Sunday, December 9, 2007

Intolerance in the Anti-Religious Community, Too

It's hard not to believe in conspiracy theories when two evangelical organizations in Colorado get hit in the same day by gunmen apparently picking random victims. Is this some new militant death squad spurred on by Richard Dawkins and other militant atheists? Probably not. But the assaults that took place in Arvada, Colo. at the Faith Bible Chapel early Sunday morning, as well as the random shootings in the parking lot of New Life Church in Colorado Springs six hours later, sure can make one feel like it's open season on conservative Christians. Evangelicals have enough of a victimization complex already, when they are often the ones dishing out the prejudice. But those of us who are secular, or question where the evangelicals are going, should not hesitate to offer sympathy and shock when church members are violently attacked, as in these two incidents.

4 comments:

Loring Wirbel said...

Latest reports indicate the gunman in both instances was Matthew Murray, a home-schooled devout Christian from Arapahoe County who felt slighted somehow by Youth with a Mission. Talk about an inside job. The creepiness increases.

Pete said...

Loring: the J&P sent a letter of condolence to New Life. I think members should do the same, identifying themselves as members of J&P. I have been trying to get in touch with you, but the phone number for you in the phonebook and in the J&P database is out of date. Could you call or email me? dynamic-at-ppjpc.org?

Ruth said...

So was it a Youth with a Mission meeting or something?

You must be heading out soon, today?

Loring Wirbel said...

The kid had been homeschooled through the Bill Gothman model, which in my mind constitutes child abuse -- all rock music (even Christian rock) is evil, as is dating, etc. His mom sounded as schizo as he was, and he started becoming more and more antisocial after high school. He was rejected to participate in a YWAM mission to Bosnia three years ago, and apparently was working up a grudge ever since. His posts to blogs after the early AM Denver killings seem to indicate a free-form desire to kill Christians, but because the two sisters at New Life Church he killed were also active with YWAM, one wonders how random those particular killings were.

I don't leave til this weekend, surgery is Tues. now.