Christian Sickos in Milwaukee
Published by Greg June 18th, 2007 in Spirituality, Atheism and Religion, CommentaryIn 1994, Paul Hill, a Presbyterian minister, used a shotgun to murder Dr John Britton and his security guard Leutenant Colonel James Barrett. Lt. Colonel Barrett’s wife was wounded in the attack. Hill was later executed by lethal injection. This all happened in Florida.
Paul Hill Days will be celebrated on July 26th through July 29th of this year, in Milwaukee.
Why Milwaukee? Why not? There are people here who recognize Paul Hill as a hero, and we would love to welcome others from around the country who share our belief. Hopefully, in the future, others will host events in their cities.
The event, to honor Paul Hill, is being sponsored by “Children Need Heroes.” This organization lists two other heroes besides Paul Hill:
Shelly Shannon. “In 1994 she became convinced that it was Biblical to use force to protect innocent children from murder. She successfully burned down several abortion clinics. She shot a notorious Kansas child killer in an attempt to disable him from killing innocent children.”
and
James Kopp. James Kopp murdered a physician in Buffalo New York in 1998.
Another organization sponsoring Paul Hill Days is Street Preach.com. This organization also supports The Army of God, which in turn supports and/or memorializes the above mentioned terrorists, as well as Eric Rudolph, James Kopp, Clayton Waagner, and John Brockhoeft, and many others.
Clayton Waagner was a bank robber, carjacker, and prison escapee. He perpetrated the famous Anthrax Hoax of 2001, where he mailed white powder to over 500 abortion providers, with notes saying “You have been exposed to anthrax. We are going to kill all of you. From, the Army of God, Virginia Dare Chapter.”
Eric Rudolph set off a bomb at the Olympic Park in Atlanta in 1996 (two dead, 111 wounded). He bombed an Atlanta area abortion clinic and a gay and lesbian nightclub. Several wounded and one killed.
James Kopp murdered Dr. Barnett Slepian in his home in Amherst, New York.
John Brockhoeft burned abortion clinics. Served time. I believe is is out and free now, but I’m not sure.
And many, many more.
Every one of these killers claims special privilege as Christians. This large number of radically violent terrorists, and those who support them and extol their virtues are part of Christianity and part of religiosity. They are an expected outcome of christian philosophy and biblical teaching.
[hat tip: Pharyngula] See also this commentary.
7 Responses to “Christian Sickos in Milwaukee”
- 1 Pingback on Jun 18th, 2007 at 3:39 pm
- 2 Pingback on Jun 18th, 2007 at 7:26 pm
I would not consider these acts of terror to be any more an “expected outcome” of Christian philosophy than blowing up mosques and shrines can be considered an expected act for devout muslims. Violent extremists may adopt ideas which are bandied about by philosophers and theologians, but it is the failure of contemporary political leadership and international diplomacy which is making terror so prevalent today. The politicans who callously exploit these goons by making them their “base” (qaeda) are no less criminal than those who commit the arson and murder.
Don: I knew you were going to say this!!!
Actually, I don’t know of too many politicians who are exploiting these particular goons at the moment, but there probably are some.
Anyway, I respectfully disagree. It is NOT ok for christians to simply say “oh, those are not really christians.” It is not OK to define everyone who calls themselves a christian up to the moment they commit a major crime, then say, oh, they are something else…
I have spent hours and hours of time at reproductive rights clinics head to head with hundreds, nay, thousands, of crazy fundamentalists worked into a frenzy … in direct physical confrontation, usually in the winter, usually in the winter when it’s sleeting, with state trooper’s night-sticks shoved into my back from one end and poles sporting pictures of fetuses pressed into my front and so on and so forth. I have tasted the sweat of christians mobbing scared young innocent girls trying to get a PAP smear, pick up their birth controls, and sometimes, yes, trying to get into a clinic to do something they don’t really want to do but do have the right to do: Terminate a pregnancy. I have had them shouting in my ears, ripping at my clothes, spitting at me, pushing me to the ground, and kicking me. They were christians, Don, members of the church near where I lived, and other churches in the community, and many in the suburbs, all come to town to carry out acts of violence and aggression too extensive for the police to stop. Thus the volunteer human shields (me and a few hundred others).
In other words, these particular goons are a small minority of a very large number of god fearing church going activist christians that fully support and engage on a regular basis in violence and aggression, god fearing christians who cheered when these physicians were shot dead, and who in many cases make up the plurality and sometimes majority of the members of many, many churches. They are part of what christianity is. Where are the christians actively working to excise this subset from their own numbers? Yes, many speak out against them, but I don’t see anything like enough being done.
I COMPLETELY AGREE with one of your main points, by the way. These are criminal acts. And should be treated as such. Our right wing fundamentalist christian pretender to the presidency utterly failed in his duty when he failed to treat 9-11 as a horrific criminal act. I have blogged as much, here:
http://gregladen.com/wordpress/?p=243
which is no doubt why the American Family Association has posted an ACTION ALERT and the Family Reseach Council has also issued an alert.
BTW, you can also find them on Snopes, for the misinformation they’ve been spreading.
While I hear a lot of people saying “they don’t represent MY brand of Christianity” I don’t see them reminding their brethern that their behavior isn’t terribly Christian.
Where in the bible does Jesus encourage violence?
In the Old Testament there were holy wars, but today, this is Jewish doctrine. Christianity is based on the life of Jesus Christ –the New Testament– who sacrificed his life to eliminate the use of violence
With all of the thousands of Christians in the world, you will get a small– yes small –minority of wackos who will interpret the bible in a perverted way.
In fact most “Christians” you know, are probably nothing more than “Church go-ers.” The bible says: Wide is the gate to destruction and narrow the gate to eternal life.
Please don’t be ignorant
I agree completely with the last comment. The lord is a GOD OF LOVE. A true 100% believing christian would never take another human life. That’s not part of believing in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, and that’s what Jesus and the christian faith is TOTALLY against. If you guys would like me to write down some scriptures for you about this, I would be happy to.
May God bless and keep you all.
Dan.