Cornerstone's Prattefall

@AshPratte The dry cleaner called, Ashley. Your white robes are ready for pick up. #fauxChristian
— susanthe (@susanthe) July 14, 2013

After the Zimmerman verdict was announced on Saturday night, Ashley Pratte the Executive Director of Cornerstone Action/Policy Research sent out the tweet you see above. 

Zimmerman not guilty #justice
— Ashley Pratte (@AshPratte) July 14, 2013

An adult man who killed an unarmed boy was found not guilty, and Miss Pratte* calls this justice. 

In my own understated way, I called it as I saw it, and mocked Miss Pratte. 

From Cornerstone's mission statement: 

Cornerstone communicates with a reasonable, persuasive, and compelling voice on family issues in the media and in the halls of Concord.  We believe the origins of our culture were purposely rooted in the Judeo-Christian tradition, and thus advocate for the traditional New Hampshire values of personal responsibility, strong families, limited government and free enterprise.  

I guess I just don't understand contemporary Judeo-Christian values. Is applauding the not-guilty verdict of an adult man who killed an unarmed boy what Jesus would do? Is finding this verdict "justice" the use of a "reasonable, persuasive, and compelling voice on family issues?" 

More from the mission statement: 

We believe that one person can make a difference in his or her community. In our democratic-republic form of government, public policies essentially stem from the values, attitudes, and behavior of people and institutions. Therefore, changing laws without changing the hearts, minds and lives of people proves futile. We believe that influence over hearts and minds are earned by compassion in service, wisdom in relationships, and intellectual excellence in persuasion.

Oh, well, that explains it. Ashley was trying to influence hearts and mind by her use of compassion, wisdom, and intellectual excellence.

A perusal of the Cornerstone website reveals a lot of Christian oriented material. They have a compassion project. They have a page of lessons on social justice from the  the Heritage Foundation. Cornerstone has a page promoting Focus on the Family's Truth Project, which claims to be dedicated to showing the importance and relevance of living the Christian world view in daily life. 

An unarmed teenager is dead. I'm still not getting how cheering the fact that his killer was found not guilty fits into the Christian world view. 

I'm aware that this verdict has created a lot of anger and discussion. That's neither here nor there. A woman who is the Executive Director of an organization that allies itself with Christianity should have had the sense to keep her opinion to herself.  She could have tweeted something compassionate out, about sadness for all of the families involved, since Cornerstone claims to care so much about families. 

Instead, she got mad at me. Miss Pratte's response to my jab was:

Blatant disrespect and unnecessary. I hope the @NHDems condemn this type of behavior. @susanthe #nhpolitics pic.twitter.com/AlG6ntXtdx
— Ashley Pratte (@AshPratte) July 15, 2013

Given that I don't work for  (or belong to) the NH Democratic Party, I'm not sure what Miss Pratte is hoping to accomplish by calling upon them to chastise me. (They haven't even tried) A couple of Ashley's buddies retweeted her plea, but she wasn't able to get the kind of media juice for it that she seems to have been hoping for. 

She's right though. It is blatant disrespect. And it is deserved. Someone who could send out a tweet congratulating the killer of an unarmed teenaged boy doesn't deserve my respect. Her respect for the family of Trayvon Martin is nonexistent. In the land of Cornerstone, only some families have value. 

* Since I'm guessing Ashley doesn't identify as a feminist, I chose to eschew the term Ms. and go with the old-school Miss, given that she's unmarried.