Beastly analyses

When university studies of mythology began in the 19th century, scholars often saw myth as primitive science. Why did seas surge and winds blow? Edward Burnett Tylor, Oxford University’s first professor of anthropology, argued that cultures evolved from belief in randomness to a higher faith in causation. The tidal wave was not accidental. It came because Poseidon was angry. Next time we’ll make a sacrifice and avert his anger.

On Sunday morning, June 12, the murder of 49 souls and the wounding of more began at 2 a.m. During the next hour, murderer Omar Mateen called 911 three times and pledged allegiance to ISIS. He called News 13 Orlando and told a producer he was killing for ISIS. At about 5:15 multiple gunshots signified more bloodshed, with the last crimson splatter coming from Mateen himself.

The logical question at that point: What can we do to protect America against ISIS lone wolves? But many pundits did not want to take Mateen at his word. Time Editor at Large Jeffrey Kluger dismissed the power of ideas when he wrote, “The Orlando shooter, like so many terrorists, was nothing more than an ideological opportunist—a lonely, angry, violent man who likely would have found his way to murder one way or another.” That’s wrong: Lots of people are angry, but few do mass murder unless they see themselves as soldiers in a war against evil.

Kluger’s analysis was also unsatisfying because it suggested mass murder will just continue to happen, randomly. That’s in line with neo-Darwinism, which adds Mendelian genetics to “survival of the fittest” and claims change comes not only through natural selection but via genetic drift—random changes in the frequency of genes. We exist purely by chance: Paleontologist Stephen Gould said, “I believe … any replay of the tape would lead evolution down a pathway radically different from the road actually taken.” We also live or die purely by chance.

Most people are uncomfortable with such notions of randomness. On June 12 some imitated the ancient Greeks who hoped to placate Poseidon by tying up an unpopular person and throwing him into the sea: They rushed to blame Christians for the deaths, as if murderer Omar Mateen was a regular viewer of The 700 Club. For example, transgender ACLU lawyer Chase Strangio tweeted on that Sunday at 10:31 a.m.: “The Christian Right has introduced 200 anti-LGBT bills in the last six months and people blaming Islam for this. No.”

By Sunday evening others had hearted that tweet 8,155 times and retweeted it 9,344 times. Strangio was evidently scratching an itch—even when from Mateen’s own words it was clear that the tweet’s emphatic “No” should have been a “Yes.” Soon, a herd of armchair psychologists set aside the murderer’s profession of faith. The common message: Pay no attention to what that man behind the curtain—now dead—said. Listen to our loudspeakers and repeat one hundred times: If Christians shut up, if we say nice things about Muslims, if we have more gun-control laws so a person intent on murder will have to work harder to get a gun, we’ll be safe.

Thoughtful Christians on that Sabbath had a different reaction. Some in church prayed for living victims and victimized families. Many were unflustered: Particular murders stun us, yet ever since that sad day in the Garden, the general tendency toward death and destruction is no surprise. Humans, created in God’s image, became killers by nature, leading—were it not for the grace of God—lives nasty, brutish, and short. Christians mourn. Jesus Himself wept. But we don’t panic.

Those without an understanding of original sin often do. World War I, World War II, and now World War III shock those who believe we’ve evolved beyond our ancestors, animal and human. When evil blooms, they need someone to blame—yet they’ve heard Islam is a religion of peace, and anyone who says Islam is more complicated than that is a hater.

The repetition of Chase Strangio’s message is no surprise. When we suppress what Adam and Eve knew, we’re riding a bucking bronco. Human attempts to create religions are always ways to smooth the ride by asserting order over chance. The religion of liberalism assumes a good human nature until churches, or capitalism, or bourgeois families corrupt children and adults. The “Christian Right,” with its support of all three institutions, is the perfect bogeyman.

Ancient Hindus had a trinity of sorts: Surya (sun, creator, or life force), Vayu (wind or air, sustainer), and Agni (fire, destroyer). Many contemporary propagandists of the left have their own triad: evolution (creator), media (windy sustainer), and Christian conservatives (the destroyer who will burn down everything unless he is destroyed first). When we accept that perverse theology, we know exactly what to do. Tim Teeman in The Daily Beast laid it out: “If politicians profess horror at Mateen’s actions, the most effective thing they could do would be to ensure that their children know there is nothing strange about two men kissing.”

Yes, in that beastly analysis, Christians should make sacrifices to bring societal peace. We should teach our children to see homosexuality unbiblically. But that will lose more lives, not save them. To be reality-based, we have the much harder task of figuring out what to do about ISIS lone wolves.