Pastor Jack Hibbs, of Calvary Chapel Chino Hills, blamed the Uvalde school slaughter on the teaching of evolution. It was not his only step into absurdity. In an interview with Newsmax, this man of God outlined his thinking, saying,
“… their kid’s content. What were they viewing, what were they watching? The second thing is we teach kids in school God’s dead. He’s not real. Evolution’s true. You’re nothing but an animal. And then we act up … or we see them act up. And we get upset they don’t act like angels. We tell them they’re animals and go out there and be a good boy. This man, this young man conducted himself like an animal. It’s tragic because ... exactly right ... where was his mom? Where was his dad? Even if he didn’t have a mom or a dad, where was his family members? What went wrong? We need to be unpacking that, instead of this issue of the second amendment. This is ridiculous. We need to talk about the heart than the second amendment.”
Hibbs talks about “unpacking”. So let us do that, by parsing what he said.
1. “… their kid’s content. What were they viewing, what were they watching?”
The video cuts off the beginning of his rant. But it is safe to assume from the context. that he is checking the first gun-zealot box — that kids are driven to violence by video games and violent content in whatever they are watching. Logic refutes this claim. Kids watch violent things in many countries - but only the US has regular school massacres.
2. “The second thing is we teach kids in school God’s dead. He’s not real.”
Really? What school teaches that? I challenge Hibbs to produce a K-12 curriculum that teaches Atheism 101 or anything of the kind. Besides, if God exists and the kids are going to services, surely the diety is up to the task of convincing impressionable minds He is real.
That raises an interesting question. Why are murder rates generally higher in states with high church attendance rates? Statistically, the evidence suggests the possibility that belief in God leads to violence.
In broad strokes, the Northeast has the lowest murder rate and the highest rate of non-belief. While the Bible Belt is awash in church-goers and murderers.
#3 “Evolution’s true. You’re nothing but an animal. And then we act up … or we see them act up. And we get upset they don’t act like angels. We tell them they’re animals and go out there and be a good boy. This man, this young man conducted himself like an animal.”
Indeed, evolution does not assign Homo sapiens a special place. To nature, every creature is a DNA replicator, no better or worse than any other. But I have no issue treating a frog as my equal. It does not diminish my self-regard. I can type, and the frog cannot. So I can still feel superior without needing a God to salve my fragile ego.
Worse, Hibbs thinks being an animal is a bad thing. Why? Animals kill only to survive, eat and propagate. Any animal would think that what the Uvalde shooter did was pointless. No animal would put itself in a situation where it died for no gain.
#4 It’s tragic because ... exactly right ... where was his mom? Where was his dad? Even if he didn’t have a mom or a dad, where was his family members? What went wrong?
Hibbs plays that bad parenting card because he does not believe in facts. The killer was estranged from his parents. He lived with his maternal grandparents. And he shot his grandmother in the face before the killings. But to imply — as Hibbs does — that he came from an indifferent family that did not care is unsupported by the facts. They seemed to have tried hard, but their son was on an inexorable downward spiral.
The killer’s mental stability seems to have been shattered by bullying. And the lesson learned here is how to better identify potential killers by developing profiles of those likely to suffer mental breakdowns. And to teach children’s families, teachers, and peers to understand and report concerning behaviors. This would not just reduce school shootings. It would help the 1,000s of anguished kids, who do not resort to murder, to get the counseling that would benefit them.
#5 “We need to be unpacking that, instead of this issue of the second amendment. This is ridiculous. We need to talk about the heart than the second amendment.”
First, I have no idea what “we need to talk about heart” means.
Second and more importantly, people reveal themselves by their words. Here Hibbs reveals that he is untroubled by Christian concern for the dead or their families. He shows his allegiance is not to Jesus, who is never more than set decoration to these people. And his loyalty is to things being the way he wants them to be, no matter who has to die.
What a miserable human being.
Addendum
People, who think that a patriot's duty is to keep their fellow citizens safe, may wish there was no second amendment. However, the vast majority of those good folks understand that the second amendment is not going away — and neither are the 400 million personal guns already in circulation.
These reasonable and moral Americans — including many gun owners — want to ban military-grade weapons, super-sized clips, and cop-killing bullets. They want universal background checks. Higher minimum ages to buy guns. Licensing and training. Mandatory gun locks and security. Gun owners to carry insurance. The ability to sue gun manufacturers for promoting death. And to restrict where people can take guns.
Does this desire meet constitutional muster? It sure does. No less a pro-gun conservative than the late Justice Antonin Scalia wrote in his Heller opinion (the SCOTUS case that guaranteed the right of the individual to own a gun) that:
“Like most rights, the right secured by the Second Amendment right is not unlimited…. [It is] not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose.”
“For example, concealed weapons prohibitions have been upheld under the [Second] Amendment [and there is no] doubt on longstanding prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill, or laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings, or laws imposing conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of arms.”
Scalia believed it permissible to ban assault weapons and regulate concealed carry. He also thought states could impose conditions and qualifications to buy a gun. And, I ask you, how do you prohibit possession by felons and the mentally ill without universal background checks?
Another so called “man of God” pushing his bullshit agenda, eloquent words Pitt