The gunman who killed two at a UU church in Knoxville targeted the church because of its liberal views.
Police say a man opened fire at a Knoxville, Tenn., church yesterday because he couldn’t find a job and “his stated hatred for the liberal movement.”
More at Philocrites.
Coming from a Jewish background, I’m certainly not shocked by religious violence. But this is the first time I’ve read of UUs being specifically targeted. I don’t know what the mental status of the perpetrator is, but even guessing that he’s not quite right in the head, the choice of targets that mentally disturbed people make is often reflective of propaganda they are exposed to. In this, I am thinking of numerous cases where Jews are targeted, and the perpetrator is found to be disturbed. Sure, I’ve thought, that person was disturbed, but they didn’t pick their victim at random. They were conditioned by something in the society they lived in to hate that group of people.
This is such a tragic and unwelcome reminder of the pain and brokenness in our sinful world. Our prayers go out to our brothers and sisters in Tennessee as they mourn in this time of loss. I pray that, though difficult, events like this will help unify the church in the hope of the Gospel.
I was thinking about this today and found that Christianity Today is offering a free resource called “Confronting Gun Violence.†I’ll include the link below for any of you who are interested. While we can never predict when an act of violence might occur, this download offers some precautionary measures churches can take to safeguard their people and facilities.
Again, my deepest sympathies go out to our friends in Knoxville and I pray that we can learn to prevent such tragedies in the days to come.
http://store.yahoo.com/cgi-bin/clink?yhst-78230354700659+8NQpna+cogunviatchd.html
Comment by Ryan — July 28, 2008 @ 12:52 pm
[...] life of people who were just worshiping at this particular church. This has been blogged about all throughout the UU blogosphere. The attacker was the ex-husband of a parishioner at the church and attacked the [...]
Pingback by My Response to the Attacks at the Tennessee Valley UU Church at The Adventures of Jessica Sideways — July 28, 2008 @ 3:01 pm