Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Diatribe foretold Horror of Shootings

From today's Denver Post (http://www.denverpost.com/ci_7686929) it would appear that the Colorado shootings on Sunday were motivated by a warped desire for revenge for the shooter's expulsion form Youth With A Mission program a few years back. Also combined with that desire was an obvious emulation of the much publicized 1999 Columbine shootings. I do not condone or excuse the violence and shooting of innocent people, but I can understand how one could blame religion for many of the problems in the world today given the Christian Right's message of hate and division. This sad occurence also highlights why the manner in which the news media covers mass shootings needs to be rethought so that it does not provide inspiration for other disturbed individuals. Here are highlights from the story:
Authorities are now investigating the posting, which copies from a manifesto written by Columbine killer Eric Harris before the 1999 high school massacre. Matthew J. Murray, 24, who police say carried out attacks at the Youth With a Mission dormitory in Arvada and New Life Church in Colorado Springs, left behind final words that are rearranged but otherwise largely word-for-word the same as Harris' writings.

The writing, first reported by 9News, was confirmed as Murray's work by investigating authorities. He posted the message at 11:03 a.m. on a website for people who have left organized religion, almost 11 hours after the Arvada shooting and two hours before the Colorado Springs attack.
"You christians brought this on yourselves," Murray writes in his 452-word harangue. "I'm coming for EVERYONE soon and I WILL be armed to the @#%$ teeth and I WILL shoot to kill. "Feel no remorse, no sense of shame, I don't care if I live or die in the shoot-out. All I want to do is kill and injure as many of you as I can especially Christians who are to blame for most of the problems in the world."
The only substantive change Murray made to the Harris writing is replacing the name of Harris' target, classmate and neighbor Brooks Brown, with "Christians who are to blame for most of the problems in the world." Authorities believe Murray's motive was revenge after he was spurned by the missionary organization, which also has offices on the New Life Church campus.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

(1) Tony Perkins is blaming the shootings on the "secular media."

(2) The internet forum in question, the one in which Murray posted those ramblings may be engaging in evidence tampering.