McEWEN, Tenn. (AP) — The blast in rural Tennessee that leveled an explosives plant and was felt for miles around left no survivors, authorities said Saturday.
The total number of dead was unclear, as was the cause of the Friday blast. By the weekend, the devastation came into focus, with officials saying they had found no survivors. A total of 16 people were missing, officials said.
“There’s a gauntlet of emotions there,” Humphreys County Sheriff Chris Davis said during a news conference, pausing to clear his throat before he asked for prayers for the families of the victims in a shaky voice.
“We’ve recovered no survivors,” he added.
That’s such a sick statement to make. Truly disgusting.
I’m not religious but I don’t see the problem with pointing out that the church can offer a lot of support to people after something like this.
He said “ minister “ not support. Seeing a tragedy as an opportunity to minister aka get more people into your church aka MORE MONEY for yourself, is far from supporting people who need it. It’s predatory and disgusting. I grew up knee deep in that shit and hated every second of it.
“never let a crisis go to waste” - Winston Churchill
Maybe we just have a different understanding of what ministering means. I’ve not spent much time in church though so I’ll shut up.
Cults feed on shit like this. Desperate and distraught people are their favourite victims, except for children of course.
Fuck anyone for trying to comfort another person if their worldview doesn’t match mine. Right, buddy?
Don’t feel sad about downvotes. It’s too bad it happened, but this is a great opportunity to tell you that the Eric the God Eating Penguin exists!
Dumb
It’s not about matching worldviews. It’s about the statement essentially being “yeah it sucks for these people, but it’ll be great for the church.” At best, it’s tone-deaf. At worst, it’s downright sociopathic. Comforting someone else shouldn’t ever be about how it can benefit you.
Your comments show that your empathy is underdeveloped.
Comfort isn’t about yourself. When someone is grieving, you don’t do what makes yourself better, you do what makes them feel better.
Calling the loss of lives an ‘opportunity’ is making it about yourself because it describes how this situation benefits your personal religious agenda, not the beliefs of others. Proselytizing to others in their most vulnerable moment because it makes you feel accomplished is making it about yourself, not them.
First of all, opportunities are positive events, not things that one dreads. Calling the death of 16 people an opportunity to advance the goals of your church is sick.
Second, fuck religion. I don’t hate people who are duped into them. I hate the people doing the duping. I don’t care about Joe Schmoe who goes to church on Sunday, but I hate the priest who touches children and rants to his congregation about sin and going to Hell.
Is English your first language? People often use the word opportunity to find purpose in hardship, reframing adversity as something that might lead to growth.
Wow, what a hot take. Someone give this guy more updoots for taking such a brave stance.
Opportunity - Noun:
I suppose people dying is favorable if you want to push your cult on their grieving families.
Is English your first language? You just completely supported their argument with your explanation of how “opportunity” is used lol
The reason moody has issue is probably due to how predatory it is from an outside perspective, sure from within it’s helping the community and bringing folks to Jeebus or whatever. But from without it just comes across as scummy and predatory, it’s basically the same thing cults do capture folks while they’re at their lowest.
Theres a church near me that does a hot meals thing with an open pantry so folks on hard times can get a hot meal and some food for the week, no strings attached don’t need to attend church or believe in their god or anything. Closest thing to pressure is that the pastor wanders around and just talks to folks, if they want to talk video games he talks video games, anime then anime, Jesus then Jesus. There’s no pressure for anything beyond saying thanks,
Also the pastor lets the local Neo-Hellenic guys use their backyard area for rituals which is fucking awesome. Same with the Wiccan.
Remember, the only difference between a cult and a religion is membership levels.
Chance is the word you use there. A chance for hope. A chance to comfort. A chance to bring people together to survive the tragedy.
There’s a reason why “opportunity” and “opportunistic” are related.
Religion is brain dead buddy, sorry you got into it. If you were a kid, it’s not your fault. You were brainwashed before you could develop critical thinking skills. If you’re an adult, sorry bud you got scammed
Opportunity as a way to reframe a bad situation is a good argument. “Is English your first language” is a very poor argument. Merriam-Webster shows it as positive, Cambridge says between positive and neutral, and Oxford just says neutral. As a native English speaker I feel comfortable saying that the connotation of opportunity is generally positive.
If comfort were the actual goal, you’d be right. But Christians are lying snakes, sooo…
“But [insert group name] are lying snakes” isn’t a healthy opinion to have. Seek help.
I could clarify that “not all Christians” but see arguments about men being rapists. It’s simply easier and safer to treat all Christians as dangerous.
Turns out it’s totally fine to stereotype entire groups as long as they aren’t women or not white.
We have a word for speaking confidently about something without evidence. That word is “lying”.