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Christians Say the Darnedest Things: Uvalde Shooting Caused by Teaching Children Evolution

jack hibbs

We teach kids in school, ‘God’s dead. He’s not real. Evolution is true. You’re nothing but an animal. And then we see them act up and we get upset that they don’t act like angels. We tell them they’re animals, go out there and be a good boy.

“And this man, this young man [Salvador Ramos] conducted himself like an animal. And it’s tragic because, exactly right, where was his mom? Where was his dad? And even if he didn’t have a mom and 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 rather than the Second Amendment!

— Jack Hibbs, pastor of Calvary Chapel, Chino Hills, California, May 29, 2022

Bruce Gerencser, 66, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 45 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.

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12 Comments

  1. Avatar
    amimental

    Bullshit. No one is teaching that ‘god is dead’. What the hell planet does this guy come from?
    Wouldn’t it be better for people who don’t really know what happened or why it happened to just STFU and listen and learn instead? This kind of crap sure isn’t helping anyone.

  2. Avatar
    BJW

    Uh huh, it’s because people need more god. Hey, you all are trying to force everyone to be like you. And there are concrete, practical steps that could be taken but GOP politicians are too craven.

  3. Avatar
    Lacy

    I’ve got to interject… I live 70 miles from Uvalde, Tx. I have known friends, co-workers, and others from this town. These are our friends and neighbors. I have been to and through Uvalde many times. I have known many from Uvalde and surrounding areas. This community is predominately Catholic. Will someone please tell this fuckwit that he doesn’t get to ride on the back of this horrible tragedy for his and his causes’ own gain??

    Will someone please tell this idiot that the Catholic Church DOES NOT teach evolution as one of its tenets?

    It’s also worth mentioning that Calvary Chapel in Chino, is actually in Chino, Ca-NOT Texas. There is no Hill, Tx. There is Hill County, but no town named Hill.

      • Avatar
        Lacy

        No worries. I actually thought this buffoon was the one who tried to pass off as a Texas expert. It wouldn’t surprise me one bit. Lying is ok if you are supporting “cause”. Lying for Jesus: Who knows what sorts of justifications they can conjure on a whim.

  4. Avatar
    GeoffT

    The guy has it exactly wrong in his claim, and the reverse is true. When truth becomes a victim of superstition, the only way it can do it is by knocking reason on the head. When reason is abandoned then all sorts of behavioural issues can result, and somewhere in that mix mass shooters are bred.

  5. Avatar
    ObstacleChick

    I saw someone post this same argument – that teaching that humans evolved rather than a literal Adam and Eve formed out of dirt makes people devalue life. I doubt if you coukd find many people in the USA who weren’t raised in or near religion, most in Christianity. It’s interesting to me that the states with the loosest restrictions on guns are the sane states with the highest reported levels of conservative Christians and high levels of death by gun.

    One of my cousins posted that school shootings were because there weren’t mandatory prayers in schools anymore. I was feeling salty and responded that in my school district, there are a whole plethora of religions represented, so each school would need to implement a program whereby each religion (including nonreligion) is represented. No one responded, but at least she didn’t delete my comment. But I understand that where she lives, there aren’t people with other religions – or they “know better” than to speak up.

  6. Avatar
    MJ Lisbeth

    I know a number of elementary school teachers, including my sister-in-law, in different parts of the US and the world. Not one of the them teaches that “God is dead.” For that matter, I know people who teach at every level. The only time “God is dead” is mentioned—which is not the same as being taught- -is in college philosophy classes, and then only during discussions of Nietzsche.

    Folks like Hibbs don’t actually know what goes on in classrooms—or they’re lying to rile up their followers. Even with our proximity to actual educators, said educators and I have to try to disabuse certain family members of the notion that “God is Dead,” Critical Race Theory or anything that challenges notions of White Christian heterosexual cisgender male exceptionalism are taught—or that “grooming “ into sexual and gender deviance—is going on—in classrooms.

  7. Avatar
    Kathleen Rezansoff

    “And this man, this young man [Salvador Ramos] conducted himself like an animal.

    Dear Mr Hibbs – Animals and sane decent humans do not kill like this! There is something seriously wrong in your thinking and beliefs.

  8. Avatar
    Lacy

    What this guy fails to mention is the fact that an 18 year old, in Texas, can walk into any gun store or online (who send the weapon of choice to a legitimate gun dealer for FBI check) can legally purchase such a weapon. 18 year old’s have the ability to buy a long rifle, which an AR15 is considered a long rifle, but can’t buy booze and aren’t trusted for many other things, outside of a weapon capable of having a 30 round clip. If the age to purchase a “long rifle” were 21, we wouldn’t be having this conversation today.

    I find it odd that he prefers to blame teaching “evolution”, which we all know is based on actual observation, is the reason this kid killed these very young children and two teachers. A community who is largely Catholic, below the poverty line and lacking resources of many kinds-but let’s blame science for the killings-not the laws of the “Great State of Texas” or the enormous gun lobby here or lack of resources for the working class and the poor. Let’s blame “evolution” and lack of prayer in school and “godlessness” and family dynamics for not having the nuclear family-the way god intended…(sarcasm intentional)

    He mentioned in his blathering about, “where was the family”? Where? if he followed the news at all, he would know this kid legally purchased weapons and bragged about it online before shooting his grandmother and then shooting up an elementary school. While his grandmother lay on the floor dying, this clown thought he’d question, “where was the family”?

    A guy who may have never stepped foot across the Texas border claims to “know it all”.

    Pisses me right the hell off.

  9. Avatar
    sjl1701

    Hibbs is part of a group of white conservative evangelical and conservative political males in there 30’s and 40’s who have come to the conclusion that they are perfect and what the world needs. They seem to think that the rest of us just need to do and think what they are saying and selling and all will be right with the world. I had points in my life where I knew I was right and the world needed my wisdom. Fortunately I quickly figured out how wrong I was about that idea and settled into to doing things and working with others using collective experience and wisdom.

    Unfortunately there is no easy solution for these guys to figure that out. We’re stuck with their arrogance and stupidity until their own egos cause them to fall.

  10. Avatar
    clubschadenfreude

    hmmm, so if this god exists, then it could have stopped the shooter with no problem, including not bothering any precious “free will” since good ol’ JC says that even the thought is exactly like the act.

    but it did nothing. So Christians have a problem: 1. their god wanted this to happen and thus malevolent, 2. This god couldn’t stop it and thus not omnipotent. 3. this god simply doesn’t exist.

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