Date: Tue Dec 02 08:57:10 1997
To: Frank Grose
From: Rob Weinberg
Subject: Re: Here It Comes!
At 07:06 AM 12/2/97 0600, you wrote:
I suppose you heard the news of the shooting of the students participating in a prayer group. Time for the broad brush. The anti-prayer in schools crowd are to blame for this. They bear the same responsibility as do the pro lifers for the abortion doctor shooting. I wonder how the liberal, anti-Christian media will play this one. ; )
Very sad. If it IS related, I admit I expected the first violence to come from the "right." Too many unanswered questions at this point to point to one crowd or the other or to make a political statement out of that atrocity. The papers did say this a.m. that the boy was somehow associated with the "atheist" crowd. Last night, some friend of the boy indicated he'd been planning something for at least a week, just didn't know what, although the friend of the boy said the boy didn't want the friend at school that day.
The kid snapped. Why? The guns were stolen from a neighbor on Thanksgiving (reason #2 I don't want guns in my house), and he'd been planning it. Looking for explanations, not excuses.
Was he taunted or victimized in some way by the "prayer crowd" that killing was the only way of dealing with it? Was it something as simple as a broken heart, a lost girlfriend who got "saved," and he blamed "them" for losing his love? Was he making a political statement? Did he want to die too? What troubles at home? At school? Were the kids in prayer an intended target? Or just a convenient one?
Now that I gave you the "hype" reaction, this wasn't a surprise to me. As a Christian who tries to understand what the Bible says about the times we are living in, we know such hostility is coming. The anti-prayer, anti-God movement is part of it. Christians are finding themselves vilified more and more each year. We knew what, just not when.
Frank, the questions I posed only scratch the surface. It is too early to judge whether the prayer group was an intended target, let alone what the underlying motivation was, assuming the group was his intended victim because they were Christians. Clearly, the kid is psychologically damaged. The questions are: why and what did he think he was doing? He's an aberration, not a spokesman for the "anti-God movement."
It could have been as simple as one sick kid shooting at the people he thought stole his girlfriend. It could have been totally unrelated, and he just snapped at abuse at home. Yes, they were victims, but if you turn them into religious martyrs and the kid into a political representative of the "left" you'll see a real war and bloodshed upon bloodshed, totally divorced from the original facts and underlying cause.
As tempting as it is not to, we should withhold the political conclusions for a little while yet, and counsel restraint and responsibility. At least, that's what I would say if I were a representative of the "liberal, anti-Christian media." ; ) Do you think the right-wing Christian whackos will use this as an opportunity, before the facts are in, to start a holy war? ; )
Comments on the Charlie Reese editorial encouraged.
Haven't seen that. Can you fax it?
Take care. -Rob
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