You, Mr. Huckabee, I think you owe an apology!

What you said in an interview with Cavuto on FOX News is highly offensive:

Cavuto asked: “How could God let this happen?”

To begin with, Mr. Cavuto, on one hand, is asking the wrong question. It is not God we should be asking “Why?” Not until we ask it of ourselves, anyway. Only then should we look elsewhere for explanations. On the other hand, however, your response is appalling. You responded by saying, “Well, you know, it’s an interesting thing.”

An “interesting” thing? The tragedy in Newtown is to you, “Interesting?”

There’s nothing “interesting,” Mr. Huckabee, about the tragedy in Newtown. There is, however, a great deal interesting in your response. What occurred in Newtown is horrific…sad…heartbreaking.

But “interesting?”

Let me remind you of something. Newtown is the world. It is Darfur…Syria…It is the Middle East…it is America. Newtown is Anytown. Newtown is you and me. What happened to those children…to their parents…to those teachers and administrators…to their families…to that community…to our world…what happened to them, happened to you, to me, to all of us. You can float around in a pool of theological and philosophical nonsense if you’d like…you can dismissively look at the very face of human suffering with a kind of sanctimonious detachment but, the real truth is, Mr. Huckabee, when tragedy strikes anywhere, it strikes everywhere.

But, that’s not all. You continued: “We ask why there is violence in our schools. Should we be so surprised that schools would become a place for carnage because we’ve made it a place where we don’t want to talk about eternity, life, what responsibility means, accountability?”

Really? I do not know what school you attended, but the public schools I attended taught me about these values and others. No, my schools were not perfect but, when you say our schools do not teach the values of responsibility…accountability…and so forth, are you suggesting that those teachers and administrators in Newtown are different from the majority of teachers and administrators across the landscape of our educational system? That, had they been teaching such values, something like this might not have happened?

How dare you! My own feeling is that what those heroic and dedicated teachers and administrators did in Newtown, teachers and administrators anywhere in America would do under similar, unthinkable circumstances. You not only owe them an apology. You owe teachers and administrators all across America an apology.

But, frankly, what I find most offensive is your flippant and thoughtless theological and philosophical explanation of what happened in Newtown. Unlike some other politicians, you are indeed much more crafty in your comments. You carefully framed your comments so that, unless someone were really paying attention, they might have missed it. I was paying attention, however. And, what you said is scandalous, insensitive, and just plain wrong.

“Should we be so surprised,” you observed, “that schools would become a place for carnage…when we’ve systematically removed God from our schools?”

Shocking! And yet, I’m not so shocked, either. I’ve come to expect this kind of thinking from “Christians” like you.

What on earth do you mean by “remove God?” Maybe what you really meant to say is that yourgod has been removed. The god you, and others like you, have created in your own image. A god who very likely needs removing.

Has that ever occurred to you?

With such remarks you not only show little regard for those broken by this tragedy, but you make God into some kind a cosmic psychopath–vengeful, sickeningly repulsive, one who takes out his madness on innocent little children. Your reasoning is repulsive: Because we have removed your god from our schools, this is how your god gets even?

You, sir, have a twisted view of god.

How does your lame logic explain what happened two years ago at the First Baptist Church of Maryville, Illinois? There a gunman disrupted a worship service by shooting and killing the pastor, two other parishioners, and, had his semi-automatic gun not jammed, may have killed others?  

In your view, I suppose the killer in Newtown must be getting his just reward from god…celebrating in heaven right now because he faithfully fulfilled his mission as the Divine dispenser of death and destruction?

You have just revealed more about yourself than you realize. I see no difference between your view of god and that of the extreme fundamentalists who actually believe their god uses them to torture and kill others?

Mr. Huckabee, your god is dead.

You are misguided in your comments.

Your theology sucks.

And, your pastoral sensitivity…well…it frankly leaves me speechless.

You owe Newtown an apology. In fact, you might just owe God an apology, too.

I speak and write about spiritual living both within and beyond organized religion. So, I invite you to subscribe to my weekly blog/newsletter. Visit my website, where you can sign up and receive free chapters to the award-winning book The Enoch Factor: The Sacred Art of Knowing God.

I’m an Adjunct Professor of Communication at the University of Kentucky. Youth today are open-minded and they’re more willing than most to embrace all people, regardless of their race, religion, sex, or orientation. When I’m with them, they call me their teacher. What they do not know is that I’m really their student.

I speak to widely diverse audiences on the art of leadership, the laws of success in business and life, the nurture and care of your sacred self, and just how the life you lead today determines the legacy you leave tomorrow.

I also coach CEO’s, professionals, community leaders and, of course, religious leaders within virtually every communion in America. Contact me directly steve@stevemcswain.com or through your preferred speaker’s bureau.