Dear Joseph G. Murray,
I tell you, I worry;
I think something’s wrong with your eyes.
That you see what you see
Is a marvel to me,
And I write to express my surprise:

The saddest part, it seems to you
Is Jessica’s outdated view
Of what a god’s supposed to do,
Like answering one’s prayer;
Instead of wanting mother healed
You want, instead, the girl to yield
To love, which was in Christ revealed—
He taught us all to care.

You saw this as the saddest part
You felt it, deep within your heart—
I urge you, sir; I urge you, start
To simply look around
The Cranston Christians also prayed
The lawsuit would be turned, or stayed,
That Jessie’s feelings would be swayed
And compromise be found

And finding none, with no regrets
Began to issue taunts and threats,
And urged themselves to action: “Let’s
Make Jessica regret!
We pray that God His will compel,
We’ll use the press to mock as well,
And hope she wants to burn in hell
Cos that is what she’ll get!”

God will not bend to our request
It is enough that we are blessed
Through us, God’s love may be expressed;
It is a Christian’s job!
If Christ is, as you say, enough—
There is no need to ask for stuff—
Then, Mr. Murray, please rebuff
The Cranston Christian mob!

Bit of a rant, after the jump:

Joseph G. Murray writes a letter to the editor of Connecticut’s “The Day”:

The saddest aspect of Jessica Ahlquist’s lawsuit to have a prayer removed from her high school auditorium (“Rhode Island city enraged,” Jan. 27) is not the removal of the banner (I doubt it did much to enrich the spiritual lives of students), but the source of her militant atheism; apparently so-called unanswered prayers.

The God Jessica learned about from church and home appears to have been a combination Santa Claus, Superman, celestial magician, and on-demand wonderworker. Ask God to heal your mother (or see that you pass your exam or get you to the church on time) and it should happen “alakazam!” If it doesn’t, then this God thing is pure fable.

So Mr. Murray is not ignorant of the behavior of the other students, he’s just sadder about Jessica’s atheism. She believed, as a young child, in a god that actually answered prayers; when He didn’t, she (tragically) noticed. Mind you, the behavior of her peers implies that they also believe in an interceding god, though one who does not use the magic word “alakazam”, but rather the magic words “Our Heavenly Father”–and those magic words are worth fighting for!

Mr. Murray’s concern with Jessica is that she sees god differently than he does. And that’s “the saddest aspect” of the situation. Sadder even than the behavior of her peers and the members of the community who, while sharing the view of god that Jessica saw fit to abandon, also chose to intimidate and threaten Jessica, chose to deliberately put their religious belief ahead of their legal obligations, and who continue to blame (and demonize) Jessica for their own transgressions.

Since the Spirit of this Jesus is at the center of our being, we get in touch with it and thus with our calling through the prayer of silence, stillness, wordlessness. Forget about asking for stuff.

Hundreds of Cranston Christians have been “asking for stuff”, like the privilege to continue to violate the constitution, marginalize non-Christians, and flaunt their majority status. In addition, they have been behaving like a mob of thugs, both online and in the real world.

But the saddest aspect of the situation is that a little girl, years ago, prayed for her mothers help, and realized there was no god there to answer. Y’know, I can’t help but think this is actually one of the most positive things that has happened in Cranston in decades.