So it is of course entirely understandable that a Baptist minister would torture and kill a mere cat.
Rick Bartlett, pastor of the Bastrop Christian Church, is facing animal cruelty charges. Bastrop Police Chief Michael Black said Bartlett admitted that he caught the cat, named Moody, in a trap on Sunday, Jan. 15. Bartlett told them that he was having a problem with feral cats in his garden.
Moody [I hope this is an error, and that it was Bartlett–pzm] also told police that he had the cat in a cage in the back of his pick-up truck for three days and forgot about him until Tuesday, Jan. 17., when Bartlett brought the cat to police. An animal control officer noticed a name tag including the phone number of Moody’s owners, Sarah and Eddy Bell, on the cat’s collar. The officer offered to take Moody back to his owners but police said Bartlett told them he’d take the cat back himself since they were his neighbors.
Later on the same day, a park visitor discovered Moody’s near lifeless body on the bank of the Colorado River, some 40-50 feet below a bridge.
Moody the cat died of severe internal injuries. He’d apparently been thrown from a bridge after being starved and neglected for several days by good Pastor Bartlett.
There is a little coda to the story.
Moody was Sarah and Eddy Bell’s cat for 11 years. They are having a difficult time understanding what happened to the beloved member of their family. Trying to explain his death to their five-year old daughter has proved challenging.
“She also asked me where Moody is now and I said, ‘Baby he’s in Heaven,'” said Sarah. “She knows the man who did this is a pastor at the Bastrop Christian Church and she said, ‘I don’t believe in Heaven anymore, Moody’s just dead.’”
Parents, don’t lie to your children and tell them this fairy-tale nonsense about the dead magically living in a happy afterlife. They’re smarter than you give them credit for — and they can tell that the people most enthusiastic about telling these lies are no better than other people, and are often worse.
I have been indignantly informed that Bartlett is not a Baptist, but a member of a different sect, the Disciples of Christ. My apologies. All the loons look alike to me.
Infallible Morality(TM)
I hope they can sue the fuck out of him.
Waiting for the story of how the cat is to blame in 3, 2, 1…
Absolutely disgusting, a complete disregard for life and morals.
It was a talking cat, therefor, obviously a witch, or the familiar of a witch. Better get the little girl next … she might be the witch. Just ask Helen Ukpabio.
Good old Christian values again. Fuck this excuse for a human being.
Well, the babble commands us, as humans, to dominate nature. He was just proving his dominance the same way his gods prove their dominance over humans.
I hope they throw the book at this asshole (the law book, not the useless one).
Shouldn’t this have been posted as Anti-Caturday? just sayin.
No. Anti-Caturday is humour. This is not. This is sadistic tendencies surfacing in a disturbing manner.
This pisses me off so much. As an animal lover, almost nothing makes me angrier than someone hurting a defenseless animal. The sad thing is, the bastard probably won’t get any sort of punishment for this.
What is it with the religious and cats? I remember reading about some nuns here in Belgium who strangled a cat with a length of rope. Honestly, what the fuck?
Yes, but just think of all the good Bartlett has done throughout his career. Balance that against one little mistake.
But if the twisted little fuck repents then every thing will be fine, right?
[S]he said, ‘I don’t believe in Heaven anymore, Moody’s just dead.’”
Lesson learned.
Having been owned by several cats in my life, they are NOT defenseless, but that pastor should have been thrown off the bridge. I hope Moody’s family sues the shit out of him.
Amazing how pernicious the idea of salvation through personal belief can be, ain’t it? I mean, if he were a Catholic priest, the idea of redemption through good works would have stopped him hurting an animal, or a child, or a. . . . Oh. Nevermind.
Truly sickening, not only the act, but how the prolonged treatment of the cat attests to the mentality of this pervert.
Even if there was a heaven, I was under the impression that animals weren’t invited, only humans. Quite how this would square with it being the little girl’s idea of heaven to see her dear pet there I don’t know, but I guess, when you’re postulating about imaginary places with arbitrary rules, there’s no point in seeking sense in the ridiculous.
Sounds like the cop slipped up, too. When Bartlett took the cat to the police, he admitted that he’d neglected it for days, so they should not have left it in his care. In fact, he was lucky not to be arrested right there.
I wonder whether there’s something more going on here than simple animal cruelty. Pets are often proxy targets in feuds between neighbours.
People, people, we should leave the man alone until we know all the facts. Maybe God had told him to do it. In that case, I think all charges should be dropped. God knows why he wanted this cat dead, we as mere humans should not question him.
Ok, I can’t do this any more. I feel like I should clean my mind with a steel brush now.
Why yes, side ad, I totally want to become an ordained pastor. It allows me to torture animals.
The man is scum. I can’t stand people that torture animals. I’m the first one to eat a steak, and I love it, so I won’t say that animals shouldn’t be killed. But they sure as hell don’t have to suffer for days in the process.
Not to mention, didn’t HE see the damned collar? And why did the cops let him take the pet back? they should’ve taken the poor thing to the vet and sent him the bill.
The kid’s reply is heartbreaking. Heartbreaking in that it shows that this girl has a brain and it will probably be crushed with delusions from her parents one day. At least she resisted that one.
Second cat-killed-by-asshats (link contains pic of dead cat) story this week. What is wrong with these people
Half my comment got eaten. Anyways. Any cat denied food, water, and proper shelter for three days is going to be pretty damn weak. Moody was ll years old, so he didn’t have a chance against that monster.
This… I just don’t even understand it. The cat had a tag, call the fucking number on the tag. How can you forget about a cat in a cage? I put my cat in a cage to drive to the vet and he’s yowling and whining. Then after the police officer offers to drive you to give the cat back to its family you hurl it off a bridge? What is this man’s disconnect with natural empathy!?
We used to have a saying in the Air Force:
One ‘Ah, shit!’ erases a thousand ‘Atta boys’.
Murdering a cat is far worse than an ‘Ah, shit!’. I’m literally shaking with rage at this worthless piece of shit.
For the millionth time, cat owners, do not let your cats go outdoors. Sick fucks like this are out there, and cats are much more likely to be targeted by violent scumbags than dogs are. Black cats are the most vulnerable to psychotic christslime, and I wouldn’t let one out for love or money during Halloween, especially. Hell, the psychopaths are so routinely vicious to black cats that most shelters won’t let their black cats be adopted during Halloween. A lot of the pets they’ve adopted out have wounded up dead or tortured.
Well, I’m too enraged to type, obviously. I’m going to hug my kitties right now.
Biblical empathy? Christian empathy? Religious empathy?
I’d say that the upside of this awfulness is that it cured the little girl of her religious delusions, but the parents will probably brainwash them back into her, kindly or otherwise.
WHAT THE FUCK MAN
Aquaria:
Yeah. Coupled with the terrorist cat-murder scaryduck linked in #21, I’m really really starting to lose hope. I just don’t understand how anyone can harm an animal like that, out of malice or sadism. I had a squirrel trapped in my attic, and I was worried the little dude would get thirsty. I was a relief when I was finally able to trap it, and let it go outside.
This kind of thing is beyond the pale.
Despicable humans.
Also, don’t let your cats outdoors because they really are ruthless carnivores, we’ve fostered their populations to a very large size, and they can do great damage to local wildlife.
@Nigel:
I rescue bugs, for Pete’s sake. I cried bitterly when my neighbor’s dog attacked a little fledgeling that got in their yard (the bird sanctuary nearby had to euthanize it.) It takes a sick mind to think yourself so above nature that you can do whatever you want to it.
Yeah, and as a pastor this fucker is responisble for the ethical and moral teaching of other human beings.
I hope they bring a civil suit against the police department AND that asshole.
Speaking of despicable assholes and dead cats.
I also hope she learned not to go anywhere near a man who will torture and kill a creature indiscriminately and without reason. No matter how much respect he’s been automatically given. If you would kill an annoying cat, why would you not kill a crying child after all?
In fact i would definitely have him investigated for what “else” he’s been up to. Though i wouldn’t hold up much hope of attention if the police were so utterly useless last time.
Rev:
First comment on the news story:
Amazing.
What the fuck?
What. The. Fuck.
Fuck, now I feel like I’m gonna barf.
Yep the other article I saw had a photo of the cat. I chose to not link that one.
Made me ill yesterday when i first read it.
I can’t imagine how I’d react coming home and finding one of my three dogs like that.
It wouldn’t be pretty.
Words fail.
@ricardodivali If you would kill an annoying cat, why would you not kill a crying child after all?
From http://www.pet-abuse.com/pages/abuse_connection.php
Other research has shown consistent patterns of animal cruelty among perpetrators of more common forms of violence, including child abuse, spouse abuse, and elder abuse. In fact, the American Psychiatric Association considers animal cruelty one of the diagnostic criteria of conduct disorder.
Its fucking duelism vitalism. Animals are not embueded with the unmeasurable supernatural spark so they’re not moral agenta nor are they capable of being victimized. People who have pets can’t square this often because the idea of a philisophical zombie is inane…yet it is still offical dogma of many churches and one that even their clegry rebells against. Note how we treated humans when similar arguments were made about them being mere animals. The idea of the soul is dangerous
[meta]
In the last few weeks, people have been talking about this so-called “controversialist” approach, where we brutally pick on some revered and important Leader of the Movement, all with the goal of stirring up traffic, as if that was all we cared about.
One thing I’ve noticed over the years is that if I really want swarms of visits and lots of comments, I don’t get them by attacking someone who has many defenders. One sure fire way, though, is to post something about animal abuse, because everyone is ready to take my side and defend the defenseless.
Not to imply that I posted this out of a venal and calculating desire to get more hits, of course…it’s just an observation about what really churns the mill of blog traffic.
For all of their misogyny, racism, and trolling, one good thing can be said of the horde on /b/ : they really hate cat abusers, and I for one hope they give this guy hell.
I bet this fuckhead calls himself pro-life.
er, what?
Sorry, only occasionally post here–I forgot that “horde” is an in-group term. I meant the semi-organized mass of humans posting on /b/, not “our” horde.
The phrase “usual gang of idiots” came to mind, but I guess that’s taken, too.
@PrivateOgvorbis #46
Empahsis mine. I don’t think he meant the Pharynugla horde…
That’s two (of the the three post rule). Could you be more specific regarding who you are insulting and why? Or, if you are not trying to be insulting, could you specify what the fuck you are trying to say by, oh, I don’t know, actually saying it?
He didn’t mean Pharynugla Horde, the other horde.
He did. You just chose to ignore what he wrote after horde. Not sure why.
I’m pretty sure it was said. Did a browser perhaps cut off the rest of doktorzoom’s post at 44? It ended with (after mention of the other horde)
No insulting that I can see.
/b/ is a 4chan forum (oh shit I said it) that has a history of utilizing their collective internet power to fuck with people.
Some who deserve it, some maybe not.
Now you’ve done it. Game over, man! Game over!
No, just me not undestanding what someone has written. I guess I don’t understand the use of ‘the horde’. Or the ‘usual gang of idiots.’ And I think the key to me not understanding is, what is ‘/b/’?
Ah.
Several old and large websites have a particular forum in which users (very often anonymous) post “random” content (your mind would melt). 4chan is one such website, and their infamous random forum is called “/b/”.
This is a rather old explanation: http://gawker.com/346385/what-the-hell-are-4chan-ed-something-awful-and-b but not a bad one.
And “usual gang of idiots” is of course the affectionate term Mad magazine used to refer to their own writers and artists.
I’m definitely going to make sure I never accidentally let my brother’s cat, Kafka, out. He’s a black cat, and we live in Texas.
sorry, all. I’m dealing with some severe hostility at work right now (coworker) and am rather defensive.
It’s okay. Cats may feel pain, but they don’t feel “an experience of pain” because they don’t have a prefrontal cortex like humans do. Therefore, it’s perfectly consistent with Christian Morality ™* to abuse cats at one’s leisure. /Sophisticated Theology
*Warning: Christian Morality ™ is by no means meant to be confused with morality, and is meant to be used alongside standard morality as a supplement, and not used by itself. Christianity cannot be held liable for damages caused by using Christian Morality ™, correctly or incorrectly. Side effects of usage include loss of logic, belief in belief, mild misogyny, misanthropy, sexual dysfunction, justifications for child abuse, rampant hypocrisy, homophobia, apocalyptic cravings, ideological myopia, blood lust and an unwarranted sense of self-satisfaction.
@Anteprepro
What’s frightening, and what I keep bringing up sorry, is that those or similar arguments were made about other humans.
From the church web site, he looks and sounds like a jolly nice chap. But if you look at his blog, the first entry is appropriately about Janus, the roman 2 faced god.
Ing:
I agree that it’s frightening. And you shouldn’t be sorry, because it’s a point that bears repeating.
42:
Well, i’m sure it was an interesting and explanatory concept until someone started deciding that some have souls and others don’t.
Feeling empathy for others is very much a part of our society and humanity. A book that expects you to turn it off or wants you to meter it for only those it finds deserving is not, and can not ever be a “good” book.
IMHO.
But the soul doesn’t address or encourage empathy. It shuts it down by setting up a hypothetical clear mark of favor so you don’t have to empathize or think about it.
At first, I was trying to figure out how this guy got a hold of a meerkat. Then I realized it didn’t matter what kind of c/kat he had, he’s one sick mofo. My new year’s resolution of infinite compassion is truly tested with this guy.
Sorry, Ogvorbis–I also intended “Usual gang of idiots” to refer to /b/ (which I think others have explained), and not to Pharyngula. As to the meaning of that term, it was used on the masthead of MAD Magazine to refer to that august publication’s own staff.
Sorry you’re besieged, and I should be a bit more aware of the tendency in electronic communication for what’s intended to be merely playful to come off as snotty instead.
I am familiar with MAD Magazine and the meaning of ‘The Usual Gang of Idiots.’ When I
Screw it.
Sorry.
The parents weren’t necessarily lying, PZ. They may have believed it themselves. It’s not a lie if the person saying it thinks it’s true, it’s just an error. A really stupid, pathetic error that indicates the people making it don’t think too deeply about things, granted.
I’d like to know why the hell the police didn’t take the cat and charge Bartlett with animal cruelty when he told them he’d forgotten the cat for three days. Did they think going without food or water and being stuck in a cage with your own shit for three days is no big deal for a cat? Maybe they should try it themselves.
We have four adorable cats that we have rescued over the past 11 years and they have brought us a lot of joy. Animal abuse of any kind is inexcusable and raises suspicion. As others here have pointed out, this kind of behavior rarely occurs by itself, and is usually accompanied by other very sick, disgusting little tricks.
Preacher
Good point with a slight problem: Even if the parents do believe in Heaven, they probably don’t actually believe that the pet will go there. Heaven’s not typically for animals, outside of certain movie-films . In this case, the parents probably are blatantly lying, even if they technically believe in Heaven and that means they aren’t technically “lying” when they suggest that Heaven actually exists at all.
Actually, i suspect that you’ll find outside of the fundy rapture crowd people with pets do believe in a heaven for animals. Including clergy of church’s where the dogma refutes that.
I have known people who have left their church because the preacher was “full of shit” when it came to pets.
I knew very well a hard line, protect the church damn the media for the scandal, catholic priest who very openly would go against the church on that issue.
The philosophical zombie question is rejected by most people and shows that a strong emotional personal experience is what best can break dogma.
I think the quote from Peter Medawar’s review of Teilhard de Chardin’s The Phenomenon of Man is apposite here:
That, and the fact that he told them he would return the cat–probably with a big sincere smile. The cliche about psychopaths is that they’re sometimes capable of being quite charming.
Is that psychopaths or sociopaths? There’s some very sublte differences, one of which apparently is origin (some say that Psychopaths are due to innate brain irregularity while socioipaths are due to upbringing)
Bastrop…isn’t that the same town where Damien Fowler got death threats for complaining that the christian prayer at his high school graduation was unconstitutional and illegal last year? They must be soooo proud of their religious community and the moral lessons they’re teaching their children…
That was Damon Fowler of Bastrop, Louisiana.
This is something I’ve noticed lately.
A lot of ministers and priests don’t seem very bright.
A lot of ministers and priests seem to be twisted monsters. Especially the leaders.
Something about a job making stuff up with no heavy lifting seems to attract some of the worst of our society.
To be sure, they aren’t all like that. I even know a few who are intelligent and truly care about our society and the people around them. They are all moderate mainline Protestants though but that is who lives around me.
People who are cruel and kill pets also have a tendency to end up being cruel to and killing humans.
Where I used to live, a neighborhood had a problem. They kept finding cats that had been doused with gasoline and set on fire.
Shortly after that a kid killed his parents and several other people for no discernable reason. This was almost certainly some sort of defective brain chemistry resulting in psychosis.
That minister shouldn’t be near anything alive and breathing.
@Raven
Sorry I have to strongly disagree with you. I think your observations are if not wrong, too broad to draw a conclusion from.
What an upright pillar of religious virtue this preacher is. He’s just brimming over with Christian love and compassion. I was particularly taken with how he went out of his way to return the cat to the family. I was also amazed with what an unfeeling doucebag he is.
I know that you mean this sarcastically, but really, I am thinking. I’m thinking about how much shit this guy has done and gotten away with.
A person doesn’t just wake up one day and decide to torture an animal. This speaks to his character. A really rotten, sick and twisted character.
I can’t help but notice that torturing animals is a common practice of people with severe anti-social or psychopathic disorders.
My immediate reaction, verbalized on reading about poor Moody, directed at that idiot who killed him: “Oh! You asshole!”
How can any civilized person behave that way? And he calls himself a “pastor”, i.e. a shepherd to his flock? Some shepherd!
I am filled with rage.
Perhaps he would like to play hide and seek with a Bengal tiger, and he could wear one of Lady GaGa’s raw meat outfits.
@72
Actually… no. A very great many people who believe in heaven and have pets believe their pets will go there too. The common sentiment is “it isn’t heaven without my pets”.
I believed this too, when I believed. In addition to one of the deal-breakers of “It’s not heaven if hell exists at all”, ‘it’s not heaven without my pets’ was a very important thing to me. I have a deeper bond with my animals that I typically do with people.
I spent four hours and about a thousand dollars at the emergency vet Sunday with one of our kitties. She’s home now and slowly recovering from an unknown infection or inflammation. I can’t imagine just throwing her off a bridge.
FFS, some people make me ill. “Man of God,” my pasty white ass.
If someone did something like that to my cat, I’d just straight up kill him. There wouldn’t even be a chance for suing.
I’m more baffled by his decision to do it.
Who would do this AFTER showing the police the evidence that links you to it?
How is anyone that dumb?
He literally went up to the police and basically said “Hey here’s a cat and who it belongs to…if anything happens to it I did it!”
Gads, what a terrible way for a kid to learn the truth about adults and their religions.
Oh wait.
May have figured it out.
Pastor finds cat, catches cat. Neglects cat. Sees it has a license and thus someone is looking for it. He panics and knows that he’s in deep shit when they see the condition of the animal (since he had neglected it for days) and ditches it.
Now THIS is how you fuel a long comment thread.
Yes, the one slip that revealed his true nature – that of a sadist and a bully. A person who has an appetite for other creatures’ suffering.
There is no excuse, whether age, strong emotions, crowd inspiration or peer pressure, that can explain this behavior. These are bad, bad people who should never, ever be thrusted or left without surveillance with vulnerable people. There is no telling what their appetite for pain might bring them to do.
Anyone leaving a child under the power of pastor Bartlett is taking an enormous risk. Even if we exclude obviously criminal acts, these people are masters at causing pain by devious means, using such tricks as humiliation, telling frightful lies, betrayal of personal secrets to loved ones. This kind of thing can leave very deep wounds.
I have a hatred for sadists that runs very deep. I don’t think I would be ever able to tolerate close contact with one, even if he/she was one of my children.
My daughter has a grandmother-in-law who has told her that her kitten is “an evil creature of Satan”. Most of the people in that Baptist family have been raised to hate and fear cats. She’s had to work hard to get her husband to learn to love the little guy.
I think that those religious nuts truly believe that cats are the embodiment of evil. My daughter loves having a cat in her house – it keeps certain family members from coming to visit!
Not defending but clarifying that rather than a sadist and a bully he could be an idiot and a coward.
Either way, way to teach ethics there religion!
Regarding 4chan: Yes, I gather /b/ is a pretty sick place, but it’s worth noting that Katawa Shoujo resulted from discussions elsewhere on 4chan. It sounds like a terrible game if you only read the capsule description, and the original artwork that engendered it is indeed dreadfully objectifying, but by some strange process, the people who ended up creating the game seem to have been remarkably humane people. Or maybe they became more humane while doing research on disability and talking with disabled people. Anyway, the end result is a really sensitive and often heart-wrenching game/visual novel that treats both women and disabled people with respect.
One of the bits of James Herriot’s books that I most often see quoted is the bit that goes: “If having a soul means being able to feel love and loyalty and gratitude, then animals are better off than a lot of humans.. (I agree with him on the literal meaning of that sentence, incidentally,although I reject the premise that “soul” means those things.)
So yeah, there are a lot of Christians who believe animals go to heaven. You’ve only to see that horrible appropriated glurge about “the Rainbow Bridge” to understand that. I was raised by a liberal Lutheran and we both definitely believed that pets went to heaven. The church we sporadically attended even had a yearly blessing of the animals that everyone brought pets to.
Anyone remembering the Twilight Zone episode?
if you are you know which one I mean
What PZ#43 said.
1. Also, sadism? It seems more parsimonious to label this man as both lazy and an asshole. Unless of course there is some indication that he took pleasure from the death of this particular cat. To me the cage in his truck and bridge toss smack of convience (1) if your goal is to restrain a cat until you have decided what to do with it and (2) if you want to kill a cat in a way that would be hard to pin on you*.
2. I can’t imagine for the life of me why this kind of behavior is shocking coming from a clergyman. There isn’t anything in the Bible that requires one to be nice to cats. Or any other fluffy animal, for that matter.
3. I get the point that if you love your cat, you should keep it indoors to protect it from this sort of thing, and to protect wildlife. OK. But howabout keep it indoors because your neighbors might not want your cat underfoot all of the time? My neighbors cats are in my yard everyday, and I hate them. I wouldn’t ever cage them or kill them**, but I sure wish to hell they weren’t around.
*Although, the cops knew he had the cat. So, he’s just an idiot.
**Or apparently even confront my neighbors about them.
*growl* … can’t type much. They dare. They DARE use religion to render animals unworthy of compassion.
—
I know I shouldn’t say it, but there is a part of me that would like to introduce Bartlett to an unrestrained adult lion.
Trying throwing that off a bridge, you sanctimonious jerk…
Naturally, I would never actually do such a thing. Obnoxious as Bartlett is, he is still a human being, and his life has inherent value and dignity to me because of that – however much antipathy I mighty feel for the man himself.
Still, I find the abstract thought of a giant kitteh using him as a chew toy (slightly worryingly) gratifying…
Anyone live in the Bastrop area? Go to Bartlett’s church this Sunday, and when there’s a call for silent prayer, start yowling like a kitty in heat. Better if there’s 20 or 30 cat lovers there. What a chorus!!!
I was about to leave to go get lunch. Now I just feel sick.
Yep. I have cats, I love cats, but I seriously hate having to deal with my neighbor’s cats shitting in my yard.
well the question of cats running around outside and killing and eating anything they can catch is a problem. I also feel kind of uncomfortable about keeping them so confined but that is just what I am not used to. I have cats that seem to have found my yard a good place to hunt and raise young which puts a lot of the other creatures I like in the garden under increased risk so I chase them out when I see them. I also have problems with some native wildlife eating up the garden including squirrels who decided that one winter the lime tree’s bark was the best thing ever which killed the tree. The other guys, Possums and racoons are kind of hard on any pond life I can acquire racoons really make a mess of things. For the last couple of years I have had to spend time and energy chasing them all away. I feel bad when I find one of these visitors dead in the yard. I have had dogs which did a very good job of discouraging visitors and unwanted tenets but the last dog I had got sick from fighting a sick “coon” and died herself a couple of weeks later. I have been waiting for any pathogen levels to reduce to a normal level besides it is not very fun digging a hole for your fury friends.
I also do get tired of cleaning up dog shit.
Domestic animals are a problem also I have had a “pack” of neighborhood dogs get in a kill a rabbit after they destroyed the cage it was in it was very hard not to retaliate and kill them.
I can see a possible way you could forget an animal in a cage, which I take as a box trap, but the rest of the story says maybe not such an accident.
This post reminds me again that it is time to start looking for another dog.
uncle frogy
Well, maybe.
But this is rather callous as cowardice goes. His excuses sound a bit too much like the kind of rationalisations I’ve heard coming out of the mouths of bullies.
I’m afraid he would definitively get his place in the “do not thrust farther than you can throw” and “do not invite for dinner” categories.
I love how much bronze-age biblical revenge sentiment is being bandied about in this thread. YHWH would be so proud.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xymIcIt1QGY
Twight zone with dog.
More forgiveness porn
I never said cowards aren’t dangerous. I suspect a great deal of heinous acts are made by cowards. See Joepa for example
Yes, stringer, but the difference is the people on this thread understand those feelings are not justified as actions. I experienced a desire myself to leave the asshole in question in a cage without food and water for three days, but I see it as a good thing that law enforcement wouldn’t be allowed to do it.
Whereas YHWHists feel like every piddling revenge fantasy is their total right to have carried out by the legal system.
That is a fair distinction.
@Stringer
Also the “More Vulcan than thou” is really annoying.
I don’t really give a shit.
@Stringer
Thanks for trolling. Your callousness and selfishness is noted. Dead spiny creatures are available by the door.
“A strong emotional personal experience” is the best cure for the disease of Organized Religion™®©
Thank you, We Are Ing, for the inspiration.
On another note, I don’t understand this business of how explaining a pet is dead is “a challenge”. It’s not complicated. The cat is dead, it’s gone, there is no more cat; his body stopped working forever, he’s not going to come back, and we’re going to miss him a lot and it’s very sad. There. Explained.
It’s definitely a challenge to break sad news to a kid, or to watch a kid grieve knowing you can’t really do anything to make it easier. It might be a challenge wondering what to say when a child asks *why* someone had to die. Or figuring out how much to tell a child about the fact that there are sick fucks who kill cats (and people), and trying to help them understand that fact knowing that ultimately it just doesn’t make sense.
Out of all that stuff I don’t understand why people seem to focus on the “explaining death” part as the difficult bit. Is it just a feature of death-denialism and afterlife mythology? Is is a thorny problem deciding exactly which fairy tales to tell a kid and to what degree of detail?
You aren’t 5 years old. It can be devastating to a young kid.
They might have a hazy idea that things die. But until they actually experience something close to them dying, it doesn’t really register.
@kristinc
This may be the introduction to mortality. This isn’t just telling the kid “scruffy died” it’s also explaining “Scruffy died, we will die, everyone you live will die and you will die”
I specifically said that it’s definitely hard to watch a child grieve. I get that part. I’ve watched my kids grieve over dead pets.
OK, fair point, I was thinking of “explaining that this pet is dead” and “explaining mortality in general” were two different topics, but with the first personal experience of death it’s true that the two are pretty much intertwined. (Although people who teach their kids that Scruffy is in heaven aren’t really teaching them anything about mortality at all.)
yes, this sort of behavior is awful. The so-called Christians should be ashamed of themselves. But they’re not True Scotsmen™.
FWIW, though, in my experience kids as young as 5 don’t jump immediately from “Scruffy died” to “everyone I love will die” and don’t necessarily need to be pushed to make that jump. My kids stayed at “plants and animals die” for a couple years before they heard a news report or a conversation about a human death and *then* they needed to have their hands held through the “zomg everybody dies” epiphany.
@116 ““A strong emotional personal experience” is the best cure for the disease of Organized Religion™®©”
Sadly, I have known people whose strong personal experiences (even without drugs on board) were the cause of the disease of organized religion; more specifically, their submission thereto.
Which is why it works the other way. it is not a position that one is reasoned into. reason cannot break it until there’s an emotional crack that undermines the original experience.
When Bartlett took the cat to the police
I’m confused. What was Bartlett’s motivation for taking the cat to the police, THEN deciding to huck it over a bridge?
@Ichtyic
Which is why I suspect panic+laziness+cowardice over sadism
I love how much bronze-age biblical revenge sentiment is being bandied about in this thread. YHWH would be so proud.
people are vindictive when upset.
the difference is, followers of the Abrahamic religions JUSTIFY THEIR VINDICTIVENESS WITH THEIR RELIGION.
the rest of us, rightly and rationally, realize we can’t do that.
what’s more, religious vindictiveness can be easily set off, and acted on, on the merest hint of an attack on their DOGMA.
this, OTOH, reflects human empathy towards another EXISTING CREATURE.
so, no, you’re comparison is null and void, and you sir, are nothing less than an idiot.
run along and play.
of course you’re->your.
Not enough coffee yet.
Which is why I suspect panic+laziness+cowardice over sadism
fits.
…don’t forget to add stupidity to that.
I mean, who would not think that after the cat is found dead, the person who brought it to the police station in a poor state, and then refused to let the police deliver it… wouldn’t be the prime suspect?
Do you care to read threads before replying to them Ichthyic, or do you just like to get all riled up on the internets?
You are an intelligent and upstanding person.
Do you care to read threads before replying to them Ichthyic, or do you just like to get all riled up on the internets?
*looks at stringer’s previous posts*
*laughs*
uh huh.
You are an intelligent and upstanding person.
coming from you, I think this means less than nothing.
run along now, little troll.
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. That’s the stupid line these preachers always mention isn’t it…
It is therefore quite clear that this preacher is desperately in need of being locked in a cage for 3 days without food or water. We would be doing him a favour [evil grin]
That’s what it means right?
Where is the church as employer in all this? Is there any Board or such who supervises this guy? Is it still paying him? Somebody wrote this bio for the man and his wife. No public mention of this incident on the rather limited web pages.
“With over 35 years of ministry experience, our Pastor, “Brother Rick” Bartlett and his wife Tina began serving with us in August of 2008, having previously served with the New Braunfels Christian Church for 16 years.
His Bible messages are often humorous and strive to always be uplifting and applicable to daily life.”
From http://bastropcc.org/#/about-us/pastor
I have to say in the search there are a whole mess of christian churches in that town with almost the same name. Easy to get the other places mixed up. And yet, not have posted comment on the story. I am guessing it will be mostly ‘he was not a true christian’, if mentioned at all.
At #133, don’t forget to throw him over a bridge too.
I reckon gawd forgot to remind him that the cat was in the cage in the back of the truck. Does that make him, her, it and accomplice?