Russert "Miracles"

Newsweek reports on "The Tim Russert Miracles" ... and I have to say:

Are these people serious?

The third "miracle" took place as the crowd moved to the rooftop for a reception. The sun returned after a light, fast summer rainstorm and the sky opened to a rainbow extending from one end of the Kennedy Center to the other. Colleen King of MSNBC's "Hardball" captured it on her cell phone camera.

"After the magical experience of this service, to come out and see the rainbow and Luke at the bottom of it made the last dry eye weep," said NBC News executive Phil Griffin. The last song in the memorial service was, fittingly, "Somewhere over the Rainbow."

When asked his reaction to explain the sudden appearance of the rainbow at the exact moment, Luke Russert, his sparkly smile so reminiscent of his father's, said: "Is anyone still an atheist now?"

Um. Yes. Yes, Luke, people are still atheists. Even ones who were there, like Christopher Hitchens, for one.

A rainbow on a hot June day in Washington? This is supposed to convert me?

(And to what, if I may ask? Worship of a god who slaughters a man in cold blood, a good decent hard-working man with a son who just graduated, a man still in his prime - and then gives us a rainbow?)

The other two miracles, by the way, in case you didn't click through, are even stupider: Russert's family asked McCain and Obama to sit together, and [gasp!] they did. And Bruce Springsteen sang a song. Yeah. The Boss sang a song. That was a miracle. (Elvis, now...)

Am I picking on the son who just lost his father? I don't mean to - I doubt he'll see this, for one thing. I'm really picking on the person who wrote this tripe for Newsweek, and the editor who decided to run it. I mean, really. "Is anyone still an atheist now?" We've all seen rainbows, and sometimes at even more poetically perfect moments. Also at moments where they were really not in good taste (presuming someone set them up). A rainbow at your father's funeral might well comfort you, but how can you think it will convert anyone? Would a rainbow over Saddam Hussein's funeral have converted you?

This is shallow theism, almost pointless.

Really. I'm just dumbfounded that this article ever saw print.

(hat tip to Incunabular)