Matthew Murray was the "deranged gunman" who killed four and wounded others at young Evangelical Christian missionary locations connected to a Denver suburb mega-church. New Life Church is one of the largest and most influential in the country. It was also home to Rev. Ted Haggard until he was removed for drugs and homosexuality with a gay prostitute. It has been the leader in the largely sucessful effort to Christian radicalize the Air Force. It leads in promoting deprogramming gayness.
Matt became mentally ill but his whole life revolved around the church and being home-schooled. The church and his parents decided he had become possessed by evil demons and made his life even more of a living Hell and kept destroying his video games and music. How much of that is due to his coming out as bi-sexual is unclear.
I don't sympathize or condone what he did but it becomes understandable.
In the years before his death after an exchange of fire with an armed security guard at New Life Church in Colorado Springs he had posted many of his thoughts in online discussion groups.
His rage explodes in a posting that appeared to have been made between the shootings in Arvada and Colorado Springs on Sunday, saying, "You christians brought this on yourselves ... 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."I don't think it is a surprise that Denver suburbs have become the home of young male killers seeking revenge through mass blood shed. This Evangelical Christian, Republican, gun-loving culture has no place or sympathy for misfits.
Murray, who police said shot and killed two people at the missionary center and two people at the megachurch, copied from the manifesto of Columbine High School shooter Eric Harris in his post on a site for ex-Pentecostals.
Many more Matt's posts. True crime has more.
Four young people died as well as Matthew Murray as he went after his revenge with guns. My sympathy is with their friends and families.
Rightwing Sparkle is on the case:
I'm not making a judgement here on Matthew or his family. I'll let God do that. But for the websites that I surfed through that seem to want to blame the Church, or homophobia[I corrected spelling], or his parents, or hypocrisy for what Matthew did, I don't buy it.I liked her post a lot better before the reference to the devil devouring him. A lot of Matt's problems were due to the beliefs he was forced fed that the devil and the demons would devour him.
I have known people who went through these kinds of things, as horrible as they are, and come out of it as wonderful human beings. Matthew never understood that God wasn't the New Life Church or his parents. He was being forced to find answers there. And then he looked for more answers in all the wrong places.
There is no doubt in my heart and mind that the struggle between good and evil surrounds each of us every day. Matthew had more of a struggle than most of us, but he could not overcome. He was devoured.
May God have mercy on his soul.
I Peter 5:8
Be of sober spirit, be on the alert Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
I think these are the lessons to learn:
Don't force feed your children your religious beliefs.
If your church lacks love and practices hypocrisy get another.
Watch out for guns in the hands of the mentally unbalanced.
I should thank the Houston Chronicle and Rightwing Sparkle for making me more aware of this case.
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