Texas Rep. Gohmert on Aurora shooting: We’ve told God ‘we don’t want him around’

In response to the mass shooting in Aurora, Colo., that left 12 dead and dozens wounded, Texas Rep.
Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Tex.) talks with protesters at the Capitol in 2009. (Alex Brandon/Associated Press) Louie Gohmert told the Istook Live show Friday that he believed that the country’s move away from its “Judeo-Christian beliefs” was responsible for God withdrawing his “protective hand” from the country.

After a wave of media attention on his comments, the congressman posted a transcript of his interview on his House Web site.

We have been at war with the very pillars, the very foundation of this country … and when … you know … what really gets me as a Christian, is to see the ongoing attacks on Judeo-Christian beliefs and then a senseless, crazy act of terror like this takes place.

You know, when people say, where was God in all of this? Well, you know, we don’t let … in fact we’ve threatened high school graduation participants that if they use God’s name that they’re going to be jailed, we had a principal of a school, and a superintendent or a coach down in Florida that were threatened with jail because they said the blessing at a voluntary off-campus dinner. I mean, that kind of stuff … where is God? Where, where? What have we done with God? We told him that we don’t want him around. I kind of like his protective hand being present.

Gohmert pointed to a study that he said indicated that the rate of suicide in the military was associated with atheism — drawing a connection that he said implied that a lack of faith was associated with mental health disorders.

“What they found, and I don’t know if they will make it public – one of the participants told me ‘ the results may not go public’; but, all of the people who committed suicide, within their thousands of people studied, were part of the 2 percent most atheistic members of the military. We’ve lost our faith.”

Gohmert is the vice chair of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security. The congressman’s Web site says he “attends Green Acres Baptist Church in Tyler, where Louie has served as a deacon and still teaches Sunday school.”