Individual Responsibility

In my morning review of the news, I came upon a story where a Louisiana prosecutor gives credit to Jesus for the fact that 20,000 (mostly black) protesters came to the town without incident.

As an atheist, of course, I would say that Jesus had nothing to do with this. Instead, I make it a point to hold people personally resposnible for that which they do - giving them praise when they do good and giving them condemnation when they do bad.

In this case, District Attorney Reed Walters' remarks are particularly troublesome. The people that Walters is unwilling to give credit to in this case is a number of black protesters. It is as if he is saying, "It is so unreasonable to expect that 20,000 mostly black protestors can descend on a town and behave themsleves that we must consider this to be a miracle. Something other than these protesters - something with supernatural powers - must be responsible.

Even after the incident, Walters was unwillinig to state that, "I pre-judged the situation incorrectly; these people were better behaved than I expected." Reather, he persists with his original prejudice in crediting Jesus rather than the people who were actually responsible for giving him his desired result.