Killer of Amish Children Was "Deeply Christian"

[leftchick]

and apparently deeply disturbed.... :(



Charles Carl Roberts, a 32-year-old diary truck driver, whom police identified as the gunman who killed three schoolgirls execution style and then shot himself dead in a schoolhouse in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania, is seen in this police handout released October 2, 2006. The incident was the third U.S. school shooting in less than a week. EDITORIAL USE ONLY REUTERS/Pennsylvania State Police Photo/Handout (UNITED STATES)


<snip>

Though not Amish, he and his family seemed as deeply Christian as any in this rural area of Lancaster County.

<snip>

Dawn Lamparter, who grew up with Marie, called the Robertses ``the ideal family.''

Marie Roberts was more outgoing than her husband, neighbors said. She was involved in Christian groups, and her home often was a congregating place for women organizing church activities.

Roberts' parents also are religious. His mother, Teresa, works at Sight & Sound Theaters, a Christian organization that stages Bible plays in Strasburg, Pa.

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,20517044-663,00.html


"They're a fine Christian family. It's ironic and it's heartbreaking," she said.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/P/PA_AMISH_SCHOOL_SHOOTING_GUNMAN_PAOL-?SITE=PAGRE&SECTION=US

[TechBear_Seattle]

1. Why is it that the first words...

... out of the mouths of the friends and family of a mass murderer when he commits his crime is almost always, "He was a deeply religious person, a devout church-goer who truely loved God"?

One has to wonder if there is a connection.

[Toots]

8. Funny how "Deeply Christian" and "Deeply Disturbed" go together so well

:shrug:

[leftchick]

28. indeed

and being Christian does not necessarily mean spiritual.

[madokie]

35. I'm just glad I seen the light and am non-religous now

I was raised in a heavily religous setting but when I started thinking and putting things together I realized there were holes in the religion of my family, baptist, big enough to drive a truck through. I have no problems with someone else's regilion it's just not for me. :+

[MrCoffee]

53. Oh for fuck's sake...

This is the most ridiculous bullshit ever. I can tell people that I'm a 60 year old black woman, but that don't necessarily make it so. You want to stick to labeling people, you go right ahead.

[Ganja Ninja]

69. Deeply Republican too.

[onenote]

76. the amish are deeply devout

but they aren't shooting people.

kinda blows up the theory doesn't it?

[spoony]

98. Idiotic.

[sufrommich]

9. It's ironic that few on this board

have a problem wondering out loud whether fundamentalist christians and violence go hand in hand,yet wondering the same of fundamentalist muslims will get you called all sorts of nasty names.

[Kingshakabobo]

21. I haven't seen anyone defending fundamentalism of either religion??

:shrug:

Have you?

[leftchick]

30. me either

any fundamentalism is not good.

[sufrommich]

50. When was the last time

you saw a thread which stated"Suicide bomber of innocents was considered deeply islamic".I'm no fan of any religion,but a killer is a killer and to imply that their religion may have compelled them and not their mental illness is silly.

[Kingshakabobo]

55. Oh come on..... you are grasping.

You can't go a day without hearing..

Radical cleric
Islamofascist
Islamic fundamentalist
Radical Islam
etc. etc.

It's been said SO MANY times it goes without saying.

[RaleighNCDUer]

92. Hey, i've got a new one.

In this week's time magazine on the pending war on Iran, there is a claim, I quote: "As Syed Ayad, a secular Shi'ite cleric and Iraqi Member of Parliment says..."

Secular Shi'ite cleric?

Time magazine, and they don't know the meaning of the word 'secular'? I suppose they were trying to say he was a non-radical cleric.

I don't know why I still expect better from Time.

[immoderate]

77. You are right.

No matter what they say, religion is a personal, individual, internal thing. Each person makes up his own religion. Mental illness is something else. Sometimes religion is used as part of the rationalization for inhuman acts, but it is not the cause of the defect.

Some of the kindest most helpful people I know are fundamentalist. I do not credit their fundamentalism for that kindness, though. I, OTOH, have no religion.

--IMM

[Warren DeMontague]

74. Actually, I've seen people here defending creationists and other

far right "Christian" fundies. You know: stop "slamming" and "ridiculing" them because, say, they not only believe the Earth is literally 6,000 years old, they want that drivel taught in public school science class. I've seen it argued that the removal of mandatory, Christian Prayer from public schools was an "undemocratic, unconstitutional" action.

It's not frequent, but it does happen.

I also have seen -a few- people bending over backwards to defend the violent actions of some Muslims in response to the cartoons which pissed them off. I think that's a ridiculous, indefensible position, as well.

[Clark2008]

83. But that's the problem - you can BE deeply Christian without

believing any of those nut-job things you described.

We should call them Christian extremists or Christo-facists (like wingnuts do to extremist Muslims) or something other than "deeply Christian."

I'm "deeply Christian" and I don't ever get the urge to shoot up a bunch of kids (or anyone else, for that matter). I don't let small arguments turn into deep grudges because of my religion, either.

It's not a matter of "slamming" them - it's proper word usage. Slam "radical Christians" all you want, but don't lump ALL of us Christians into this nutjob fringe.

[Warren DeMontague]

84. I never do. I never say "all Christians" or even "Christians"

I'm pretty specific about singling out far-right fundamentalists, left behind end-timers, and the like.

But I also say, if you're (you in general, not YOU specifically) going to take ANY criticism of those people -or their agenda, for that matter- as an impugning of YOUR belief system, then you are the one who is incapable of finding a distinction between the two.

[Clark2008]

87. I'm sorry - I wasn't necessarily meaning "you" in specific, but

a general "you."

But, the problem is that I see a lot of DUers lump all Christians together - no matter how liberal or how fundie or how, well, odd, their belief system is.

[spoony]

99. Thank you! "Deeply" is not the word to use!

[hlthe2b]

27. EXTREME Fundamentalism in any "religion" or philosophy...

has at its core the total surrender to a devout belief with simultaneous denial of critical thinking-- even when the flood of facts overwhelmingly contradict those beliefs. In that, there is a tremendous similarity to schizophrenia and some other mental disorders....

The problem is when one broadly describes ALL Christians or ALL Muslims, etc., this way. That is what "gets you called all sorts of nasty names" (as well it should, IMO).

[goddess40]

36. Total surrender of reason and logic =fundamentalism

Never a good thing.

BUT that said the real Muslims, Christians etc. need to denounce these extremists because when they sit quietly by and say nothing it sends a message of support.

[hlthe2b]

43. Yes...

But the same who would denounce all Muslims for not isolating and denouncing their extemists, are often the same who would go after Rosie O'Donnell and others for making the point that we likewise must denounce our "Christian" extremists...:shrug:

[goddess40]

60. I meant Christians should denounce fundy Christians...

Muslims should denounce fundy Muslims and it wouldn't hurt for them to reach across with an understanding comment about how hard it is when fundys besmirch their Church's "good" name, instead of denouncing the entire religion.

[treestar]

71. You're making a positive requirement of people

Not really fair. I could spend my whole life "responding" to these things - I don't "support" him, where do I have to say that I don't approve of what he did? It's illegal in the country in which I live. I think I deserve at least the presumption I disapprove if I don't say anything in what you consider to be the right place.

The Muslims also may live in a country where they don't have freedom of speech. This is just using their "silence" as a presumption they approve, which is no more true than the presumption I approve of the Amish-shooter because I don't happen to mention that I disapprove of it.

[goddess40]

100. It's just the way it works

I didn't write the 'rules'. It just is.

If someone from an organization makes a statement or does something horrible an no one from the organization speaks up to distance themselves from the story it sends a message of approval.

[warrens]

29. Not by the same people

Fundamentalism of any sort is a mental disease. Anyone who believes any book, no matter what book that is, is inerrant and completely accurate has real problems dealing with reality.

[RaleighNCDUer]

31. Deeply christian does not necessarily mean fundie.

So-called mainstream churches have deeply committed congregants, too.

From my point of view the fundie is only slightly more self-deluding than a religionist of any other stripe. If you depend on the ghost-in-chief to solve your problems, your problems will not get solved. That's why people wind up 'angry at god'.

He carried an unspecified grudge since he was 12. I have to wonder what could happen to a 12 year old boy in a sexually repressed society that would make him take it out on Amish girls two decades later.

[Warren DeMontague]

70. Nope. I've wondered both those things repeatedly.

And the only one that seems to reliably get people to go ape-shit around here is when you speculate about the mental wiring problems or bizzarre behavior of certain Christian Fundamentalists.

[JNelson6563]

80. Nonsense

Most posters at DU know that a fundy or, perhaps more appropriately "zealot" for ANY religon is a dangerous person. Those who think there is any difference between religon A zealot or religion B zealot is indulging in happy delusions for reasons rooted in emotional reasoning.

Julie

[Taverner]

91. Hell, I think Fundamentalist ANYTHING makes you violent

It means you serve an authority other than that of your fellow man.

Sick, so sick

[woodsprite]

19. In that area, I can certainly understand it. For the most part,

everyone lives and breathes religion there. It is literally evident in almost every facet of life in that area of Lancaster Co.

[bryant69]

23. So is saying he was deeply religious any more significant

than that he breathed air and drank water? Shopped at grocery stores and ate at McDonalds? I mean if everybody is religious, can it really be religion that pushed him over the edge?

Bryant

[woodsprite]

34. The news keeps repeating over and over that the

community is relying on their faith and belief in God to pull them thru this. That nothing happens without a purpose, etc. I'm getting really tired of hearing all that. I believe some people are just nuts and that is or is not the particular will of God. But I have to keep reminding myself that the whole area is filled with people (Amish, Mennonite, others) who have a totally different view of life than I do and most of those differences are built around religious values.

I do believe religion can push people over the edge. Could a man have been "tempted" by a forbidden relationship and ends up taking that out on other forbidden girls/women? Heck, they can even justify it by quoting the Bible (the one about if your eye sins, pluck it out - if your hand sins, cut it off). Could someone decide that this world is going to hell in a handbasket and they don't know what future their kids will have so they "send them to heaven" early (like some murderous mom claimed recently). Yeah, I'd say overdone, zealotry and religion of any type can send a person off the deep end.

[bryant69]

37. Zealotry of any sort can push someone over the edge

It's when you start seeing things, even ideas, as more important than people, that bad things start happening. And that can happen with any philosophy or ideology or theology. Take the person who genuinely wants better conditiosn for workers, but also thinks "I hope they don't get that raise because then they'll be fired enough to go on strike and bring down the company."

If we had a giant button that could immediately erase religion from peoples minds and make it so it had never existed, how many of the worlds problems would that solve? Would that fundamentally change people, or would they just latch on to something else?

Bryant

[Carni]

95. I have to think bush's economy has brought out even more crazies

Clearly this man was DEEPLY DISTURBED-- and I would venture to say that *God* didn't make this happen! (hearing that pisses me off too BTW)

IMO what is making stuff like this happen is that a bunch of very frustrated (for one reason or another) people are just spiraling over the edge in this lovely mafia like economy.

At the cost of health insurance I am surprised there isn't a lot more of this type of madness going on all around the country.

I too am on the bush health care plan (pray and hope nothing happens to your ass)
We just found out yesterday that while my husband is covered by the company he works for...adding our daughter and myself would be 1000 dollars a month.

Point being so far as yet I am not mentally ill (I don't think) but imagine all the people all over the country who for whatever reasons are not able to get the medical treatment they need! Although granted in this guy's case maybe his zealot type idealism prevented him from seeking treatment.

Scary times

[ContraBass Black]

52. No, I think that comes after, "He was a nice, quiet guy,"

"A good father, always polite..."

[TechBear_Seattle]

78. I am corrected. ONE of the first things

:hi:

[Christa]

85. There is

he follows God's example :evilgrin:

[nemo137]

93. Why is it than when things come out of the blue, people wonder

how a "good" person, one they saw doing everything their community saw as valuble - married, raised a family, went to church, had a job - could do somethinng like that? Why take their shock and horror over something terrible happening in their world to make a snarky point about religion?

[ClassWarrior]

2. Please be accurate. The article says "seemed...deeply Christian."

No real Christian would commit a horror like this.

NGU.

[SmokingJacket]

14. Two different definitions of "Christian" are in play here.

He *was* a member of a Christian church, which makes him a Christian in that sense.

However, another definition of "Christian" is "a person who acts in a Christ-like manner," and shooting children certainly isn't Christlike!

No religion, or non-religion, is free of its insane nutballs, though...

[hlthe2b]

32. "SELF-PROCLAIMED" Christian...

like so many on the Xian Right....

[Bill McBlueState]

39. that's called the "no true Scotsman" fallacy

To say "No real Christian would..." has a name; it's called the no true Scotsman fallacy.

Individual Christians have committed all sorts of horrors throughout history. To say none of them was a "real" Christian is offensive to people of other religions who understand from direct experience that Christianity and virtuous behavior are not synonymous.

[TechBear_Seattle]

51. No True Scotsman puts sugar in his oatmeal, either

I leave it as an excercise to the reader to find the logical fallacy. :hi:

[acmavm]

3. So what? So frigging what? Why did this bastard do this? It

cannot, cannot, cannot be justified or excused or negated or connected with religion. No one's religion, no matter how twisted, says go in to a school and kill little girls.

[Bill McBlueState]

40. true, but

Some religions do strongly emphasize the second-class personhood of women. A man who is raised from birth to think that God means for women to be inferior to men is much closer to breaking into a school and killing all the girls than a man who is raised with a strong notion of equality between the genders.

[acmavm]

56. Hey, I know a hell of a lot of men who are anything but

religious who have the same attitudes towards women.

[BobRossi]

4. Fine gun-slinging, peace-hating Christian.

Right from the shrub mold.

[leftchick]

6. yep

it is very strange how the fundies love violence so much when Jesus was all about love and peace.

[bryant69]

5. Interesting juxtaposition of responses

the first two, I mean.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[Wickerman]

7. ...called the Robertses ``the ideal family.''

Yep, showing once again that appearances are worth diddley squat. Some serious issues going on there, it might seem.

[leftchick]

17. Richard Brautigan!

I have not thought about him in a very long time. He was an American classic! :)

[Wickerman]

20. love that pic

and RB is one of my favorite authors. Thanks for noticing!

The sigline serves to re-promote Richard and to speak to the foolishness of this war and is in honor of those who felt they were being patriotic after 9-11 by enlisting. I know too many of them and the sig serves as my daily prayer they return safely as they do tour after tour.

[mike_c]

10. there is much about this story that does not make sense....

Not just the senseless deaths of the children, of course. Something happened to this guy-- there is nothing in his history-- admittedly thin so far-- to indicate anti-social or psychopathic behavior. This supposed twenty year grudge remains mostly a mystery-- imagine living with someone who has nursed a grudge most of his life, a grudge so powerful it would compel him to execute children like this, but no one knows about it? It's conceivable, of course, but VERY unlikely-- anything that powerful would likely be one of the central facets of his life for years.

I hope they do an autopsy. I wonder whether he had a brain tumor or some other pathology. Something flipped a switch in this guy.

[leftchick]

26. he was homeschooled

never attended a public school in his life. Which makes me wonder about the grudge against girls. This is all so bizarre and you are right, something flipped his switch.

[Horse with no Name]

11. Yet Rosie O'Donnell was vilified when she said

that radical Christians were as bad as radical Muslims.
Someone tell me that they aren't? I dare you.

[KittyWampus]

24. This guy was not killing in the name of Allah or Jesus. He was obviously

disturbed. Some slight or trauma from childhood started looping through his brain and he snapped.

[melnjones]

46. mentally ill, severely, is my guess. nt

[FormerDem06]

33. They aren't...I'll take that dare.....

I am going to stop this crap once and for all. I know many "radical christians" who go to work every day, support their families; go to church three or four times a week, etc. etc. Not a single one of them (NOT ONE) would consider violence against others.

There have been almost 6,000 terror attacks since late 2001 that have involved the loss of human life by radical islamists on this planet. If you go back to the late 70s you can probably find 10-12 thousand or more.

Just in the past four days (not in Iraq or Afghanistan):


India Gool The body of a 60-year-old man, abducted and murdered by the Mujahideen, is found.
Thailand Yala Muslim militants gun down a police officer and injure his 4-year-old daughter.
Indonesia Poso A Christian man is pulled off a bus and stabbed by a Muslim mob.
Thailand Pattani Two people are murdered by Islamic radicals in separate attacks.
India Dessa A civilian is abducted and killed in captivity by the Mujahideen.
Pakistan Khadi An Afghan refugee is murdered by the Taliban.
Thailand Pattani A man is shot in the head by Islamists after dropping his kids off at school.
Thailand Sai Buri A 35-year-old man is gunned down by Muslim militants in his pick-up truck.
India Kulgam A civilian succumbs to injuries suffered from an earlier terror attack.
Thailand Yala Muslim teens shoot three Buddhists to death as they are shopping at a grocery.


Those attacks above do not include about 30 attacks in Iraq, Afghanistan (since we're kindof the cause of those) or countless others in Darfur that we aren't allow to know about thanks to the gov't.

"Radical Christians" do not make war. Stupid politicians masquarading as Christians do. This is the America everybody wants. Religion has been marginalized along with the tradional role of the church in maintaining social order. I guess we'll just have to live with the increase in murders, rape, assualts, etc. etc. that church membership and the sense of personal responsibility that it used to instill in people helped to keep at bay (even if only by a little bit).

[blonndee]

38. How do you know the examples you gave weren't

"stupid extremists/militants masquerading as Muslims"? I mean, if you want to claim that Christian warmongers aren't "real" Christians, why not apply the same benefit of the doubt to what you call "radical Islamists"? Your argument makes no sense at all.

[Name removed]

63. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[blonndee]

65. Still doesn't make sense. Your interpretation of your religion

may be different from others who call themselves Christian (which is in fact the case--many Christians DO find in their bible and in their churches plenty of justification for using violence as a means to an end), just as Muslims who use violence may have a different interpretation of their religion than do other Muslims.

Your argument rests upon the shaky premise that the beliefs and behaviors of the adherents of religions follow directly from YOUR interpretation of the history and directives of the religions in question.

[Name removed]

67. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[JeffR]

89. Thanks! Funniest post ever!!

That is just so good - oh, wait, you're being serious.

Never mind.:eyes:

[Tansy_Gold]

45. Sadly, many of the "radical christians" in America

don't have to resort to individual acts of terrorism because they have their government doing it for them. Booosh using the word "crusade" was no mistake. Originally, the crusaders were out to take back "the holy land" from the muslims so christians could safely worship at the christian shrines in Jerusalem. Today's crusading army, navy, and marines are out to take back similar territory so Americans can safely worship at the oil wells. The fact that the neo-cons have employed extreme fundamentalist christian rhetoric is no mistake.

As for sectarian violence within Islam, the christians had their day of the same thing for several hundred years: orthodoxy vs heretics. And of course it's still going on today in Ireland, where politics has been mixed up with religion for, yep, hundreds of years.



Tansy Gold, wondering why she's doing this

[Batgirl]

48. Radical Christians "Maintaining the social order"

My nephew left home last year and hasn't communicated with his parents since then. He changed his cell phone # and they just don't see him or ever hear from him at all -- a situation which causes them considerable anquish but which is never discussed in the family. It's like their son never existed.

Why would a young man cut off his family this way? After all, they were always such a tight knit, Christian family, their lives revolved around church activities.

My sis-in-law visits nursing homes with her group of church ladies. They donate to charitable institutions. They always have a room in their house for someone who needs lodging.

Why would a young person turn his back on all this kindness and decency?

Perhaps it has something to do with figuring out he is gay, then hearing his sweet, loving mother frequently commenting about how "they should take all the gays and line them up to be shot."

He can either be honest about who he is and deal with the hysterical condemnation from the parents he loves, or he can simply become incommunicado. Either way, he loses the relationship, but at least this way it's by default, not by active rejection.

Please, let's not idealize how great things were when the church had more of a role in "maintaining social order."

[Horse with no Name]

73. I'm not talking about faithful Christians

which is what you are talking about.
There is HUGE difference between faithful and radical.
You should learn the difference.

[Raksha]

94. No, THEY should learn the difference! n/t

[malaise]

12. Apparently their prophet George Bush

has anhilated that once heralded lynchpin of christianity - thou shalt not kill and replaced it with 'vengeance is mine'. Ah well. These fuggers are all crazy.

Forgive this poor lunatic - he is merely following his almighty leader Emperor George Bush.

[Missy M]

13. Fine Chritian people don't go around killing innocent....

children. You never know how the "ideal family" acts behind closed doors. I've always wondered what guidelines make up the "ideal family" or the "fine Christian family".

[treestar]

75. They can definitely be very subtle, whereas many are prone to

allow shallow guidelines to define it.

[KharmaTrain]

15. They Make These People Sound Like Aliens

I've met Amish people...very devout ones and let me be the first to say they are very much human beings and very much in the 21st Century. They prefer an alternative lifestyle that is no different than the Orthodox Jews or even Catholic Priests.

The corporate media kept making it seem like Jebediah got upseteth at the barn lifting and they had to have someone come in and decode "Amish" for us. It was highly condescending. The most obnoxious was some newspuppy who working in Pittsburgh or Philly and probably did a fluff piece or three on the Amish Crafts Festival and somehow became experts on their psychology.

What concerns me is the school year has just started and this is the third incident of shootings in schools. What's really happening here?

[woodsprite]

25. The news said 224 killed in school shootings since Columbine

that's nationwide, including yesterday.

[AValdoux]

16. Is this a "school shooting"?

I heard a lot of Columbine references yesterday on MSM. I think the two incidents lately are different. Both were committed by adults who chose to attack a school. I would have liked to have heard about school security from outside attacks and what is the funding priority. Does it exist? Has it been increased or decreased over the last ten years? That's the information we should be getting.

AValdoux

[hlthe2b]

42. Seems as though this is quite different, a need to attack the weak..

What better way to get incredible public attention than to horrify by picking off the "weakest, most innocent and most defenseless" among us... ? I think an entirely new serial killer "profile" is being developed as we speak...

[ContraBass Black]

61. This isn't serial, though.

They all went at once.

[hlthe2b]

62. true.... correction, MASS murderer profile...

[ContraBass Black]

57. It's unlikely that there would be school security in an Amish school.

Would they want armed security after this, my guess would be that they don't.

[KoKo]

18. Reading the first article it's hard to understand what happened with this

guy. Did what's going on out there in the rest of the world cause him to have doubts? This almost sounds like the killings going on in Iraq. Execution style killings of children. I wonder if anything going on in Iraq disturbed him...or if it was some encounter he had with one of the mothers of the children. How could a father with three of his own do something like this?

[RevCheesehead]

22. One could also say that the Amish children were "Deeply Christian."

Christianity, in any form, does NOT condone this kind of thing. Ever.

[Cassandra]

44. How many "deeply Christian" people ...

are actually seeking a solution to some deep and untreated psychological wound? Some of these people seem to just be trying to keep impulses other control rather than having any interest in spirituality.

[raccoon]

82. Seems to me a great many of them are, fundamentalists, that is. nt

[Catherine Vincent]

41. This is so sad!

What was the grudge?

[catmandu57]

49. We'll never know

I am with others hoping that they find something physically wrong with this guy, a brain tumor, something, anything.
I don't like living in a world like this, in a way i'm glad there's not much left for me.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

59. Yes, the fellow who shot all those people at the University of Texas

in the 1960s was later found to have a brain tumor.

[noonwitch]

47. Mental illness respects no religious or cultural boundaries

There are mentally ill christians and atheists, blacks and whites, liberals and conservatives. Obviously, this guy is insane.

I hope someday that there is a cure for the mental illnesses that lead to these kind of explosive rages, for the sake of potential victims and of those who have the condition. Can you imagine how guilty this guy is going to feel once they get him tracking again? Hopefully, the State of PA has some type of mental hospital within it's correctional system to lock this guy up in for the rest of his life.

[BigMcLargehuge]

54. Gee and the group Americans trust LEAST today

are atheists... because they apparently lack a moral compass.

:eyes:

[gratuitous]

58. Here's a wacky thought

Maybe his last actions on this planet had nothing to do with whether he went to church, or raised a family, or drove a truck, or lived in Pennsylvania, or wore glasses.

I know; just plain wacky. Don't know what I was thinking about there.

[RamboLiberal]

64. This CNN report suggests he was angry at God

Investigators said Roberts told his wife before he killed himself "that he was acting out to achieve revenge for something that happened 20 years ago." Notes left by the gunman indicated he was "angry at life" and "angry at God."

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/10/03/amish.shooting/index.html

It did not surprise me that this man and/or his family was deeply Christian. How often have we seen this in the women who kill their families. I find fundamentalism a cult like behaviour and perhaps many of those attracted to it have deep psychological flaws.

[treestar]

66. If he was a Muslim, his violence would be attributed to all Muslims

Gee and the Christians say they aren't violent. Yet they'd object to his behavior being used to assume something about theirs.

[Strelnikov_]

72. If He Were Muslim, Il Duce Would Be Addressing The Politburo At The

Reichstag promoting the need to round up and deport all Muslim males and suppress all questioning of the WOT.

[bdamomma]

68. What BS deeply Christian to blow away young children

there is something definitely wrong with this guy.

[survivor999]

79. Could it be the bovine growth hormones in the milk?

Just wondering...

[Clark2008]

81. Hmmm... deeply Christian, huh?

Sounds to me like he never cracked the Bible - at least never the New Testament in which Jesus is described as a man of peace.

Sounds to me like he was more deeply Christian Taliban than Christian. Fundie whacko.

[BreweryYardRat]

86. The shooting kind of DISPROVES THAT.

[kestrel91316]

88. I suspect this guy had very serious mental disease. It's a

tragedy for MANY people that he went undiagnosed and untreated and that so much bloodshed resulted.

I doubt he was a sociopath. More likely psychotic.

[Swamp Rat]

90. Deeply insane

I don't believe he came from an "ideal family" either.

[Cha]

96. It makes Rosie's point, unfortunately,

that "christian" fundamentalists are as rabid as muslim fundies.

I don't believe for a minute that these rw "christians" are really Christians. They're fake. Using His name. Just like the muslim fundies are using "Allah's" name.

[Irreverend IX]

97. Maybe God told him to do it. nt