Another tragedy has been visited upon New Life Church. This time the perpetrator is not a gay male prostitute. No, Matthew Murray is one of their own. The son of devout Christians and a former member of Youth with a Mission.
As is the norm for evangelicals, the story is being presented in the thought-stopping language of Christian-ese. “Ms. Assam, as you were advancing toward the gunman firing repeatedly, what was going through your mind?” “I was thinking how awesome and powerful God is, and how happy I am that I was his chosen instrument.” Okaaay.
Let’s try again. “Why would a young man raised by devoted Christian parents feel such hatred toward fellow believers?” Permit me to improvise here. Matthew Murray hated Christians because he’d allowed sin to gain a foothold in his life. Or because he didn’t have Jesus in his heart. Maybe he didn’t actually have a personal relationship with the Lord. Perhaps he was being assailed by Satan and his minions, caught in his own private Armageddon.
I have a thought. Maybe Matthew Murray despised Christians because he’d been isolated from his peers and home schooled (brainwashed) by them. Obviously he was experiencing some emotional turmoil, a common thing really, but instead of being heard, or being helped, he was expected to trust in the Lord because, after all, his ways are higher than our ways. As a young man, when his God-given inclination was to find himself and taste a bit of freedom, he was expected to be a youth with a mission. Go to the ends of the earth and spread the good news of our Lord!
One spin I’m sure we won’t hear coming out of Christian mouths in the coming days is the possibility that, like Hurricane Katrina and the AIDS epidemic, the shootings represent God’s wrath pouring down on people who claim to know him, to speak for him; people who oppress and repress and judge in his name. There will be no one uttering what many of us are thinking. Perhaps Matthew Murray was God’s chosen instrument.
A friend of mine is wondering if anyone is claiming the shooter himself was GOD’S DIVINE WRATH being visited upon the homosexuals of New Life Church.
I find it amazing that this incident can be framed to herald support for gun rights. In the wake of so many recent shooting rampages, even today a schoolbus gunman in Las Vegas, how can reporters suggest the New Lifers successfully defending themselves justifies the access to handguns which fuels America’s plague of First Person [school/church] Shooters?
Colorado Springs was where I was born and to where I will never return
Here is Matthew Murray’s self-bio on MYSPACE.
ABOUT ME: Abused and tormented by christians for many years growing up in christianity. Christians, if you want to preach/witness to me, please keep in mind: I know all the apologetics stuff, all the evangelism and pentecostal stuff. I was forced to memorize bible verses 5 days a week growing up 11 years in christian homeschool.
I was involved with and taught the ideas of C. Peter Wagner, Mike Bickle, Bill Gothard, and many others. I went to all kinds of fundamentalist/pentecostal/ evangelical bible studies, conferences, prayer meetings, and even a missionary school/ministry called Youth With A Mission Denver. Of course, LOTS of hypocrisy and NO REAL love to be found at YWAM Denver.
I know the bible better than most christian pastors. Oh, and I’ve already been baptized, received “the baptism of the holy spirit,” spoken in tongues and all those other games christians love to play. I’ve lived the christian life, did all the faith stuff, confessions of faith, the baptism stuff, the prayer stuff, and all the rule stuff. If I’m not changed, well, it ain’t my fault. I did my part of the deal.
Christians thought they could get away with abusing me and others, they thought the Truth and Light would never be found out. They were wrong. Even though many christians have tried to oppress and control the lives of many, even though many christians serving darkness have tried to carry on their fascist agenda of bigotry, intolerance, tyranny, and hatred, the Light ever shines, even in the darkness though the darkness comprehendeth it not. The Light is available for all who have eyes to see.
No wonder my secularist friends are sending light, love and all positive thoughts to the thosands of other youth being indoctrinated by fundametalists and questioning w/o having anyone listening to their confused minds and hearts. I’m doing the same as my secularist friends – even though I still call it prayer.
KV – truly a good point/comment. I concur. Same to your comments, Eric.
I don’t look at this incident as Christian or non-Christian – no matter what the “messages” were. Whatever the kids said at Columbine, it’s not about God – it’s about guns, isolation, and power tripping on power. Even tthese words are warped by bias – and not the event’s telling – which we may never fully know.
Confusion has a trigger as does political and religious belief. Maybe it’s time that we reverse the adage that “guns don’t kill people – people do.” If this lad had been using fists they could have bitch-slapped him out of church or at least pulled him to a room where the faith of tomorrow meant more than the love/hate of yesterday.
Thanks Marie for the blog as with the “missing” photographic tribute blog. How sad that some see the glass half-empty or full and others see right thru it, and that’s not a reality too?