George Zimmerman and God’s ‘Plan’ To Kill Trayvon Martin

July 19, 2012 RSS Feed Print

George Zimmerman, left, and his attorney Don West.

So George Zimmerman has no regrets about the night he shot and killed Trayvon Martin. "I feel it was all God's plan," he told Fox News Channel's Sean Hannity in an interview Wednesday night. "For me to second-guess it or judge it" would, presumably (he trailed off at this point), be inappropriate. And which god would that be? The god of self-indulgent bulls**t?

As Trayvon Martin's father told the Associated Press, "We must worship a different God. There is no way that my God wanted George Zimmerman to murder my teenage son."

Indeed, the notion of God planning to have Zimmerman gun down a black teenager seems like real Old Testament, vengeful stuff. It's a wonder Zimmerman claims to not regret it, especially since he now faces charges of second-degree murder for the shooting. I know if I realized God was using me as His tool think I'd be more than a little bummed out that He wasn't having me heal the sick or spread His word but that he wanted me to kill someone. You'd think God would be able to come up with a more efficient way to kill a 17-year-old black kid.

[See a collection of editorial cartoons on the Trayvon Martin tragedy.]

Hannity asked him if he regretted anything from that evening, like getting out of the car. "No, sir," was Zimmerman's response. Really? Seriously? So in George Zimmerman's mind staying in his car—presumably avoiding both a physical confrontation with Martin and, one would think, his death—would not have been a preferable outcome? Did I miss the part of the story where Martin was an immediate threat to the neighborhood of the variety that only confrontation and death could deal with? I guess if you're in the grips of God's plan you just have to go with the flow.

And where are the voices of personal responsibility outrage? When I was growing up there was much frothing from certain quarters whenever the notion was raised that societal factors could contribute to things like crime and violence. That personal responsibility could not be discounted or removed from the equation was once a standard talking point for conservative like Hannity, who sat quiescently as Zimmerman discussed his role as a holy gunman.

"I do wish there was something, anything I could have done that would have put me in the position where I didn't have to take his life," Zimmerman said at the end of the interview. Here's one thing he could have done: Not gotten out of his car. Even if that would have meant defying God's "plan."