9 Dead in SC church shooting

[Nope]

Another aspect of this story is how we Seculars are being criticized for our response.  Here is the link: How "Secular Humanists" Responded to Charleston Church Shooting  http://www.fitsnews.com/2015/06/18/how-s...-shooting/

That was the very first thing I wanted to look at after watching the news this morning.  My question was "I know we would criticize the prayer response, but I want to know how we should offer support for the people who are hurting from this."  You know, show our humanity towards those who lost their loved ones.  I am not saying we should not criticize the prayer response, I criticize it.  How would each one of us offer our support to them.  

I for one, would like to offer some kind of support in a fund to help offset their funeral expenses.  The hands that help are better far than lips that pray, as Ingersoll said.

That is a good idea

[abaris]

Because it is all they ever do.  Magical thinking is not going to solve anything.  So much easier to ask 'god' why he lets this shit happen rather than pay for mental health treatment and pass meaningful gun control.

Would you want them to show up when you lose a loved one to pray a right hook?

I can't call them out for something like that if I'm stooping to their level.

[Minimalist]

You know what?  Maybe if people got angrier about this horseshit instead of withdrawing into their fantasy realm things would change.  "God" isn't going to do shit.  Not because he's "evil" but because he's a fiction.

[Foxaèr]

I am only disappointed that the number was not more than nine.

[Crossless2.0]

I am only disappointed that the number was not more than nine.

What the fuck is wrong with you? That is some seriously sick shit.

[Regina]

My thoughts are with the victims and their families

At least they've arrested the main suspect, if it is him let's hope he gets the punishment he deserves.

[Nope]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/18...14126.html

Analysts on Fox News floated the theory on Thursday that the shooting at a historically black church in Charleston, South Carolina, on Wednesday night was motivated by religious animosity toward Christians, rather than by racism.

Host Steve Doocy suggested on "Fox & Friends" that religion was the likely motivation for the terrorist attack.

"Extraordinarily, they called it a hate crime," Doocy said in an interview with a pastor Thursday morning. "And some look at it as, well, it's because it was a white guy, apparently, and a black church. But you made a great point just a moment ago about the hostility toward Christians, and it was in a church, so maybe that's what it was about."

He wore patches supporting apartheid. Also, it is reported that he told a survivor that one of his reasons for the attack was because he felt that black men rape white women. I think that we are pretty safe saying that the attack was motivated by race.

[Pyrrho]

[Saxmoof]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/18...14126.html

Analysts on Fox News floated the theory on Thursday that the shooting at a historically black church in Charleston, South Carolina, on Wednesday night was motivated by religious animosity toward Christians, rather than by racism.

Host Steve Doocy suggested on "Fox & Friends" that religion was the likely motivation for the terrorist attack.

"Extraordinarily, they called it a hate crime," Doocy said in an interview with a pastor Thursday morning. "And some look at it as, well, it's because it was a white guy, apparently, and a black church. But you made a great point just a moment ago about the hostility toward Christians, and it was in a church, so maybe that's what it was about."

He wore patches supporting apartheid. Also, it is reported that he told a survivor that one of his reasons  for the attack was because he felt that black men rape white women. I think that we are pretty safe saying that the attack was motivated by race.

Totally disgusted at the trying to make it about Christian persecution, I give it about a week until an instance of the gunman quoting bible verses to justify his racism comes out, and then the right wing media's reaction will be to ignore it and pretend it never happened

Quote from a friend of his:

“I never heard him say anything, but just he had that kind of Southern pride, I guess some would say. Strong conservative beliefs,” he said. “He made a lot of racist jokes, but you don’t really take them seriously like that. You don’t really think of it like that.”

But now, “the things he said were kind of not joking,” Mullins added.

I suspect he didn't take the racist jokes so seriously because they're so common

[The Grand Nudger]

Very much so.....so common, in fact, that having a vast ( I mean cavernous) repertoire of racist jokes and being absolutely willing to rattle them off in public...in the deep south...isn't actually a reliable indicator of racism - doesn't set off a single bell.