Lines Crossed
Hugh Hewitt > Blog
Saturday, August 30, 2025
I do not know what’s worse – that a United States Senator would quote anything so vile about religion generally or that a United States Senator would quote a 16-year-old as authoritative – on anything. Senator Tina Smith of Minnesota quotes 16yo Lydia in the wake of the recent shooting, “Do not offer thoughts and prayers as you systematically enable such tragedies. Do not claim prayers are sufficient when children die as they pray. Do not pretend you do not understand.” Lydia will grow up, and right now she is deeply traumatized, but Senator Smith has crossed a line here – this is not disagreement, this is a declaration of hostilities.
Earlier this week, Noah Rothman penned a piece in which he chronicles how Democrats, as lead by Barack Obama, have turned our politics into bare-knuckled combat. Now between Democrats and Republicans such political warfare is uncivil, not in our best traditions and more than a bit elitist – but it remains inside the boundaries of reason. But with her quotation, Senator Smith has “kicked it up a notch” as they say and not attacked a person’s political position but their deepest faith.
When big events like the Minnesota shooting happen, my old church in California would gather to pray together – sometimes with other churches in the area. Imagine if during such an impromptu service, instead of just tweeting, Senator Smith burst through the doors and starting yelling, “Do not do that! How dare you?!” The only thing that would differentiate her from the Minnesota shooter would be the bullets – they both are operating out of rage and hatred.
I could talk for hours about the efficacy of prayer. I have watched God, when so beseeched, cure the incurable. I have experienced God’s hand on my shoulder when I turn to Him. But the non-believer can write such things off and I do not wish to debate them right now.
But I do wish to point out that this nation will simply cease to operate when its major players operate out of rage and hatred. There has been much talk in the wake of this shooting about gender dysphoria as a mental illness. I would suggest that mental illness, expressed as gender dysphoria or in other ways, can begin with hatred. Hatred destroys reason and fuels rage and rage demands action – actions outside the boundaries of a decent society since reason is no longer present to serve as a damper. Especially when stoked by media.
We are better than this. We have to be better than this.
Elsewhere…
Oh darn, looks like everyone is ganging up on California environmental agencies and actions.
Speaking of environmental agencies. Thank goodness I got my HEMIs before all this nonsense.
Grade inflation is no fun. I really do not look forward to these kids hitting the workforce.
