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Demons kill a toddler; God gets the glory


Burris

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Rick Burgess is an entertainer who co-hosts the Rick and Bubba Show, a radio comedy broadcasted by WZZK in Birmingham, Alabama and syndicated across several states. Burgess is also an Evangelical Christian whose beliefs colour his view of the world.

In 2008, his two-year-old son, Bronner, drowned in the backyard swimming pool.

Burgess, who had been attending a Christian conference in Tennessee as one of the speakers, was understandably shocked at the news.

Organizers offered to end the conference early out of respect for Burgess' loss, but he assured them he could still speak:

"My son's eternity is not in question, but 7,200 other people who are here at this conference - there are hundreds of thousands of them - and their eternity hangs in the balance; so suck it up, get out there and finish the fight, because if we shut this conference down, Satan wins this situation, not Christ."

The Rick and Bubba Show had to go on as well, lest innocent souls be endangered by the silence of so important a venue - and, in fact, Burgess and Bubba are still on the air.

Yellowhammer News (YN), which follows cultural trends in Alabama, recently reported on the seven-year commemoration of Bronner's death - and, more specifically, on how Burgess views this anniversary.

Over the intervening years, Burgess has developed the belief there is a divine purpose behind an event that would otherwise have been an accident; a senseless loss. He is not alone in believing the untimely death of a loved one must surely have occurred for a reason.

Rick Burgess stands out from other grieving parents, however, in his counterintuitive belief the accident occurred to make God look good.

The statement that finally catapults Burgess into the thin atmosphere of fanaticism is as follows:

"This is God’s story, it’s not just Bronner’s story… If you go back to that day and I could put it in a nutshell, there was a time when a little boy stood next to a pool and the angels of the Lord… could have absolutely stopped him from stepping or falling — or whatever he did — into that pool. And the demons were there, too, and they said, ‘We’re going to kill the boy and these people are going to turn on You. They may never go back on the air again. This show will be over. This platform will be killed. They will curse Your name. They will question everything about You.’ And then the angels looked at God and God said, ‘Let it happen. I’ll be glorified.’ So when I look at what we’re supposed to do, I want to be able to look at him and say, ‘You know what? You were right… And You have been glorified by it.’…So we’ll see what goes next and what the Lord has for us. There’s tons of opportunities this year. It’s time to go back to work."

The above comment, originally transcribed by YN, earned Burgess a place in the extensive quote library at Fundies Say the Darndest Things. (The FSTDT website maintains an impressive, years-deep collection of gross, disturbing, and unintentionally funny comments made by fundamentalists, not all of whom are Christian. Radical vegans, overzealous members of PETA, people who disdain women, people who disdain men, Islamic radicals, and even the occasional Buddhist may be immortalized there.)

In Burgess' view, the death of his son was not merely an avoidable accident, but a test of faith which he immediately passed when he learned of the loss.

He believed it seven years ago and he believes it now - that literal demons wanted to put an end to a comedy show because it somehow threatened Satan; and that God, who could have prevented this event in any number of ways, chose instead to permit the crime for the sake of an inexplicable glory.

Although he doesn't openly say it - or at least it is not among the quotes online - he just barely falls short of drawing a parallel between himself and Job.

One difference is that when God challenges Job, the man soon admits his ignorance of eternal matters and pledges to remain silent on topics he cannot truly explain.

God affirms the wisdom of Job and reprimands Job's companions for their ignorant and mean-spirited counsel.

Burgess, by contrast, presumes to guess at God's motive. He concludes that, although 25 000 children under age five die each day globally, the death of Bronner was different: It may have appeared accidental, but it was actually the background for a test of Rick Burgess' faith.

During his son's funeral, for example, Burgess made the following statement:

"'The minute this happened, I knew what God wanted me to do,' Burgess told the 4,000 people attending his son's service...three days after his death. 'I don't say that because of any pride in my flesh. I'm saying that because I walk with Him, I pray with Him, I talk to Him, and when I tell Him I would be ready and then He says, 'Are you ready?' I didn't want to say, 'Well, no. I'm caught off guard by this...'"
(Emphasis mine)

What happened was a preventable accident, and a common one. As the latter part of Matthew 5:45 says - " For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust."

According to the CDC, drowning was the leading cause of accidental death worldwide between 2005 and 2009.

The following information appears in the same CDC article, "Drowning - United States, 2005 - 2009":

Death rates and nonfatal injury rates were highest among children aged ≤4 years; these children most commonly drowned in swimming pools....To prevent drowning, all parents and children should learn survival swimming skills. In addition, 1) environmental protections (e.g., isolation pool fences and lifeguards) should be in place; 2) alcohol use should be avoided while swimming, boating, water skiing, or supervising children; 3) lifejackets should be used by all boaters and weaker swimmers; and 4) all caregivers and supervisors should have training in cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

Citing this information may seem callous, but I'm not blaming Burgess (or any other parent who lost a child to drowning) for the fatal incident. Rather, I am pointing out that parents lose children in various ways each day, each hour, everywhere.

What Burgess experienced was too typical, and yet he concludes that while other parents have lost children for no discernible reason, he himself is so important that demons - who could, after all, have aimed their attempts at Burgess himself - tried to silence him by killing his toddler.

Burgess has a moderately successful comedy radio show. There can be no explanation for why demons would want to end this man's career - especially by killing his child that doesn't eventually point back to Burgess' colossal ego.

And Burgess isn't the only egomaniac there; he has created a god in his own likeness who has somehow been glorified - although how that occurred is never sufficiently explained.

Burgess briefly mentions how God will punish even the most humanitarian and compassionate of those who cannot bring themselves to believe the Christian message as it is presented by people such as Steven Anderson, Paul Washer, Michael and Debi Pearl - and, to a lesser extent, by June Fuentes, Lydia Sherman, Kelly Crawford, the Stinking Fishwife, the Lori-Ken amalgam, and Burgess himself.

The glory of God, as Burgess understands it, comes from when people will continue to follow even after God knowingly puts those people in the path of a fist - in some cases, again and again.

So when I look at what we’re supposed to do, I want to be able to look at him and say, ‘You know what? You were right… And You have been glorified by it.’

I'm sure God will be impressed to have received a personal compliment from the host of a syndicated radio show.

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Wonder how all that went over with his wife?

I can't even imagine how upset I'd be if I lost my child, and his father prioritized completing some idiot seminar over coming home :cry: :evil: :x

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I'd really like to believe that it was shock at the terrible trauma of his toddler dying that kept him at the conference. Isn't he a headship in charge of taking care of his family, especially at a time like that? It has to be shock, right? The thought of it being ego, about how important he is to his God... I don't cry much, but that thought left me in tears.

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Burgess didn't glorify God; he glorified himself. He's basically saying every other parent out there who loses a child in such a manner and gives in to their very understandable grief failed God's test. Disgusting.

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Even when I was a Christian I would have left my husband the second he said that and refused to come home. I would never be able to forgive him for saying that and reacting in that way.

I know that people deal with tragic events in different ways, but immediately turning it into self-glorification like this guy did is just awful.

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Even when I was a Christian I would have left my husband the second he said that and refused to come home. I would never be able to forgive him for saying that and reacting in that way.

I know that people deal with tragic events in different ways, but immediately turning it into self-glorification like this guy did is just awful.

I agree. I could maybe forgive him ( although I'd still feel incredibly angry and betrayed and lost), if he was in shock, went ahead and did the seminar and then admitted it was a bad move. But to dig in and say it was a good thing? No way. Especially since he doesn't even acknowledge how it impacted his wife -- or even mention her! Awful.

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This drowning occurred around 7pm. Sherri, Rick's wife, was in bed asleep leaving 5 kids running around unsupervised. Furthermore, there was no gate for the pool. I'm just stating facts here, not casting blame. I will say that neither God, Satan, or demons had a hand in Bronner's death.

I briefly met Rick a few years ago. He came across as a narcissistic fundie. His son died, and rather than go home, he continued with the speaking engagement. WTF?? I know of no man who wouldn't drop what he was doing and race home.

Side note: The Rick and Bub a show wasn't comedic. It was outright offensive.

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Sherri, Rick's wife, was in bed asleep leaving 5 kids running around unsupervised.

No, Sherri was taking a shower. There's a big difference between mom taking a shower and mom going to bed "leaving 5 kids running around unsupervised".

Here is one of the news releases from the day after Bronner died:

http://www.wsfa.com/story/7749054/radio ... o-drowning

From the article:

Bussey said Bronner, commonly called "Cornbread" on the show, and several other children had been outside playing in the snow earlier that evening.

After bringing their children in from playing, Sherri Burgess locked the doors and turned on a movie for them to watch.

According to Bussey when Mrs. Burgess came back from taking a shower she noticed the door was open and her son was not watching tv.

She found the boy in the family swimming pool.

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It is also worth noting that at least of couple of the children were older, lest anyone get the impression that this was a gaggle of toddlers left to themselves.

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My mistake, I'm sorry. I confused Bronner Burgess's death with something that happened locally. Again, I apologize.

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What a horrible man.

Some fundies think whatever happens brings God glory somehow. Horrible victim shaming and hurting the mourner's ability to grieve properly. How he wrote about it has overtones of "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDQC45_RA2c.

There have been children's funerals in my family's old church group, where the fundie parents had to stand and greet hundreds of guests and never show emotion.

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If a group of people has one of my kids and says, "We're going to kill her," and someone with the power to stop it and keep her safe and who risks no harm in any way for saving her says, "Go ahead, the parents will glorify me," and my daughter dies, I'm going to do such horrid things to that person for helping kill my daughter and expecting praise that that person will wish for death long before I'll let it come.

I swear that only purely evil people think that any god would let kids be hurt to be personally glorified by the parents, and then go on to immediately glorify that god and praise him.

Rick makes his god look even worse. Already the story of Job pissed me off when I was younger, and Rick's saying that it still happens. Any god who'd kill a kid, or chuckle as a kid is killed because, hey, the parents won't really mind, isn't worth of being worshipped, and is worth no better than eternal damnation.

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The way Rick talks about his dead son like that is very disturbing. His son died because there was no gate around the pool. God, Satan, and demons had nothing to do with it. His wife and family needed him, but what did he do, he stayed to preach to the choir. That right there proves he's a narcissistic tool.

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What a horrible man.

Some fundies think whatever happens brings God glory somehow. Horrible victim shaming and hurting the mourner's ability to grieve properly. How he wrote about it has overtones of "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDQC45_RA2c.

There have been children's funerals in my family's old church group, where the fundie parents had to stand and greet hundreds of guests and never show emotion.

O :shock: :shock: that is horrific. What kind of monster would expect parents to do that???

When I read here about some of these fundamentalist practices it bears no mresemblance from anything I ever experienced with church ---- it's hard to believe that they are supposedly both based on the philosophy and teachings of Jesus.

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