My Father Would Have Cried. Realizing How Deeply Lost Some Christians Are

A disturbing story comes out of South Dakota, and for me its deeply shocking. Its about the execution of a dog because the MAGA Governor grew tired of it. And yet this person is held in high esteem by many Christians. But the reaction by one of them that I encountered last night after hearing the news was beyond devastating. In the case of my Dad it would have been the third time in his life that he cried. And as someone who is secular, it is another reminder as to how healthier atheism and secular beliefs can be especially when you see how toxic Christianity can be.

“Whoever said you can’t buy happiness forgot little puppies.”

Gene Hill

For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

Luke 19:10 NIV

Last night in the world of religion I encountered something that took my breath away and showed me how profoundly lost many Christians are. In this situation I am grieving, because I am also realizing that some people have gone off the rails, and nothing can redeem or change them. Even God, can’t change the situation and instead I’d suggest God and faith is a crutch that actually harms people. I think this post will be as sad as another one I did last year which was a son’s reflection of his Mom’s Southern Baptist Church which you can read in, “Why a Son Wants Nothing to do With His Mom’s Southern Baptist Church.” But let start out with some back ground.

Growing Up With German Shorthair Pointers

I grew up in a dog family. I love dogs. My late Dad was into German Shorthair Pointers. When Dad grew up in Butte, Montana he wanted to have a dog but could not. His Mom did not like dogs and thought them dirty and difficult. So after Dad finished medical school and his young family settled in Columbia, Missouri he did what he wanted to do most of his life. He purchased a dog, and not just any dog but a German Shorthair Pointer. Dad liked to hunt in Missouri and pheasant was game in the Midwest. When the family moved to California Dad dived into dogs deeply there as well. I grew up with several German Shorthair Pointers. They were a part of my childhood and even though I do not have a dog in Washington, D.C. I am fond of them and hope to be able to have a bird dog one day. From elementary to high school and college dogs were a part of my life. I came home from football practice and there was the dog waving its tail, carrying his toy and grunting, happy to see me. Today I can cry because I miss those days deeply. In my case the German Shorthairs I grew up with were named Kurt, Max, Blitz, Meg and today Liesel, who you can see up above. Having a bird dog can be challenging because they are also physical, sometimes can be moody and aggressive. I can recall more than once where the dog grabbed the television controller and in trying to coax the dog to give it up sometimes he growled. It didn’t happen often but it happened occasionally. When you have a dog you also have to remember that they are an animal as well.

A Loved One Who is Deeply Religious

As I tell this story I also need to share some details of a loved one in my family who is deeply religious. She lives out West and is deeply involved in her faith, which happen to be Roman Catholic. As she aged she embraced her faith more and did so while simultaneously embracing Fox News and some of the echo chambers she lives in as well. Being in her presence at times can be challenging because all she likes to do is listen to Fox News and listen to fringe individuals like Tucker Carlson, Mark Levin, and others. While Jesus once taught that you would know a person by their fruit and Paul also wrote about the fruit of the spirit in the Book of Galatians, this situation is very different. As this person has aged they have become more MAGA. They often rant about gays, talk about how much they fear transsexuals and expresses concerns that I am going to be raped of mugged when I go into Washington, D.C. Its profoundly awkward. For years I have often heard from this person about the sexual misconduct of Bill Clinton. But in the middle of everything there is also talk about how the world needs Jesus. The importance of the Catholic faith, the dangers of drugs, pornography, and how the church and faith is needed now more than ever. Its quite the combination of you need God while also spewing hate and conspiracy theories as well.

In my own life as I have pushed back and rejected faith for a number of personal reasons this member of the family has regularly reached out to me. She has expressed her concern about me going to hell. Had mentioned how she is concerned that I am not part of faith or religion. I get cards regular saying that I am being prayed for. And on it goes.

But last night something happened that really shocked me and took my breath away that showed me once again how profoundly lost many Christians are.

South Dakota’s Kristi Noem On Killing Her Bird dog Because She Tired of it

Kristi Noem is popular with a lot of evangelicals and other Christians which I have seen over the years. She became the champion of evangelical anti-vaxxers during the COVID-19 pandemic when she challenged the health crisis that was being faced. Shortly she is going to be publishing a book which will be released in the next two months or so. But the newspaper The Guardian got an advanced copy and published an excerpt and wrote about it.

You can read about it in, “Trump VP contender Kristi Noem writes of killing dog – and goat – in new book.” Here is what happened according to The Guardian. Kristi had a puppy, a German Wiredhair Pointer which is similar to a German Shorthaired Pointer, which as I wrote above is the dog I grew up with. In her book she states the following. “Cricket was a wirehair pointer, about 14 months old,” the South Dakota governor writes in a new book, adding that the dog, a female, had an “aggressive personality” and needed to be trained to be used for hunting pheasant. Noem then writes about how in life its necessary to do anything that is, “difficult, messy and ugly.”

And that includes killing the family pet.

The Guardian writes of the situation in the following context.

By taking Cricket on a pheasant hunt with older dogs, Noem says, she hoped to calm the young dog down and begin to teach her how to behave. Unfortunately, Cricket ruined the hunt, going “out of her mind with excitement, chasing all those birds and having the time of her life”.

Noem describes calling Cricket, then using an electronic collar to attempt to bring her under control. Nothing worked. Then, on the way home after the hunt, as Noem stopped to talk to a local family, Cricket escaped Noem’s truck and attacked the family’s chickens, “grabb[ing] one chicken at a time, crunching it to death with one bite, then dropping it to attack another”.

And Noem talks about how much she hated the dog. And despised even having it. And she made the decision that the dog had to be killed. So what Noem did was take the puppy to a gravel pit in South Dakota where she took a shot gun and shot the family puppy to death. This how she described it. “It was not a pleasant job,” she writes, “but it had to be done. And after it was over, I realised another unpleasant job needed to be done.” In the The Guardian it wrote that Noem’s daughter kept asking, “Where is cricket?” over and over to which Noem ignored her own daughter.

If you want to read more about this you can do so in the following articles.

1. NBC News, “South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem defends her account of killing own dog in new book.“
2. Rolling Stone, “Kristi Noem Describes Executing Puppy She ‘Hated’ in New Book.“
3. NBC Dallas, “South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem admits to killing her dog in new book: ‘I hated that dog’“

The Response of my Christian Sister and Realizing How Lost Some Christians Are

I began to learn of this story last night after eating dinner. Twitter blew up over the issue. I was seeing articles and tweets about this in my social media feed. I felt sick for several reasons. I am intimately familiar with birddogs, how they operate and what they are like. After all I grew up with them. What was also stunning is seeing people submit pictures online that looked close to one of the German Shorthair Pointers I grew up with. A couple of times some of the pictures looked like Max or Blitz who I have found memories. But what took my breath away was what happened after I shared this story with my family.

I got a response from my Christian sister. She attacked the media and defended Noem and the killing of the bird dog. And in a series of texts that I realized would be pointless to respond as she grabbed whatever she could find on the internet to defend her point of view. Really when you are resting your beliefs upon an article from the New York Post, really there is no hope for you in my view. But after drowning in several texts I sat in my Nissan for nearly twenty minutes in a daze. I felt like a combat veteran who had landed at Normandy and walked off the beach having survived. I was in shock however. As I sat here I thought of all the messages I got about people who harm animals and my sister’s being repulsed by it. Heck I remember when Michael Vick here in Virginia was discovered to be involved in dog fighting and my sister reacted with disgust to that situation.

But last night she reacted differently and defend Noem’s behavior and the killing of a bird dog, similar to the one that she also grew up with. I was in shock.

My Dad Would Have Cried

In my life with my Dad there were two times that I watched him cry. It didn’t involve the death of his wife or his Mom, instead they both involved two of the German Shorthair Pointers being euthanized in Fresno, California. I remember being in the vet in Fresno back in 1998 or so, and watching the dog being put down and Dad petting the dog and weeping. Now my Dad passed away on November 21, 2018, but if my Dad were alive today he would have been absolutely horrified by the Kristi Noem story. As an owner of a birddog he would have felt sick. But if my Dad saw the reaction by his daughter and her defending Noem killing a birddog because she tired of it; I think my Dad would have broken down and wept for the third time in his life.

I Don’t Understand Christians At All….

While I write this post and feel absolutely sick about what I am sharing, I wonder when am I going to get another card, or text message from this family member telling me I am lost, and need to come back to Jesus? Or go to church? As I have aged, and I had another birthday last week I am reminded that in our American culture it is Christians who are profoundly lost. This story shocks me as much as when I saw members of the Sovereign Grace, Mars Hill or spiritual abuse community who screamed about abuse who then turned around and ignored and defended other forms of abuse for their political reasons. I ultimately learned that many of those who were opposed to Mark Driscoll or C.J. Mahaney in the end were not opposed to abuse. Instead they were about using abuse as a grievance and living in that grievance and weaponizing it. After all why is it wrong when Mark Driscoll acts abusive and its evil, and when Donald Trump does that same thing, its okay and even defended? (Yes Rob Smith of Seattle I am asking this question of you?) But its clear to me that many Christians whether they be Catholic or evangelical should not be taken seriously in this area. What is disappointing is that in lives like mine there are people hoping against hope that this is not true and clinging to a belief that maybe one day down the road in which they can find some aspect of faith. And then you wake up and realize that even that is foolish and not grounded in reality and will not happen. After all when do Christians ever apologize or take ownership of their mistakes? They do not and they will never do that.

If You Are Secular You Are Healthier Than Many Christians

There are a lot of people who find this blog in difficult situations. I know, as I read your emails. If you find this post and are wresting with faith, God, religion or evangelicalism, I hope this post will make you realize that it is not you. It is religion that is broken and can not be trusted. It is healthy to be secular and outside religion. That is what I have learned and while there have been a couple of exceptions, that is what continue to realize and have reinforced. So this Sunday while some will sing about how they were lost and now found, I would present to you if you are secular that you are healthier and in a better place than many Christians.