“Fox & Friends” took its cue from its network’s delightful coverage of the San Bernardino shooting…and focused on what really matters — namely, that this might have been a terrorist attack and that prayer works, this possible terrorist attack notwithstanding…. Co-host Steve Doocy had a copy of the paper and held it up, repeatedly, saying “if God won’t fix this, we need more [gun] laws.” GOP presidential hopeful Carly Fiorina agreed, saying “it’s stunning to me — this is an example of how afraid the left-wing is of our values.”…. Doocy and Hasselbeck agreed, with Doocy holding up the Daily News cover again and saying, “on the cover of the Daily News they have politicized this already. ‘Hey, Republicans,’ they’re saying, ‘God isn’t fixing this. As the latest batch of innocent Americans are left dying in pools of blood, cowards.’ Who [do] they picture right here? Rand Paul, Paul Ryan, Ted Cruz, Lindsey Graham, all Republicans, [or] ‘cowards who could truly end gun scourge but continue to hide behind meaningless platitudes.’”
I have no desire to ridicule anyone’s faith, regardless of how I may feel about it. That’s a deeply personal issue, and it’s frankly not my place to pass judgment. The problem comes in when ideologues like the trolls at Fox and Friends decide that mixing ideology with theology makes for a belief system impervious to questioning. In Steve Doocy’s case, I’m never sure whether his biggest problem is smug arrogance or merely a pronounced lack of functional brain cells.
Following Fox News Channel’s Right-wing playbook, which calls for the faithful to meet any questioning of their moral superiority with ridicule and the smug arrogance of the too-stupid-to-recognize-just-how-truly-deeply-stupid-they-are, Doocy does his employer proud. He completely and willfully missed the point of the New York Daily News’ front page. Doocy’s facile promotion of prayer as a solution ignores the truth of the faith he claims to follow: God helps those who help themselves. Prayer fixes nothing, it solves nothing…because solutions come from the thoughts and actions derived from the brain the God they so fervently believe in gave them. Expecting prayer to fix anything is as lazy as it is completely dismissive of what Christianity teaches.
Of course, Doocy’s Christianity is without a doubt a mile wide and an inch deep…and more dependent on this Right-wing agenda of his employer than on the teachings of Jesus Christ. The hypocrisy, the arrogance, and the willful deflection of the argument made by the Daily News’ front page only serves to demonstrate how little Doocy and the rest of the talking bobble heads on Fox and Friends actually care about gun violence.
Oh…and if you disagree with them, you’re lining up with the terrorists.
Hasselback replied, “I was so disturbed by that cover. When you see tweets like Chris Murphy out of Connecticut saying ‘your “thoughts” should be about steps to take to stop to take this carnage. Your prayers should be for forgiveness if you do nothing again.’ And then a tweet from the editor of ThinkProgress, Zack Ford, saying, ‘Try this: Stop thinking. Stop praying. Look up Einstein’s definition of insanity.’”
As proof of the efficacy of prayer — or the political expediency of it, at least — Doocy offered a text sent to the father of a woman trapped by the San Bernardino shooters: “Shooting at my work, people shot. In the office waiting for cops. Pray for us.”
“He said his daughter in there,” Hasselbeck noted, “texting him at the time, ‘pray for us.’ I say this, if you want to line up with terrorists and try to take God away, you’re not on the right side. hat’s all I’d have to say to those politicians who want to tell you to stop praying. Just don’t.”
As for Elisabeth Hasselbeck, I lack the vocabulary to adequately express the depths of my disdain for her ignorance and devotion to a Right-wing agenda based more on obedience to the dominant narrative than critical thought. Perhaps if she and Doocy had bothered to actually read what they were so busy disparaging, they’d understand that it’s not at all about mocking God. It’s about making the point that prayer will not solve the public health crisis that is gun violence. Prayer won’t fix anything; what WILL fix the problem is for politicians in the Republican-controlled Congress to actually stand up to their owners at the National Rifle Association (NRA) and do the right thing.
Like that’s going to happen….
Prayer isn’t the problem. The problem is facile, intellectually vacant ideologues like Steve Doocy and Elisabeth Hasselbeck more interesting in defending ideological purity than in actually having a rational, reasoned discussion. Why would they be willing to have a meaningful discussion when they can deflect challenges to accepted Right-wing orthodoxy with cheap ridicule and smug arrogance? Why should you engage in a debate you’ll very likely lose because you have nothing to back your arguments up with…when you can accuse your adversaries of siding with terrorists.
Game. Set. Match. Good night, game over, drive home safely.
Welcome to the triumph of smug arrogance and double-digit IQs.
