I think Chad's issue with Rick's rant is that he is not addressing the issue. The issue is mental illness and how to prevent similar instances in the future. Instead, Rick decides to use the tragedy as a way to preach down to people and sway people towards his religious view point.
Like you said, there have been tragedies throughout history. To say God is smiting us and that we need to beg his forgiveness or we will burn like Rome, is...well...why a lot of people turn up there noses towards some Christians.
Exactly.
5:30
Shaking his head with disgust that we are "chasin' off after gun control. Chasin' off after...we're gon' have some discussion about mental illness. So God can't stop someone who's mentally ill from slaughtering people? Of course he can! The question you'd better ask yourself is why isn't God holdin back his wrath? Why is he allowing it to happen, because he is. That better be our focus. Anything less than that will solve nothing."
Seriously? So he's saying A) humans don't have free will, and B) he's dismissing the very notion of even having discussions about mental illness because it's ignoring the "real" issue, which is that our society is not "righteous" enough for God's liking, so he's punishing us?
Tell me how this is different from the Westboro Baptist Church?