The shooter's motives are also unknown; although they probably not especially important to the victims or their families. The Corporate Media lavishes attention on the perpetrators of these crimes, but sweep under the rug the fates of the victims and their families.
What is interesting is that the suspect was an attendee at the Living Word Church of God. This has been the subject of some Media commentary: it fits their narrative when some nominal Christian commits an act of violence. There are several red flags, however, that seem to come up around this church.
One is their social media banner which reads: "A Church with the heartbeat of God. There is soooooo much love...honestly!" Right off the bat, most Christians know instinctively where a banner like this is going. The next is what their pastor, one David Stevens, had to say about the shooter. He was quoted by KVIA-7 to the effect that "he had been attending church for three-and-a-half months and gave no indication that he could be violent." He added that the suspect "had been dating his daughter and appeared to be turning his life around."
In contrast, the pastor's daughter has told the press that the shooter was suicidal, heavily into drugs, and had an 'anxiety attack' in church the day before the shooting. Real good discernment, Pastor. And like father, like daughter---her taste in men is highly questionable itself.
The Church's website has little that is objectionable from a doctrinal standpoint; but one does get the sense that it is something of a minor-league version of a megachurch. Although there is a lot of fanfare about their various outreach programs, there's nothing on their site about helping the victims of the Clovis Library Shooting, for example. They do stress that tithing is a doctrinal belief in their denomination: but nothing about raising money for their own community. There's not even a request for prayers for the community; although there is a form to e-mail requests to their "mighty prayer warriors."
Contrast this to a press release from Archbishop Wester of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe:
"On behalf of all the faithful in the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, I wish to express our sincere condolences to those who lost loved ones and to those who were injured in the Clovis-Carter Public Library shooting. Our prayers and support also go out to the community of Clovis and to all those affected by this senseless act of violence. I would also like to express appreciation for the pastoral presence of Father Simon Carian, pastor of Sacred Heart in Clovis. We ask our Risen Savior, the Lord of all Life, to fill them with His Grace and Healing during this time of unspeakable sorrow. May those taken from us so suddenly Rest in Peace."
Contrary to the Corporate Media, this is another example of Christ's teaching that by their fruits you shall know them.
What a tragedy. Of course the media zeroed right in on where the -shooter may have gone to church for a few months. That's their only narrative.
ReplyDeleteI have a tiny drop of compassion for that pastor, mostly because I've often been in the position of trying to speak the truth to people who just won't listen. Denial is a powerful thing. People often see only what they want to see, rather than what is right in front of them and obvious to us. I think it's pretty cowardly and it makes me angry, but I get it. It's usually not malevolent.
I think that the Pastor and his staff probably mean well, but problem with their mass-outreach approach is that individual needs tend to get overlooked. My suspicion though is that this shooter probably had no real interest in Christ's message but was probably there to chase after the pastor's daughter.
DeleteI think it's noteworthy that he had an anxiety attack and left the church the day before the shooting. It made me think of the story of Judas leaving the Last Supper to betray Christ.