When the Warren Commission, looking into the JFK assassination, got around to examining the role played by the city of Dallas in the tragedy, the members were torn between issuing a blanket condemnation of the rank hatred directed against Kennedy (and the American government) that many of them felt enabled the killer or a wrist slap that would have only mentioned the atmosphere in the city as “a factor” in the tragedy that played out that awful day.
Indeed, there was no more hate filled city that autumn in America than Dallas, Texas. Charges of treason against Kennedy and many in the government were on many people’s lips – the result of a series of editorials personally written by Ted Dealey, publisher of the Dallas Morning News, in which he regularly referred to the President and members of his administration as “traitors.” On the day of the assassination, the News carried a full page ad with a head shot of the president framed as if on a wanted poster. In large, bold type, the headline read “Wanted for Treason” and then listed a dozen or so ridiculous to our eyes reasons why Kennedy was a traitor.
But it wasn’t only Dealey who was spreading hate. The John Birch Society was very strong in Dallas as was the Klan. Many residents report hearing blood curdling threats made by ordinary citizens in schools, coffee shops, and other places where people would gather. If you lived in Dallas at that time, there was no way you could avoid being exposed to the searing hatred directed against Kennedy. He was a commie appeaser (or a commie plant). His entire cabinet was “pink.” He was a race mixer, a skinny rich kid whose daddy bought him the office.
This was the atmosphere Lee Oswald was exposed to in the days and weeks leading up to the assassination. As a declared Marxist – despite personal writings that made it clear he had little idea of what that ideology meant – he saw himself in heroic terms; a lone crusader against the evils of capitalism. For Oswald, there was little difference between Kennedy and the right wing racists and McCarthyites who spewed hatred toward liberals, toward the government, toward the “eastern establishment.”
But the Warren Commissioners were in a quandary. How much blame should be assigned to this right wing city for the actions of a declared leftist? The FBI tried to explain to the Commission that Oswald’s personality was very susceptible to this kind of virulent, visible hatred and that he could have channelled it unconsciously so that it enabled his act of violence. And it played in to Oswald’s ultimate motivation; it gave a patina of justification for what was really just a ploy to get the attention he craved so much.
In the end, the Commission cited Dallas and the climate of hate as a contributing factor but stopped short of blaming the city for enabling the tragedy.
No such reticence animated Bill Clinton when it came to placing blame for the Oklahoma City bombing. Although Clinton talked in general terms about the anti-government hatred spewed by militias and some far right websites, he went too far when accusing talk radio of enabling the killers:
“We hear so many loud and angry voices in America today,” Mr. Clinton told a college group in Minneapolis, after an obligatory obeisance to free speech, “whose sole goal seems to be to try to keep some people as paranoid as possible and the rest of us all torn up and upset with each other. They spread hate. They leave the impression, by their very words, that violence is acceptable.”The impression Mr. Clinton left, by his very words, was that the Oklahoma bombing had been incited by words “regularly said over the airwaves” by his political critics.
“Those of us who do not agree with the purveyors of hatred and division, with the promoters of paranoia,” he urged, “. . . we have our responsibilities, too. . . . When they talk of hatred, we must stand against them. When they talk of violence, we must stand against them.”
Clinton was correct in blaming the vitriol that emanated from publications (McVeigh was a devotee of the racist Turner Diaries), websites and public utterances of the neo-Nazis, the skinheads, and the far right militia movement as a factor that played upon the minds of killers like McVeigh. But he went way to far when including talk radio in his diatribe against hateful rhetoric. Nevertheless, it was once again shown how an atmosphere of hate with dark hints of violence enables disturbed people like McVeigh and gives them psychological comfort when carrying out their heinous acts.
Last Sunday, a similarly disturbed young man walked into a missionary school in Arvada, Colorado and gunned down 4 people, killing two of them. Less than 12 hours later, he had driven 65 miles to the New Life Church in Colorado Springs and opened fire with a rifle, killing two and wounding three before a courageous security guard ended his spree and forced the gunman to turn his weapon on himself. With a satchel full of ammo and a couple of other guns, who knows how many people Matthew Murray would have killed if not stopped.
Some of the time between the two shooting sprees Murray apparently spent on the internet. On a website devoted to people who have left formal religion behind, he wrote an incoherent screed – virtually the same words used by Columbine killer Eric Harris – and substituted the word “Christian” for the name of Harris’ target:
I’m coming for EVERYONE soon and I WILL be armed to the @#%$ teeth and I WILL shoot to kill. ....God, I can’t wait till I can kill you people. Feel noremorse, 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.Well all you people out there can just kiss my (expletive removed) and die. From now on I don’t give a @#%$ about what all you (expletive removed) have to say, unless I respect you which is highly unlikely, but for those of you who do happen to know me and know that I respect you, may peace be with you and don’t be in my line of fire, for the rest of you, you all better @#%$ hide in your houses because I’m coming for EVERYONE soon, and I WILL be armed to the @#%$ teeth, and I WILL shoot to kill and I WILL @#%$ KILL EVERYTHING! No I am not crazy, crazy is just a word, to me it has no meaning, everyone is different, but most of you @#%$ heads out there in society, going to your everyday @#%$ jobs and doing your everyday routine (expletive removed) things, I say @#%$ you and die, if you got a problem with my thoughts, come to me and I’ll kill you, because….....God (expletive removed), DEAD PEOPLE DON’T ARGUE! My belief is that if I say something, it goes. I am the law. If you don’t like it, you die. If I don’t like you or I don’t like what you want me to do, then you die. If I do something incorrect, oh @#%$ well, you die. Dead people can’t do many things, like argue, whine, @#%$, complain, name, rat out, criticize, or even @#%$ talk. So that’s the only way to solve arguments with all you (expletive removed) out there, I just kill. God I can’t wait till I can kill you people, I’ll just go to some downtown area in some big city and blow up and shoot everything I can.
You break my back but you won’t break me…..all is black but I still see…shut me down, knock me to the floor…..shoot me up, @#%$ me like a whore….trapped under ice, comfortably cold, I’ve gone as low as you can go….. feel no remorse, no sorrow or shame…...time’s gonna wash away all pain I made a God out of blood not superiority I killed the king of deceit and now I sleep in anarchy.
Note two things; Murray “didn’t care” whether he lived or died and it is clear he relished the “power” such an act would bestow. But it was his obvious hatred of Christians that ultimately gave him his target.
As an atheist, I am not as sensitive to the slights and insults hurled at Christians by some on the left. What I might find irreverent, Christians may take as an insult or hate speech.
Regardless, there is little doubt that some on the left cross the line of irreverence and play to their basest instincts by railing against the “fundies” and “Christofascists” whose beliefs they find objectionable. This is not true of all liberals, many of whom have expressed their concerns about fundamentalist Christians becoming too involved in the political life of the nation in respectful terms. But there is no doubt that a popular fringe on the left glories in using stupefyingly hateful language to describe their opposition to Christian positions on abortion, gay rights, birth control, even railing against organized religion itself.
Many times these rants cross the line and enter the realm of hate speech. The Amanda Marcotte affair and her ludicrous, hateful diatribes against Catholic beliefs is but one example of this mindset on the left that fails to differentiate between argument and vicious, hate-filled screeds.
Even more widespread but subtle by comparison is the anti-Christian bias found in mass media. It was much worse just a few years ago when it was impossible to find anyone of faith portrayed in a positive light on television or the movies. Christians – especially devout Christians – were portrayed as hypocrites and most often, criminals. David Limbaugh chronicled this bias in Persecution: How Liberals Are Waging War Against Christianity. I disagree with Limbaugh that there is something in the liberal ideology that manifests itself as hatred toward Christians – especially in mass media. It truly is a matter of not understanding people of faith as well as a distrust of anyone who believes in anything so strongly. The cynics who control the airwaves and movie studios simply cannot grasp the idea of the true believer. Hence, patriots, Christians, and zealots of every stripe are portrayed in a negative light.
Recently, this bias has been tempered by a slew of shows that portray faith and people who practice it in a more positive way. The long running show 7th Heaven, which showed the life of a preacher and his children, inspired a host of shows that also take faith seriously and attempt to examine an individual’s relationship with God in a positive light.
But fundamentalist Christians are still the target of an insidious bias in the news media as well as Hollywood. And the question that must be asked in the wake of the Colorado church shootings is does all this create an atmosphere of permissiveness that enabled the shooter?
Church shootings are nothing new in America although these kinds of mass killings is a fairly recent phenomena. Here are some major attacks at churches over the last few years:
May 21, 2006: Four members of Erica Bell’s family are shot to death in a service at the Ministry of Jesus Christ in Baton Rouge, La. She is abducted and murdered elsewhere. Her husband Anthony Bell is currently awaiting trial.Feb. 26, 2006: Kevin L. Collins opens fire during a church service at Zion Hope Missionary Baptist Church in Detroit, killing Rosietta Williams-Culp and injuring a 9-year-old girl. He later killed himself.
March 12, 2005: Terry Ratzmann opens fire at a Living Church of God service held at a Sheraton Hotel in Brookfield, Wis., killing seven and wounding four before shooting himself.
Oct. 5, 2003: Shelia Wilson walks into the Turner Monumental AME Church in Atlanta while preparations are being made for service and shoots the pastor, her mother and then herself.
June 10, 2002: Lloyd Robert Jeffress shoots four monks in a Benedictine monastery in Conception, Mo., killing two and wounding two, before killing himself.
March 12, 2002: Peter Troy, a former mental patient, opens fire during Mass at Our Lady of Peace Catholic Church in Lynbrook, N.Y., killing the priest and a parishioner. He later receives a life sentence.
May 18, 2001: Frederick Radford stands up in the middle of a revival service at Greater Oak Missionary Baptist Church, in Hopkinsville, Ky., and begins shooting at his estranged wife, Nicole Radford, killing her and a woman trying to help her.
Sept. 15, 1999: A gunman opens fire in Wedgwood Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas, killing seven people and then himself.
This is only a partial listing and doesn’t include some of the more recent attacks
In many of these incidents, it was alleged that the shooter was animated by anti-Christian hatred, enabled by a society at war with Christians. Is that really true? Given the spate of lawsuits brought by atheists and others who seek to remove Christian symbols and the outward manifestations of Christian beliefs from the public square along with attacks in media and on the internet, is it any wonder that Christians feel themselves besieged? Nor does it take a rocket scientist to figure out that this overpowering media blitz that appears on the surface to assault Christian leaders and beliefs would affect those already predisposed to hate and perhaps give them the subconscious impetus to act out that hatred by picking up a gun and using it on their perceived enemies?
This is very tricky territory to explore and some of my more feeble minded readers will try and take me to task for blaming liberals for the Colorado shootings. Nothing could be further from the truth. But to deny that the over the top rhetoric used by non believers along with the portrayal of Christians in mass media as hypocritical and evil has some kind of effect on these unbalanced killers – the Oswalds and McVeighs of today – is just not logical.
I confess to sharing many concerns about the Christian right that the sane left has articulated. But a blind man can see where the white hot rhetoric and constant debasement of Christians and Christianity in the media can lead. And perhaps it’s time for those on the left who care about the subject to step forward and ask for a bit more tolerance from their brethren despite the fact that they would be defending some whose own intolerance might ordinarily give them pause.
If there is a “war” some kind of peace is definitely in order. And understanding by all sides of the real world consequences that are the result of hate speech should be the first priority.
9:41 pm
Very well said, Rick. Granted I’m coming from the other side of the fence, but I think you’re correct that there is a strain of culture that is hostile to Christianity and Christians.
I would add that the leaders of the that charge are in the publishing world. There have been at least a dozen atheist manifestos published in the last two years. Dawkins, who is probably the best know, has compared himself to Churchhill, implicitly at least comparing his Christian “enemies” to Nazis. Harris, who I genuinely respect for some things he’s said, has unfortunately suggested that some beliefs are so dangerous we should kill people who hold them. This is not responsible talk (not to suggest that everyone on my side of the aisle is responsible all the time, because God knows they aren’t).
Anyway, thanks for what you wrote. I wholeheartedly agree.
9:47 pm
[...] Check This Out! While looking through the blogosphere we stumbled on an interesting post today. Here’s a quick excerpt: This is not true of all liberals, many of whom have expressed their concerns about fundamentalist Christians becoming too involved in the political life of the nation in respectful terms. But there is no doubt that a popular fringe on … [...]
10:47 pm
As a Christian, I am compelled to point out that whatever slings and arrows Christians (especially in America) feel as though they are suffering in the current political climate, it pales in comparison to His suffering. Our faith should inform us in this respect but, unfortunately, the sound and fury prevails.
10:52 pm
Christians regularly announce that we godless types are destined—and deserve to be—for an eternity of torture in the fires of hell. Torture. Forever. What has any atheist critic of Christianity ever said that is equally horrific?
One cannot state that a person, because of his beliefs alone, not because of any action, deserves eternal torment, and then complain when that person returns rhetorical fire.
I doubt this young man was motivated by the tiny, pipsqueak voice of atheism in the US. I also would not blame his evidently very religious upbringing. Rather, it seems he was depressed and mentally unbalanced. Not the fault of atheists or believers.
It goes without saying that I am very sorry for the families of the victims. If it turns out that I’m wrong and there is a God, I hope the victims are with Him now.
11:27 pm
The Skinny on Matthew Murray and the Church Shootings in Colorado.
As to Matthew Murray’s murders at the Youth with a Mission and at the church, the notion that the son of a powerful and very devout Christian physician, who was home taught in born again religious fashion and has nothing but a traffic ticket to indicate any prior rebelliousness at his relatively old age of 24, raises great suspicions. The more likely possibility is that Matthew Murray was primed by his parents and/or other religious controllers to be a martyr for the born-again Christians, his mayhem in Colorado Springs and Arvada now being a “burning of the Reichstag†justification for fundamentalist conservatives to crank up to a considerably higher level of repression and control in the United States…
To read more on this, go to http://www.matrix-evolutions.com
11:53 pm
Peter, from an Atheist, Christian, or whatever perspective, the conspiracy theory you propose is theory. Maybe on television yes, but if you spend time with some of these people at megachurches and mission centers you may find some problems with the way they think and do things, but they are not capable of orchestrating something like this. There are several exceptions, such as the Olympic bomber etc., but if you look closely you will see these people come from a separate subculture of “Christianity.”
11:53 pm
Correction: I meant that the theory you propose is silly.
1:51 am
Rumbling around the net today I came across some places that said he was raised by a mother who believed his birth was “foretold” and that he was some sort of “chosen one”.
Lots of stuff out there popping up about this guy.
The message board he did his postings on took the stuff down until the police had a look at it and made copies then they took all his postings and put them into a new area so people could see just how far this guy had gone.
From the time stamps, he posted just prior to the first set of killings at the dorm and then came back and posted even more before heading on to do killings at the church.
3:44 am
The “true” Christian will never tell someone that they deserve an eternity in hell fire. It’s too humbling to have to acknowledge that even for us, hell would be our final destination as well if it had not been for Jesus standing in our place. Anyone who does die and go to hell will not be someone who hasn’t commited an action to cause it. This action is called rebellion to God. It’s simply saying that his truth does not exist and there is no reason to pursue a relationship with him. Sadly, people look at this type of tragedy and say “if there is a God then why didn’t he stop it?”. Well, the other side of the Christian argument is that there is a devil who is determined to steal, kill, and destroy. God gave this world to man and man gave it to satan. The Bible refers to satan as the God of this present world. God is sovereign and can at anytime choose to do whatever he wants, however he chooses to work through man’s will to carry out his plans as satan does also. Christians have been giving their lives for the sake of the Gospel for as long as time has existed and will continue to do so until time is no more. It is tragic and painful here on earth, but our hope is not in this present world. Our hope is in Heaven and a life to come where there will be no more news of people hurting people for any reason. We live it bc we believe it. We ask the world to forgive us if we mess up in some ways, even for us it is hard to do things exactly the way we should and that’s why God’s mercy and grace is so important. We would all be doomed without it.
2:00 pm
The Thunder Run has linked to this post in the – Web Reconnaissance for 12/11/2007 A short recon of what’s out there that might draw your attention, updated throughout the day…so check back often.
2:01 pm
As a member of a progressive (but nonetheless Christian) denomination I have to admit I am hard-pressed to identify any damage done to me or my family by this so-called “war” against Christianity. Some of us would really rather not have the ten commandments posted at the local courthouse (after all, which version do you choose, and who gets to decide?). Nor would I appreciate my kids being led in a prayer at our public school, since I doubt very seriously such a prayer would have much to do with the Quaker faith that we are trying to instill in our kids at home. Our small town still has a Christmas parade, and gives a prize to the best church-sponsored float (along with prizes for the best company float and best non-profit float). I see no evidence of a national climate of discrimination against Christians based on their faith. So, what exactly is the problem??
It also seems to me that this alleged media “hostility” towards Christianity is overblown. A number of books by noted Christian scientists have been written in response to Dawkins, but you don’t see those authors appearing next to Bill O. on FOX because it is the controversy that pushes audience shares and pulls in the big advertising dollars. “Narnia” was a huge hit, and did much better at the box office than the “Golden Compass,” largely because it was the better film. In addition to “7th Heaven” the show “Joan of Arcadia” portrayed a positive view of faith, and after all even the Simpsons attend church regularly (not to mention Homer’s regular conversations with God.)
2:15 pm
I have long been aware of the rather unpleasant attitude toward Christians and Jews – as a Catholic I have observed it for nearly my entire 65 years. People feel perfectly free to say and suggest and impugn the most astounding attitudes and actions to us and feel no shame or embarrassment while doing so. Heaven forfend that anyone express even remotely similar sentiments about Muslims!
On a daily basis I see more and more people who have aligned themselves with an increasingly secular point of view, eschewing religious belief and placing THEMSELVES in the position of some sort of tinpot diety. The more we remove God from our schools, and our public dialogue, and our lives, the less our lives have any kind of meaning.
I don’t blame the guns for the violence, I blame the secular atmosphere and the people who buy into it so fully.
Never forget that it was a woman with a gun and the ability and will to use it that prevented greater bloodshed.
6:33 pm
I don’t think the JFK assassination is a useful example because there are so many conflicting theories surrounding it; interpreting the Warran Comm’n results as a political calculation doesn’t, either.
Speculation about the Okla bombing is more distracting than helpful. Maybe far-right rhetoric affected McVeigh, but maybe not; there just isn’t any way to prove causation from such tenuous contacts with far-right rhetoric, much less rank the influence of the various factors.
A better comparison is probably anti-semitic jihad rhetoric, since suicide bombing is only different from suicide gun-attacks in the choice of weaponry, and the jihad propoganda is probably directly accountable for the semi-constant suicide bombs that Isreal used to suffer.
Alternately, the racism of the early half of the twentieth century could be a useful comparison, since it clearly motivated 1000+ lynchings.
The racism and anti-semite comparisons are helpful because you could prove causation with them. People died, and their deaths can be attributed to [instert propoganda] because of: (1) the number of murders; and (2) similarities tying them together. (KKK for the one; martyr-training and videos for the other.)
Did anti-Christian hate speech influence the Colorado murders? Who knows. The Colo killer could have influenced by others, but he could have developed his pathologies himself. Either way, I’m too skeptical to accept the ramblings of a psycho killer on first impression.
Even if you suspect the former, you provide almost no more evidence that far-left hate speech contributed to the Colo killings, than Bill Clinton provided tying Okla and Rush Limbaugh.
Eight murders over eight+ years just ain’t enough, especially when the only similarities between the killings is that they occurred in a place of worship.
9:05 pm
Rick, your thesis requires that conservative criticism of the Dept. of Education, the NEA, and teacher unions, has “had an effect” on those who carry out school shootings.
12:51 am
I’ve read this guy’s posts on an ex-Pentecostal forum, and from what I can tell, he suffered unspeakable abuse at the hands of his mother and some church leaders.
But if it makes you feel better Rick, blame the “Christian bashers” for sending guy over the edge, and not the fundie wackos that created this Frankenstein.
11:13 am
“Given the spate of lawsuits brought by atheists and others who seek to remove Christian symbols and the outward manifestations of Christian beliefs from the public square along with attacks in media and on the internet, is it any wonder that Christians feel themselves besieged?”
I’m not aware that Christians feel besieged. I think people on the political right tend to feel besieged.
The Washington Times article you cite illustrates this. It quotes a number of Christians who are on the political right who, to varying degrees suggest that Christianity is under siege. Harold Brown goes so far as to compare the present situation in America to the persecution of Christians by the Romans. But this perspective is not shared by the one Christian quoted who is not on the political right (the Rev. C. Welton Gaddy).
11:43 am
[...] Rick Moran tackles an enduring question: Does hate speech induce hateful (even murderous) actions? [...]
7:12 pm
True, disrespectful comments about anybody’s religion are to be avoided, regardless of how absurd a religion might seem.
I think Christians are “bashed” for 2 reasons:
they are the main religion, so religion- bashers would most frequently be Christian- bashers, not Zoroastrian- bashers;
Christianity is a mixture of monotheism and Paganism. The Pagan element remains fairly strong (e.g., the Trinity, the Saints, the Resurrection), so those who would bash religion would have at least 3 times as many reasons to bash Christianity.
Still, it’s not right to do this, and non-theists should be setting an example of decency and tolerance.
But people like Bill Gothard, whose teachings helped push Matthew over the edge, don’t help create good will toward religious teachings.
11:47 am
Any analysis of Matthew Murray’s actions that doesn’t look at the role of Bill Gothard’s teachings is an inadequate one.
7:30 pm
I believe that the author is wrong to blame the typical right-wing excuse for everything, the far-left “libbies” for all their problems.
American Christians are hated worldwide and for good reason. They have supported persecution of minorities in their own country- the native peoples and blacks to name a few. They are strong supporters of Americas wars- the Gulf War, World War I, II, Vietnam war, and now WWIII against Muslims and others opposed to the US- yet claim to be Pro-Life (Ha!). They are the strongest supporters of torture. They supported the Apartheid regime in South Africa and now support the Zionist Apartheid state in Palestine.
American Christians act like “thieves in the night” by trying to takeover the courts, the army, the politics and every other aspect of American society.
Just as Jewish fanatics like to blame anti-semitism for all their problems, Christofascists (and fellow travelers like the author) like to blame all their probs on Liberals. Enough is enough. It is time for Christians to stop behaving so fanatically and take a more liberal stance towards the world and American society.