, color me skeptical.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, one of the Boston Marathon bombers, has taken the God notion to new levels.  He apparently thought that God — and his dead brother — were with him as he huddled in a boat in somebody’s back yard, hoping to avoid capture for his criminal killing and maiming of entirely innocent civilians who participated in the Boston Marathon.  A note that he wrote on that night says it was God’s plan for him to hide in a boat and “shed some light on our actions.”  Tsarnaev also said that Muslims are “one body” and if you “hurt one, you hurt us all.”  Yeah, right!  Nice try, Dzhokhar!

If there is a God, could he actually have carefully plotted out Dzhokhar’s descent into terrorism and the series of sociopathic decisions that ultimately placed him under a tarp in a boat, hoping he wouldn’t be found?  Sorry, Dzhokhar, I don’t think the Almighty is troubled by you, personally, or your little trivialities — so you’re going to have to accept personal responsibility for your murderous actions.  As as for having the opportunity to “shed some light on our actions,” you don’t need God for that — hopefully the American justice system will serve.  I’ll be interested in hearing why you don’t think you’re to blame.

Voting No On God And Jerusalem

A weird scene at the Democratic National Convention today, one of those impromptu moments that makes you wonder if you aren’t seeing something a bit deeper, something hidden that wouldn’t be shown if only scripted moments were permitted.

After people pointed out that the official Democratic platform didn’t mention God or support Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, embarrassed Democratic leaders acted to return those two concepts to the platform.  Unfortunately, their effort to do so by voice vote unleashed a torrent of shouted “no” votes and boos, as opposing delegates stood on their chairs and screamed at the top of their lungs.  After three attempts, the chairman declared that two thirds of the delegates had voted in favor, even though there was no material difference in volume between the “ayes” and the “nays” on the question.

Does any normal citizen — that is, anyone who isn’t a party activist or someone who is searching for fodder for an attack ad — read the platforms of our political parties?  I don’t think so . . . but will people pay attention to TV footage of angry delegates doing whatever they can to prevent even a mention of God, or a message of support for Israel, and perhaps draw inferences about what that party really believes as a result?