Reactions to the church shooting in Sutherland Springs, Texas have broadly consisted of sympathy and calls for prayer for the victims and their families, but some prominent left-wing voices have taken the opportunity to politicize the incident. Some on the left have used the shooting to mock the concept of prayer and Christianity.
Officials say that a gunman dressed in “full gear” and walked into First Baptist Church outside San Antonio, Texas, murdering scores and wounding more than a dozen churchgoers on Sunday morning.
Following the shooting, a number of prominent media personalities, celebrities and liberal pundits took the effort to mock the concept of prayer and called for gun control.
Wil Wheaton, the washed-up liberal actor best known for “Star Trek: The Next Generation” and self-proclaimed “geek icon,” attacked Paul Ryan, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, who was sharing a call for prayers for the people of Sutherland Springs.
“The murdered victims were in a church. If prayers did anything, they’d still be alive, you worthless sack of shit,” wrote Wheaton.
The occasional “The Big Bang Theory” guest star issued an apology to his readers only 6 hours after being savaged by others on Twitter, including non-believers, who took him to task for his callous attitude and lack of sympathy.
Lauren Duca, the Teen Vogue blogger best known for being dunked on by The Daily Caller co-founder Tucker Carlson on his Fox News show, mocked the concept of prayers, implying that none of it helped the victims who were slain in church.
“It” and “The Shining” author Stephen King mocked his political opponents by comparing them to uneducated hicks by dropping the G’s in his statement: “Enough with the prayin’. Time to start legislatin’.”
David Simon, the showrunner of HBO’s cop drama “The Wire” and “Homicide: Life on the Street,” joined the chorus of aggression against Speaker Ryan to “educate” him on the concept of prayer.
Kaili Joy Gray, managing editor at the progressive, pro-Clinton news organization Shareblue, mocked the concept of prayers outright, accusing anyone of praying of “[giving] zero fucks.”
MSNBC national correspondent Joy Reid penned a lengthy series of tweets condemning the NRA, stating that the organization was “soaked and bathed in blood.” She followed it up with tweets about how America was seeing a resurgence of neo-Nazism.
In the moments following the breaking news, Comedian Chelsea Handler, who just had her show canceled by Netflix, blamed Republicans for the mass shooting.
“Innocent people go to church on Sunday to honor their God, and while doing so, get shot and killed. What country? America. Why? Republicans,” she wrote.
Birth.Movies.Death movie critic Anthony Oliviera shared similar sentiments about the shooting, and chose to attack Paul Ryan.
Liberal actress Debra Messing repeated her calls for gun control — just as she did during the Las Vegas massacre — calling Congress “complicit” in the violence.
The Soze Agency’s co-founder Michael Skolnik, whose organization boasts about how it creates “campaigns about compassion, authenticity, and equity,” pinned the blame on President Trump for doing “NOTHING to prevent a massacre from happening again.”
Max Boot, a Council on Foreign Relations fellow and a right-wing critic of the Trump administration, called outright for an “assault-weapon ban.” He stated that he was “sick & tired of ‘thoughts and prayers.’”
Professional racebaiter Tariq Nasheed claimed without merit that the man identified as the shooter, Devin Patrick Kelley, was a “white identity extremist.”
Ian Miles Cheong is a journalist and outspoken media critic. You can reach him through social media at @stillgray on Twitter and on Facebook.