Anti-Christian murderer kills four, stopped by gun-nut fundie on a mission from god.

You know, I always chuckle when people say religion is the root of all evil. Atheists like to talk about how only the religious are motivated to ideological violence, despite all the evidence from Russia during the last century that it isn't the case. Whether this fits into either of the two narratives I do not know, what I do know is that unreasoning hate, no matter who it may be directed at, turns men into monsters.

On Sunday afternoon, shortly after one o' clock in Colorado Springs Colorado, Matthew Murray walked into the New Life Church and began killing. An apparently hate filled man who had never gotten over the perceived rejection of being left off of a missionary mission The New Life Church had sponsored 5 years ago, Murray developed an intense hatred for Christianity and Christians in the interim. Whether this hatred was motivated by sour grapes, or whether Murray was simply a man with hate in his heart looking for a target we may never know. What we do know is that his hatred turned him into a monster who may well have killed hundreds, had he not been stopped by Jeanne Assam.

Jeanne, a former Minneapolis police officer who used her personal firearm to end Murray's murderous spree, was a volunteer member of the New Life Church's security force. A apparently deeply committed christian who had been fasting for three days at the time of the incident, she felt she had been placed there by god to protect her fellow parishioners. A 14 year veteran of the Minneapolis police force, she also credits her savior for a steady hand and the courage to do what needed to be done. Regardless of what your views of her religious affiliation may be, there is no doubt this woman acted coolly, and decisively in the face of a crisis that would have frozen many.

In many ways, I think this story is just beginning, and that it will dominate discussions for a long time to come. There simply so much "grist for the mill" as they say, and this story slots so neatly into the narrative of the culture wars that it couldn't have been written any better in a script. A gunman, filled with anti-christian hate, stopped by a women with a CCP. What major issue in American life doesn't this story touch on? Feminism, the second amendment, the fourth amendment, the place of religion in society, the effect of religion on society. There's enough here that everyone will undoubtedly filter the incident through their own perceptions, and use it to support whatever they supported in the first place.

I am no different. The fact that, once again, a spree killer was stopped by a private citizen with a CCP reinforces, at least for me, why we need the second amendment. Naturally those who are predisposed to an anti-gun narrative will see Murray access to a gun as proof of why we need more gun control. Feminists will see this as further proof women are equally as capable as men in dangerous and violent situations, while Christians will see this as further proof of an ongoing attack on Christianity, and atheists will see this as further proof of the pernicious effect of organised religion. I think, that as coverage of this story unfolds, this incident will become a type of Rorschach blot for people's own preconceived notions, even more so than any other. Some will undoubtedly try to use it to score points for their cause, and given the nature of the events I suspect the debates will be quite heated. And perhaps, that's how we can finally come to terms with, and extract some small amount of good out of this horrid event. Perhaps if we can, just this once, put aside our preconceptions, our talking points, and our stock rebuttals, and really discuss where we are going right, and wrong, as a society, then maybe, just maybe, something good can come from this.

I hope, but I do not expect.