December 10, 2007
Sunday, Bloody Sunday: Colorado Church Shootings
Fellas, what is going on? More and more young guys, it seems, are randomly shooting people in public spaces.
The two shootings, the first at a Christian missionary center and the second at a Colorado Springs megachurch, left a gunman and four victims dead and six wounded, authorities said.Arvada Police Chief Don Wick said there is reason to believe the shootings are related. A black-clad gunman who attacked worshippers at New Life Church in Colorado Springs, initially killing one and wounding four, was killed by "a courageous security staff member," Colorado Springs Police Chief Richard Myers said.
One of the wounded died late Sunday, according to a Penrose-St. Francis Hospital spokeswoman Amy Sufak. "The suspect was confronted by a security guard," Myers said at a news conference late Sunday. "She shot the suspect, and the suspect subsequently died at the scene."
Detectives in the Denver suburb of Arvada were working closely with their counterparts in Colorado Springs to determine whether the attack on New Life Church was related to the shootings that left two staffers dead and two wounded at a live-in training center for Christian missionaries about 12 hours earlier, Wick said.
More on the Colorado story at CNN.com.
Robert Hawkin's, pictured above, walks into a mall with an assault rifle and commences a massive murder-suicide.
Hawkins suicide note says,
"I've been a piece of s#!T my entire life it seems this is my only option. . .I just don't want to be a burden to on the ones that I care for my entire life."
Suicide is not new. This level of depression and hopelessness in a country as wealthy and full of options as ours should tell us something. Why a mall, why a church? Why take others with you in your despair?
Fellas, I know I sound like a skipped CD repeating the same line, but the extreme acts of violence by male suburban millennials (born after 1981 or so) is providing us a signal to a masculinity crisis and utter despair hidden by wealth and comfort.
The motive of the church shootings with be VERY revealing. If parents think that moving kids to suburbs will keep them safe from violence then those parents are naive.
Fellas, what's going on?
The more these things happen, the more ridiculous our attempts to figure our "what went wrong" and "how can we keep this from happening again" seem. I struggle with holding my life too closely and these things make me realize that you never know when you're going to die. I think we need to keep affirming that this is not just a psychological or societal issue, but is a moral and spiritual issue as well. First, because that gets to the truth better, and second, because that is the only way people can be free of the fear and anxiety this causes.
Posted by: Dave S. at December 10, 2007 10:36 AMI grew up in the hood brother, and no one even has the masculine plumbing to shoot up a church. Now some of the dopeheads may steal some copper or some computers but I have never heard of such a shooting in my entire life and in areas where people get shot on a daily.
Posted by: Lionel Woods at December 10, 2007 10:39 AMLW, I think you're right. You'd be hard pressed to find this church shooting stuff in the hood. Back in the day even the mafia has respect for the church.
Posted by: Anthony at December 10, 2007 12:07 PMDave S., good points. Thanks for the insight!
Posted by: Anthony at December 10, 2007 12:08 PMWhat Dave said.
What I find so frustrating is that it's obvious in these instances that position and wealth and comfort don't solve spiritual problems. Look at school shootings: the perpetrators aren't poor, struggling class outcasts. They're typically upper-middle or upper class people who have turned their emotional/spiritual wounds into an outcast state. And then people look around and ask, "What other opportunities could we have given them? What were they lacking?" Instead perhaps we should be examining why material things can't answer spiritual needs....
Posted by: dramaturge at December 10, 2007 01:03 PMI agree with the above points, and I'll add one. The reason that the adolescent rage is taking this particular form is the herd mentality. Even nonconformists have adopted some of the highest aspirations of our culture, specifically the desire to be famous. For these kids, their imagined chance at temporary fame is like a drug.
Posted by: tusc0n raider at December 10, 2007 01:26 PMtuscOn said, "For these kids, their imagined chance at temporary fame is like a drug."
Great point. I wonder why there is such a desire to be famous and why do these guys not feel important already? I wonder if this is part of the root of all this?
Posted by: Anthony at December 10, 2007 01:32 PMtusc0n- I agree with you to some extent, but I also wonder if the tendency in the mainstream to try to profile people like Robert Hawkins and Seung-Hui Cho is also part of the problem? I can't imagine how insulting it must be if you have intense psychological issues to have the culture trying to profile you. I think what's really needed is the same thing all of us need- people to come alongside these individuals and befriend them. To look at their brokenness and not be intimidated by it and really love them.
Anthony- Brad Anderson from Covenant's admissions dept. preached at my church on the 2nd, a few days before the Omaha shooting that happened about 50 miles north of where I live. And it applied just about perfectly to the shooting, so I basically columnized his sermon for my column today. I feel like I'm kinda self-promoting (cause I guess I am... :-/ ), but I don't want to run a massive comment, so I'll just link to the column since I already wrote 900 words about this. http://media.www.dailynebraskan.com/media/storage/paper857/news/2007/12/10/Opinion/The-Story.Of.Christmas.Never.Ends-3140747.shtml
Posted by: Jake Meador at December 10, 2007 03:26 PMbless the souls of the lost.
*************
Consecrating a Holy vessel for my eternal consciousness.
A renewed body and a refreshed mind.
Be thankful. Blessings unto you and yours.
Of Angel hugs and of love and laughter
and of happily ever after.
Of kind words and healing balms.
Of buzzing bees in the tall, green grasses.
Not as new as we might think; don't forget that the worst mass murder occurred in Bath, Michigan in 1927 or so, when a janitor placed a large bomb in the basement of that town's school.
And why? Well, a certain lack of manhood certainly comes to mind, as does a general lack of appreciation for eternal things. Other than that, basic sin nature?
Posted by: Robert Perry at December 11, 2007 11:20 AMSame alienation we've always had.
But now the lost boys have a framework of ultra-violence to which they can aspire, rather than coming up with something less organized themselves.
Posted by: Nat at December 12, 2007 09:02 AMIn other news, they just arrested a kid in PA who apparently corresponded with the high school shooter in Finland last month. Police said he was planning a similar attack at his own high school. It will be interesting to see how extensively these are connected. The CO shooter also quoted the Columbine guys in some writing he posted online. It's crazy and scary to see how interconnected some of these are. It's almost organized.
Posted by: Brad at December 12, 2007 09:18 AM... deserve it the least... need loving the most!