The alleged synagogue shooter was a churchgoer who talked Christian theology, raising tough question

[Eugene]

Source: Washington Post

The alleged synagogue shooter was a churchgoer who talked Christian theology, raising tough questions for evangelical pastors

By Julie Zauzmer May 1 at 1:59 PM

Before he allegedly walked into a synagogue in Poway, Calif., and opened fire, John Earnest appears to have written a seven-page letter spelling out his core beliefs: that Jewish people, guilty in his view of faults ranging from killing Jesus to controlling the media, deserved to die. That his intention to kill Jews would glorify God.

Days later, the Rev. Mika Edmondson read those words and was stunned. “It certainly calls for a good amount of soul-searching,” said Edmondson, a pastor in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, a small evangelical denomination founded to counter liberalism in mainline Presbyterianism. Earnest, 19, was a member of an OPC congregation. His father was an elder. He attended regularly. And in the manifesto, the writer spewed not only invective against Jews and racial minorities but also cogent Christian theology he heard in the pews.

So the pastor read those seven pages, trying to understand. “We can’t pretend as though we didn’t have some responsibility for him — he was radicalized into white nationalism from within the very midst of our church,” Edmondson said.

Earnest’s actions on Saturday in Poway — where he allegedly killed one Jewish worshiper and injured a rabbi, a child and another synagogue-goer — have spurred debate among evangelical pastors about the role of a certain stream of Christian theology in shaping the young man’s worldview, which allegedly turned deadly on the last day of the Passover holiday.

-snip-

“When there’s an act of ‘radical Islamic terror’ — somebody claiming they’re motivated by their Islamic faith — if we’re going to call upon moderates in Muslim communities to condemn those things, we should do the same. I wholeheartedly, full stop, condemn white nationalism,” said Chad Woolf, an evangelical pastor in Fort Myers, Fla., who was one of the first to join in heated debate online about how the attack reflects on evangelicalism. “We should recognize that somebody could grow up in an evangelical church, whose father was a leader, and could somehow conflate the teachings of Christianity and white nationalism. We should be very concerned about that.”

-snip-

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2019/05/01/alleged-synagogue-shooter-was-churchgoer-who-articulated-christian-theology-prompting-tough-questions-evangelical-pastors/

[Cartoonist]

1. A priest looked in a mirror

Maybe others will follow instead of blaming PTSD or any other excuse.

[teenagebambam]

2. What I don't understand about Evangelical Anti-Semitism

Even if the premise that the Jews killed Jesus were true (it isn’t) - if Jesus hadn’t died, then there’s no salvation. I suppose the logic is too much for them to follow.

[MineralMan]

3. The Orthodox Presbyterian Church is a

predestination-believing, Calvinist denomination. Calvinists tend to believe that people are what they are and there's no changing them. If God loved them, they'd be upright, successful people. All people who aren't successful and doing well are not among the "elect." They're not God's chosen people, so screw them!

Calvinists can be judgmental and cruel, although they pretend not to be. Calvinist churches are often also racist churches, believing that no person of color can be among the "elect." They are not fun-loving denominations, by any means, not kind and generous, except when a show needs to be made of that.

Calvinists love Jonathan Edwards' 18th century sermon, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God." It's sort of the second Bible for such folks. If you haven't read it, it's available with a Google Search.