It is hard not to draw a line between the hostility that is being fomented in our culture from some in the secular media toward Christians and evangelicals in particular and the acts of violence that took place in Colorado yesterday.Unfortunately for Perkins and his persecutionist blather, it's far easier and considerably more obvious to draw the connection between Matthew Murray's homicidal outburst and the Pentecostal cult he was reacting against.
Murray, using the nom de plume nghtmrchld26, was a contributor to an internet discussion board called Ex Pentecostal Forums. While the board's administrators have since removed a number of nghtmrchld26's most recent posts, dozens of them remain as of this morning, and they offer some insight into the type of creepy mind control exercised by the cult's members.
For example:
Since I was at least age 6 my mother and her church friends have always told me about how my birth was "foretold." They say that while I was still in my mother's womb a "prophet" told my mother that I was to be, quote, "a prophet to the nations" and something along the lines of the next Billy Graham/Peter Wagner.Or this, contra those who are suggesting that Matthew Murray “hated Christians” en masse, or was an atheist follower of Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens:
They said that the following verses applied to me: Mat. 12:18 and Ezk. 36:26-28.
Basically, they believe that I am their "chosen one" for "the end times" and according to the Ezekiel passage they believe that I am going to go back to their church/system.
The problem right now is the fact that it appears that they are always going to pursue me throughout life (and they have said so), as I am supposedly the "chosen one." As far as I can tell they did not treat the other youth the same way.
Well, I don't want to be their "chosen one" at all. I just wish I could find some way to wake up from this nightmare.
We can be christians, we can be spiritual and believe in God/the Cosmic Divine WITHOUT their abusive lying pentecostal charismatic Jesus People movements, groups, false prophets, churches, and programs.Finally, Matthew Murray describes what sounds suspiciously like child abuse:
I remember getting thrown around the room and hit while getting interrogated about whether or not I had video games and DVDs.That entire thread is instructive. And there are lots more like it.
Matthew Murray's hostility toward the particular cult in which his mother was and is apparently an active member wasn't fomented by any “secular media,” it was inspired by the cult itself. The “secular media” is right to expose and criticize it. Let's hope it does.
Obviously Matthew Murray was one deeply disturbed individual, but, according to his own experience and in his own words, it was the religious cult that exacerbated his disturbance, and not Tony Perkins's secular bogeymen. Perkins needs to look a little closer to home, if he truly is interested in conducting any family research.
And conservatives, in the meantime, are more worried about indoctrination by liberal university professors. What a joke.
9 comments:
I am curious about what went down at this youth with a mission place. Was he really looking for a place to sleep? If so that was not very Christian-like to turn him away. Was this deeply disturbed kid shunned by the same type of people that created a conditioning of him that he resented? I am also curious about where he acquired his small arsenal, so far the police aren't saying.
This is speculation, of course, but it seems more likely that the dude headed to the mission center with trouble in mind rather than seeking a bed for the night.
IT has a point. Given the cult-like nature of the "church" and the fact that the only person who could have said otherwise is now dead, they could use any excuse in explaining away the shootings.
It is also possible that he went there and had some altercation that made him snap. Similar to that young cop in Northern Wi. Either way it does not really matter, somehow he decided to turn himself into a homicidal maniac. I wish these tragedies and our reaction to them were not so fascinating.
Will the evil effects of Bill Clinton never fade, or will they just keep coming back in such tragedies as this, again and again?
3rd way-
I think that studying these tragedies important. If nothing else, understanding what leads to them may help prevent more of them.
Clutch-
I thought this was more along the lines of a "Jimmy Carter's fault" type of situation. Thanks for correcting my mistaken assumption.
I hadn't seen the Clenis untrousered yet, but the deep thinkers at William Dembski's blog are blaming -- brace yourselves -- Daniel C. Dennett.
IT, no. They're not blaming Dennett and Dawkins. They're just "asking the question" whether D&D are responsible. Very important distinction, dontcha know.
Sort of like how asking whether Dembski is creepy and dishonest is different from, you know, saying that he's creepy and dishonest. Thinking people ask questions. So let's just ask that question for a while. Is he? Creepy and dishonest? Dembski? Creepy? Dishonest? I'm just asking.
Clearly, this was all fortold in the inerrant scribblings of the ancient prophetic scrolls left to us by the Flying Spaghetti Monster. Dawkins and Murray and his crazy mother's cult were all merely acting out their pre-scripted noodley destinies.
Seriously though, someone ought to do a follow up to Leon Festinger's classic "When Prophecy Fails" study of a UFO cult on these Colorado people, to see what becomes of their organization in the aftermath of their Chosen One Gone Postal...
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